Last Day of School / San Diego Part 1

The last day of school for Connor came at the end of June (does that seem late to anyone else?)  Earlier that week, he had been able to go on the school's traditional field trip to Mother's Beach, which was a total adventure.  I met him at the beach with Evan and Elise (families were invited), but he got to ride the bus there and back by himself.  Too bad I didn't get pictures (that no-camera-at-the-beach policy.)  At Celebration of Learning, he took some pictures of his classmates, showed off his project on Earthquakes, and showed everyone what they had been working on in Music Class.  They also shared some of the things they had done with plants and gardens.
  

       

After school was out, we went on our first-ever family vacation!  I mean, we'd been on weekend trips before, and we'd been to visit family, but this was our first week-long trip just for fun.  We rented a timeshare in Escondido (the Lawrence Welk Resort), and did the San Diego experience.  Our first big outing was a trip to the San Diego Zoo.  (The first day of our vacation we spent listening to a time-share presentation.  Yeah, bad choice.)
    

Tortoises

Jaguar with a big piece of meat

The panda we'd waited an hour to see

Chinese Plate-Spinners

   
Outing #2 was to Sea World.  After watching the documentary, "The Cove", I wasn't sure if it was PC to go to Sea World, but we researched it a little, and apparently all the dolphins in shows at Sea World were born there.  Elise decided after this show that she wants to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up. (Well, specifically, "a girl who swims with the dolphins.")
  

It was kinda hot that day.
  

   

We bought some fish to feed to the sea lions, and Connor decided the really BIG fish should be his.  He then proceeded to tease the sea lion a little.  See the white birds hanging around?  Right before he finally dropped the fish, a bird flew past and snatched it out of his hand.  Connor was SO mad.  We let him feed one of the little fish to the sea lion, but it wasn't the same. After another show, we did the skyway tram thing, which was wonderfully cool after sitting in the hot sun for so long.
  

Big Fish

Elise and her Little Fish

Ryan and the older kids did this "Oscar's Rocking Eel" ride, which was not terribly exciting.  Evan, however had the time of his life playing in the baby area.  The floor was a little bit bouncy, and there were foam blocks to throw and stack (his mostly just got stolen.)
  

 

The Thursday of our vacation was also Ryan and my TENTH ANNIVERSARY!  Crazy, huh?  We would have liked to do something amazing like a cruise to Europe, but that's just not realistic with a baby who's still nursing (even if it is mostly just a habit at this point.)  The family vacation was a great way to celebrate, though.  We were able to get a babysitter on the evening of our Anniversary and go do sealings in the San Diego temple.  It was the best thing I could have asked for.  (And we're hoping to do a no-kids trip of some sort later this year, when Evan's more leavable.)
  

San Diego Temple