Safari Revisited...

And to go back to our last day of the trip, here are some shots of our trip to the San Diego Safari Park. The kids all crawled into a bird nest for this (cramped) photo. 

Ellie was great at steering her boat in the duck pond.  

That's Ellie in the turtle shell, Andrew chillin on top, Evie laughing and Justin checking out the ducks.  

We got this great family shot outside of the bat cave.  

Something feels strange at this fountain. 

Daddy and our little photographer on the tram ride.  Good times! 

Building Blocks at LEGOLAND!

What a fun adventure we had at LegoLand on Thursday!  First stop was the Fairytale Brook where we cruised by our favorite fairy tales made completely out of Legos. Andrew was great about pointing out the location of the fairies in Cinderella's castle.  Ellie's favorite was the wolf dancing with Red Riding Hood at the end. 

In Duplo Village, Ellie and Mommy took a ride in the LEGOLAND Express.  Ellie was great at saying "choo choo" as we pulled from the station. 

Mommy and Evie took turns at the controls of our Coast Guard helicopter at the Sky Patrol ride in Fun Town. 

Andrew and Evie cruise around at the Volvo-sponsored Junior Driving School.  They proudly displayed their official licenses they received after the ride. 

Two sisters cruising the Hollywood scene. 

Ahhhhh!  Watch out for those teeth! Ellie ponders the wisdom of this photo opp. In the Pirate Shores, we also all got soaked at the Splash Battle... hmmm... Mommy should have read the fine print. 

I think the girls' favorite area was Castle Hill, where the kids exhausted the grown-ups by running around in the Hideaway giant castle of bridges, ropes, and slides. Evie would talk to the horse during the Royal Joust - she kept saying "Good girl" and every once in awhile throw in a "Giddy-up."  Meanwhile, Ellie would crack up as Mommy imitated the voice of the little Lego serf pictured here who was apparently the target - "Oh, no, not again!  You know, that wasn't too bad."  

Our brave pilots took on anything, including this plane ride that would zoom them around.  Their biggest adventure was "The Dragon" rollercoaster - Evie told Daddy as they started up the hill before the drop, "I think I might voomit." 

Last stop (before the gift shop of course) was Miniland where we admired the Washington DC replicas and the band playing in front of the US Capitol.  What a fantastic day! 

Evie and Ellie explore some hands-on scientific concepts..

One of the girls' favorite stops in San Diego was the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.  We headed there with Jen and Justin on Tuesday and the kids had such a great time, we ended up there on Wednesday morning as well. First stop was Kid City where the girls loved the conveyor belt at the shape factory. 

Justin and Evie let loose with the vacuum balls and turning the gears to keep the balls rolling. 

Exploring the wattage...

... and the gravity pull exhibit. 

Tuesday night we stopped by Seaport Village for the lovely historic carousel. Ellie was delighted to find a horse with a purple saddle. Meanwhile, Mommy was feeling a little nauseous going around and around. 

Daddy and Evie are flying around so quickly, Mommy luckily catches a smile. Alas, the horses did not leave the carousel like in Mary Poppins. 

Evie practices her pirate grimace! 

After an artisan cheese and taco picnic, the family topped off a delightful night with a fro-yo stop. 

The next morning we were back to the Science Center!  The girls had fun standing in the path of a tornado. We also tried the hurricane machine and could barely hear after being in 80 mph winds! 

The kids also loved creating marble runs in the Tinkering Studio. 

And, of course, we couldn't leave without some dancing in front of the Balboa Park fountains!

We packed up and then picked up Daddy to head over to Belmont Amusement Park at Mission Beach.  Evie got a kick out of imitating the faces at the Tiki Golf course. 

Daddy celebrates his hole-in-one! 

Ellie was not in a mini-golf mood but she enjoyed dancing around the masks and picking up our golf balls. 

Mommy too got a hole-in-one! 

Next stop was the bumper cars with Daddy!  They had the whole area to themselves, so Daddy bumped into a pole. 

The girls could not resist the waves even though our swimsuits were packed. 

Ellie didn't mind getting sandy and wet!  

The girls and Daddy take flight over the waves! 

 That night we joined Tanja, Jimmy and Audrey for a delicious Mexican meal at their house.  Audrey impressed the girls with her magic tricks! 

Evie and Ellie on Safari

On our last day in San Diego, Jen, Andrew and Justin took the family to the Safari Park.  Evie took some amazing pictures on the tram ride through the Southern Africa habitat.  She helped with this blog post and provided the captions below:  First off, flamingos, in my favorite color - pink!

The balloon is big and fat and the bottom is a circle. 

These antelopes had long horns and are brown. They are my American Girl doll hair color. 

The giraffes have yellow spots and brown bodies.  Their neck is really tall.  

These are white storks. They have beaks. 

This is a buffalo with a lot of white spots. 

California Livin'

It was off to San Diego to enjoy our family vacation this past week! We arrived last Saturday and after checking into Dad's hotel, headed over to Jen and Tom's.  The girls had a great time playing outside with Andrew and Justin, taking advantage of the glorious weather to ride bikes and play with bubbles on the patio.  Ahhh... this is the life. 

Ellie loved Aunty Jen's stylish hat and was not shy about jumping on the rocking horse to wave her hat like a cowgirl.  I'm not quite sure where she picked that up...

The next day was a glorious beach day and we hit Coronado with the Paul family.  Everyone had a blast playing in the sand and jumping in the waves. Evie and Andrew were great at practicing their surfing stances in the waves.   

Everyone was a little tired after a couple of hours, but gathered up the energy for ice cream, of course! We headed out to MooTime Creamery. 

The kids got up close and personal with the cow, and amused everyone in line by milking its udders...

...and picking its nose/cleaning out its ear wax.  

Later that night, we had dinner with Tanja, Jimmy and Audrey.  Ellie slept in the stroller the whole time but Evie was able to make it through most of the dinner, and some of that delicious mac n' cheese. 

On Monday we headed over to the New Children's Museum where the kids donned their smocks to do some painting and sculptures with clay.  Evie demonstrates the proper brush stroke here.  It seems as if Ellie was not paying attention as later she would dip her two hands completely into the paint.  She looked like a green-handed leprechaun!

The girls had a blast swinging on these wacky ropes.

Ellie checks out the rain house before the girls explored the bouncehouse made out of fruit.

Ellie gets a closer look at some orange segments in the fruit bowl soft playroom.  She found out that a slide of cantaloupe makes a great rocker!

Evie makes some giant bubbles outside with the help of some pipecleaners.

At the sound kitchen, the girls let loose on their pots and pans.  

Ellie particularly loved standing on stage and singing into the whisk microphone!  No stage fright for this little girl.  More pictures from Tuesday-Friday to come shortly...