California... Knows How to Party. :)

So I'm finally home.

[Which is soo nice.. I'm a little worn out from all the traveling around.]

But the vacation was definitely worth being a little tired for..
:)

My family went to California for the last week-ish..& it was SO fun. & SO beautiful!

The first day of our little adventure we got to go to

Sea World!

[We were a little disappointed at first when we found out we weren't going to Disney Land at first.. but we saved the best for last :) ]
 





So putting first things first.. We went to see Shamu! :)
Wanna know if we sat in the splash zone?

Because we definitely did nooot..

We sat in the very.. [and I do mean very] back row! haha no getting wet there!

The first time we went to Sea World we went to the dolphin show and my dad made the comment.. "How wet can dolphins get you..."

So we sat in the splash zone.. & let me tell you.. haha

There's a little surprise at the end called WHALES!

We were drenched. Soaked all the way through.

:)

Then after Shamu we got to see some animals a little more closely..

We saw lots and lots of Seals..

[That were maybe napping? haha We weren't sure why he was upside down..] 

&  GIANT sea turtles..

AND for those of you who read my blog from the Fourth of July when we went to the Zoo.. 

I don't know if you remember but we discovered this weird bird that were kind of laughing about and calling the Duck-Flamingo..

TURNS OUT..  

it has a name! haha & we solved our little mystery..

Thank You Sea World.

Then.. we got even closer..

& got to play with starfish!

& when we went to see the Arctic Animals..

We got to see a Polar Bear SO close.. which was probably my highlight of the trip :)

Polar Bears have always been my favorite animal & ever since I can remember I've wanted one!

& after my magical moment with my Polar Bear.. we found a giant Ice Wall..

& what do you do when there is an ice wall?

Well have a competition to see who can hold their hand on the longest.. of course! haha

OBVIOUSLY mitch won.. [That is my real face.. I couldn't even hold it on long enough to take a picture!]

Then we went on a few rides that we definitely DID get extremely wet on.. :) But were way fun.

[Sorry I didn't get more pictures of Sea World!]

& we finished with the rest of the amazing shows that they have!

Including my favorite.. Cirque de la Mere!

It's always amazing to me to see all the places & creatures in the world that I wouldn't normally get to see [ in my entire Life Time] if there weren't these awesome places that make it possible!

The next day we went to this Safari/Zoo Place that we had never been before..

I don't know if it's because we didn't really go into it having any expectations but I completely LOVED this place!

It was seriously SO cool!

So basically right when we walk in we here this African music and a bunch of people cheering & we look up to see these men doing unbelievable tricks on these poles!

They were flipping around back wards and climbing upside down and climbing up together and switching places..

It was at this moment that I knew.. I was going to LOVE this place!

 

We watched elephants being fed.. 

[& all these exhibits were so much different than the zoo because they had so much more space it was like you could watch them out in the wild.. & we got to be a lot closer to them!]

I even fed a giraffe!

That may or may not have been real.. haha it's hard to remember sometimes..

This is my Daddy doing some safariing in his safari hat!

& We just saw some really amazing things..

Eventually we got to go on a little Safari Bus tour kind of thing too that took us through the habitats that were too big to walk through..

I don't know if you can tell but this is a cheetah.. I don't know if I've ever actually seen one before so that was pretty cool..

& we saw Wilda-Beasts..

[Anyone else thinking.. Lion King?] ha

& Zebra..

& lots and lots of Giraffes..

& this little guy is a White Rhino [I can't remember if it was Northern or Southern]

But he is the ONLY one in America!

They are almost extinct :(

Then after our tour.. I started an interesting bird photograph collection.. ha because there were a lot of them!

[Look at that evil Bird Grin!]

 

[& those crazy bird eyes]

& this is a STORK! But.. I looked all over the place and couldn't see any babies any where.. haha this one must be defective.

& then we got to FEED some birds!

Which was soo awesome.. 

After you got over the fact that they just landed on you.. they felt really cool

:)

& LICKED some birds! ha

Mitchy is SO much braver than me.

Then we saw the craziest animal that I've ever seen in my life I'm pretty sure..

We are going to call this one.. Zebra-Donkey

:)

I saw this creature and was like oh my gosh its face looks like a Dinosaur!

& then this little girl next to us kept calling it Dinosaur.. haha

I felt so bad.. her parents probably hated me!

After we had been walking around a little while we stumbled across this little water play station!

This sweet little girl was playing in it so she started to show me how to use everything..

Then when I tried telling Mitch and Marah, Mitchell started pulling on things and it DUMPED all over him! 

[if you look at the back pack you can kind of tell it's wet]

luckily it was SCORCHING hot outside.. so it dried in like ten minutes!

 :)

Then to end our little adventure.. 

We stopped at the petting zoo.. 

But these goats DID NOT want to be petted!

So Mitchell starts chasing them across the corral! haha & the guy that's working is screaming..

Please do not chase the goats! Please do not chase the goats!

But FINALLY he caught one! :)

& he was not letting go of that little guy!

I guess they should have found more pettable goats..

Then just when I thought the fun was over..

I saw my first armadillo close up! 

:)

I'm sure people from Texas would be laughing..

But I thought he was SO cute.

A perfect ending to my amazing day.

I officially love Safaris.

:)

So, since this blog is getting kind of long.. I decided I'm going to save Disney Land & Universal Studios for my NEXT blog..

So stay tuned if you're not sick of my little summer adventure. :)

& just as I promised last blog.. my dessert turned out pretty good!

It's ice cream put together to look like a Watermelon..

It's called Watermelon Bliss

[If you click HERE it will take you to it]

So try it out before the summer is over!

:)