SeaWorld!

This weekend my mom came to visit us in California. She had mentioned that she loves SeaWorld so we decided we would plan to go when she came. It was a fast visit, her flight got in late Friday night and she left fairly early Sunday so basically the majority of quality time we spent together was at SeaWorld on Saturday - but it was definitely quality time!!

We had been told to arrive at the park as early as possible because then you have a chance of feeding the animals. And that is exactly what happened. We headed first to the Sea Lion area and within minutes a man came out and handed fish to both my mom and Jason. I got a video of them tossing in fish. It's short, but fun. The Sea Lions were just so cute and excited! It really made me think of that Mickey Mouse episode when Mickey takes a baby Sea Lion home.

Next we went into Turtle Reef, completely unaware that it was it's grand opening day! It was very cool and now I feel somewhat honored that we were some of the first people to see it :-)

Mom in turtle reef

Me in turtle reef

We saw basically all the shows that they put on in a day. The only one we didn't go to was the "House Pets" one. The Sea Lion and Otter shows were hilarious! The odd thing was that all the shows are like plays now. I've only been to Sea World once but when I went I recall that it was just a person talking and asking/telling the animals what to do. Now it's all music and water shooting up all over the place and big screened TV's. Don't get me wrong, it was still very cool, but I feel like it was less about the animals.

The only ride we went on was the Bayside Skyride, which is just a gondola ride. It was nice and peaceful for sure!

At one point Jason decided that I really missed out in the whole feeding the Sea Lion experience and suggested that we go back and pay for me to have my chance to feed the Sea Lions. I was excited to have my chance to do it. It made me surprisingly nervous - but more because there were all these crazy birds around taking the fish right out of peoples' fingers and I didn't want the birds attacking me. The first fish I threw I bird snatched right out of the air which was unfortunate, but the rest made it into sealions' mouths.

I'm not sure that there is a single animal in the whole park that we didn't see. We were really good about getting to everything. We spent 11 hours there. We decided that the best place to take my mom for a California dinner would be In-N-Out Burger (actually she suggested it), so after a day at SeaWorld we ended at In-N-Out then went back to our hotel. It was one of the more perfect days spent in CA for sure!

Happy August!

I can't believe it's already August. Our last day in California is two weeks from today! Our lease ends on August 15th at noon. That day I'll get the car all packed up and hang out in a park (or a library depending on how hot it is that day) until Jason gets out of work and then we're going to hit the road! I'm excited because we will be spending a few days in Colorado and I get to see my friend Kathy who I NEVER get to see anymore now that neither of us actually live in CO. We will get to Minnesota on the 18th or 19th, depending on how fast we feel like moving.

Things around our apartment have gotten a bit easier. We finally got rid of all the ants a few days after my last post. That was such a relief! It has made hanging out in the apartment incredibly more tolerable. In the middle of July I went to Colorado to see my sister Casey's new baby, Jackson. He is such a cutie - much smaller than his brother. Hayden was 8lbs 1oz and Jackson was 6lbs 7oz (these might not be exactly on, but they're close enough). I think Jackson has more of a look like his mommy, too. It'll be fun to watch him grow. I just love being an aunt!

Baby Jackson

Casey and Hayden

Me and Aubrey at WaterWorld

And speaking of being an aunt, I also took Sienna to WaterWorld for our 3rd year in a row as her birthday present, but this year her mom, brother, Aunt Floy, Uncle Drew, and cousin Aubrey decided to join us! It was so much fun getting so spend the day with my siblings, nieces, and nephew. The kids loved waterworld (for Dallen and Aubrey it was their first visit) and it's hard not to love watching children enjoying themselves so much!

Sienna, Lindsay and Dallen at WaterWorld

Luckily for me I was able to time my CO trip with my Grandpa Bruce being in town for a visit. He and I were able to go out just the two of us for lunch - a rare thing to be able to get one-on-one time with a grandparent when you're in a family as big as mine and considering he and I were both just in town for a short visit. I love spending time with him and it was wonderful getting to watch him enjoying his great-grandchildren!

After CO I flew over to UT to visit my Dad. He moved to UT from CO about a year ago and this was my first visit to their new home. It is a beautiful home and they have an amazing view! My dad and Kristyl have done so much work to the house and I just can't wait to see how many changes are made when I manage getting over there to see it again. I was able to visit with a lot of family in UT but I was especially glad that I was able to get over to visit with my Grandpa Ripplinger (I can't believe I got to visit with both of my grandpa's in a matter of 3 days). After his stroke I wasn't really sure how he would be but I am happy to report that I couldn't even tell the difference. He seemed wonderful and as happy as ever.

Side of my dad's yard. They put down all the grass,
planted all their plants and laid each rock with their own two hands. 

I got back to CA just in time for Jason to sit second chair in his first trial! It was a very big deal. It lasted for 3 days and in the end Jason's side won (I'm not sure the "correct" way to word that, I'm sorry). Jason did a lot of work for this trial and it's really exciting that everything turned out so well.