Maddy's Choir Concert 5/09

The week after we got home from vacation was busy with all of the year end school performances.

These are some cute pix of Madisyn's choir concert. It was really enjoyable. They have such a great and talented teacher in Ms. Galahan.

What a cutie!
Obviously she really enjoys her music.

Sadly this is the only shot of Ms. Galahan that I was able to get.

Band Concert

Some fun pictures of my "freshman" at his year end band concert in his fab uniform.
-Because Jake was in many upper classes he was nick named the "freshman" by many of his upper class men.

San Diego Day 7 Sea Wolrd 5/09

Our last day was Sea World because our Go Passes were only good for five days and since Sea World was not included, we saved it for after the passes expired.

It was the coldest day of the week and we had not taken our jackets in with us because they were all packed.
-Our plan was to head home as soon as we were done at Sea World.

-We did start home that night when we finished at 7:00pm and instead of finding a motel as planned we decided to drive all night and got home at 6:50 am.

Our 1st stop was the dolphin show. It was amazing that is all I can say.

The seal comedy show was a crack up...

and we loved the walrus!

Our next stop was the SHARK TANK! It was so cool. I could not believe that the sharks were within about 4 ft of us! Big ones probably about 10 foot long just swimming around and around the tank while we all watched. -SCARY!!!

After watching them from the surface we went down into a tunnel where we could see directly into their tank and watch them swim over and around us. -Something else I must say.

I think my personal favorites of the park were the Beluga whales. They were so beautiful.

The Polar Bear was a lot of fun to watch play with his activity box.

Because it was so cold and wet this was the only ride that anyone went on. Maddy and I were just fine being bystanders and staying with Luke.

I'd say from the look on their faces that it was worth the 45 min wait.

And finally the amazing Shamu show. WOW!

Here the kids are petting the Sting Rays. Wow they were huge!

Not to worry, the "sting" parts are removed.

San Diego Day 6 Kayak/Belmont Park 5/09

We started day the by going Kayaking. I wish I could have taken a camera but instead I had to pull these off of the tour companies web site. Wow was it and adventure! The weather was turning stormy and the surf and wind were something else.

We had three kayaks, Jake had his own then there was Maddy and Roger and Sam and I. We were given a little training and then off we went. HOLY COW it was scary heading off into that crashing surf!!! I paddled as if my life depended on it and Sam and I made it through without turn over, my biggest fear. I really hate salt water! But Maddy and Roger were not so lucky. They ended up turning over twice just as they had all most made it though.

Maddy was ready to call it quits right then and there but we kept with it and headed out to the caves. It was so hard. The wind was blowing so hard that it was so difficult to make any headway. It was really draining Roger and I since we had the smaller kids we had to push through the water. When we stopped to talk about the coral preserve we were sitting over, we saw a few dolphin, which was awesome, but we also decided to call it quits and head back in. With the size of the waves there was no way we were going to be able to go in the caves and we were so tired having to fight the wind and the waves. But on the flip side we were scared to death to have to get back through the rough surf to get to the beach! Our guide told us that going in is when most people go over and we knew that both Rashelle and Travis and Claryce and Karson had gone over while trying to get in to the beach on their tours. But somehow as rough as it was we were all able to ride the waves right into the beach with out turning over! Yea, Yea Yea!!!

What a fun adventure!

Our waves were huge compared to the little bit of surf in this ad picture.

Later on that afternoon we took the kids out to Chili's and decided to go check out Belmont Park and it's famous roller coaster.

Wow what a BLAST!

Sam was too small to go on the roller coaster but he had a good time on Luke's favorite ride, The Merry go Round.

We all love the yellow submarine, the yellow submarine...

the yellow submarine.

Roger going after Jake on the bumper cars.

Sam was in the drivers seat, but Maddy had to take over out of fear!

This ride was SO loud, but fun!

There were very few rides Luke could go on, and he had a really good time on this one.

Aaron and his family were right next door doing surfing and had walked over to check out the roller coaster when we met up with them. I was glad because we hardly got to see them the whole trip. Here Roger and Trent are in the front seat and Jake and the rest of them are in the very back.

We also ran into Shurell's family while we were there so Peter hung with us a bit while Shurell and Brian went on the roller coaster.

So how much weight did I gain on this trip!?!?

Note to self: Don't wear this shirt again, don't wear your hair up, get back on the treadmill and stay behind the camera!!

Jake found a guitar hero game he just had to play. 'an little brother joined right in there. Recognise the old Johnny Cash song?

On the way back we stopped at Krispy Kream. Sadly we were a half hour too early for the fresh ones! We sure miss ours in Reno that shut down. Although, judging from the above picture of myself we are better off that it is closed! ;)

San Diego Day 5 Legoland/Deep Sea Fishing 5/09

On Thursday we decided to go back to Legoland since we had so much fun there Monday. Roger and Jake went out deep sea fishing with all of the guys and most of we mom's decided to go see what we had missed at Lego land and hit the water of Pirate's Cove for most of the day. Luke loved seeing all the fun fairy tale characters made from Legos, and getting to ride a boat while doing it made it twice as fun. =Then we did it again!

Ren and Sam on Safari

Brock and Sam

Ren and Madisyn

Roger out fishing

Jake baiting his hook

Roger and Jake waiting for the fish to bite. They caught mostly Barracuda which was REALLY yummy!

San Diego Day 4 San Diego Zoo/Beach 5/09

Our first stop for the day was the San Diego Zoo at Balboa Park.

The very first exhibit you see when coming into the zoo is the Flamingos. They are so pretty, but oh so stinky! It was kind of neat because, being spring I guess, they were building nest and tending to them. Mud and poo anyone?

Jake with his favorite hat, and Luke with his new favorite sunglasses, checking out the camels on the bus tour through the zoo. (also included with the Go Pass). It was a great way to get a quick over view of the zoo and then go back and see what was missed or what we wanted to see up close.
The most important thing for Madisyn was getting to see the Pandas. They were pretty cool and it was nice because although there was a line it moved pretty quickly. Side note, they made us be very quite because Panda's are very sensitive to noise. I wish I could convince my kids that I too am, and it would be to their great benefit if they would be very quite around me!
The Sky Tram was awesome! After reaching the top, literally, of the zoo to see the Polar Bears at the end of the day, it was so nice to ride the tram down to the exit of the park.

Sam LOVED it!

Madisyn on the other hand was scared out of her wits. But I have to hand it to her after three days of dealing with her fear of heights she was able to mostly enjoy the ride. At least she was glad she didn't have to walk! Just NO looking down for her!

Although the look on his face may suggest that I coaxed him back there to take a picture, I did not. He went back there and asked me to take a pic.

That evening we had planned on taking a Kayak tour out to the caves. Rashelle and Claryce's families had gone that morning and we were scheduled for 4. About 3 Tracy called and told us they were cancelling the tours for the rest of the day. The surf was just getting to be too much and was knocking everyone over before they could even get out. We decided to go down and find the Sherwoods and check out the ocean and try to body board. We never found the Sherwoods but although the weather was cool we had fun.

There were a million surfers racing for the waves when we got there. It was pretty funny to watch them try to park and get into the water as quickly as possible.

Our crew had a pretty good time riding the waves. This is Sam riding one in.

After a bit Sam decided to come in and play in the sand and let the big kids and Dad play in the surf.

Luke is actually with Claryce and Karson at the zoo. We had watched her little kids while they went kayaking and she was going to watch Luke while we went, so we had just left him at the zoo with them when we left.

Roger and Ren share May 6th for their birthday so we had a nice little party for them that night. I thought the cake Claryce picked out was great. "Lighting McQueen" represents Roger's Trans Am.

-Funny!

She had also picked up a pinata for the kids. Mom had reserved the breakfast room for our group that night. I think we all had a fun time.

Karson gave Jake a pretty good spin for his turn. He probably should have watched out for Jake's blind swing a little closer though!