Breakfast With Sham Sham

There was one more place we had to go while we were in San Diego. Sea World. It's been four years since our first visit and Harris still talks about Shamu almost daily. We wanted to do something special and memorable for him involving Shamu, besides the daily shows, so we booked "Breakfast with Shamu". This is as close as you can get to Shamu. Needless to say Harris was really excited.

The kids are obsessed with "Slug Bugs" so they were super excited to see this parked out front of Sea World when we arrived!

We got there early to get checked in and then headed to the waiting area to be seated. Harris was immediately plastered to the glass waiting for Shamu to swim by.  And Shamu didn't disappoint.

I love this picture. It was like Shamu was saying "hi" to Harris. He just hovered there. It was priceless.

When we got seated it was right next to the glass! It was so fun. It was pretty much a private show for those of us eating breakfast. Well, it was more than a show. There was a lot of talking about the whales: their likes/dislikes, personalities, size/weight, how they train them, things like that. There was also a Q & A. Harris was enthralled with everything. He especially loved how close we were.

Sooo excited when Shamu finally came out!

Watching Shamu is more fun than eating breakfast

Shamu waiving to Harris.

Sham Sham (as Harris calls him) doing tricks for us.

Harris once again plastered to the glass trying to be as close as possible to Shamu.

Saying goodbye after breakfast.

When we were finished with breakfast and were leaving we ran into one of the trainers. Liv and Harris were pretty excited to talk to her. They had tons of questions (that they didn't ask during the Q & A) that she was happy to answer. Harris asked her how he could be a trainer and Liv wanted to know if her ears ever hurt after diving so deep (40ft)  into the pool.

After chatting with the trainer Harris was ready to see the sharks so that's where we went.

The shark tunnel

I think it is time for Sea World to redo the "Shark Encounter" area. It's way too crowded and you can't really see anything very well because of it. Harris didn't seem to mind though.

I don't remember what Harris was telling me but it is a cute picture. :)

From the sharks we went to the Sea Lion show. We had never seen it before but Liv is going through an "I love Sea Lions" phase so we made sure to see it. I'm glad we did. It was hilarious!!! We will definitely see this again.

This is Clyde he is the star of the show. He is soo cute!

When the show was over the kids wanted to see and feed the other sea lions that are outside of the stadium.

They sit up against the wall and wait to be fed but if you aren't careful and feed them quickly the seagulls will swoop in and snitch the food out of your hands. It's so funny to watch them fight for a spot up against the wall.

This guys wasn't interested in eating. He was working on his tan, I guess. ;)

Harris loves the show "River Monsters" and last year when we were there they had his favorite river monster, the alligator gar. That is what he wanted to see next. We headed to where they were and were surprised to see that they were gone! They had redone the "river" area into a "sea turtle area". Harris was very disappointed about this but he enjoyed watching the turtles. And the area is pretty cool.

There were probably 30 (3 or 4 different kinds) sea turtles swimming around.

When we had had enough sea turtles we headed out to see if they had moved the river monsters to a different area. We didn't find the gars but we did find the piranhas. This was pretty exciting because they were going to be feeding them.

Harris was pretty excited to see the piranhas.

The feeding was not as exciting as we had thought it would be. Since they are in a tank and not in the wild they get fed regularly. So there was no feeding frenzy, mostly just nibbling. The kids still enjoyed it.

As we continued looking at the fish in the piranha area we did find one small gar. Not nearly the 10ft giants they had last year.

Harris and his best gar impression.

Harris had been begging all day to ride the roller coaster that they have which gets you wet. It wasn't super warm but we finally caved and decided to go on it.

I thought I was zoomed in a lot closer than this but they are in the back 2 rows.

When we were done with the ride it was time for the Shamu show to close out the day. Our favorite spot is off to the left of the center stage and up about 5 rows. We have learned that getting a good spot is was easier if just one person goes in and gets a spot to save for everyone else. So Chet usually runs ahead and sneaks in solo to save the rest of us a spot. It works out really well.

Happy when the show starts

The show this year was all new and was really cool. It seemed that there were a lot more tricks and way more water! Harris loved it! He oood and awwwd and laughed and cheered through the whole thing. His favorite part though was when they tried to feed Shamu just one tiny fish and he shook his head "no" so then they offered him the whole bucket of fish and he nodded "yes". He laughed and laughed at that. It was a great way to end the day.

As we exited the show we stopped at Shamu's tank to say goodbye. This was not an easy thing to do. Harris feels the same way about Shamu as I do about Disneyland.

Having a hard time saying goodbye to Sham Sham.

After saying a tearful goodbye we packed it up and headed out to our next destination, Disneyland!

There and Back Again

We recently went home to Utah to spend 16 days with our family. We played a lot, laughed a lot, ate a lot and relaxed a lot. It was sooo nice!

We had a very smooth drive getting there. It went by so fast! I think it went by so fast because of all the cool stuff that there is to see along the way. Our first major sighting was Chimney Rock. There is a road that you can take to get closer to it but we were anxious to get to Utah so we just stopped at the trail head to take a quick picture.



Chimney Rock

We saw several more places that we wanted to go see (Ship Rock and Angel Peak) but didn't stop at any until we got to Wilson Arch in Moab. (I have always wanted to go to Moab but it just not at the top of the list.) We did get out and attempt to climb up to Wilson Arch but we all had flip flops on which made it difficult on the slick rocks. I think that we will have to move it up the list and go back and do some hiking when we aren't in flip flops.



Wilson Arch

When we got to my sisters house we had some yummy Cafe Rio for dinner and then went for a walk at the nature preserve behind their house. When we got to the end of the path the kids wanted to throw rocks into the creek. They did that for a while until I showed them the culvert that went under the trail on one side and come out on the other. Then they started playing "Pooh Sticks". The littles thought it was so fun to see which branch would come out first.



Pooh Sticks

On Tuesday Chet had to go to work all week in Vail so the kids and I stayed at Lindsay's at night and Jann's during the day. It worked out great. We were able to spend lots of time with everyone that way.



Chet in Vail.
He actually did work very hard while he was there. Meetings from 7 am to 9 pm except on the last day when they got to play.

On Friday Chet left Vail and met us at the SLC airport and we headed to Disneyland! We had so much fun there because my dad came and so did my sister and her family. The cousins were so excited to do all the rides together. I was just happy to be with my favorite people at my favorite place. :)



The cute cousins waiting for Buzz



Everyones favorite ride Tower of Terror.
I love this picture! They all look like they are having so much fun.

Big Thunder with the Bigs. LOVE these kids!


We got to take the Littles on Small World while everyone else went on Space Mountain. They loved it! Aubry "danced" through the whole ride.



Sunday we were at the park by ourselves. It was a lovely day and we got to do all of our favorites.



My favorite ride, Splash Mountain. This was Liv's first time in the front. She was soaked before we even got to the big hill. She said it was scary but AWESOME!



Big Thunder is probably Liv and Harris favorite ride in Disneyland. Liv thinks it is funny to scream as loud as she can on this ride. I'm not sure why but it is pretty funny.



They had this cute photo spot outside of Toy Story Mania



On Saturday we took a break from Disneyland to go to Sea World. It was about 20 degrees cooler there than at Disneyland. It was so nice!



The Bay at the back of Sea World.



I know that I have said this before but Harris LOVES Shamu. He lights up when he gets to see him. I love to watch Harris watch Shamu. It brings tears to my eyes because of the joy it brings him. I hope that he always feels that way!



I have also said before that Harris' favorite show is River Monsters. He is fascinated by the enormous fish that the host, Jeremy Wade, catches. Needless to say, besides watching Shamu, the new Rivers section was Harris favorite part of Seaworld. The tank has 8' alligator gar, 6' red tailed catfish and will soon have arapaima. All of which have been featured on River monsters. We just sat and watched them all for about 30 minutes. The best part of that was when a little 3' alligator gar tried to take a bite of one of the giant silver dollars right in front of us! Harris thought that was great because we could see the gar's giant teeth.



The fish at the top is one of the giant Alligator Gar. You can't tell from this picture but that gar is between 8 and 9 feet long! The black fish with the white stripe actually has a red tail and thus is called a Red Tail Catfish, and he is about 5 or 6 feet long.

 We ended our day at Seaworld with another Shamu show, it was a great way to end a wonderful day.

After a very fun weekend with my family in Cali we headed back to Utah to be with Chet's family. It was a lot of fun for the kids because their cousins from Arkansas came to Utah to visit as well. We spent most of our time swimming in Papa and Grandma Wendy's pool but we did make time for a trip to the Dinosaur Museum and bowling at the new Jack and Jill's in Lehi. Chels and I even sneaked away for a little Anniversary Sale shopping. :)

Liv has always loved to dance with her Papa. It's not exactly dancing. It's mostly Chet Sr. holding Liv while he twirls and tosses her around.  On this trip Liv discovered that they could dance in the pool. It is really cute to watch them although Papa is usually exhausted by the end of their "session".





Papa and Liv "dancing" in the pool.




Harris "dancing" with Papa, Liv and uncle James waiting for their turn.

 We had a great time at the Dinosaur Museum. I mean who wouldn't have fun seeing giants, damming a flood and digging for fossils.



Liv is apparently going to be eaten by the Carcaradon Megaldon while Harris sits idly by...



All the cousins and uncle James trying to stop the floods.

 On our last day in Utah we took some family pictures with Chet's family. Which was our second attempt because on the first attempt Harris got really sick and was throwing up most of the night. Fortunately he got better and we were able to get some cute pics. Besides posed shots Wendy wanted wanted some candids as well. She decided that a water balloon fight with 200 water balloons was the perfect way to get those candids. Everybody had so much fun. Harris got Chet smack in the face and Liv, being the only girl, took quite a few shots as well. It was a blast to watch.



This pose was Chet's idea. He said it was like Splash Mountain. It's kinda silly but it turned out pretty cute. 




Uncle Nate got Liv good with the water from the balloons that popped in the bucket.

We had a great time in Utah and Cali with all of our family. I am so grateful that Chet is able to provide us with the ability to travel often. It makes living far away from everyone a little easier knowing that it won't be long until we get to see them again.

Road Trip

On July 29th we packed up Chet's car and headed out for Cali, road trip style. Since I hate to drive we made sure to make lots of stops along the way. Our first stop was in Beaver at the DFA store for some squeaky cheese and ice cream. (I remember stopping there with my family when I was a kid.) We continued on to Fillmore and went to the original state capitol. It was actually not as boring as I thought it would be. There were lots of really cool pictures of the locals that helped build the building and lots of antiques that family's who have lived in the area since the beginning have donated. After we had our fill of Utah history we made our way to Las Vegas where we spent the night at the Golden Nugget. Yep the Golden Nugget. We stayed there because they recently did a 30 million dollar renovation on the pool and built a shark tank with a pool around it and a slide through it. The tank went all the way down to the bottom of the pool so when you were under water you couldn't tell that there was a tank there! It freaked Harris out. He would go under and then pop back up as soon as a shark swam by and say "too close, too close!". We had a great time at the pool and got a good nights sleep before we finished our journey to San Diego. (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)



7/31
Solana Beach was our first stop in Cali. We spent the day with my dad playing in the waves, boogie boarding and building sand castles. Harris and Liv both did great on the boogie boards! They both got slammed at least once but got right back on the board ready for more. That night however both the kids had sand scratches on their tummy's. Liv said the cutest thing to me when she got out of the shower, she said "Mom, I have sand scratches on my nibbles.". Suppressing a laugh, I just smiled and said "I'm sorry, do you want the Neosporin?" Could she be any cuter?!





8/1
We went to Sea World two years ago for the first time as a family. While we were there we bought Harris a small stuffed Shamu that he fell in love with.(He's holding it in the picture with the Shamu character and it's in his shirt at the show. He had to show Shamu to Shamu.) He has slept with that Shamu every night for the last two years! He was so excited when we got to the Shamu show that he was shaking! (Sea World is like Christmas to him.) We went to both Shamu shows that day and got there an hour early for the second show. It was worth it! We were right next to Shamu! He was hanging out right in front of us for the whole hour before the show started. Harris was in Shamu heaven! It more fun to watch Harris than the show. His eyes would just light up every time Shamu would jump out of the water. Needless to say it was hard to leave. Harris was so sad he cried. It broke my heart, but I promised him that we will go back next year.



8/2
The San Diego Zoo is awesome! When we got there is was already lunch time and they were doing some of the animal feedings. We jumped right in line to feed the giraffes. The kids thought it was great and a little gross. The giraffes would stick their long blue tongues out and take the biscuits from the kids hands leaving behind a trail of slime. When we were done with that we made our way through the zoo with our map in hand. The next stop we made was to see the new elephant exhibit. It was awesome. It did a history of ancient animals in California. Like the Woolly Mammoths, and Saber Tooth Cats. (Which the kids are sitting on a statue of.) Which lead to the big cats and the elephants, obviously. We made our way to the Pandas and then the hippos which Harris had to sit on the ground and watch swim. That was cute because last time he was terrified of the hippos and wouldn't even look at them. I really wanted to see the Okapi. They are a giraffe and zebra mix. They are beautiful! Well, the San Diego Zoo is ginormous and we got lost trying to find it! When we did finally find it it was way in the very back of the cage eating! Lame. Oh well. All in all it was a fabulous day.





These are some pictures we took of the animals that we got to see. It was the Panda's 4th birthday that day. He was so cute! The Okapi is in the next picture. Can you see him? The Capybaras are giant rodents that love the water and were swimming around the whole time we watched them. And finally, the most awesome lion I have ever seen! He was gorgeous and knew it!



Chet's grandparents and great-grandparents (Liv and Harris' great and great-great-grandparents!) live in the San Diego area so we were fortunate to spend two nights hanging out with them. The first night we went to dinner at the Fish Market, it was wonderful. The next night we got together they were kind enough to invite us over to their house for a home cooked meal. Chet's grandma Cheryl is a wonderful cook! It was such a nice break from eating out. After dinner, Harris played ball with Papa Jay, his great-grandpa, and Liv learned a little bit of guitar from her great-aunt Lauren. (Who just turned 24.) I am so glad that we had the opportunity to spend time with them and look forward to spending more time with them on our various trips to Disneyland.



8/3
We never go to Disneyland in the summer (too busy!) but since we were in California and we have annual passes we had to go see the new "Summer Nightastic" . I really wanted to see all of the things that they were doing for it but some of them overlaped, so we chose the parade and the fireworks. The parade was kind of lame. I was very disappointed. It was just some dancers and some characters dancing around in the street and then riding around in these little chariot things. The fireworks, on the other hand, were amazing! They were the coolest fireworks I have ever seen. I did wish that they would have played more songs though. We also spent some time in California Adventure where Harris got to do Grizzly River Run and Mulholland Madness for the first time. He has been wanting to do GRR forever and he finally got to do it. Yay! Chet and Liv did Screamin and sat in the front which is their fave. I was happy walking around and looking at all the renovations they are doing. It is going to be so much better when its done! I can't wait!



It was a wonderful week! I am so grateful for the many opportunities that we get to go on vacations together. I look forward to every single moment I get to spend with my family.