This is a lot of pictures, but I didn't know what to cut out. On Thursday we drove to Vallejo, CA and played at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Marine World). It was a blazing hot day, but we battled through it and had another great day.
McKenna and her cousin Clayton. Such cuties!
My sister, Laurel, and her family met us at the park since they live so close by. Here's a shot of us waiting to watch the killer whale show. Derek has a stuffed killer whale that he has named "Killer Swimmy". Since buying this whale for his 5th birthday, he's been so interested in killer whales. So we were excited to take him to this show, in fact, it's the whole reason we wanted to go to Discovery Kingdom.
We weren't disappointed. Derek loved the show! We all loved it. I think it's amazing that dolphins and whales can do tricks on command by following sign language. How on earth do you train an animal to do that!?
There's a fun Thomas the Tank Engine town inside the park. My boys have outgrown Thomas, but the rides were still fun.
Jason (Dave's brother) and his daughter M'li
Jason and Meaja were kind enough to sponsor Derek and Taylor's carnival game. Derek chose a penguin and Taylor chose a Thomas football for a prize.
These pictures were taken just after a dolphin show. You can see that the trainer in the red shirt has just sent a dolphin over to splash us. Moments after I snapped the photo we got wet. Not funny.
It took some persuading to get Taylor to pose for this picture. He saw what happened when Derek posed.
We had a breakthrough with Derek. The last time we put him on a ride was years ago. It was a little boat ride, you know the kind. The boats are attached to a wheel moving at a very slow pace and the kids sit and ring the bell on the boat. Well, Derek screamed in terror when we put him on this one, so we've taken a break from rides. It's been years, so we decided to try again. Derek and I went on the above pictured roller coaster (you can see my head and his lime green shirt). At first he screamed "I don't like it, I don't like it", but in his next breath he yelled "I love it, I love it! This is the best roller coaster ever!" The rest of the day he begged for more. He was addicted to roller coasters. So Dave and Derek went on "Monsoon Falls", where you are guaranteed to get wet. Below is a video clip of them on the ride. (Dave is wearing a blue baseball cap)
Here's the brave boy after the ride. He was so cold!
Once again, McKenna was an angel, even though she was sweating most of the day in her car seat. Poor thing.
No that is not a shadow. We went on a white water rapids ride and got pretty wet.
Laurel (my sister), Ethan, Doug, and Madeleine. What a cute family!
It was such a fun day that it was hard to leave, especially since it finally cooled down as we were heading out. We returned to Grandma and Grandpa's house and that evening, after the kids were in bed, Judy, Dave, Jason, and I played Hearts until early in the morning. We were all a little tired and had the giggles. It was such a fun night. I especially enjoyed it since I won the last game of the night by shooting the moon! Yes, I'm sure everyone is tired of me mentioning it, but it's rare for me to successfully shoot and I did it against the best!! :)
We drove back home on Friday and arrived at 3:30 in the morning. We are still trying to recover from the whole week and the drive. Thanks again Judy and David for the fun week. I know that you put so much work into it and I hope it was all worth it for you. I can't wait until next year's reunion!! Should we show Derek some real "Hawaii trees"? ;)
1 comment:
It was the funnest day! Thanks for inviting us!
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