SeaWorld San Diego

Our SeaWorld day was such a highlight of our trip!

Matt and I said several times that we would definitely be members of the park if we lived there. There was so much to do and so much for the kids to just play on.


Even Emily got to play!

We spent a majority of our morning in the Sesame Street Bay of Play playground area where all 3 kids had a blast. And since our kids are smaller (3, 2, and almost 1), we were up in the play places with them, but it was fun for us too!

If you saw our stories on Instagram, then you might have seen this pic already, but I just DIED laughing when someone messaged me after I posted it the first time and said, "Is it bad that I keep looking at his shadow?!" I didn't even notice his shadow until she pointed it out! hahahha, so good.

They loved the nets, the bridges, the slides, the bouncy things- it was like a kid heaven.

There were also several kid rides in the Bay of Play area, and all of them had zero lines. So the kids rode their favorite rides several times.

On the little teacup ride, Ryan asked if he could ride in one by himself, and then shot me a thumbs-up where he started to stick up his pointer finger (like he's always done), and then looked at it closely and corrected it. And I looked at Matt with the most dramatic, wide-eyed, sad face ever and held back the tears. I don't feel like you always witness the "lasts" as a parent, but I literally watched him realize he had been doing it wrong all this time and correct himself. 

So if everyone could start praying now for when I send him off to college, because I clearly struggle with milestones. 😂 

Here's the rest of us! On our own ride. Without Ryan. (And there I am faking holding it together.) 😜

This girl felt like hot stuff getting to play on the equipment with her big brother and sister!

The touch pools were such a hit with our kiddos. There were several of them with all different animals and opportunities to feed them and pet them. Ryan still talks about touching these tiger sharks (or something like that? Tiger shark could be totally wrong) as one of his favorite parts of the entire San Diego trip.

Y'all. The food at SeaWorld is GOOD. We booked a deal through Get Away Today that got us our zoo ticket + SeaWorld ticket + all-day dining at SeaWorld that allowed us to eat up to every hour if we wanted to. We really only ate 2 meals (like normal people, hah), but this one meal alone would have cost $70 (because theme park food is insane), and SeaWorld doesn't allow you to bring in food. So the dining pass was worth it. The fast pass, however, was not. Save your $10/ticket if you have little kids. 

Another big highlight was the Orca Encounter show! You guys, SeaWorld does it right with their shows. They are only 25 minutes tops, and they are really interesting and interactive. We watched the dolphin show and the Orca Encounter show and loved them both!

But man do I wish I had a video of what happened during the Orca Encounter show. Ryan REALLY wanted to get wet (and I had packed clothes for all of us to get wet at some point during the day), so he, Natalie, and Matt went and sat on the 3rd row, while I had a napping Emily in her carrier out of the "wet zone" (and these are clearly marked, so no worries if you don't want to get wet). Matt said for the first 20 minutes, Ryan kept asking, "Daddy, when are we going to get wet?!" because several other sections had already gotten wet.

Well, right around the 20 minute mark, this big whale came up, turned, and flipped its tail 3 times and SOAKED all three of them with cold water, and then a big gust of wind blew. I saw Ryan from a distance walking out to the aisle, looking for me, crying, and trying to walk up to where I was sitting with Emily. So then I saw Matt grab Natalie and Ryan and walk up the stadium stairs with both of them in his arms, crying and soaked, but with a big smile on his face as all of the other parents laughed at the cuteness and hilariousness of it as he walked by.

Once we were out and changing into dry clothes, both Ryan and Natalie were laughing about it and saying how much fun they had (that picture is them cheesing and waving right before we changed their clothes). I think they didn't expect the water to be so cold or soak them as much as it did!

Ryan was really hoping to ride this one big wet ride, but he was an inch too short (and handled it so well! Proud mama moment ;) ), so instead, he and Natalie and Matt stood by the bridge and got themselves soaked as the other people rode down. :)

Natalie trying to move her mouth like the sting ray :)

This buddy loves checking the map whenever we go places. ;)

I snapped this pic of Natalie on our way back to our hotel. Sweet love looks so tired and content. :)

Okay, tomorrow I'm going to share the rundown of how we handled the flights, sleeping situation, schedules, and routines during our week. I know traveling with kids can feel daunting, so I'm hoping tomorrow's post will help some of you other mamas wrap your minds around the logistics of it all. Because if you're anything like me, you know the idea of traveling with little kids is fun in theory, but you want to know what it's really going to be like once you go for it. ;)

See you tomorrow!

 

San Diego Zoo

When we were planning our trip, we knew that we wanted the maximize our time in San Diego and see as much as possible while we were there, but we also knew that our kids were still really little, so too much activity could potentially backfire.

One of my favorite memories- Ryan grabbed a map right when we walked in and said, "Wooks wike they have wions, wemurs, elephants and weopards."

I read several blogs and used TripAdvisor to determine the three parks we would see, and then we ordered the days based on the parks' required energy, if that makes sense.

Disneyland was an all-in day, plus it was a 1.5 hour drive, so we chose to do that first when we would likely be waking up on East Coast time still. 

The zoo is usually more chill, and the kids could be pushed in strollers if they were tired, so we chose to do this our second day after Disneyland.

And then SeaWorld was another full day that followed our rest-ish day at the zoo (more on that tomorrow).

Our last day, we left completely open to explore La Jolla, play at the beach, see the sea lions, and do whatever the kids were feeling that day.

We considered switching up our SeaWorld day and last day of no set plans, but I'm so glad we went back-to-back days at parks and had our last day to hang around La Jolla. I think it would have been hard to have a full day at SeaWorld and then leave for the airport the next morning.

SO, all of you who were seeing our pics on Instagram and thinking we were crazy for packing in our 3 park days, there was reason behind the madness! ha!

Natalie's smile in this one :)

Like I said in my first post about our trip, kids tend to be more resilient to travel than we expect, and each time we go somewhere, Matt and I end up be pleasantly surprised by how well they do in a different environment and on a different schedule.

And one last thing to say about that- we definitely go in to these kind of trips knowing that there might be meltdowns from exhaustion and try to mentally prepare for what I like to call extra-grace moments or days (and this is mainly me because Matt is gifted with the ability to give extra grace and patience to our kids without having to prep himself for it. ;) Bless. Him. ) 

So the zoo! 

You guys. The park opens at 10 and close at 5. We got there at 10 and left at 5, and did not have enough time to see it all.

Granted, we took lots of time for noticing non-zoo creatures crawling across the ground, climbing on animal statues, and swinging on hand rails, but I say that to say that this zoo was HUGE! And really amazing. Totally worth going to whether you have kids or not.

The kids really wanted to climb up this rock structure in one of the play areas, so Matt got up there with them, and then I snapped this pic of the three of them:

The look on Natalie's face! Close call, daddy.

This was one of my favorite days because it was low key. There was a lot of walking (more than Disneyland!) but we had the strollers for the kids, and it wasn't crowded at all, so we were able to let the kids walk for a good portion of it, and Matt and I could enjoy conversation while they walked or played nearby.

I have some short videos saved on my Instagram stories, but the highlights were the sky ride that takes you from one side of the park to the other, the massive Africa Rocks section, and the polar bears. Polar bears! Crazy.

If you're taking a trip to San Diego, I would definitely make time for the zoo! 

Tomorrow I'll share all about our SeaWorld day. See you then!

 

Disneyland!

Our first full day in San Diego, the kids woke up at 4:00 on the dot (7:00 East Coast time). We figured this might happen, which is why we planned our Disneyland day for our first day, knowing that it was a 1.5 hour drive to the park, and knowing we wanted to be there right when it opened.

We read in our planning for this trip that it take about 45 minutes from the time you enter the Disneyland parking garage to when you're actually in the park. And this was true for us as well. You park, walk to the elevators that take you to security, and then hop on a tram to get to the line where you wait to enter the park. We got to the line at 8:50 and the park opened at 9:00. There were already lines, but they weren't bad, and since we had already purchased our tickets, we were able to head right in once the park opened.

The first 2 hours was really not crowded at all!

We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Chip and Goofy and got to ride "It's a small world," go in Minnie's house, and do a few of the kid rides in that first 2-hour window. 

Ryan got to go on walks with Pluto and Chip and was just beside himself for both little journeys. :)

Sweet Natalie talked about meeting Mickey and Minnie nonstop the week leading up to our trip, and then was not too sure when we were actually standing in front of them. 

I love the way she is looking at Mickie in this picture.

Sweet Emily was a little unsure at first too, but felt better once she squeezed Mickie's nose- ha!

Sweet buddy. I totally underestimated how much he was going to LOVE seeing each of the characters. I would go back tomorrow if we could just to see his face light up again!

Matt and I took turns riding some of the bigger roller coasters with Ryan while the girls ate their lunches in the stroller.

This sweet love got so excited about the rides she was able to go on! 

Mickey's voice was coming out of this phone and Ryan thought it was the coolest thing. Sweet love.

While the girls napped in the stroller, Matt and Ryan rode Space Mountain!

And sweet buddy napped in Matt's arms while they waited in line. He is not light- go daddy. :)

Ryan looks a little unsure here (understandable!), but when he got off, he wanted to go on it again! Sweet guy!

We ended our day by letting Ryan and Natalie each pick out what we call a "special treat" or "pehe kete" if you're Natalie. ;) This part of the day was definitely a highlight! There's a candy/ice cream shop right on Main Street, so Ryan went one direction with Matt looking for the right lollipop while Natalie went for the ice-cream. They both got HUGE treats and were totally beside themselves.

I wish I caught of picture of Ryan's face when we told him he could get this massive lollipop. Sweet buddy ate maybe the equivalent of two suckers but was so excited that it was this big and he was allowed to have it. :)

And Emily got some of Natalie's ice cream too! 

Okay so a couple of things to share in case you decide to take a Disneyland vacation:

*Buy your tickets ahead of time and make sure it's an authorized Disney dealer if you find a deal.

*Get to the parking garage a hour before the park opens

*Pack lunches! Disneyland lets you bring in food. This saves time and money.

*Download the Disneyland app- use it to check ride times, operate your fast-passes, and see pictures taken throughout the day.

*Buy the Maxpass (Disneyland's fast-pass system)- totally worth. This puts you in the shorter lines and lets you download every picture taken during the day for free.

*Bring strollers in you have little kids- We brought in two. Great for resting, napping, walking through the park, and eating lunch while walking from one spot to the next.

Tomorrow, I'll share all about our zoo day! See you then!