Trip Day 6: San Diego Zoo

I am definitely starting to lose track of days here, that might be a good hint that I am blogging too much about this trip! Oh well, only one more day beyond this to go. There's just too many great pics and fun things still to share! First off thanks to everyone for the well wishes and good thoughts, they have helped. The "off-ness" I have been feeling is fading and becoming much more manageable. I hope to be myself very soon. I was especially surprised to have a comment from an old very dear friend who I haven't been in contact with for years, my high school boyfriend. Oh course he left a comment and no way to contact him so I am calling you out--if you read this, email me so I can catch up with you! (dodiemt@hotmail.com). It's funny he just wrote, I was thinking of him the other day with all the anxious feelings I have been having it reminded me of when I have a real nervous break down my freshman year of college. It was mostly because I had just broken up with this boy and yet he was the only one awake to save me in my panic attack--he was kind enough to talk me through it all night long. Another funny thing--he looks quite a bit like Lowell, they were born on the same day, and both their moms are nurses. Weird right? I guess I am weird for always trying to keep in touch with old friends, I don't know why it is okay to do so with girlfriends and not boyfriends. Anywho . . .me rambling.

We had a good weekend, the weather was nice enough to go play at the Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove (I think, I am lousy at the city boundaries over there). I then caught Twilight again with my parents while my boys slept and then we went up to the Children's Museum. Who can get enough of that real helicopter? My kids certainly can't! Sunday was mellow, I finished Breaking Dawn thus completing all the books in less than 3 weeks. That's only over 2000 pages, no biggie! :) I actually can be an avid reader with the right material, my job provides the free time and I one to become immersed in a character hence my draw to Bella and Edward. I read 22 books in the first months after I started my job and before I got a DVD player :). All the good movies lately have been based on books, all of which I have read. New Moon comes out in November and Twilight will be in stores next week! :) I have to say I am content with the conclusion and still debating which book I like best--I liked each in different ways and for different reasons. I will be rereading them starting today after I finish Midnight Sun and maybe I'll decide after that.

On to real life! So after our little retreat in La Jolla, we met back up with my fam and were pleased to find everyone still alive. We headed over to the zoo and my oh my that place is huge! We started with the bus tour to get an overview--here we are: The boys were not the most pleasant that day but not terrible either. Here they are shouting no in a loud chorus that got a few stares.

I think after all the amazing things we had already seen this week, live animals wasn't near the draw it would have been at other times. I still enjoyed it though--they have every animal imaginable there. I just have to laugh that when I ask the boys now about animals we saw, they always come up with the ones from the jungle cruise. After the bus tour my parents and sibs minus lovely Hillary decided that was all they wanted to see and were going to head back to Anaheim to have a restful evening. We stayed and had a good time seeing some amazing animals.

I think Lowell was a little less than thrilled to stay! This picture so makes me laugh, please Heidi, please stop with the pics. The pandas were ever so fun to watch.


The glare messes this up a bit but this is a young tiger eyeing down my children as a lovely snack. I also enjoyed the aviaries, the hippos, and the gorillas--our zoo only has 2 gorillas, the San Diego zoo had a whole herd to watch move together. We were all pretty exhausted so we didn't stay until it closed either, but several hours longer than the rest of my family. We then drove down South of San Diego to visit a good friend of mine. Dawn and I met in a BabyCenter online pregnancy group. The whole group met 2 summers ago in Tahoe and I have met up with 2 of the gals since then now. It is unique to know someone so well but not spend a lot of time with them in person. And of course since we were in a pregnancy group together, she also has a little boy very close in age to my monkeys. We didn't get to visit very long, but the kiddos sure enjoyed playing with Aaron and his toys and I love loved getting to see him again. What a cutie! Dawn has an older daughter and a younger daughter as well and her whole family is just so beautiful. What a great chance to visit!

Next we made the drive back to Anaheim pretty well completely trashed. What is it about vacations that wears you out so bad! Here's the kiddos (and Hillary) sleeping in the van. And they went right to bed when we got back top. Okay, stay tuned for the final day of the trip coming up next! Loves!