San Diego Wild Animal Park and January Activities

While Aunt Sarah was in town for Auntie Lynn’s 60th birthday, we took a girls’ trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, a.k.a. the twins’ and Meredith’s true home. Someone in my Mothers of Multiples club was giving away free tickets that were going to expire and she couldn’t use, so on a whim, we took a day trip down there! Being a Tuesday in January, we had the place to ourselves, which was perfect for these three wild animal sisters.

I hatched!

Thank you for always feeding me snacks, Aunt Sarah.

Gorilla skull!

Keeping this crew in line while waiting for food is torture.

We love the Wild Animal Park, not just for the open space and roaming animals, but for all of the playgrounds throughout the zoo. I strolled Meredith through the shady tiger trails until she fell asleep while the girls played at one of the playgrounds.

The lorikeets seemed hungry that day! Meredith was still asleep and didn’t feed the birds, but I doubt she would have wanted to… she’s still traumatized from getting bit at the Living Desert zoo in Palm Springs and will randomly hold up her finger and say, “Birdie bite me!” when she sees birds.

Aunt Sarah had a photo shoot at a cute bookstore for some clients in Newport Beach and brought the girls back some fun new books for storytime.

While Aunt Sarah was in town, we also hiked to Ortega Falls, which we had been wanting to check out. There was only a trickle of water, but the girls had fun rock climbing and were entertained watching a family with legit rock climbing equipment scale the rock walls.

What it’s supposed to look like when there’s water:

I want snack!

In other January news, Noah stayed at our house overnight while the grown-ups were at Auntie Lynn’s 60th birthday party, and the girls all loved having a guest over!

Meredith has spent her whole life sitting and watching the twins do their activities, and finally got to do a gymnastics class of her own. The class for her age group requires the parents to be in class as well, but she wanted nothing to do with parental supervision and acted like she didn’t know me! Even though she’s not old enough, the coach said she could move up to the next level in which parents don’t need to be in class and she absolutely loves it.

Looks like we need some more practice on those cartwheels…

Skating lessons!

The best part of winter? Watching it on TV on an unusually hot January day at home.

Orange picking!

 

We had what seemed like an entire month, but was really a 10-day period at the end of January, where all of the girls were SO sick and fell like dominoes, one after the other. I thought for sure it was the flu, but it turned out to be some kind of bad respiratory virus. The twins missed a combined week and a half of school, and were not happy about going alone when the other twin was home sick. To help make her feel better on her first day back at school, with Samantha still sick at home, Jake took Amelia on a morning Daddy Daughter Date before school. This special fruity pebbles french toast was enough to coax her into being at preschool by herself that day! Where is my french toast reward for taking care of sick kids for an eternity?

Lots of love,

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Legoland with the Gerins and Bubblemania at Moonlight Beach

Every October, we try to make it down to San Diego as much as possible, because many theme parks and activities are free for kids in San Diego the entire month! This Legoland trip, our cousins joined us for an action-packed day of rides and pure exhaustion.

Poor Hailey– not much for her to do except watch!

Meredith was tall enough to go on several of the kiddie rides– she was obsessed with this helicopter.

Hi cousin!

Legoland is definitely no where near as crowded as Disneyland, but waiting in line for more than two minutes with Meredith is basically torture.

Safari ride.

Hit the spot!

The line for this jousting ride was one of the longest– no idea why, but it was the girls’ favorite ride of the day.

Samantha is a total thrill-seeker and went on Legoland’s version of Splash Mountain twice with Jake and Zack.

Drying off.

Meredith followed this princess around asking for a pic.

Lunch break.

The struggle is real.

Too bad Meredith was napping; she would have loved the Duplo playground.

One of the highlights of the day was feeding the ducks. Should have just stayed home!

Meredith woke up right as Jake and the twins passed by on the storybook ride. Needless to say, she was NOT happy about being left out.

An exciting cousins adventure!

We stayed nearby at the Omni La Costa and enjoyed some ice cream and s’mores by the fire pit to end our exhausting day.

Before heading home the next day, we spent the morning at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. It had a nice park right next door and super clean bathrooms, checking off two must-have items on my list.  We were there early enough in the morning that the beach was uncrowded and it was a perfectly warm/clear day to boot.

Anytime sand is involved, the girls’ favorite pastime is to attempt to dig a hole to China, hoping to avoid lava on the way there.

 

Meredith needed a little time to warm up to the idea of getting wet. She kept wanting to wipe the sand off of her feet and legs with baby wipes!

Almost to China!

NOT happy about being stuck in a hole.

A bonus was this random old guy making giant bubbles with homemade bubble solution for all the kids on the beach to frolic around. He even does bubble birthday parties and gave us his card.

 

Inside a giant bubble!

Legoland, beach and bubbles made for the perfect short getaway!

Lots of love,

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October Ice Cream and Pizza Birthdays

In October, Aunt Sarah, Grammy and Grandpa traveled from Utah to hang out with us and celebrate Cousin Hailey’s 1st Birthday! We couldn’t believe it had already been a year, and Meredith was excited to officially have another toddler cousin. Amelia and Samantha unfortunately got sick, so Grammy stayed home with them, while the rest of us drove up for the party. It was the cutest ice cream party I’ve ever seen! Thanks for the photos, Aunt Sarah!

Hailey was not too enthused about her cousin constantly playing with her hair and poking and prodding her like a doll!

Please get her away!

 

Me want cake.

Lori hanging with the gang.

Meredith and Noah were pals for the day.

Don’t know if Grandpa was successful and getting the perfect smile out of Hailey or not.

So many treats to choose from…

Meredith and Noah.

Hailey was still not sure about her cousin by the end of the party!

Not cool guys.

Meredith had a blast on the way back– road trip with Aunt Sarah!

Chilling in the pool back at home later that weekend.

In October, the twins went to a pizza party for their school friend, Ella. Who knew California Pizza Kitchen opened early for private pizza making birthday parties? It was the perfect low-key/super fun party!

First, all the kids went behind the scenes and got a tour of the back of the restaurant. Seeing the soda dispensers and the huge walk-in freezer was a hit.

Pizza making time! Everyone got their own personalized pizza and chose their toppings, then the staff fired them up in the ovens while the kids did crafts.

After eating their pizza (it was only 10 a.m. at this point, but the kids didn’t seem to care!), it was banana split time. Definitely keeping this birthday party idea in mind– the restaurant staff did all the work, leaving the rest of us parents to relax!

Lots of love,

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Mission Bay Beach

After the girls’ gymnastics showcase, I loaded up the car with beach gear and three girls and we drove down to San Diego to meet Jake and the rest of the family for Ben’s law school graduation party. I’m always hopeful that a long drive during nap time will result in lulling the girls to sleep, but this time, I was not so fortunate. Meredith’s eyes were glazed over, but she couldn’t quite make it to dreamland with all the giggling, squealing, arguing and “SHE TOUCHED ME!” echoing from the back row. And that was WITH a movie playing.

Once we finally arrived, we were all excited to get out of the car and play with cousins Noah and Hailey at Mission Bay.

Cutest frisbee triangle!

Having missed her afternoon nap, Meredith alternated between cranky and delirious.

Samantha was ready to take over the driver’s seat on the jet ski.

After a long loop, Amelia decided she felt safer on dry land and let the speed demons take it for another spin.

Meredith was not pleased about being left behind, but got over it as soon as she discovered she could annoy Amelia in the tent.

 

Catch me if you can.

This was not the first time the girls had been paddle boarding, but whether it was their non-nap or the sun getting to them, for whatever reason, they were terrified. It didn’t help that they fell overboard!

Samantha was holding on for dear life and hyperventilating.       

Snack sharing in the tent.

Sandy pita chips… yum.

Worn out from the sun and sand, we filled up at Ben’s graduation party at the beach house the Kagel’s had rented. The girls were excited to congratulate Ben and see the Kagels, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, and Uncle Mike and Ali, who had flown in from Wyoming. Meredith was too dazed to enjoy the company, but I think she still secretly relished all the extra cuddles.

Samantha, Amelia and Noah entertained themselves by playing with ice from the cooler and pretending to be a train.

It’s nothing personal, Ali!

We ended our evening early after the dominoes started to fall, starting with Meredith and followed closely by an epic meltdown from the twins. It was fun while it lasted! Since Jake had taken a separate car down earlier that morning while I was at the twins’ recital, I was rewarded for the harrowing journey down by handing the keys to the minivan and overtired children over to Jake and returned home in the other car in blissful peace and quiet, no Goldie & Bear or Dora within earshot!

Lots of love,

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