Bryson's special day

A little while ago Bryson had his "Special Day" with his dad. They went to the circus. He had a great time. They arrived early so they could be down on the floor to meet several of the performers and see many of the animals up close. He also got to dress up in some circus clothes.

This cool hat came with the cotton candy. He's showing his sticky fingers.
The hat was a little big for Bryson, so he had Travis wear it for a while. Travis assured the kids behind him that he would take it off for the show. :-)
Here are a few of the acts that they saw. It's crazy that these performers can bounce so high on those tires!
This tiger was really checking them out. Talk about "eye of the tiger". He was looking at them so dead on that the flash made his eyes glow!
I don't know if I'd turn my back on all those big tigers!
There were several cool things that the elephants did. They all laid on their sides, sat down in a row, put their front legs on the back of the elephant in front of them, played "leap frog" and this is the thing that Bryson tells EVERYONE about. This elephant was sitting on the other elephant and decided it was time to poop. Lovely, isn't it? But, from a little boy's perspective, I guess that was pretty funny.
Bryson really enjoyed his special day with his dad.
Now we need to figure out something for Maddy's special day.

Picture blog tag

I was blog tagged by sister-in-law, so here it goes.


The rules are you have to take ten pictures of the following things. And you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose. Then you tag five others.


1. The Fridge

2. My closet (at least it's my half) 3. Self portrait (Here is me when I got the email)
(Here is me a couple of hours later - I'm not sure if I like the way it was styled, but I love having short hair again!)
4. Your favorite room

This this is still a work in progress, but it's one of the most done rooms in my house. Plus, this where we hang out all the time. It really is the family room!

5. Kitchen sink
6. Laundry room
7. Toilet (I wasn't sure which to do, so I just took the downstairs one that everyone uses)
8. What are your kids doing right now?

Maddy had just made herself a hot dog.

Jacob is cooking a corn dog. Bryson is eating a hot dog.
Allyson was asleep, but woke up shortly after I took the pictures. She wasn't a happy baby when she woke up. I much prefer her to wake up happy!
9. Your dream vacation - I'd really like to go somewhere tropical like Hawaii. I'd love to relax on white beaches w/ beautiful blue water.
10. Your favorite shoes - These are the sandals that I pretty much live in during the summer.


I tag Kristen, Kalli, Melissa, Amandalynn, and Mikelle.

San Diego Zoo

We concluded our San Diego vacation at the zoo. It was a fun day that wasn't too busy. We actually took this picture when we got there rather than when we left.

You know it had been a busy week when Ally was tired on the bus tour we took when we first got there. I guess it could also be due to the fact that she didn't sleep that well in the port-a-crib. We lucked out and the tickets we bought online included bus service (tour bus and express buses around the zoo) and skyfari rides, which is the sky ride you can take to the top of the zoo. We found out later that it saved us $45 by having that included and we didn't even realize that we had those services until we got there.
The glare off the glass is pretty bad in this picture, but we couldn't get the flash to shut off. The kids were mesmerized watching these boa constrictors each eat a large rat. It's not often you get to see them get fed. I thought it was kind of gross, but the kids loved it. It was shocking to see how it could swallow the huge rat that was much bigger than its head. I must admit that I didn't care to watch as long as the kids did.
Ally's favorite part of the zoo was the children's petting zoo. She absolutely loved being out of her stroller and able to walk around pointing to and sometimes petting the goats.

She thought the bunnies were cute even though she didn't have arms long enough to reach them.
All the kids enjoyed getting up close and personal with the animals.


I know that this isn't the best picture, but I thought the baby gorilla was so cute. My batteries gave up right after this picture and I'd forgotten to recharge the ones in the diaper bag, so I had to go buy some after we'd seen the Gorillas. Right after this picture, the mom and baby gorilla went away from the glass and were right in front of us. I could have gotten some really cute pictures without so much glare, but what can you do?
Ally's 2nd favorite part of the day was lunch. She decided to make her own fun with it. Can you tell what she had for lunch? Surprisingly, she ate far more macaroni and cheese than is left on her face. In fact she probably ate more than the other 3 kids combined! They prefer the cheap Kraft Mac-N-Cheese to this homemade kind.
By the end of the day and vacation, we all felt as tired as this Sun Bear.
We took the skyfari up to see the Polar Bears.
This guy was sleeping like the other bear when we got there, but then he started swimming around for us. We loved watching him swim around and play!
We had a great San Diego vacation! Next time we go, we won't have a baby anymore and Bryson will be tall enough to ride ALL the rides he wants to, so we look forward to even more fun in the future!

Sea World

We spent Wednesday at Sea World. The kids really enjoyed Sea World because it combined everything that they liked about our trip - water, animals, shows, rides, etc. Here the kids are petting the stingrays while I was saving seats for the dolphin show.

Ally is very intrigued by animals. She really likes them, but would rather approach them than have them approach her. Because of this, she loved to watch all the shows and would squeal with delight whenever the animals would do tricks.
Here's a great shot of Shamu. It's amazing that something so big can get so high out of the water!
Bryson wasn't quite tall enough to ride the rapids ride, so he got to hold starfish and walk through an aquarium while we waited.
Here our crew is on the rapids ride. As you can see, they are still dry, but that didn't last long. Notice Maddy's nervous face and Jacob wouldn't even look away from the water fall that was coming up. They were dripping when they got off the ride.
The kids got a good laugh from Sea Lion and otter show. It was cute watching the little otter carry out the soda to the sailor.
The walrus was Maddy's favorite part. She couldn't stop laughing at it. I don't know if it was because it was so fat or that it was pink instead of brown, but she still giggles when she looks at it.
The kids loved feeding the dolphins. You get to pet their heads and then toss a fish into their mouths. They didn't want to leave, but 3 fish each doesn't take long to feed them and we weren't forking out another $5 per tray.

Travis is great with huge roller coasters or rides that make you loose your stomach, but spinning rides make him sick, so I take over for those. The kids really wanted to spin fast, so I spun them fast. Travis said it made him sick just watching us. The kids were laughing so hard that I couldn't help laughing too.
They have a cute pet tick show at Sea World too. Ally really loved this one as dogs are her favorite animal and she says "woof, woof" for any furry animal. Here we are after the show in the pet section.
Jacob and Bryson are totally into sharks. They LOVED going through the tunnel with sharks swimming all around us on the moving sidewalk and stayed in front of the glass here watching them until we finally made them leave. The kids were trying to look scared for the picture. I think Ally really was a little nervous. She didn't like the tunnel with the sharks all around, but didn't seem to mind too much where were just watching them in front of us.
Sea World was great and ALL the kids loved it, including Ally. This was definitely her favorite of our stops, but Thursday did have a couple of highlights for her. We were glad the kids had such a great time! It really is a fun place!