happily ever after: San Diego Wildlife Animal Safari Park (Week 217/79)

Whew, what a week. With the long weekend, the kids' school was closed 2 extra days. Thursday 9/1, Friday 9/2, and then Monday 9/5. A 5-day weekend! That Thursday I was feeling quite courageous and planned to take the kids to a local park that had a fun splash zone. I was a little frazzled getting the kids all in their swim gear and sunblocked, but finally got them loaded into the car. As I was driving down my street, I got a text from my friend Jen (her kids were home too that day) inviting us over for water play if we were free. DETOUR! We headed right over. Being at my friends' place would be wonderfully more confining for the kids. It was fun! - they have a nice sized inflatable pool with high sides and the kids had a blast. We even made plans to all go together the next day to San Diego Safari Park. Exciting! Here's Katelyn watching Tyler and Kaden work on their tan!

Friday morning. I had convinced Will to take the day off work and we were all loaded up in the car, about to pull out of the garage, when we get a text from my friend Jen. Their daughter Kylee is sick! Uh-oh. She had been obviously under the weather the day before, but they had chalked it up to teething or something. Awww. We were already in the car and did not want to unload the children - and just decided to head down anyway. We were throwing ideas back and forth of where we should go - should we wait until they were free next time to go the Safari Park? Sea World maybe? We decided to just stick with the original plan - Safari Animal Park!

It was a HOT day. I don't do so well on hot days with children running around. Hah! Here's Will and the kids with a gorilla in the background.

Family picture! It's quite nice, they've redone it, and we were excited to check it out. There was definitely a lot of walking though. The park wasn't intended to be opened to the public when they were building it, and you can tell just by the landscaping. At one point we were pushing the stroller up a really thin and steep road! Tyler was excitedly running down another road (despite my yelling to him to stop!) and fell and skinned both knees. Awwww.

The first thing we did was to ride the tram. It was somewhat early enough and not (that) hot yet that the animals were still out. It was fun and relaxing especially to be sitting. :)

Favorite sighting on the tram ride - a rhino sleeping in the water. Tyler really liked the rhino butt!

Whew, we did so much walking. The best thing about the park is that they allow you to bring in your own food. WONDERFUL! We were quite prepared since I love my lists. Katelyn got to enjoy some cold strawberries for a morning snack.

This giraffe is not real... obviously!

There are elephants behind us.

We passed a water ball and Tyler and Katelyn were immediately obsessed. Took forever to get them to keep walking. They had an animal encounter in the building behind us with a snake that Tyler was not interested in.

Larakeets! We bought 2 cups of nectars for the birds and Tyler was really excited to hold one. I got an extra empty cup and poured just a tiny tiny bit into his cup, and warned him that he had to hold on tight. We even talked about the scenario of a bird jumping onto his hand - was he going to drop his cup and run off? "No!" said Tyler. Except... that was exactly what happened a minute later. Good thing he didn't waste much. The birds were really friendly, but I find it hilarious that one sat on my shoulder and another on my head. There's no nectar there!

Katelyn was really interested in the birds on me.

Tyler...was concerned.

That night Will and I double dated with my friend Jen and her husband Vince. It was a crazy day! After the Safari park, we went back to Irvine and had an early dinner with my in-laws, and then met up with Jen/Vince at the Spectrum. My nanny watched the kids - totally last minute and wonderful. Katelyn had been sick last weekend (she started getting a fever the night we went to see Landon) and for that whole week she had been screaming during bedtime. Terrible. Her usual nighttimes includes storytime and then good night! This week she had been screaming and crying at night - and Will and I had actually had to hold her and rock her to sleep the whole week. I was worried how she was going to do with Cheyenne - but turns out she went down wonderfully! Maybe having Cheyenne that night helped break the cycle, since she has been back to normal since (thank goodness). We're totally looking forward to another outing soon!

Saturday morning Tyler had a quick taekwondo private session (free!) to help get him ready to taekwondo competition next weekend. We're so excited! Will's parents met us there and then we headed to Heritage Park to play in the playground and feed the ducks. Afterward we had lunch at Fukada (Yum!)

Sunday we dropped the kids off nice and early at Will's parents. The plan? To clean the garage! Will, unfortunately, wasn't feeling so great, so I was on my own for most of the morning. We made progress though, and I'm excited about getting it painted also! The kids ate and napped at the grandparents. After an early dinner, we had plans to head over to my friend Kristy's place for a BBQ but Katelyn fell asleep almost immediately in the car (makes me wonder how long her nap really was...). Anyway, Will stayed at home with K and I took Tyler with me. He was a little shy in the beginning but then was really excited to make new friends and play with new toys! I, on the other hand, got to hang out with some fun ladies.

Here's Katelyn with grandma. She found the other backpack/leash monkey that Tyler used to use, and she LOVES it!

She loves that the monkey is hugging her.

My kids playing in a laundry hamper!

Katelyn's Toddler room board at ICDC. Her picture is NOT flattering.

Katelyn also had her 18 month checkup this week. She did great, but really didn't like the doctor using her stethoscope, and obviously the shot (thank goodness only one this time).