Ooh, where to begin! (Prepare for MANY pics...not of me.) Our family took a nice trip with my parents to sweet San Diego, California. Jake, Gage and my dad left a day earlier than my mom and I so the boys could do the exhausting 12-hour drive while my mom and I took the pampered route of just taking a cheap flight down after work the next day. Brilliant idea!
Thugs on a plane
On the day the boys had all to themselves to go exploring around California, they visited Jake's Aunt's bakery in SoCal called Patticakes (which left them with a bunch of free baked goodies for all of us to snack on the rest of our trip...oh snap!), toured the USS Iowa, and caught an Angels baseball game in Anaheim before heading to Long Beach to pick up us gals from the airport...I had to come to terms with them going to the Angels game without me. Did I mention they played the Cubs?! Sigh.
Wall mural outside Patticakes bakery
USS Iowa...holy big guns.
Angels vs. Cubs
Touchdown hotel in downtown San Diego in the Gaslamp District. It was pretty neat being able to stay downtown in a high-rise building, though I don't know if I would choose that again for a "family friendly" hotel. The view from our room was sure nice though!
Wall mural painted outside by the pool.
Sea World
For our first day out and about in San Diego, we decided on Sea World! To say I've been as giddy as a toddler about this for weeks is an understatement...I was SO excited that within the first 15 minutes of arriving at the park, we quickly headed to the dolphin show and I started crying as soon as the first dolphin jumped out of the water.
I'd like to blame my emotional instability on my pregnancy, but I can't be sure I wouldn't have been teary-eyed when being normal, either. It was magical! Mother just rolled her eyes at me...so did Jake...and probably the Asian lady next to me. One of the surprises during the show was when pilot whales came out at the end to do some jumps. Whales! SO COOL.
Blue Horizons dolphin show
Hooray!
We then headed to the sea turtles and shark exhibits. The sea turtles were massive! I wish my pictures more accurately portrayed their size. As for the sharks, I must admit we were a little disappointed in their exhibit. The underwater shark tunnel wasn't very long and was fairly narrow since the walkway was a moving walkway you were forced to be on...no stopping in the tunnel. It was rather dark with not many lights in the water to highlight any sharks, which weren't that large anyway. I think I'd put the shark tunnel from the Oregon Aquarium I went to above this, and we're talking Sea World here!
The turtle in the bottom right corner gives you a better idea of their size
Next up was the arctic
exhibits to see polar bears, beluga whales, a ginormous walrus and
penguins. Their exhibits were quite schmancy. The park had a whole "fly
to the arctic" thing set up where they had some ride and video to
pretend you were in a helicopter and when you land (aka walk into the
next room) you were suddenly in the arctic where the temperatures were
chilly and the landscapes were frosted in snow. Very well done...and
another reason to make the shark aquarium seem meh.
The polar bear was being lazy and has the cutest bum! I love his foot sticking out.
Beluga whales. I thought these were so cool!
Holy tubby! He didn't
give too many front views, so the back view of his blubberness will have to suffice. We guessed he's at least two tons!
The next show we got to see was the sealion and seal show. It...was...adorable! First off, let me just give a shout out to employee Biff, the most hilarious entertainer who got the crowd going before the show by doing a whole lip-sync and dance number to a medley of famous dance songs from movies, complete with costume changes and props. This time my tears were from laughing so hard. Oh, how I love you Biff! The sealion show was all comedy and fun. They did spoofs of several different TV shows such as CSI where they had to track down who killed the fish and a Dancing With the Stars contest where one sealion tangoed and the other swing danced...it ended with both doing Gangnam Style. So fun!
They are so fun to watch...they're like trained puppy dogs.
The bird!! Haha.
The rest of the day at Sea World was spent eating lunch for a fortune, watching my dad and Gage go on the river rapids ride to get soaked, letting Jake and Gage ride the Manta roller coaster while I was fatty on a bench resting my feet, watching dolphin trainers in the water with the dolphins along with a group of boys who must have paid a buttload for the up-close-swim-with-the-dolphins experience...and last but not least, seeing Shamu!
Lunch spot
I'm pretty sure Gage ended up riding this at least 8 times.
Front row!
Rays! They feel like a squishy rubber mat.
Dolphins are so friendly! They seemed to love all the interaction.
Now it's time for Shamu! The part I've been most giddy about for weeks! And yep, I cried during the Shamu show too. Oh, and side note: there isn't really a "Shamu" anymore, but I referred to every orca there as Shamu even though they all have different names. Whatever. Their show was a bit different...they aren't allowed to have the trainers in the water with them like the dolphin show allows, so instead of the trainers interacting with the killer whales in the water, they stand on stage and give commands to the whales to go do tricks. Most of the tricks were splashes...or should I say tidal waves! The size of the orcas was incredible to see in person. Such a neat experience! I just love Shamu.
They sure like their fish treats
Hooray! Look at them!
Saying hello to the crowd
Why I didn't sit in the splash zone section...
Tail whip splash
Ending pose
The aftermath of getting soaked by a killer whale
After the show we went to the underwater viewing tanks. I could've stayed there for hours! And the best part? BABY SHAMU!! He was born in February. Adorable! The park guide told us all the whales in the viewing tank are siblings. Baby Shamu's mother had given birth to the other two whales in the tank, baby Shamu being her fourth offspring. Baby Shamu even got to be included in the second Shamu show we went to so he could swim by his mother while she performed. I was dying with cuteness.
Jake and Shamu
Dad and Gage with Shamu...look the size difference!
Baby Shamu!!
To wrap up our day at Sea
World, I of course needed to buy baby Jones some souvenirs. You can't
go to Sea World and not buy a Shamu! I wanted every size but settled on jumbo.
San Diego Zoo
After an exhausting day one (and delicious dinner at Spaghetti Factory), day two quickly came and we headed off to San Diego Zoo! Wouldn't you know that we picked the day that the local elementary schools decided to have field trip day? Ooh, children. Luckily, the swarms of them weren't so bad. Right when we arrived at the park, we loaded up on a double-decker bus for the zoo tour that lasted about an hour. I was happy we ended up going on it because we were able to see some of the animals awake and active that were not later on in the day when walking by such as the cheetah and some of the bears. Fun to note: San Diego Zoo is the largest zoo in the world species wise, not area. It had animals I've never seen before and even after spending the entire day there, we still had an area of the park we didn't cover. It was huge! My poor 6-month preggo marshmallow feet were dying half way through the day.
Out front of the zoo...swarms of school children nearby
The flamingos were towards the park entrance. I wish our Hogle Zoo had flamingos! They've always been a fave of mine. Their colors are just gorgeous!
The
zoo's new Australian outback section was great! Kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, kookaburras, and...koalas! Outside of Australia,
San Diego Zoo is home to the most koala bears in the world. They even
send out some of their koalas to be displayed in other zoos around the
country. They are ADORABLE!! Oh my heavens...their little sleepy faces and big, fluffy Mickey Mouse ears! They are just little round chunks sitting in their trees. LOVE!...baby Jones ended up with a stuffed one for his nursery from my mom.
My dad has loved koalas since he was little and calls them "wally bears"
The moment where the koala stretches his arm out, and I (and fifty other viewers) whip out my camera while making squealing noises.
One of the things San Diego Zoo is famous for is their panda bears! He had his own special entrance and the line just to see him was very long. Even though he was napping the whole time by his little water pond (the other was sleeping up in a tree), I was so happy to see a panda! The black drooped down on their eyes makes them look so innocent...I'm pretty sure he looks like he's smiling.
Sleepy, adorable panda!
They also had a red panda. How rare! I had never seen one.
The zoo had MANY exotic plants around the park (all labeled), including many of these big sticker bushes. The blossoms were pretty but jeez, heaven forbid you get shoved off the pathway and pricked by big those stickers! Not very safe. Jake and I were actually laughing at the thought of some nerdy botanists getting overjoyed at the plants in the park instead of the awesome animals, when sure enough, shortly down the pathway was a couple off to the side admiring the red cabbage plants instead of the animals across from them. Oh my.
Woodland duck. SO pretty! It looks painted.
They had many big cats around the park including leopards, a cheetah, tigers, jaguars, a black jaguar (which I just Googled and discovered black panther is the same thing), snow leopards, cougars, and bobcats but we weren't able to see them all active. I would have LOVED to get a picture of the black jaguar, though we saw it during the bus tour. As for the regular leopards, they were gorgeous! They look like velvet. And, I learned that to tell the difference between leopards and jaguar, look at their spots...on leopards, their black spots are are all filled in, whereas on jaguars like the one below, the black spots have inside spots as well.
Enjoying a meal
I didn't end up taking pictures of every animal at the zoo because that would be a lot!..and also because some of them were ugly. Haha. But I do wish I had a giraffe picture, especially because there was a baby one.
I'm
guessing these were supposed to be ant hills but I made fun that they
were guano mounds and of course made Gage sit on the "poop towers".
In regards to the collage picture below, there's some funny stories. For one, the zebra was not appropriate in order for us to get a picture from the side...he was very "happy", if you catch my drift, and I did NOT want that foot-long piece of anatomy in my photo! G-ross. Naught zebra. As for the hippo, it might have been one of the faves. He was an active fella just walking circles around in his tank, and at one point, he'd have to walk off of a rock and glide to the bottom level which had us hysterically laughing. He looked like a floating blimp! Once "airborn", his front feet would tuck in while the back ones were pointed out, and he'd float for a good few seconds before gracefully landing and finishing his walk. I'm happy to say we have it on video.
At the end of the day, I was SO tired from walking...it physically hurt. Look how much there is to see! The red area in the bottom left corner is the part we were not able to get to and we were there from open to close. Whew! What a neat zoo.
Thank heavens for a park map! We would've gotten lost several times.
Coronado Beach Our last day of San Diego consisted of sights around town. We took a drive out to Coronado Beach to go to the ocean for a bit and see some of the naval ships from the bridge.
View of downtown San Diego as we cross Coronado Bridge
Sailboats in the harbor
Cold water! And very overcast outside.
The fam...glad my stomach isn't huge here.
Coronado Beach Resort
Beach house for sale across the street....a $9.4 MILLION one.
Petco Park
Just around the corner from our hotel was the Padre's fabulous baseball stadium. We of course got out to take some pics and see the field. So pretty! We would've considered catching a game but the team was on the road the days we were in town.
It's huge!...but I do think the name is retarded.
Beautiful field
Mother with the flowers out front of the stadium
Giant baseball piggy bank
Vendor cart outside the park that I thought the cow logo was hilarious...if you look close, you can see my reflection and my very round belly.
Maritime Museum Next up was the Maritime Museum where we all took a harbor boat cruise tour around the bay and then while my mom and dad did an extra hour of the boat tour, we hopped off to go see some of the ships on display. We didn't pay to go aboard any of them, but I was happy with the pictures we got just from the dock.
Our boat for the harbor tour
View of the Star of India ship from the boat tour
Star of India up close
The HMS Surprise. This boat was used in Master and Commander with Russell Crowe and also Pirates of Caribbean 4.
And that pretty much wraps up our San Diego vacay. You are a trooper if you're seriously still looking at this blog post because it was forever long. Kudos. It was definitely nice to get back home to our own bed, and in hindsight, I don't think a full day of walking around Sea World and the zoo was so good for my puffy feet this far along in my pregnancy...they took about a week to recover! But it was nice to be able to do a trip like this since we won't be going anywhere for quite some time...oh, except Oregon next week. Ha!
A few weeks ago, we decided to spend the afternoon at the new Natural History Museum in Salt Lake. My uncle Jerry volunteers at the museum and had offered to take us on a guided tour sometime ago, so my parents and us finally took him up on his offer. What I thought would be a couple hours turned into four...there was so much to see!
Gage sticking his head in the dino penny collector...yup, stick a penny on it's
tongue and it rolls inside to get digested. The dino will thank you with
some creepy growls.
Mother looking like she's in a scene from The Sound of Music
Cave drawings
Megacroc! I think Gage could pretty much lie down in it's mouth.
The evolution of the human skull...Gage making friends.
My pregger feet standing on one of the glass walkways in the dino section and then in a dino footprint from a duckbill type of dinosaur found in Utah.
Triceratops...I hope I'm not the only one who thinks of Cera from Land Before Time and the great earth shake. I would've loved to take a pic of the brontosaurus replica but of course the full thing didn't fit in the camera screen. It was huge!
Purdy butterflies!
Checking out the nasty tarantula and other nasty bugs like hissing cockroaches and scorpions...I made Jake take the picture because no way was I getting that close.
Uncle Jerry showing us some of the dino bone castings in the lab that are being worked on. The lab is not open to the public, so we felt pretty nifty getting the exclusive tour.
Allosaurus...Utah's dinosaur, in case you didn't know. I've remembered that since elementary school! Looks like a small T-Rex.
Uncle Jerry letting Gage put on his lab gear to work on the dino bone casting he's been uncovering. Talk about feeling like Columbus...Unlce Jerry discovered this dino bone and was the first human to see it in what-ever-million years. Try beating that on your resume!
A picture of Uncle Jerry on display near the lab. Famous! Oh, your uncle sells insurance? Mine digs up dinosaurs.
Gage's baseball team - the White Sox - have been AWESOME this year! His team has had 8 wins and only 1 loss the whole season. That ranked them for first place overall in their division, tying them with another team who only had one loss as well. The two teams matched up against eachother for their final game of the season, and unfortunately, the White Sox ended up in second place after adding another loss against the Cardinals (losing 4-3) at the last second of the game when there was an error made by our team tagging the final runner sliding for dear life into home. Seriously, the last second of the last inning. So frustrating! The boys were pretty bummed about it afterwards. It was actually kind of precious seeing their pouty faces.
Coach Huggins had to boost their confidence up again by announcing they have made it to the play-offs! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! The boys will start their tournament schedule next month, and I think they have a pretty darn good shot at being amazing since they came in second in the division...a score that could have easily been a first place. It will be fun to see how they do and see if that excited, anxious feeling of actually competing for a championship sets in among the boys. Ooh, how I miss that!
Go White Sox!
...and in other news, we are off to sweet San Diego next week for Sea World and San Diego Zoo!!!! I am squealing like a little girl.
Let’s start out with my 22-week update from the other day by my beloved PregnantChicken because it is absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, I won’t post all of
it because it then gets into pregnant bodily functions that not everyone needs
to know except for myself…
WEEK 22
Guess
who’s about the size of a Barbie doll? Hint: it isn’t you. Yep, your baby is
about the length of a Barbie but it weighs about a pound and doesn’t have big
tits and unachievable body proportions. Although, your baby does have real
eyebrows and eyelashes now, which is more than we can say for Barbie – suck on
that, doll.
Hahaha!!
Do you see why these updates bring me joy? Now then, I thought I’d do a post on
my preggo-ness so far since I really haven’t given any details on how I’m
doing, especially since the #1 question
asked by people is the infamous ‘how are you feeling?’ I think I’ll break this
down into my trimesters so far:
First
Trimester
Extremely tired all the time! I would get home
from work at 5:30 and pretty much go to bed by 8:30. What a toddler! I would be
exhausted at the end of the day and even considered leaving work early several
times just to go home and sleep.
On top of being sleepy, I was not having very
restful sleeps. This was due to bathroom trips in the middle of the night and
just not feeling comfortable.
Not much of an appetite. I thought this was a
gift from the Gods! I had only heard about preggo moms who chow down an
elephant but for me, I could barely finish a dang quesadilla! I looked at this as
a great way to not gain a hefty 50 lbs.
Super bad back pain. It was so harsh in
January that I even booked myself a massage appointment (before knowing I was
preggers) which did nothing for me. For weeks, I felt like I literally had been
moving heavy objects all day and had a knot the size of a softball below my
shoulder blade.
Morning sickness a bit in the morning and more
so at night. I would be gaggy on a daily basis.
Looked chunky, not pregnant.
Headaches seemed to be somewhat frequent. Thank
goodness Tylenol is allowed.
Hello, oily skin. This is not a pleasant thing
for me since I am someone who’s never had oily skin or breakouts…even as a teen
I wasn’t one of those girls who needed to wash their face every night because
my skin didn’t need it, and if anything, would actually dry my face out. But now
I can tell there is a slight increase in oils, and I have face wipes for night.
They are refreshing.
Hair and finger nails grow more quickly.
Second
Trimester
Not nearly
as tired. I have now gone back to my night-owl routine of crawling in bed
around 11:30…maybe later if I need to finish my exciting Lifetime movie.
Sleeping more restfully now except for the occasional
leg cramps that pop up out of nowhere when I’m innocently stretching my legs
out. Freakin’ painful charlie horse!
Feeling more aches and pains. Every so often I’ll
get a stretching pain around my hips/abdomen…I guess it’s a normal thing due to
ligaments just stretching out and adjusting. On top of that, I’ve had a sore
tailbone and even some pelvic pressure already that is so uncomfortable. I’ve
had to bring a mini pillow to work to sit on for extra bum cushioning…no, not
the inflatable donut.
Feet are chunky! I am pretty sure I can say I
have cankles. I look down and say “Those are NOT my feet!” They are poofy
little marshmallows already, making most of my sandals unwearable because they’re
too small or tight. It bothers me to wear boring, unattractive flip-flops but
good heavens, they are gems! Also, I’ll be investing in pedicures now. I can’t smush
up my legs to my body to paint my toesies anymore.
Alas, my appetite kicked in. This is bad
because now I want 3 dinners…and snacks…and those fruit popsicles I bought are
probably the yummiest thing ever. Cuss.
Stretchy maternity pants are the greatest
invention ever! I don’t want to go back to buttons or zippers again.
Hardly gaggy at all. But, it seems I’ve traded
that in for some heartburn. Joy. I’m now on the Tums bandwagon.
Started feeling baby kicking around week 19.
It’s the oddest popcorn, bubbly feeling. I’ve only felt it with my hand on the
outside a couple of times, but inside there is a party going on. Jake and I
have also done the stethoscope experiment to see if we could hear anything, and
we’re both convinced we could hear him moving around, I’m sure mixed with
normal stomach juice sounds. No heartbeat though.
No stretch marks on my belly at all, yet!...thighs
are a different story. Eff. Thank you, genetics.
Congestion has been common, especially when
lying down and I realize I can’t breathe out of my nose. Additionally, I’ve occasionally
had nosebleeds which are also common during pregnancy.
Overall,
pregnancy has been such a unique experience. I had no idea there are so many changes
your body goes through. If you think it’s just a big belly, melons for boobs,
and puffy feet then you are in for a treat! In reality there are so many other
things happening that make it a full body experience. Who knew! As the weekly
update said, I am definitely not Barbie during all of this and don’t know who
in their right mind says they enjoy pregnancy…oh, maybe those skinny moms from
the maternity clothes magazine that have no butt or hips and look as if life is
the greatest thing ever with their long, lean legs and high heels. Phh, (insert
profanity). Anyway, I can’t believe I’m already half through my pregnancy and
have been in total nesting mode with buying baby clothes, books, registering
for items already, and scouting out the perfect crib and bedding…the fun stuff!
That’s the part that gets me excited and keeps me focused on the positive things
instead of the fact that I soon won’t be able to see my feet when I look down.
...
