San Diego Zoo

Our yearly passes to the two zoo's in San Diego were used twice.  Zackary you really loved learning about all the animals, finding them, watching them at 6 and Emeline you were not as into it at 4.  You both did enjoy sitting on the stone replicas though!

The flamingos put on a show for us and we spent a lot of time watching their pink long bodies interact with each other and laughing at their group meetings they seemed to be having.  Emme you kept saying "Oh Flamingos."  Really funny. 

The gorillas were by far my favorite part at the zoo.  Only a glass wall was separating us from the big dad as he slept soundly.  Mom gorilla was carrying her newborn around and joined dad at the glass wall by us to breastfeed.  Wow what a cool experience that was.  Their was another male (maybe a brother) and it was interesting to see his interaction with the dad as he followed the mom around.  He wasn't allowed to get to close or dad would go after him.  Having this experience right in front of us was I presume one thats close to the African experience, only we have protection. 

See the hippos butt and the fish.  Dwarf hippos made us laugh too.  They swam around as we followed them next to another glass wall. 

Mammoth

We had a wonderful experience in our quaint Mammoth home surrounded by snow.  Our almost 6 hour drive went surprisingly quickly as we were so excited to get to our week away home!  Finally I was able to put you two in all your snow gear that I have had for a couple of years.  Going to Big Bear is sadly never cold enough.  We arrived our first day around 4 and checked into our 3 bedroom home.  It was beautiful and perfect, perhaps best I have booked yet on VRBO.  We quickly unpacked and headed out to dinner at a local mexican restaurant, yummy!  The following day we went to the mountain and arranged our skiing for the following day.  We then went to the grocery store and spent the rest of the day waiting for our peeps (The Girards) to show up.  We had a wonderful day on the mountain skiing the next day (wow did Zackary and Dad do good for their first times).  Emme and Zackary were signed up for separate classes, no other kids showed, so they had private lessons.  Unfortunately, Emme cried the whole morning and was babysat as she wouldn't ski.  That made me sad, but maybe in a couple years she will enjoy it.  Zackary loved that his instructor set up a game for him and he advanced to another level every time he completed the course set up.  I took a workshop and loved it by the end of the day Dad joined me and skied faster and better than me.  Apparently skis are made different now and you learn different compared to back in the day when I learned.  I basically have to relearn.  The following day was spent going to the Village, and in the afternoon finding a hidden, untouched, deep snow area where we sled, built snowmen and had snowball fights!  A definite highlight of the week.  We celebrated Dad's birthday that night and enjoyed a dinner with our friends.  The trip was a new favorite, hard to top I am sure!

Sledding with Daddy.