Light Parade....

Lighting of the Old Mill Park

We just love the annual Christmas light parade. This year everyone really stepped it up and had some impressive floats. Burt Mcpherson won with this amazing Santa and his sleigh that even moved up and down. He had made every bit of this float and it even had a real Santa in the sleigh who i later found out was his wife...good sport. Even though it was freezing we still made the best out of it and had a great time.

After the parade my mom's friends, the Ingrams, invited us over for dinner. My parents have been in a "Supper Club" for over 25 years with Larry & Colleen Ingram and Greg & Rolayne Ferre. The food was amazing and we had fun visiting. Larry & Greg are the biggest goof balls and when I left the party I had this self portrait on my camera. I had it set on Manual so the pics a little blurring, but I still laughed my butt off when I noticed what they had done....too funny.

Give Thanks 2010...

This year we spent the "Food" holiday giving thanks with the Smith Family. It turned out to be a great day even though I ate way too much. I have so much to be thankful for. I love my life!

Abbie & Kensie coloring. We also painted nails and added some cute christmas decals.

Chris & Gary

Phase 10...I took 2nd and that was after starting a few rounds behind. Impressive, I know.

Casey fighting the turkey sleepy bugs...

Pie...

Thanks Giving Bingo

Day 7: San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo was a first for all of us. We had no idea where to go so we started out by taking the bus tour around the park. It was on a Double Decker bus and of coarse the boys wanted to ride on top. I got a good picture of this elephant getting her nails done. I couldn't tell what color she picked..lol.

Cast from Lion King..

Pumba

Ed


Timon


After the tour we headed out on foot.

Me and my red lips...the kids wanted an Icee and it was cheaper to buy the bigger cup and then just share. They do not give you lids or straws because as they put " to save the animals". Since when is plastic made from animals and I'm pretty sure that's what the cup was made of. I think they better come up with a better excuse for being cheap.

Panda and her baby. I guess there are only a few in the US so it was pretty cool to see one.

fish

Hippo

The Croc...the boys favorite

If you look you can see the croc up at the top.

Turtles

Albino Snake... I was very thankful that Harry Potter wasn't with us, I would have hated for that glass to disappear.

Giant Ant farm

I hated this skycoaster thing.... I'm scared of heights, but for some reason didn't think this would bother me. The wind was blowing, Kensie was trying to look over the side, and I swear we were a million feet up. Longest 2 minutes of my life. The boys kept Grandpa & Grandma entertained.

My Fav

I took this picture at a safe distance away, especially since they had warning signs up stated that their poop can shoot up to 7 ft away. Yummy

After a long day of walking we had to try out the foot massagers. Our vacation was quickly coming to a close. After leaving the zoo we grabbed something to eat and then headed to Whiskey Pete's to spend the night. The next day was Kensie's birthday. Yes, Kensie spent her 3rd birthday in Vegas. I'm sure all the other toddlers were jealous. I felt bad because I didn't have anything for her to open, but my mom came through and had bought her a princess shirt from Disneyland. We quickly got loaded up and headed home. The drive home went pretty good and during one of our stop I saw Jason Bastian who I graduated with 10 years ago and had not seen since. I love running into people that I have not talked to in a long time, but it does make me feel old that he has a 9 year old. Am I that old? We arrived home just in time to return the van. The last week had been a blast, but we were all so exhausted and glad to spend a night in our own beds.

Day 6: SeaWorld

We woke up early, grabbed some Mc D's and headed to San Diego. On the way down Kensie must have got a little car sick because she threw up all over her pants. Wyatt was kind enough to clean her up as best as he could. Nikki says the man should have been a nurse because body fluids don't bother him. I was already running low on pants for Kensie, so we opted to try and find a target on the way to SeaWorld. We had signed the guys up for the "dolphin encounter" and had to be there by 11:00. We were running a little late anyways, so a stop to target had to be quick. I think we were in the store for 5 minutes tops. Casey says that's our new standard on time spent in Target. Yeah right! Anyway we finally made it to SeaWorld and got the guys checked in for the Dolphin Encounter. They were greeted by a trainer and put in the "Penny" group. The trainer talked to them about how dolphins are trained and then they were given the chance to try out there new skills. The boys literally had a grin on their faces the whole time.

We then stopped at a few exhibits before heading to the Sea Lion Live show.

The otters were really friendly.

We were able to see the new Blue Horizons Show. I thought it was pretty good. It was more theatrical and had professional divers dressed like birds. Unfortunately it was my kids turn to have the accidents. So Casey missed part of this show taking Cael out to the car to change his pants. Yes, I said Cael. The boys have not had accidents for years, but for some reason Gavyn did our last day at Disney and Cael today. I think they were getting a little wore out.

I loved this sign outside the shark encounter...."Sharks don't eat people....very often."

that is a turtle back there.

The Shamu "Believe" show. They no longer get in the water with the animals since that trainer died so I think some of the shows have lost their excitement. It might just be because we had already saw this show before or the fact that we were on day 6 of Vaca and I was running out of steam. We finished the day by getting wet, not by Shamu, but by Atlantis. We love this ride and it was voted one of Casey's favorites. The boys loved it too and I think they must have rode it a dozen times.

It turned out to be a pretty good day. It was hard going from the hype of Disney to the calm SeaWorld, but I think everybody still had a good time. We ended the night by eating at Red Lobster...Yum.