Sunday, August 14, 2011

San Diego Trip



We arrived at the Wyndham hotel on Wednesday at about 4, chucked our bags in the room and went directly to sea world. The kids enjoyed a few rides, we watched the dolphin show and then they ran around in the fun zone until it was time to watch the Shamu Rocks night show (which by the way, does rock!) After the shamu show we drove back to the hotel to grab dinner and go to sleep. (by now it was about 10:30). The hotel has a restaurant connected to it so we decided to order to go and eat in our room. We got our food and drove over to our building. We drove around our building two or three times and I finally found a parking spot that wasn't miniature sized!! As I pulled into the parking spot my headlights hit a man sleeping on top of about 4 garbage bags... GREAT! Just what I wanted! So, I pulled back out of the parking spot and drove over to the lobby. I explained that #1, I cannot find a place to park because the spots are made for mini's and #2 the one parking spot I found had a homeless person sleeping in it. They agreed to move us to a different room (more in the middle of the hotel) and said we could park in a handicap space. So, new keys in hand we drove to the new spot. I found a parking spot street side which I wasn't thrilled about but I parked there anyway. By now it's about 12:15 and the kids are exhausted so all I want to do is get into our room, eat our food and go to sleep! We get into the room, I sit the kids down to eat (the food was terrible by the way and I couldn't even choke down my salad and soup!) I tell the kids I'm going to walk down the hall to get some ice. I walk down the hall to the ice machine, which is broken (yes, that only flared up my anger!), I walk to the truck to get Harmony's shamu out and sliding under my truck to sleep is ANOTHER HOMELESS PERSON!!! I go back up to the room, call the lobby and tell them. They send security over to get rid of the person and the security guard tells me "don't worry, he's just trying to get some sleep so he can get a job at home depot in the morning".. oh, well then, by all means.. don't let ME BOTHER YOU! I then hop on the phone to bookit.com to have my reservation changed to another hotel but I wait on the phone for 40 minutes or so and hang up. at 1:10 we leave the Wyndham and head to the Dana on Mission. SO MUCH BETTER!! In the morning I call bookit.com and get into a heated argument with the lady because according to her only the hotel can refund me, but according to the hotel only bookit can refund me.. long story short, a lot of yelling and a fired up me = a refund!










On Thursday morning we head to legoland. Although the kids and I are TOAST because we went to bed so late, we did have a good time. We left at about 4 (HUGE MISTAKE!!) hit traffic but finally got back to the hotel and went directly to the pool to relax! That night the kids were hysterical. I laughed so hard!! By 9:30 we were all crashed out.










On Friday we woke up completely refreshed and ready to hit legoland again. We mapped out the things the kids wanted to do and we were prepared this time!! We had a great day. We stopped mid day to have the kids play legos and sit in the air conditioned room :) We headed back to the hotel at about 5, stopped at TGI Fridays for dinner and then of course, back to the hotel for a night swim! When we got into our room I sat for a couple of hours listening to Noah and Harmony play. I love how even at almost 11 years old, Noah still plays with his 7 year old sister. I think that they know that they can be completely themselves around each other. They don't have to try to be tough or cool. Noah knows that Harmony thinks he's awesome and it's enough for him to just be him. They had a whole lego vs. Shamu game going on!! It was very sweet.










On Saturday morning we got up and hopped in the pool at 8am. The plan was to swim and then head home but we decided to hit sea world for our last hoorah. In the morning we visited some touch tanks. When we were watching the penguins Noah asked how many eggs can a penguin lay at a time? I said "umm.. I don't know, how many do you think?" he said "umm.. maybe the same as chickens?" I said "which is??" and he said "I'm gonna guess 12 since that's how many are in a pack" I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants. Yes Noah, they sell eggs by the dozen because that's the way chicken's lay them :) Anyway, we watched the sea lion show and did a few other things and then headed out for our trip home.










ALL THE WAY HOME the kids played the farting orca orchestra, completely annoying but I tried to ignore them since they thought it was hilarious and they weren't fighting!! It then went to the farting legos, the pooping sharks.. .. you get the idea. Yep, 7 hours of fart noises and pooping sounds. awesome...










I'm so glad that I got to take this trip with them. Sometimes I forget how much of me they have to share, and what toll it takes on them. They are great kids and I'm so lucky to have them. I enjoyed all the little things they did. All of the thank you's and how appreciative they were of every moment. So, cheers to the trip of the summer!!