Two weekends ago Team Bolen joined up with Team Thompson in San Diego to take advantage of Sea World's free admission for military. The park has a military appreciation deal where active duty members and their dependants can get free admission once a year. I don't know if its just on holidays or any time, but either way, we took advantage of it and enjoyed the marine animals.
We drove up Saturday afternoon and stayed in a hotel for the night with plans to head to the park on Sunday then head home. The guys had a "96" for Presidents' Day (96-hour leave, or 4 days) so it worked out well since they still had Monday off. The Thompsons also got a great deal on the hotel through Priceline, so we all stayed in a 5-star for cheap! Although, we weren't terribly impressed with the hotel.
It was V's first trip to a theme park and she did really, really well. Aside from waking up at 0445 and not wanting to go back to sleep, she did great. She normally takes a nap from 0900 - 1030/1100 but with her early wake up, she ended up getting a nap in at 0730ish for about an hour...in my arms. Apparently she isn't as comfortable with the pack 'n play for a crib as I'd like her to be. So I broke all my rules and snuggled her in close and we both napped under a blanket for about an hour. Man, I missed snuggling her while she slept!
We got to the park when it opened at 1000 and did the whole theme park thing -- saw shows, walked through exhibits, ate food. It was great. I LOVE theme parks and amusement parks! If we lived in downtown SD, I swear I'd have season passes to the zoo and sea world. J.E.B. on the other hand, would be perfectly happy visiting a theme/amusement park once every 10 years.
I never paid much attention before I had V, so I don't know if all parks do this, but Sea World had a stroller honor system. Meaning, you parked your stroller outside of the exhibit or show and then retrieved it once it was over. There were zillions of strollers parked all along the paths at the shows and I was surprised (pleasantly, mind you) that there really seemed to be trust between the parents who were in the park. As far as I could tell, no one bothered another stroller. That being said, J.E.B. and I both agreed not to leave anything valuable in the BOB (I LOVE this stroller by the way. Totally, so totally worth the expense!).
As I said earlier, V was a champ. She did great eating with us (I stashed some baby food jars in the diaper bag) in a covered area and wasn't fussy or cranky at all. That is extremely impressive considering her first nap was at 8am and she didn't sleep again until 3pm! I could tell that she was starting to fade a bit during the sea lion show, so I put her in the stroller afterwards and reclined it a bit. I swear, we were barely out of the stroller-parking area and she was already asleep. So while Team Thompson and J.E.B. saw the sharks, I wandered around with a sleeping V. We headed home after that and she woke up only for a few minutes during the stroller-car seat transfer and then not again until about 5pm or so while we were finishing up our drive. She was great!
Unfortunately Team Bolen was not so great when it came to the camera. We both forgot to bring the battery charger and the thing died in the hotel room the night before! So here is the only picture of our Sea World trip!
When we were in Oki I bought a tarp to cover some cut wood we were going to use for a bonfire. Simple enough. Well, I guess I bought one that was tooo big since it covered the whole jeep. No, seriously! J.E.B. still teases me about it. But I say, it did get all the wood covered right?! For those of you who have seen our backyard, the tarp was almost as long as the grassy area. Seriously!
Since we were only going to San Diego for one night, we moved Atlas's kennel into the backyard in a protected corner of the porch and left some food and water out there for him. It was a nice weekend so we weren't too worried about him. Even though his kennel was in the corner, we still wrapped the tarp around it just to ensure that in case it did rain or get too windy, our furry guy would be comfortable.
J.E.B. and I had been meaning to put everything back together (fold the tarp and put Atlas's kennel back in the office) but we just didn't get around to it until I decided enough of the blue thing in my view and took care of it yesterday. Well, remember this is a HUGE tarp and easily a 2-person job. But I decided I didn't care.
I took The Bean outside with me and of course Atlas pranced out the door once it was opened and together we folded the tarp. Well together we tried to fold the tarp. The moment V heard the tarp crinkle she charged right over to it and for a few minutes had a blast crawling around and playing with it. Check out the video I took. Too cute. After I moved her to the opposite end, I had Atlas sit on one corner. Did I mention that it was also a little windy out? Have you ever heard the phrase "its like herding cats?" Well that is exactly what it was like. Victoria was crawling up and down and across and back while Atlas would sit for a bit then get bored with me and walk away only to have me call him back. Finally I gave up on V and Atlas and used two charcoal bags we keep near the grill to hold down the ends.
It took me a few minutes, but I got that tarp folded and put back into the garage closet and moved Atlas's kennel to its original spot in the office. But it was a beautiful day out and we all had a great time.
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| Like herding cats! Atlas just decided he'd had enough and got up from his sitting position on a corner and V is in the middle of charging up and down the tarp |
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| She didn't stop going back and forth and up and down it until I had folded it so much that she had no more room to move! |
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