San Diego Family Vacation- First Stop Sea World

We actually spent two days here. We saw all of the shows the first day and the second day was spent seeing all the exhibits. We could of easily spent another day here but had much to get done in a week.

Grandma was trying to get Tyler to tell her how much he loved her. However Tyler was having more fun teasing her.

Jared feeding the sting ray. He said it was weird, it felt like a big vacuum.

Tyler and Raquel watching the white whales. They would go to the top and blow through the whole on the top of their head every few minutes. It was neat to see.

The walrus came right up to the glass to say hi. Tyler got all sorts of excited and started petting it.

Raquel fascinated with the Klondike horse.
It was huge.

Niki, Tyler and Raquel waiting to go in and see Sesame street 3D. It was neat. the show was about imaginations and imagining your favorite kind of day. Well Oscars was a rainy day and well yes it did rain in the theater. It was so fun and wet.

The Sea Lion show. They even brought out the manatee, it was very large and jello like.

And The Famous SHAMU. He is my new favorite whale. Okay maybe my first. He is amazing theshow was the best. We went the night before and saw the night show too. Shamu can splash as high as the 16th row and it was more then just a splash. It was more like a huge bucket of water being dumped on you. I was not willing to get wet so we bought ponchos. It was a blast. we got first row dead center seats so he was literally 5ft in front of us. This picture is nothing compared to in person. The best of all was Tyler and Raquel's facial expressions. I wish I had a water proof camcorder so get it.

Here is the pictures of the Penguins. Tyler and Raquel really enjoyed them but it got tiring holding them so they could see.

Looking into the Penguin exhibit.

Shamus night show. Amazing. Raquel was to tired to watch it and slept through it all. Tyler on the other hand enjoyed it and had tons of fun.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying themselves.

You can tell it had been a while since she has seen Grandpa. Just enjoying every second of it.

Raquel's First Hair Cut

Raquel was so excited to get her hair cut.
We went to Fantastic Sam's and She was so good during the hair cut she sat very still and did every thing the hair dresser told her to. She had so much fun. I am so proud of her. I know she is two and a half already but I don't think her hair needed cut before. It grew so pretty. I dreaded taking her to get it cut.

Jerry's Duck Farm

We went to Jerry's duck farm yesterday. It was so fun and neat to see. I never really heard of a duck farm until now. So you plant acres of corn then flood the Field and the ducks come to eat and you shoot them. There is a lot of duck clubs out here so you pick one and just after day break and until dawn you can legally shoot a duck. Well the ducks are not stupid they now this and will wait and feed when it is dark until it gets cold and the are forced to eat during the day. So we waited until just past dawn and tons of ducks, I mean hundreds upon hundreds came so you grab your binoculars and you have a great site to look on. Amazing. It was to dark to take picture but it sure was neat to see. I hope we get a chance to see them during the day.

This is a picture of the field flooded from the last rain storm it was deep.

The kids really enjoyed the tractors.

Jerry was kind enough to take the kids for a little ride. They loved it.

Halloween

This year Halloween last three days. First was Trunk or Treat with our ward and then we had Tylers Preschool party friday and then Halloween Saturday. Raquel was a Ballerina and Tyler was a T-rex. I made Tylers costume, his head is made out of cardboard and paper and yes it did rain. go figure. A friend of mine made Raquels Tutu.

The T-rex was suppose to be green but Tyler insisted on it being blue. When I told him no that dinosaurs are not blue he went and grabbed all of his blue toy dinosaurs and brought them to me. He put them in front of me and said "see mom these dinosaurs are blue." Seeing how he made a good point I had to let his T-rex be blue.

She was so excited to be a ballerina that she wore her costume for a couple of days before Halloween.

Tyler's school party. I was so glad that they let Raquel go. She had more fun then Tyler.

Tyler was not happy in this picture. I don't think he has ever been happy in a group picture

The actual night of Halloween. Instead of going door to door we went to another Trunk or Treat at a different church. I think it was the Wentzville Christian Church or something. Tyler won a costume contest. It made me feel like the time I put into his costume worth it.

I was glad that they did not get to much candy. It was easier to deal with.

Pumpkin Carving

We were going to go to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins this year with Tyler school but he got sick and it was raining and got cancelled. So these are are Grocery store pumpkins. I did the cutting and they kids did the poking out. Once we were done they cute and put wholes in the pumpkins where ever they wanted. Tyler I think will be able to do his own next year he did really good this year. He even put his hand in the pumpkin and pulled the guts out. Raquel on the other hand thought it was gross. Last year they were the opposite.

Monster Frog

All the little frogs that we caught and bought died of a plague except one so we let him go. We thought he had a better chase of survival in the wild then he would with us. That same day Jared brought home 3 big frogs. 2 of them were medium size and then this one was monstrous. So Tyler referred to him as the monster frog. Raquel here was on the same page as me for a bit but then she ended up liking them.

The other day the monster frog looked dead so I told Jared to check him. So he opens the tank and scoots the frog with a spoon. The frog then jumps about 5 ft out of the tank and just about landing on ME. Good thing I am quick and he only hit my clothes. However my throat did hurt from screaming so loud. The kids were laughing at me. I see how it is. So when Jared went to catch the frog it took off on the vinyl and since it was slick for the frog it looked like he was trying to do a front hand spring. It was so funny. Needless to say, I caught the frog in the box and Jared put him back. Every time we walk by the tank the monster frogs ducks under the water until we're gone.

Off to Independence Vistor Center

The kids were done with my church touring sites at this point. Luckily Jared had already been here and He took the kids so I could enjoy it.

One of the original copies of the Book of Mormon. Pretty neat.
They had a little play area for the kids here. Quite fun.

We also got to see an exact replica of a cabin that the pioneers built. It was very small and they would fit 10 families in one until spring came and they could build more. And yet they were always happy.