Sea World

Yesterday, Kathleen and I took Will to Sea World while Chad and Chuck went to Comic Con.  They saw Angelina Jolie, Bruce Willis, JJ Abrams and other stars while Kathleen and I saw Shamu and Elmo.  We all had a great day.

Sea World may be the best place for a 15 month old baby.  they have a whole park for kids to play, and Will really liked it.  I didn't bring my camera due to some light rain, so we have only one picture - one of Will with some Sesame Street characters that turned out super cute so we had to buy it.  I will try to scan it in when we get home. 

In the afternoon we came home and took Will to the beach.  He loves the sand and could probably play on the beach all day. 

this is something new for Will.  He now walks around and waves his hands in the air like he is maestro.  it's hilarious...

Last night, we got to catch up with 2 friends.  Ali, a friend from college who I hadn't seen in 10 years, and Emily came over for dinner.  It was so nice to catch up with them! 

Wild Animal Park and La Jolla

On Tuesday we took Will to the Wild Animal Park.  The park is really incredible and they do an amazing job at breeding animals and have helped many escape extinction.  Most of that was lost on Will, but he did enjoy seeing the animals and also enjoyed the tram ride where he fed Chuck his snacks.

one of the 7 white rhinos left in the world.  2 are at the park!

the elephant area was awesome . i love seeing the babies.

They have a South African enclosure area that was reminiscent of our safari a few years ago.  They had an incredible number of animals roaming together in an area just as they would in the wild.  Only exception is the big cats aren't there, so it is peaceful living for the animals.

One of the big cats instead was taking a stroll through the park with some handlers.  We loved seeing the cheetah.

Today we got a later start and went to La Jolla for the morning.  Aside from it being cold (which I still have a hard time processing since it is July!), it was fun to walk around and we loved eating at Smash Burger.  They have great burgers, and so we looked the place up online and it turns out there is one down the street from Chad's office in Addison.  So much for local Cali dining! 

In other news, Will's vocabulary is expanding by the day.  Since we have been here, he has said "snack", "cheese", and "dog".  He is loving his time with Aunt Leen and Uncle Chuck who never seem to run out of energy to entertain our little guy. 

Chuck and Chad picked up their packets for Comic Con today, and they are super excited for the event to start tomorrow.  They will be sitting in on a panel with Tina Fey and Will Farrell while Kathleen and I take Will to Sea World!

San Diego Zoo

Today we took Will to the zoo!  He had a great day - seeing so many animals for the first time.  The San Diego zoo is awesome - I hadn't been in years.  The habitats are built so you can really see the animals and you almost forget they are enclosed since their spaces are usually huge.  We loved seeing all the monkeys and apes (they have always been my zoo favorites), pandas, elephants, etc.  Everything was new for Will, and I saw my first baby flamingo ever!

mama and baby flamingo

will plays with the gorilla

while the real gorillas watch

orangutan on his jungle gym

Will having a great time

he loved drinking aunt leen and uncle chuck's drink

with Aunt Leen on the double decker bus

big beautiful lion

sleeping panda mama and baby

Aunt Leen and Uncle Chuck on the Skyfari

Day at the Beach

First of all, hats off to Will for waking up at 7:30am PST. I went in to check on him at 7:30am, and he was reading "Goodnight Gorilla." He saw me, decided to finish his book, and then wanted out of his crib. I think I love him more today than yesterday.

Today, Kathleen, Chuck and Chad headed to a Padres game, and Will and I headed to the beach. The sand was a big hit again today.  Sadly, the water is freezing for us Texans, so Will wouldn't do much more than get his feet wet.  Good thing since I wasn't too excited about getting in the ice cold water.

 

the sand is even on his hat...

he's a sand magnet

he loves sand so much - he tried to eat it off his toes!

This was Will's smile when we told him we were taking him to the zoo tomorrow!

Good night!

2595 Ocean Front Blvd

We are so excited about our place! It is beautiful and a perfect place to call home for the week!  I have rented a lot of places, mainly in Colorado, and this experience is the best so far.  They have everything here - flat screens in every room (even Will's room!), coffee, washer/dryer with soap, and multiple private balconies.  It might be hard to leave!

the largest of the balconies.... we hope to grill some dinner our here one night.

the living room

 view from one balcony

the office/electonics charging station

our bathroom

more of our bathroom

our bedroom

We made it!

We made it!  We got Will a ticket for the flight, so he accrued his first frequent flyer miles today!  He did great on the flight although he did not take a nap and he had a little too much to drink.

One way to keep Will happy these days is to give him his bottle.  He will drink water from it as well as milk, so we just had the bottle on standby for whenever he might need it on the flight.  At first, it seemed like it wouldn't be an issue, and then when he didn't sleep, he wound up drinking way too much....to the point that his outfit was wet.  I don't bring backup clothing for him anymore because we just haven't needed it...until today.  And we had checked his bag with his clothes.

So today we were that family wheeling our baby through the airport in a stroller while he was wearing only a diaper.  I am sure people looked at us and thought we were crazy - traveling with a baby who wasn't wearing any clothes.  If I had seen us, I surely would have passed some judgement.  Luckily we remedied the problem at baggage claim, and we were set for the day.

We checked into our place (which we love and highly recommend! pictures to come...), had lunch, and Will took a 2-hour nap while the rest of the crew went to the grocery store.  After dinner, we  took him to the beach to check things out.  He loves the sand!

The sand was everywhere!  Sand isn't easy to get off of babies... it's going to be a week of long bathes.  I think I washed his hair 3x tonight to get it clean!

Pointing to an airplane - we are in the flight path so he will be seeing lots of them this week!

Will went to bed tonight at 7pm PST so I am optimistic, or maybe just hopeful, that he may adjust to this timezone.  Fingers crossed...

Beach Bound

We are heading to San Diego tomorrow for a week long trip with Will!  This trip was inspired by my fried Stacy (who has a great blog) who went last year with her daughter Izzy.  Ever since reading about her trip, Chad and I discussed a trip this summer...and it is finally here!

We are going with Kathleen and Chuck, and Chuck and Chad are super excited to be attending Comic Con later next week.  Will should go along for the Yo Gabba Gabba panel - I have a feeling he would enjoy it more than anyone else.  I think the boys are most excited about a panel with JJ Abrams.  I think that is even more exiting for Chad than Star Wars Day at Comic Con...and that is saying something.

In preparing for our visit, we have been trying to get Will to wear a hat.  Typically, you put a hat on him, and he takes it right off.  The only exception is that he will wear a baseball hat backwards.  Yesterday we had a breakthrough and Will wore this hat most of the day! 

He also test drove his crocs, and it appears this baby is beach ready!

We are optimistic for our flight tomorrow.  Will has his own seat, so I am hopeful that with our bag of entertainment and a bottle of milk that our little guy will be fine flying.  Once we get there, we have a lot in store for him - we are planning visits to the zoo, wild life park and to sea world!  We are staying on the beach, so I assume we will get lots of beach time in as well.  However, I think he will enjoy being around Aunt Leen and Uncle Chuck the best!