Universal Studios

We heard from a few people that our boys would be too small to enjoy this place so we considered doing a second day at Legoland and skipping it but decided not to in the end and we're very glad we didn't.  The boys loved it.  Explosions, worlds largest 3D video with a huge gorilla ripping apart a T-rex, monsters, etc.  How could they not love it!  My two favorite rides were here, Mummy and King Kong. 

Its getting too late on my seminary schedule for me to remember much of what happened.  I'm going to have Marisa do a post later with all the pix and stories she wanted that I didn't get.

Sea World

The boys loved Sea World.  With two biology majors as parents they inevitably have turned into science nerds.  They loved all the sea creatures and so many hands-on exhibits.

 They really liked playing with the dolphins.  They splashed the dolphins and the dolphins squirted them and splashed them back.  Bex and Trey got to pet them a couple times as well.

 Of course the Killer Whale Shamu show was great.  Even Aspen was loving it.  Bex actually cried though that he didn't get wet at all.  I remember being disappointed as well and thinking that even though they label so many rows as "splash zone," only the first few rows get wet.  We sat on row 8 I think and he was severely disappointed.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

We let the kids decide between this and the Zoo.  They said they go to zoos all the time, but don't get to see the African animals in their "natural habitat" (actual Calderwood child phrase) so they chose the Wild Animal Park.

They enjoyed all the different part to this place.  The animals were pretty cool.  With the weather being fairly cool a lot of the animals were out.  I don't think there was any exhibit that we didn't get a good view of the animals there.

Other Things

Spending 9 days in SoCal and having the parks close earlier with it not being the summer, we had a lot of time to do other things.  Despite filling our days and coming back to the hotel late each night the kids were always too amped up to go to sleep easily.  We gave them some alone game quiet time to calm them down a couple nights and that definitely helped.

We got sushi at a fairly nice place in Hollywood.  You sure could tell that we were a very unusual sight.  I don't think I would have gotten more stares had I walked in naked!  I guess its not that often that early 30 somethings have four kids, take them out after dark to Hollywood and go to eat at a nice sushi place.  Our kids love sushi and behaved very well so it was awesome! 

We couldn't go down Hollywood Ave or whatever it is called because it was all blocked off for the Academy Awards that were a couple days later.  The boys thought it was awesome to walk on the "covered" red carpet.  Trey went over to a corner and was proud to have stuck his finger under the plastic and actually touched the red carpet.  

Needless to say, they loved the hotel pool and hot tub.  Trey here really didn't enjoy getting in the pool right after the hot tub though.

We went to Newport Beach and ate some pizza in a shop with a bunch of stoned surfers.  The kids enjoyed playing in the sand even though it was kind of cold.

After three mama's boys we finally have a daddy's girl.  It was nice to spend so much time with her every day.  My left shoulder that was damaged pretty badly when I was hit by the car started to separate slightly again from holding her so much, but it was definitely worth it!

Despite being locked in a stroller most of her waking hours she found some time to practice walking.  We haven't been doing much to encourage her, but she enjoyed doing it in the sand.

I asked the boys what their favorite part of the trip was...Legoland?..Nope...Disneyland?...Nope....the Curtises!  We stayed over Saturday night with them and most of Sunday.  It was great to see our friends that we had gotten so close to.  Bex and Trey started to feud again over who gets Emree! 

We unfortunately didn't take a picture until after Brackon left for his business trip.

We also got to hang out with our friends the Benders.  Trevor had a surprise party for Sally that night and we tried so hard not to create any problems but Sally was so nice she kept wanting to take care of us :-)  We finally got her to her party and had a great time hanging out with them and seeing their kids.  Our kids loved to hang out all together without parents.