Wild Animal Park

It was the last major attraction we visited and although we had a lot of fun at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, I think everyone was so done with vacationing and walking, that we didn't explore as thoroughly as we could. We did do the safari tram tour thing twice though. It meant you could sit. :-) Did I mention I majorly tweaked my foot, straining a ligament in my arch or something, our second day there. From there on out, walking could, at times, bring tears to my eyes. And we did a lot of walking. It was pretty painful. Actually still is . . . I hobble up stairs like a little old lady (a little old lady who's deathly afraid of putting any weight on her right foot, that is). Anyway, when we hadn't gone to see the baby elephants or the baby tigers yet, and Annie was getting grumpy, and my foot was killing me, we were all, "Oh well, I'm sure we'll see newborn elephants and tigers again some other time . . . " It probably would've been another story had we hit this attraction earlier in the vacation. Either way though, it was fun. Annie and Ellie both loved seeing the animals, and Ellie loved to point and yell at them on the safari tour. Then she'd turn to me and just babble and smile, like she was telling me all about them. Loved it.

Aunt Talina and Annie.

Lacy with Ellie and Annie down in the big fake tree.

Cody & Lacy in a giant weaver bird nest.

Cody & Ellie.

Annie & Greg.

Cody & Ellie checking out the meerkats.

Annie enthusiastically pointing stuff out to her Daddy.

Ellie and me & Greg and Annie in the Wild Animal Park sign.

Ellie & Lacy out bird spotting . . .

Annie & Greg . . . Annie apparently missed all the 'Do Not Feed the Animals' signs.

And the 'Keep All Arms & Legs Inside the Tram' signs . . . she was so fascinated.

Ellie, our little tour guide.

Ellie and I on the tour.

This is one of my favorite pictures from all of the vacation . . . my Dad got out his cell phone and tried to take a few pictures of the birds . . . they swarmed him and landed all over him. Awesome.

Everyone look up . . .

Annie, me and Ellie as butterflies.

Sea World

Sea World has always been a favorite in my family, so I couldn't wait to share it with the girls. (I think each and everyone of my sisters and I wanted to be a marine biologist at some point.) I was a little disappointed that the girls seemed basically uninterested in the shows at all, but it was magical, for lack of a less cheesy word, to watch them watch the swimming polar bears, the sharks, the penguins and the sting rays in complete awe and wonderment. Amazing.

Uncle Cody, Annie, me & Ellie with Shamu and Grandpa in the background.

Me, Ellie, Cody and Annie with Shamu again!

Ellie and I cuddling. I was soaking wet at this point, because despite it getting down to like 60 something degrees right at the end of our day, the brave (or stupid) of us decided to go ride the water ride, a few times. We were very wet and cold walking out to the cars.

Ellie and I with Shamu again.

Cody, me, Annie, Lacy, Grandma and Greg with a sleeping Ellie all congregated around Annie at the tide pool to watch her touch star fish . . .

Annie running through the splash park.

Annie and Lacy in the water.Many, many adults vegging out in the infant/toddler play area watching Ellie crawl around.

Ellie playing in the baby land.

Annie and Greg in front of the giant shark mouth.

Ellie and Daddy in the shark area.

Star and I showing our disappointment because we thought the Shamu show was a little lame. And preachy.

Annie and Greg in an aquarium.

My family by the manatee statue.

Penguins were, by far, one of Ellie's favorite things to watch . . . she practically dived into the water with them!

Ellie pointing out penguins to Mommy.

Greg, Annie and me . . . I just liked this one, 'cause it showed off my daughter's tongue, that is out like a good 50% of the time!

Watching the polar bears swim and wrestle with the giant half-ball toy they had. It was so cool.

Happy Birthday Annie!

I can't even believe my baby turns three years old today. It's gone by so (too) quickly. Sometimes I think, "She's still such a baby, I can't believe she's three." Then other times it's like, "She's practically a little grown up now, why isn't she in Kindergarten yet?"

Here's some pictures of her on various May 19ths:

2006 -- She's an awfully beat-up-lookin'-baby :-) The first picture is the first one ever taken of her . . . the next two are in the nursery.





2007: My Baby is One! I was actually shocked looking at these pictures how much curl she had . . . I didn't remember this much curly hair, and when I'd been looking at pictures recently, I hadn't seen pictures of the back of her hair. It makes Ellie's seem bone straight in comparison! From the front their hair isn't that much different . . . Annie's is just a bit longer and thicker, and has more 'flip'. But from the back, I was so surprised to see that Annie had a full little head of curls!





2008: Second Birthday. Her birthday party was actually the next day, and I was giving birth to Ellie, so I don't actually have more pictures. This was at night, right before bedtime, when Greg and Uncle Cody were putting together her train set. Ellie was due two weeks later, but about an hour after we took these pictures my water broke, and all I could think was, "NO! They can't have the same birthday!" Luckily, labor didn't start for a while, and I had Ellie the next morning.





2009: Third Birthday! These are from like 3 minutes ago . . . Annie finally woke up (at 8:40! That's like a full hour and a half later than normal. And the shocker is, Ellie just woke up too (and she usually wakes up even before Annie). It's like it was my birthday! I took some pictures of the sleepyhead waking up. Wow, she's so grown up now! She looks like a kid, not a toddler anymore. The good news is she informed us last night it's time to be potty trained, "Because I am going to be three now. A big girl."

More Disney

This is just a bunch of random pictures at Disneyland. Annie loved riding almost every ride she went on. Except the Haunted Mansion. And Snow White. And Pinocchio. But, other than that.

She even went on the Matterhorn. And loved driving the cars on Autopia. But heaven help the person who tried to help steer . . . forget the fact she couldn't even see over the dashboard, she could do it all on her own, thank you very much. :-) Dumbo was probably the big favorite. Ellie would start shrieking and reaching for the horses the second the Carousel came into view . . . you try explaining to a baby under one about waiting in line . . . she was usually pretty pissed by the time we made it onto the ride, but once that horse was moving up and down, everything was right in the world again.

Here's Annie and Ellie waiting to go into a 3-D show . . . Ellie loved eating the glasses.

Annie rockin' the 3-D look.

My girls in the Dog Pound in Toon Town . . . Ellie was just SO happy to be in a place where she was allowed to get down on the ground and crawl and walk around!

Greg and I in line for something. I don't rememeber what now.

My family in the Tea Cup . . . Annie LOVED this ride, and talked several of her aunts and uncles into going on it with her. I went once, and didn't even get dizzy, 'cause all I noticed was a laughing, shrieking two year old next to me having the time of her life.

Annie 'posing' in front of a bench.

Ellie not so happily posing . . . Ellie had a ROUGH first morning at Disneyland . . . she had a tooth breaking through, her eye was bugging her (red and watery) and she ran a fever the first two days we were in Disneyland.

My adorable family in front of the giant 'A'.

Ellie and Daddy in the Bugs Life area at California Adventures.

Annie playing in the splash park in the Bugs Life area.

More wet Annie pictures.

Ellie watching all the fun.

Annie driving the car on Autopia.

Annie liked 'shooting bad guys' in the Buzz Lightyear . . . and you can see her first french braid (courtesy of my Mom . . . I've asked my Mom to teach Greg how to do it, 'cause I suck at braiding.)

Annie, Greg and I waiting in line to see the Princesses.