Tuesday, September 17, 2013

vacation: part 2

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i have to break this vacation recap into multiple posts because we had way to many pictures for just one post.  also, since we never take vacations i wanted to remember the awesome/awfulness of vacationing with a toddler.  :) 

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while we definitely wanted to spend most of our time on the beach we thought that it would be good to get out and do some activities with avery to keep her from getting bored.  it turned out we were wrong and everyone probably would have been happier had we just stayed at the beach every day, but nevertheless we attempted two big activities during the week.  the first was the san diego zoo since everyone raves about how amazing and huge it is.  avery is really, really, really into animals these days so we figured that this would be a popular destination for her as well.  i'm not really a zoo person so without avery i never would end up at the zoo on my own.  

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the zoo was amazing and huge.  it was really well set up and really cool just to walk around.  again, i actually hate zoos but this one was really well designed.  it was really hilly which meant that there were a lot of sections that were too steep for avery to walk on her own and she was fighting the stroller like it was her job.  we carried her a lot and also forced her into her stroller a lot if we had to walk somewhere far.  she's definitely in a 'mommy' phase right now and at 28 weeks pregnant i can only carry her around so much.  she was really into walking a lot, which was great but of course would only hold my hand and refused to hold charlie's.  

we did have a lot of close up animal encounters, which was pretty cool.  our first stop were the chimps and they came running up to the glass and started banging on it.  i definitely was not expecting that but unlike me, avery wasn't phased and thought it was pretty cool.  

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we got really close to the hippos, which was one of the animals she had been talking about a lot before the trip.  she loved them and we even stopped back at the end of the day to visit them again.  


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  the polar bear was also a huge hit since he was bored out of his mind and therefore swimming laps back and forth in the water.

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charlie really wanted to see the panda bears since he had never seen one.  this was towards the end of the day and avery was pretty tired and just over being dragged around to see different animals.  when we got to the panda exhibit we found out that they made such a big deal about them that it took 40 minutes just to go through the exhibit.  i really do not get the panda hype and was ready to just skip them, but we ended up staying.  i guess they're cute, but i can't say they were worth the long wait and i'm pretty sure that avery felt the same way.  although she did pick out a panda stuffed animal at the gift shop, even though i pushed the hippo pretty hard, so maybe she liked them more than she led me to believe.

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she was really excited about the tiger and we got lucky again since we were able to see him up close.  in general, avery's much more into fish and sea animals then land animals.  we have a season pass to the denver aquarium and usually go about once a month (sometimes twice) and she loves fish.  i was just at the dentist and they happen to have a fish tank there and we spent about 20 minutes after my appointment staring at the fish.  anyway, the denver aquarium also has a tiger.  i find this very odd, but she loves the tiger and has a tiger stuffed animal from the aquarium that she sleeps with every night.  so it was cool for her to see the tiger up close at the zoo since we knew that she'd enjoy him.  i also think that she thinks that tigers are just big and cuddly toby's and ollie's.

once we were done, we actually managed to see the whole zoo, we headed back to the hotel and avery passed out in the car.  she was pretty happy to get back to the hotel that night and just hang out and play with the few toys that we had brought for her.  i think the zoo might be a better destination when she's older and can appreciate some of the animals more and can also walk everywhere on her own.  since it's so expensive to get in, both charlie and i wanted to get our money's worth which meant that we couldn't meander around at the pace avery was more comfortable with.  but it still was a nice activity to break up the week and the drive from our hotel to san diego was beautiful.  

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