Saturday, February 11, 2012

San Diego Zoo

My friend had some free passes to the San Diego Zoo and offered them to me in exchange for watching her son all the time. I've been wanting to go for awhile, but wasn't too keen on the price. Needless to say I was delighted. We headed down the following Friday, which Kenneth had off.

Danny is a huge fan of living things. He loves them all...cats, dogs, birds, squirrels, caterpillars, bees, worms...you get the point. He has to hug and kiss pretty much any animal (or bug - yes, you heard me right) that we pass. The zoo was no exception. While we were figuring out where to go we were standing next to this lion statue. As we were leaving, Danny had to run back to it in order to give it a hug and a kiss. ;)


I was excited to see the monkeys - my friend, Asia said that was their favorite part.  She said the monkeys were jumping everywhere, and making tons of noise.  Apparently we came on the wrong day because many of the animals were sleepy...including the monkeys.


This is the hippo exhibit.  Unfortunately the hippo was...sleeping...behind the rock.  Danny enjoyed looking at the fish at least.

Danny did enjoy the gurillas.  They were quiet but were awake and were hanging out right by the glass.  There were 2 or 3 of them that kept walking by, and then would sit right by the glass.  Danny loved them.

We all really enjoyed the turtles.  Who knew that their necks were that long?  Not me!

Danny is also a huge fan of tigers.  This one was dozing when we got there - lucky for us he was sleeping by the glass.  That didn't last too long when Danny and another little boy came up and started knocking on the glass.  Whoops!



It was good to be able to show Danny a zebra up close.  He used to always call them horses in our books.  He finally has figured out the difference!


This was our only shot of the polar bear.  It was hanging out in the water - with his head above, which we couldn't see.  Kenneth kept joking that it looked like it was dead and floating in the water...

Lucky for us this statue was outside the polar bear exhibit so Danny could get his hug in.

There was also a helicopter right there.  Danny is also majorly into airplanes and helicopters.  He had so much fun inside.

I was very excited to see the elephants.  I love them!  I loved this one which was playing with the ball.  It reminded me of tether ball.  Do schools even have those anymore?

We took our lunch break at the elephant exhibit, so while I fed Emily, Danny had fun climbing.



This jaguar is right across from the elephants, and a zookeeper was feeding him when we got there.  I think it is beautiful.

Danny saw this bird and asked to climb up.  Finally decided to push Kenneth in front of the camera for once instead of always being behind it.

Danny ran around this little play area where there was this huge camel statue.  People were taking pictures around the legs because know one could get on it.  That wasn't going to fly for my husband!  Kenneth threw Danny and then climbed up himself.  Danny loved it.



Danny really likes the camel in Aladdin - seeing the real thing though - it took him awhile to figure out what it was!  Granted, one of his humps fell over!  And the Disney camels don't have quite so much hair...

Danny was most excited about seeing the giraffes.  When we first got to the zoo we asked him what he wanted to see and he answered, "Giraffes!  Looonnnnnnnnngggggggg neck!"  Unfortunately we felt like we were in a maze for the first hour or so.  By the time we got to the giraffes he was a little tired and didn't quite jump up and down.  I know he loved them though because he kept talking about them on the way home.


The rhino was another animal I was excited for, but unfortunately it was sleeping.  It was still fun to see though.  I would love to see one again up and walking around.

The mountain lion was pretty fun.  One of the only cats that kept walking right by the fence and would follow you.

I also wanted to see the bears...but this was the only one we could see.  They either weren't on display or were sleeping in their dens - which we could barely see.

Overall we had a fun time.  Don't know that I'll be going back soon though - especially since then we'd have to pay the outrageous price!  Kenneth and I have decided next time we'll check out the Wild Animal Park instead.   I'd love to see all these animals in an environment that resembles their natural habitat a little bit better.  I'm glad the kids had so much fun!  It was nice to do something different!

Riverside Quarry

Last month we took my friend Asia and her son Romney (Danny's best friend) rockclimbing with us. Asia had been once before with us and was excited to try again. We had a fun time hanging out at the "Schoolhouse" end of the Riverside Quarry. I ended up leading 4 routes! I was proud. Here are just a few pictures:

Asia heading up



Asia's son, Romney trying to climb while she was up.  We tried putting Danny's harness on him to really let him climb - but he was having NONE OF IT!

New Jack City - January 13th-14th

During one of Kenneth's long weeks we headed to one of our favorite spots for climbing and camping - New Jack City - just about 15 minutes from Barstow.  The camping is free, and it isn't nearly as crowded as other camping/climbing areas.  Plus a ton of climbing is mere minutes from the car which is a major plus with the kids!






First time in her pack-n-play...it was a major success!







Emily hanging out

Getting ready to go up again!




The campground has a new kid's play area.  Danny loves dinosaurs and had so much fun playing and climbing on everything.






When we were trying to leave, Danny insisted on hugging and kissing every piece of the dinosaur.  ;)