Sea World

The next day we went to Sea World in San Diego!!

The shows were very spectacular. Sea World was very professional.

Dolphins shooting out of the water!

Arh! Arh! Seals.

And a big ol' walrus.

Check out this big boy.

That looks like fun.

Dolphin feeding and petting was a hit.

So was petting the manta rays.

They even had a bad lawn ornament section of the park.

The Shamu show was awesome!

Here's Jaydn and Jessi with Avery, Sheri Bates' daughter. We stayed with the Bates's. They were so nice to let us stay with them only a few days before they moved.

They didn't move because of us.

Rainy First Few Days of California Vacation

On Sunday we just relaxed after a crazy long drive to CA. Monday was President's Day, and it was cold and wet. So we skipped the theme parks and went to a museum, the Temple, and the Beach.

Mammoth bones:

Beautiful (and huge!) LA Temple:
Beach at Santa Monica Pier:

Jaydn missed the beach so much he did his "Lalomanu" wave running game:

Jessi joined him for a run:

A tradition going back to our honeymoon:

Anyone want a degree in trapeze?
Pretty cool pier, eh? We finished the day eating on the pier at "Bubba Gump's"

Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.

Las Vegas

It's tough to take an eight-year-old to Las Vegas. I mean, there is so much smut that it's hard to tell him where to look. "Look straight ahead, Jaydn." "No, don't look ahead, look over there." Las Vegas really lives up to its nickname.

We did have fun, however. There are some cool free things there. Food is not one of them. I remember when I was very young and we went to buffets for under $5. Now they are $30 per person!

Before going to Vegas, we stayed in St. George at a very nice house with a very nice view. Here's Jaydn with a nice view.

Here are some more pics from the day: Lion in the background...
So many M&Ms!
Crazy people with weird animals on the streets?

If you have never seen the Bellagio fountains:

How fun!

Idaho Falls - Boise Travel is the Pits!

I had to fly to Boise for a deposition two weeks ago. The flight times are 6:00 a.m. out of IF and 9:45 p.m. back to IF from Boise. Yuk.

The deposition was scheduled the day before our vacation, by the way.

So on the return flight, we hovered over IF. Basically went around in circles five or six times because of low-lying fog. Then we returned to Boise!

At this point, I didn't want to wait until the next night at 9:45 p.m. to come back to IF. So I got a group together and got a rental car.

Let me tell you, the 11:00 pm to 4:00 a.m. drive back to IF was SO much fun.

And then Jessi, Jaydn and I left for our drive to California for our vacation at 10:00 a.m.

Yippee!!

Pinewood Derby

Well, I got Jaydn's first Pinewood Derby car (block of wood) with only two weeks to spare.



This thing requires a lot of work to make it fast. Carving, sanding, painting, etc., etc., etc... Jaydn did the paint job himself, and chose the stickers. At the end I got lazy and just put fishing weight lead on the back to weigh it down. It did pretty good, although the scout leaders never said who the winner was.


Most importantly, Jaydn had a blast at the race. He loves scouts!