More Visitors in the New Year

My mom and Ken came to see us in the beginning of January for a visit and to celebrate Christmas. We went to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, which is weird that the address is SD b/c it's actually north and east of San Diego proper, its up by our house. I love this kind of park...can't wait to go on an African Safari.

My mom and Will with a giant elephant statue.

This Rhino was part of the play area, so fun to climb on.

Will inside the peek a boo log. :-)

This is a huge hot air balloon that people can ride in and view the park from above.

Will and Molly waiting for the tram ride to start. Love this pic of the backs of their sweatshirts. We got them in Disneyland and gave them as Christmas presents.

These chimps were helarious, they put on a really good show for us.

Gorgeous Lions...

Love the cheetahs...

My favorites were the giraffes, here two are hugging, love how they wrap their necks around each other.

Thought the color of this one was so gorgeous against the blue water.

A real rhino this time. Probably shouldn't climb on this one.

This was the view from one of the spots the tram stopped.

Good pic of my mom and Will

The gorillas were also very fun to watch. See the blanket on the back of this one? He was playing with it, puttin on a show for us, then just draped it over his back and sat down to "think." :-)

I could sit and watch these guys for hours...

Love this pic of my mom and Will measuring themselves up to a gorilla...

Will thinks he's so HUGE next to Molly, not so much compared to the gorilla. :-)

Molly was scared to death of this lion at first, another statue you can climb at the play area. She would cling to us and cry if we showed it to her. Silly girl.

My (Emotional) Good Deed for the Day

Yesterday we took advantage of a beautiful day and drove down to LaJolla Cove. It was gorgeous, the waves are beautiful, the cliffs are awesome, there's a grassy area to play, a walking path along the water, little trees to climb, a small beach to play on with a huge rock tunnel to walk through (the water eroded the rock away to create a tunnel), and an area out in the water where the sea lions have taken over and bask in the sun while the tourists stare at them. We joined this group, Will and me. As we were listening to their barking and I was holding Will up to see them, we were moving closer and closer as the crowd thinned. And pretty soon, we were right in front staring at the beautiful creatures, some dry and brown from the sun, some shiny and black from the water splashing. Then I noticed it. The gigantic slash across the neck of one, fresh wound, bleeding, open sore, the fishing wire still hanging from it's neck. I was HORRIFIED. I immediately jumped back, called Jeremy over and told him to go look at that poor sea lion. I told him we couldn't just leave him there, we HAD to call someone. Jeremy wasn't taking me very seriously...and all of sudden the tears started flowing. I became VERY upset. I was not mad, I was extremely sad. Jeremy started realizing how much this was affecting me and that I really had to do something. Then...I saw it move. The sea lion moved, it was still alive. I cried harder, asking Jeremy to please call someone, please please call 411 tell them city of LaJolla, Animal Rescue. Please please please. He asked why I couldn't call and I said, I can't talk, I'm totally crying!! I fell against Jeremy in a huge hug and said, we have to do something, we CAN NOT leave him there. We can't walk away and NOT DO SOMETHING. Then I realized I was sad for the sea lion but very upset because of the people!! All these people, staring at the sea lion, all the silly (insert-stupid) tourists, staring at those animals, what...haven't you seen a sea lion before?! And NONE of them were doing anything to help that guy...no one was on a phone. They were just standing there. Staring. I told Jeremy I KNEW there was a sea life rescue program b/c I remembered they came to the preschool I worked at in San Francisco. So he called 411 and they connected them to Sea World, who did have a Sea Life Rescue Program...and he left a message. A message!!? That wasn't good enough for me. So I got on my phone and started searching the internet, I found the same SeaWorld program with the same number, but also found a 1-800 number specifically for Sea Lions, so I called it and had to leave a message...I was starting to feel a little better, but I was not comfortable with this whole, leaving a message thing. I wasn't crying anymore, but I still couldn't get myself to leave...but I couldn't think of anything else we could do either. So I took Will's hand and we slowly walked away to find a place to eat. Then, there they were...3 lifeguard/fire rescue guys. I realized I was about to teach Will an important lesson. As I held his little hand, we walked down the stairs to the guys, and talked to them about the sea lion, and asked if they knew who to call and could they please help him. They said, they knew about him and were watching him very closely and SeaWorld knew about him too. They said b/c he was still relatively healthy, he would not allow them to capture him for treatment, so they had to sit and watch him until he "beached" himself...that was very sad to me, but I felt a million times better. I could walk away and find a nice place to eat lunch with my family knowing I did the right thing, I stuck to my guns and kept trying until I knew we had done everything we could to help that animal. And to boot...I taught my son how to stand up for your thoughts and how important it is to help animals who are in need.

Fantastic LaJolla Cove.

My punkin getting a better look.

Molly is totally fearless.

 This palm was planted at the entrance to the restaurant we ate at, and Will LOVED it, so we had to take a picture. Pretty good picture. :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!

We had some visitors around Christmas and in the New Year that I've wanted to post about...they are very special visitors...Grandma's/Papa's, Brothers/Uncle's, Best Friend/Auntie. So here's to our friends and family. I'll probably have to do a couple posts...each of our visitors deserves their time... :-)

Grandma Karen and Will snuggling while watching a show.

Papa Bill and Lady...match made in Heaven. :-)

Dad & Karen were wearing these silly Christmas hats when they got to our house, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of Dad with Will.

Karen had a fabulous gift for Molly, look at my face in the background, that's me realizing what it was. A little pink recliner just for Molly. I was completely surprised and so excited.

Molly lovin' her special "Molly and Friends" doll, personally "transformed" into an Angel by Grandma Karen (she sewed wings on to her back).

Dad and Karen opening their pictures of Will and Molly...

William is showing off his slam dunks.

Grandma playing basketball w/ Will, this was Will's christmas gift. There's a lot of competition in our house.

Auntie M and fam gave Will this United States floor puzzle, everyone's helping, even Molly. :-)

All Finished!

Will and Molly sitting in their chairs together for the first of many times. 

Dad and Karen-Thanks for driving down from Indio to celebrate Christmas with us!! We love that you are "Californians" with us!!!