San Diego - The Zoo

We couldn't help ourselves. We had SO much fun at Lego Land last year we decided to do it again. Harvey had a break from school and I had a long stretch of unplanned days off that coincided so it only made sense. And after a lot of deliberating and not knowing if they could go or not - my parents were able to make it work so they came with us too, which was the absolute best. The kids did awesome on the plane. And the length of the flight was just long enough that it still kind of felt exciting and an adventure and not horribly painful.  

Harvey and Greta made themselves comfortable on the shuttle to the rental car place while Lottie and I waited at the airport with all the travelling with car seat kids paraphernalia.

My parents flew in the night before and stayed with Kathryn. The plan was to meet at the zoo so we headed straight there from the airport. It was an early morning for kids and then a long day at the zoo - luckily Lottie did crash briefly in the stroller after awhile. It was kids free month so it was really crowded - but we had never been there so we didn't really know any different. The zoo was awesome. LOVED it.

We started with a little bus ride around the whole place - which honestly probably wasn't worth the time and was a little longer than was convenient with Lottie mostly. But it gave us time to get our bearings and decide how to tackle the monstrosity that zoo is.

I've tried to keep these in order but it's almost impossible when I get pictures from 4 different people - which I've lamented about before I'm sure. We did eat lunch pretty quick and then started making the rounds. I don't know what the fascination was with these lunch sacks. Lottie and Greta kept putting them over their heads and trying to walk the paths - with hundreds of other people. Works great.

This cactus was the coolest thing ever. The green leaves were kind of soft looking and just the length and sticking up of them all was just rad. But then when you got close you noticed all the thorns in between the green leaves. Probably a spiritual analogy/conference talk parable in the making.

They actually had TONS of cool plants and trees, etc. It all felt very naturey. 

I LOVED the koala's and the giraffes. Probably my favorite. We were able to get really close to everything it seemed. And the giraffes looked so much different than ours at the Hogle Zoo and it was just fun.

The hippos were also really cool. They kept swimming around and surfacing close and then going down by the glass - so again - such a close up view. We stayed there for awhile. It was awesome.

Ya - those were all really scattered. Oh well. We headed back after we were all about to drop. Kathryn was at work. My mom and I made dinner while everyone else watched Monsters vs Aliens. Then we tried to get to bed early. I think all the kids drank too much caffeine. Oops. Well - at least the girls. Greta seemed wired. My mom and I swapped back and foot massages which was HEAVEN. My feet hurt so bad. As did the back. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day one of vacation.