The girls request for the summer was the beach! Malina wanted to go boogie boarding, Sophia wanted to play with sand crabs and Eme didn't have a clue. Banks was suppose to join us the whole time but ended up having a business trip on the front end. I took the kiddos to Vegas ("Castle" Hotel, Excalibur) one night and stayed in Ocean Beach (San Diego) for three days.
Ocean Beach was the ultimate beach experience. The hotel was very primitive although across the street from the beach and the downtown area was next to our hotel. We visited Banks' second cousin who works at the San Diego Zoo. His home had African Tortoises in the backyard which was a big experience for the kids. Then, we went to the Wild Animal Park. It was a brutally hot day but I pushed through the experience. Eme was so excited on the tram tour around the park, even though he screamed when we got on. Sea World was on the pit stop too. The kids loved feeding the dolphins, Eme hated when the girls fed the VERY LOUD seals and the kids soaked in their glory at the Elmo Play Area with rides. We tidepooled at Cabrillo National Park, spotting a sea hare (first time for us, pictured in Sophia's hand above), 2 1/2" dead bonnethead shark and lots of crabs.
Banks flew into LA and met us at our hotel in Anaheim. Banks didn't want the kids to go to Disneyland without him. We told them we had to get on the shuttle to get to the beach. We got off at the park and they didn't have a clue. Sophia and Malina kept looking around and were out of their minds when they realized where we were. We got a "behind the scenes" visit with Snow While and Aurora before a show and Sophia was so star struck that she looked like she was going to cry. It couldn't have been a better star sighting for her. Our big moment is when the girls went on Thunder Mountain Railroad with us! They loved it and we went back for more. Malina got her hair done in the Princess Pavilion and Eme couldn't get enough of the cars. A fantastically tiring day!
The rest of the trip consisted of visits to Manhattan Beach, visiting our friends Marika and James from grad school and Sharaf and Aseel from undergrad. We drove home in a day and our beginning our day-to-day lives with school starting tomorrow. :-(
1 comment:
Hey Jen - I've been off the grid for awhile and haven't been checking in on my favorite friend's blogs. So fun to see what you've been up to. So Cal and Pacific Northwest sound like great trips. Wishing I lived out west to take some of those road trips! You look stunning in your cute jeans and white shirt...apparently boot camp was a success :-)! How did Eme get so darn big since we saw him last summer? He looks just like your parents!
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