Blue and Gold Rockets

Our Blue and Gold Banquet this year was a lot of fun. 
We had the theme of Reach for the Stars.  We decorated with blue, white and silver and had the Cub's pictures mounted on big stars all over the gym.  The boys loved seeing their pictures and they were able to take them home at the end of the night.  We had paper on the tables for people to make paper airplanes as a pre-opener to keep them busy while other families arrived.
We started by serving dinner - pulled pork sandwiches, chips and water with families providing fruit, salads and desserts.  It was a great dinner (completely better than our usual fare of hot dogs).
After dinner, everyone was great to help us clear the tables and put away chairs and tables.  We needed the room to launch our paper rockets that the kids made after dinner.  Greg and Tony Morrison made air powdered launchers and the kids had a fantastic time chasing their rockets after they pushed the launch button.
What fun!

And, our amazing Wolf received his rank advancement and is now a Bear!

Kate's Birthday

Kate's actual birthday was a bit anticlimactic since she had already had her cousin party and her present.  She told me it just felt like another day.  Sorry!
We did measure her (with a big hug from Dad).

She wore her birthday bow to school.

She handed out candy necklaces at school and gym class.
She requested a pizza picnic for dinner with a movie.

It was a fun day for our fun girl.
Kate is such a joy.  She is smart, clever, sassy, kind, a great sister, adorable, a good friend, a talented gymnast, a budding artist, determined, sweet and amazing.
We love her!

San Diego Zoo

We love going to the zoo and we had heard great things about the San Diego Zoo.  We were excited to make this our last stop of our trip.
As we came into the zoo, we were given the advice to see the pandas first, as the line can get quite long.  We were so glad we headed straight for the pandas.  We were able to take our time and the mom and baby were so fun to watch.

Another favorite that we saw that we don't have at our zoo was the koalas.  They were adorable!   They liked to stay hidden in their trees, so we didn't get a great view of them, but what we did see was so cute and snuggly.

We saw a lot of other fun animals, rode the sky tram and the bus and had a great time seeing everything (and walking all the hills!).

Around the zoo they had sculptures of some animals.  Kate wanted a picture with each one we saw.

We had a great time at the zoo.  It was so much fun to spend a few days with Enoch and Kate.  They are best friends and they were great together.  What a fun vacation!  Happy Birthday!

Mormon Battalion Visitor Center

Because we hadn't had enough fun today at the beach and Sea World, we drove into Old Towne and visited the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center.  We have been here before and the kids love it.  Not going to lie, it had already been a long day and the kids were grumpy, but that changed once we got inside (which wasn't too easy because we had to park our 31 foot motor home in Old Towne.)
We took the tour, which is so fun.  The kids had a great time.  Enoch's favorite part was being able to dress up in battalion gear.

After the tour, we panned for gold.  Everyone had a great time and the kids were excited to be able to take their gold home.

It was a fun, little stop in our whirlwind vacation.  I'm so glad we made time to do it.

Sea World

Sea World has always been a favorite of our family.  We were really looking forward to this day.
We made our plans as soon as we got into the park and had a schedule of the shows.  Enoch really wanted to see the orca show and Kate loves the dolphin show.  Both kids also really the Pet's Rule show.
We got to Shamu Stadium a bit early and had time to talk and look around a bit.  The kids loved seeing the whales and they always put on a good show.

 

Next up was the dolphin show.  We were able to watch the dolphins earlier in their training pool.  Kate loved it! This is the whole reason she comes to Sea World.  After we came last time, she decided that she was going to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up.  She still wants to do that.  She was so disappointed that she wasn't old enough to go in with the dolphins in their interactive encounter yet.  Maybe next time.

We were also able to go down to their pool and get up close with the dolphins.  They would swim right in front of us and we were all able to touch one.

 The dolphin show was fantastic.  Kate didn't take her eyes off the pool the entire time!

We took a break from the shows, ate some popcorn and visited the fish and shark tanks.  They were fun, but the kids really loved the shows.  We did a bit of shopping and made plans for the rest of the day.

While waiting for the next show, we fed the sea lions.  They are a hungry, greedy, noisy bunch.  Enoch and Greg enjoyed it, but Kate didn't want to touch the slimy fish.

After the feeding the sea lions, we went to their show.  The kids loved it.  It was very entertaining and everyone had a great time.

 We finished our day at Sea World with the Pet's Rule show.  Enoch laughed all the way through it.  He loved it!
What a great time we had.  It was so much fun to see all the animals and sea life.  After Sea World, we ate dinner in the motor home and then drove in to Old Town.

The Beach

While we didn't plan an entire day for the beach, we knew we wanted to spend a little time there.  We had an extra hour in the morning before Sea World, so we drove toward the ocean, found a place to park our giant motor home and spend a few minutes in the sand.
It was a cold, overcast morning.  It didn't seem to bother the kids too much.  It took them a while to warm up to the water, but once they were in, they had such a good time.

We had such a fantastic time!  Such big smiles and big fun.  I wish we had more time to spend at the beach.