Vancouver Aquarium

This past weekend we decided to take a little trip up to Vancouver for the night. We were going to visit the zoo or the aquarium and since rain was forecasted for the entire weekend, we chose the aquarium. We headed up Friday afternoon and made it across the border without much of a wait. We went straight to our hotel, and after relaxing a short while, headed out for dinner. 

By the time we were finished eating, it was time to go back to the hotel and get the girls ready for bed. I forgot to grab the pack-n-play so we thought about letting the girls sleep together, but Haleigh wanted to play so that didn't last long! Annaliese and I ended up sleeping in one bed, and Kyle and Haleigh were in the other. And since we really wanted the girls to get a decent night sleep, everyone ended up going to bed around 8:00!

Once we were all up and dressed, we grabbed breakfast at the hotel (they had a very tasty continental breakfast!) and packed up our stuff.

We looked up directions to the aquarium before heading out since we had our phones turned off. Somehow we ended up not quite in the right spot and drove around a little while before figuring out where we needed to be...but we eventually made it to the aquarium!

(I can't remember what she's looking at!)

 Most of the aquarium was inside, but there was an outdoor area where we could see the porpoises, the sea lions and the penguins. We had to get all bundled up for this part!

 Apparently they liked the rain because they were all very playful!

 Playing with a ball

 Haleigh's not so sure about this one!

Beluga Whales

 They had an aviary with several different brightly colored, but very noisy birds. Haleigh was pretty scared by their loud calls so we didn't stay long in this area!

 We tried this pic about 10 times...

I know it's hard to see, but that's an octopus in the tank behind them!

We ended our time at the aquarium with a 4D show about the arctic...the chairs vibrated, we got splashed in the face with water and there were bubbles floating in the air to complete the 4D experience! 

The girls did great and we were able to make it through the entire aquarium without anyone falling apart! I think it's safe to say we all enjoyed it but we were all a bit tired by the end of the day...thankfully the drive home was smooth; we only waited 10 minutes to get back across the border and the girls slept most of the time! Annaliese keeps asking when we get to go to Canada again so I guess it was a success!! 

More California Fun

Knowing that we would be spending the weekend on our 'camping trip,' we decided to spend a little more time in California at Grandpa and Grandma Gillette's house. We flew in to Fresno on Wednesday and spent most of Wednesday and all of Thursday with them.

Grandma picked us up at the airport and after some lunch and some relaxing, we jumped in to the pool to cool off a bit. Thursday was spent hanging out with Sarah, Reed, and Kieran. They came over around 9:30 (about the time Kelley and I finished our 9 mile run through the oranges!) and the kids played all day! Great-Grandpa Dean and Great-Grandma Didi stopped by for a short time, as did Uncle Mark, Auntie Penny, Greg and Melissa. Uncle Jon came over too and stayed for dinner!

So excited to see Grandpa when he came home from work!

Bedtime stories

 We spent lots of time playing this game: Shut the Box

 Future soccer star?

 Hugs for Auntie Penny

 Playing with Daddy and Uncle Mark

 Cousins!

 We could see this huge plume of smoke from the fire that is burning up near Hume Lake/Kings Canyon/Grandpa and Grandma's cabin

 Haleigh's turn at Shut the Box

We were also able to get in a quick visit at Thousand Hills Pet Resort and see some of the new things that have been started there over the past year, meet up with Amy (our former baby-sitter) and her daughter Kailey, and have dinner with some of my good friends from Visalia.

 Kailey and Kyle

 Kailey and Annaliese

We met up with John and Alecia Vanden Berg, Julie and Travis Cardoza, and Michelle Elrod (her hubby Steve was off fighting the fire.) We walked to a local taco place to pick up dinner and the kids got to ride in style!

 Annaliese, Kamryn Vanden Berg (21 mon), Christian Cardoza (19 mon) and Haleigh

Michelle and I

 Heading back to Grandpa and Grandma's house...apparently it's a lot of work to have so much fun with friends!

We flew home Monday evening; overall, the girls did really well on all our flights. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a delay in Seattle but I found this little play area where they could run around a bit before having to sit on the plane again. And as much fun as we had, I think we were all glad to be back in our own beds again!