A, R, A & I: Sea World / Wild Animal Park

Ezra Taft Benson

"You were not created to be the same as men. Your natural attributes, affections, and personalities are entirely different from these of a man. They consist of faithfulness, benevolence, kindness, and charity. They also balance the more aggressive and competitive nature of man. The business world is competitive and sometimes ruthless. We do not doubt that women have both the brain power and the skills to compete with men. But by competing they must of necessity, become aggressive and competitive. Thus their godly attributes are diminished and they acquire a quality of sameness with man. The conventional wisdom of the day would have you be equal with men. We say, we would not have you descend to that level."

-President Ezra Taft Benson

Thankful Journal

It seems that it is so easy to get jealous of things or people or just to be discontent with life so to hopefully help me be better with this I am going to list things I am grateful for. First off is reasons why I am grateful to be a stay at home mom, even though it sometimes means missing out on other things.

11.2.09

1-Seeing Alli "rocking" her baby today to her baby song.

2-Dancing with Alli around the living room to her music class songs.

3-Hearing her talking and laughing all day long-and sometimes screaming because it means I can hear!

4-Having her help me sweep the kitchen floor and then watching her later use the broom as a "nay nay"

5-The many spontaneous kisses I received from her today!

What would I do without this little loving ball of energy? I really do not know!

11.3.09

1-seeing Alli's cute little Plumber's crack while she "works" around the house.

2-planting flowers with my best little helper.

3- Her happiness at getting a "band" on her scratch.

4-Her excitement at helping me make the bed.

11.4.09

1. Cuddling her sick little body (not thankful she's sick, but thankful I can stay with her when she's sick).

2. RS tonight, it was fabulous and so inspiring!

11.5.09

1. Getting to watch her ride the long duster as her horse.

2. Taking her to see the horses on our run this morning.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Sea World / Wild Animal Park

After the beach we headed to Sea World and the Wild Animal Park, and considering we wanted to do a lot of things in not a lot of days we did both in the same day-we were exhausted by the end! We started at the Wild Animal Park and went down to the train ride. We saw a bunch of different animals-White and Black Rhinos, giraffes, a huge flock of flamingos, lion, tiger, zebras (which surprisingly aren't very good at living with other animals), cape buffalo, and a whole bunch of different relatives of the antelope (and I am sure more that I have forgotten!). Alli loved riding the train and seeing all the different animals-I loved seeing the animals without having to walk everywhere!.

They had a cool little Lorikeet feeding area so Ryan and Phil held the nectar cups and worried they were going to spend the rest of the day walking around with little presents from the birds. :) Alli preferred observing from a close (or not so close) distance and I was glad I didn't have the nectar because I still had birds landing on my shoulders and "chirping" right in my ear and that was plenty for me. There was a really cool Kraal (African word for corral) petting zoo area with a couple different breeds of animals from the "deer" family. Their elephant herd was the best one I've ever seen. There were 2 tiny baby elephants, 2 slightly larger, and 2 "young teenage" elephants in with the adults. I've never seen such a small baby before so it was fun to watch.
Alli's favorite part of the wild animal park was the "Conservation Carousel" that we were fortunate enough to ride a couple times :) She wanted to ride a "horse" so she's on the animal that looks the most like the horse. The second time we were not so smart and went in the nest that we could spin. Spinning and morning sickness nausea=sickest I've ever been on a ride, and most my head has hurt for quite some time. Not the best decision on my part, but Alli wanted to go in it so I took her.

There were a couple of Hispanic kids in there with us and I felt bad because half way through we had to be done spinning or I was definitely going to lose it, so for the rest of the ride and I just kept my eyes closed and hoped everything would "stay put."

After that we went to SeaWorld and Alli took a nap on the drive and through part of Seaworld which worked out great because then we went on the rides first. It was nice everywhere we went with rides because we could do a "child switch" so one person would watch Alli and everyone else would go and then someone else would stay with Alli and everyone else would go and just jump to the front of the line. So it definitely cut down on the wait time. Phil & Ryan took full advantage of this while waiting for me to go on a ride with Alli [which by the way was the ONLY time I got asked if I was expecting on the entire trip- I said no. I was wearing a baggy shirt, not showing at all, going on a ride with a two year old??? My doctor had said I was fine to go on most things, so I did:) ] and said they had a kid. They were in the child pass line and the lady asked if they had a kid. Phil said, "yeah we have a kid." Then quickly added "well not together, he has a kid." haha the two of them make me laugh. This video was the result of that ride, and although it's exaggerated, it still is probably one of my favorite things from the trip.

After Alli woke up we went through the animal exhibits which were really cool. I love how big the "habitats" are for most of the animals. They had an Arctic exhibit that was awesome with a walrus that was being fed as we went through, polar bear that Ryan and Alli saw playing a ton, and 2 active Beluga Whales. We saw the penguins or "pengoes" which Alli thought were really cool. They had one area that had 8-10 different species in together so it was neat to compare sizes and personalities.

We saw the shows- Dolphins & Whales, Sea Lions (which are so hilarious, they are definitely one of my favorite animals), and of course the Shamu show. It amazes me the stadiums they have for those shows, especially Shamu-it's huge and it's practically full EVERY night!