Vacaton Day 3 - Sea World

 The cheapest Sea World tickets I found were valid for the whole month for just the one price! So we decided to take advantage and go back. It was pretty crowded on Saturday, but today it was perfect! Still a little on the chilly side, but it was nice to not have many people there. One of our biggest mistakes of our vacation came at Sea World. Brayden was just barely tall enough to ride the roller coaster, so we thought it would be a great idea for him to go on it. Well, they have height requirements for a reason. He was just too little. He couldn't even hold his head up the poor guy. He was ok for the first big drop, but then they go on the roller coaster part and he didn't like it. Because of this, the remainder of the week he became scared of EVERY ride. It was quite annoying, actually, since he just whined every time we got in a line for a ride (even Peter Pan and Small World!) N-e way, I guess he had every right to be scared since this really did freak him out: 

We weren't able to do all the shows on Saturday, so here we are at the dolphin show....my favorite!

The kids loved the sea lions:

We went to the Sesame Street 3D movie. Brooklyn loved it, although she wouldn't wear her glasses. Brayden loved it. Brynlee...not so much. She was on my lap falling asleep when we all got sprayed with water. She cried. Then the wind. She cried. Then the water again. She cried. Finally I grabbed a jacket and put it over the little water sprayers so she could finally just relax without any surprises.

I love this picture because of the chipmunk. Talk about great timing!

Kids loved the playland:

Brooklyn LOVES Elmo, so she was pretty excited to see him. She wouldn't touch Grover, but gave Elmo big hugs.

I have pictures of me when I was a little girl touching the dolphins. I'm not sure when they became my favorite animal, but I absolutely LOVE them so we had to be sure to stop by and touch them. I was holding Brayden up trying to let him touch one when it slapped the water and got us all soaked. He cried, so did Brooklyn. So they sat on the bench while Josh and I got to touch them:

And of course we wouldn't miss the Shamu show.

We were on our way out when we happened to run into Shamu. It was a perfect way to end our day.

Back at the condo we took the kids swimming again, this time to the kiddie pool. And of course they loved it. Brayden even had a blast this time.

Tubbie time!

Vacation Day 2 - Mother's Day

Mother's day turned out to be a wonderful day. We all slept in, then got up, got ready, and headed out. We found a church nearby to attend sacrament meeting. We then went to walk around the San Diego Temple. This temple has always been really special to Josh and me. The week before he left for his mission his family went to San Diego and invited me to come. One morning Josh and his parents did a session in the temple while I did baptisms. We didn't know that you couldn't just show up and do baptisms like you can here in Utah. The temple workers were wonderful and opened up the baptistry just for me. I got to sit and contemplate for quite some time afterwards while I waited for Josh. That's when I knew I was going to marry Josh. I was really looking forward to visiting the temple on this trip, and having it be Mother's Day made it that much more special. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy. We were able to walk around for a minute and take some pictures, but we all got cold so rushed back to the van. Here are the pictures we were able to take:

After the temple we headed to Hometown Buffet. It was pretty crowded, but the food was fantastic. We then headed back to the condo for naps. That night we watched Tangled for the first time. We all loved it. It was such a wonderful Mother's Day. I'm grateful for my mom and all she does for me. I love her SO much and love having her so close. She truly is my best friend. I'm also grateful for a great mother-in-law. I never expected to gain a friend when I got married, but I love the relationship that we have developed over the past 7 yrs. Happy Mother's Day!!!

Vacation Day 1 - Sea World

Our condo was only about 20 minutes from Sea World, so we decided to take advantage of it. On Saturday it was pretty crowded, but we knew we would be coming back on Monday so we didn't feel rushed to see everything. We saw a couple of shows and went through a bunch of the exhibits. It was a little colder than we expected, but luckily we brought jackets. Somehow we all managed to get a little sunburned. The kids loved looking at all the animals.

Brynlee did really well. She loved being outside and loved seeing the animals.

Of course one of Brayden's favorite things was to chase the birds that were everywhere.

Here we are watching one of the shows.

There were people selling bubble guns all over the park, and the kids loved chasing the bubbles all day.

Here we all are in front of the penguin exhibit. Brooklyn LOVED the penguins.

Since it was so cold, the kids had their jackets on all day. That meant that you couldn't see their cute outfits in all the pictures. So of course I made the kids stand so I could take a picture. They're so cute!

And don't forget little miss Bryn!

After Sea World we went back to the condo so the kids could take a quick nap. Afterwards we took the kids to the swimming pool. Since the weather was a little cool, the pool didn't feel as warm as we had hoped. Brooklyn, however, didn't care. She LOVED swimming and jumping over and over again into the pool.

Brayden, on the other hand, was not a fan. He was the one that was SO excited to go swimming, but after about 2 minutes he was done. He spent the rest of the time wrapped in all the towels.

Brynlee did ok in the water. She loved it, but got cold pretty fast.

Vaction - Travel Day

Well, the time finally came. We loaded up the cars and my mom and Josh's dad drove us to the airport. Unfortunately, United Airlines doesn't have a Skycap. We were planning on checking everything at the curb, so it was quite the experience trying to get all our gear inside the terminal...5 carry-ons, 3 strollers, 2 carseats, 1 big suitcase, and 3 kids. I had checked in online before we left so it was easy to check our 1 suitcase and 2 carseats. Security went ok, except that we had to fold down all the strollers and take the baby out of her carseat, along with take off all our shoes etc. We finally made it to the gate. They had a kids area that was great while we waited.  Here's the kids looking at the airplanes:

The kids were very excited, although Brooklyn kept saying, "We're not going on a plane, we're going on a choo-choo!" She got over it pretty quick. We finally got seated and were ready to go. Josh was in charge of Brooklyn:

Rachael was in charge of Brayden:

And I was in charge of Brynlee. e were lucky because the seat next to me was empty so they let me bring her carseat on the plane with me. She slept for the 2nd half of the flight in her carseat so it was perfect!

Once we made it to the airport we hopped on the shuttle to go get our minivan. We stopped at Burger King down the street to grab some dinner. Then it was off to the condo. It took about 1hr 20min to get there. We finally made it and got settled. The kids were exhausted from not having a nap so they went to bed pretty early. 

Vacation - Preparations

Getting ready for our vacation pushed me to levels of stress I haven't seen in quite some time. To add to the stress, I thought it would be fun to wear matching colors while in Disneyland and Sea World. I have no summer clothes for any of our kids, so since I had to buy new clothes I just bought them to match each other. Yes...I'm a little eccentric. When I started packing, I had to lay everything out to make sure I wasn't forgetting everything.

For the past couple of months the kids have been earning money to put in their Disneyland jars. They've been really excited to earn money, eventhough they don't quite understand what going to Disneyland really means. Here they are, so proud of their jars:

Finally the time came to put all their money in their little wallets to take on our trip. It was fun to see them so excited.

My Breaking Point

So...to say that I've been a little stressed getting ready for our trip is a complete understatement. My mind has been on overload for a few weeks and my poor kids haven't seen the best of me lately. 5 days before our trip I hit a breaking point. Every afternoon the kids and I have a bowl of cereal for a snack after their naps. We all ate it, then Brayden wanted more. Then Brooklyn wanted more. I knew she wouldn't eat much more, so I just gave her a little bit. Well she freaked out because she wanted "lots." I tried to calmly say no, but the louder she screamed the closer I got to losing it. I'm trying not to yell and the kids so much, so instead of yelling I got the box of cereal and poured cereal until it was spilling over the edges, then walked away to cool off. I came back and calmly poured the cereal back into the box and gave her some milk. Next thing I knew she was screaming at me again, this time for some sugar. I gave her some, but she couldn't "see" it so she started freaking out again. I lost it. But instead of yelling, I grabbed the sugar cup and poured about 1 1/2 cups of sugar on her cereal, threw the cup on the stove, and walked away I was SO mad. Brooklyn wasn't quite sure what was going on, so she just left the table and went to start playing. I scooped as much sugar as I could off, but it was a complete loss. When I was telling my sister the story later that night and showed her the bowl, she told me I had to take a picture and document this moment. So here it is. And although I did go overboard a little bit, I can proudly say that I handled the entire situation without yelling. I'm not saying that this was better, but atleast it's a start! Don't forget...this picture was taken after I scooped out as much cereal and sugar as I could save.