Air Show/American Lake

If you look very closely in this pic, you can see my kids in the tube (ok, that part is easy to see), above the island to the right is a bald eagle, and above the island left of center is two airshow planes. The best of all worlds!

The McChord Air Show is this weekend. While the thought of an airshow is fun, we think of being hot and tired and waiting around a whole lot when we really think about it. And traffic. Lots of traffic. Since we can see the planes landing normally on McChord from the lake we decided to give it a try today and see if we could see some of the show from the boat. We saw a good bit - enough to make us all happy and no one miserable. I didn't get tons of pictures b/c while watching the kids were swimming and tubing and we were forcing Jordan out in to the water to cool off. Not the best times to be taking pics. We let the kids tube together for the first time and let Sam tube alone (very slowly) for the first time. Two summers ago and last week he went with me. There weren't that many people on the lake today since it was cool and the day started out very cloudy - and maybe they were all at the airshow. In any case, it was a good day to try Sam out without me.

California Trip Days 10 and 11 - Driving

I finally got an In-N-Out burger on our last day in CA

Mount Shasta

Day Ten of our trip was driving from San Diego to Modesto. Farm land and hot temps. We were also all tired and cranky so there was no picture taking that day. Nothing unusual to take a picture of.

Day Eleven we drove from Modesto to Medford, Oregon. We finally managed to find an In-N-Out at the right time and place for lunch and got our first (and last) meal there. It was yummy! Sometime after that, we picked up Mount Shasta through the clear skies and were able to see it for a few hours as we passed it on the interstate. We got to our hotel in Medford and hit the pool before heading to bed.

California Trip Day 9 - "June Gloom"

Gabby made a friend.

The waterpark

Sam coming down the red slide. Does anyone look cold in this pic?

Running the race cars

Face painting

Things got a little silly...

Sam driving his mommy around.

Gabby driving her daddy around.

Aquarium

Bye-bye, Legoland.

I admit, this day did not start out that well. It was cold and cloudy, we got off late, traffic was bad, and there were more people in the park than we wanted. The whole reason we came back a second day was to spend some time in the water park. We couldn't have picked a worse day for that. Our two other SD days were sunny and warm but we saved the waterpark for today. A friend said in SoCal they call that "June Gloom." It was.

We did our best to shake off the gloom and went to the waterpark anyway. It was cold. Even the lifeguards were cold. Good thing was that it wasn't crowded. But it was cold. Sam was a trooper and went down the kiddie slides as long as he could stand it. Gabby is always a water trooper and tried all the big slides. She wouldn't do the lazy river b/c you had to sit up on the raft. In the cold and wind. The lazy river was cool, though, because you can add soft legos to your raft to "build your own". Sam was contemplating it when he tripped over his big ole feet on the flat sidewalk. Because he was wrapped in a towel to stay warm, he fell all the way over on to his head. I have now made a visit to the First Aid station in an amusement park. It wasn't that bad - no bump, no bleeding - but Sam loves an ice pack like most kids love a band-aid so we had to go to First Aid for that. And answer the questions and fill out the forms. That was the end of the waterpark. Everyone was cold and tired.

We took a little rest and headed back in to the regular park and did finally manage to shake off the gloom and enjoy the rest of our day. We went through the Aquarium, which was small but very well done in my opinion. We weren't really planning on doing but were glad we did. The park cleared out in the afternoon (oddly enough) so we could do the last things we wanted and go home happy.

California Trip Day 8 - San Diego Zoo

Koala

Gabby found her soul mate - same age, same name.

Fun with statues

Sam's polar bear impression

Yes, he really was that close.

What's wrong with this picture?

Sam loved the giraffes.

Yes, that is a dog on the left. Cheetah on the right.

Gabby and a panda.

Feeding the goats.

I have always wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo. When I was a kid they had all these exotic animals you couldn't see anywhere else and it was the zoo standard. Time and travel and all that means I have over the years seen a lot of the exotic animals (mostly in Memphis - the zoo I grew up on and still a favorite!) but I still wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo. It did not disappoint. It is arranged naturally along the hills, with tons of vegetation (read:shade) and tons of animals. And, yes, there were animals I had never seen. It was BIG. We didn't exactly make the best touring plan but we managed to see most all of it even if it wore us out. They do have some buses, moving sidewalks, and a skyway. We started with the koalas, then elephants, and then it's a blur of beautiful animals, finishing up with the pandas and the petting zoo. And, yes, I was quite concerned about the dog in the pen with the cheetah until I saw the sign that said they belonged together. I had never seen such. If you want to read about it go HERE.

Legoland

Ready to go!

Sam riding the airplanes.

Gabby as a princess.

Sam and his ice cream.

Daddy and Sammy on the fairy tale boats.

The music fountain.

Thomas we love you!

Riding the train.

Driving his car.

Driving her car.

Competing in our fire truck.

Getting to ride in the front of the train.

Sky Cruiser

Finally it was Legoland day. The kids had been focusing on Legoland since the beginning. We left LA and went straight to Legoland. We found something we could ride together and then split up so Gabby could ride some of the bigger rides. She was chosen to be in one of the shows but since we were riding the roller coaster, I had given Robert the camera (they don't allow anything on their rides) so I didn't get pics of the show itself, just what she looked like in the costume. We joined back up and spent most of the rest of the day together on the train, competing as firefighters, and playing in the fountains. We did have to split for the driving rides since they were done by age. We finished out the day looking at all the Lego models as the park closed down and headed to our San Diego hotel.

California Trip Day 7 - An American Girl Goes Hollywood

Hollywood through the smog

Girl of the Year 2010

Felicity and her set-up

This is what Sam does as soon as he is seated.

Gabby and Felicity enjoying appetizers in the Cafe.

American Girl Cafe

Sam had to borrow a boy doll so he had something to play with

Yummy dessert.

American Girl Place LA

View from the Griffith Observatory

James Dean

The Griffith Observatory

Matching PJs.

We spent our day in LA mostly at the American Girl Store. Yes, I know, not very "local" but it made Gabby happy and was good enough for the rest of us. We all enjoyed lunch in the Cafe. Then Gabby and Felicity had a photo shoot and got to pick out something. Sam and Daddy did wander to the fountain and to ride the free bus a bit after lunch while we shopped and did our thing in the store. It was fun - at least for Gabby, Felicity and I.

After that we rode up to the Griffith Observatory where you could (kind of) see over the city and (kind of) see the Hollywood sign. You could definitely see the air. I am not a fan of that. We spent a little time at the Observatory but it was hot and we were all tiring out so we left to battle the traffic back to our hotel. We spent a long time in the pool that night, since it was the first hotel that had a pool.