Trip to Cincinnati - Milmores and Traceys

Before leaving the eastern and central time zones we knew that we needed to have one last hurrah with the Milmores and their neighbors (Micah's friend Parker). So we decided to rendevouz in Cincinnati which was sort of a half-way point so that we could play at the hotel and hang out. So we stayed at the Lexington Hotel which was decent but had a nice big indoor pool with large gathering area. It wasn't the greatest place to stay but it certainly served its purpose. We ended up going to dinner at fabulous T.G.I. Fridays which was also a good time.

Trip to Arizona - Lunch With the Hoovers

A while back we joined facebook. It's been a really cool means for reconnecting with people we have since lost contact with for whatever reason. I was even able to have my family (me, my dad and brother) reconnect with my half sister. Anyway, to make a long story short we ran into some friends/acquaintenances of ours from high school there and learned that they were Christians who home schooled like us and they lived in Gilbert, AZ. So we decided to send them a message and ended up meeting them for lunch one day while we were there. It was a really good time and some great fellowship. It made me wish that we lived in the same town that they did. Here are the pictures.

Trip to Arizona - Sea World

The last visit in California was to Sea World in San Diego. The first exhibit we visited was Rocky Point Reserve where the kids got to pet the dolphins. It was $6 for three fish which was a total rip off but it got the dolphins close and let the kids to the front.















The first show we went to was the Dolphin Discovery. For the first 10 minutes or so they introduced a family that you later come to find out was a dad and his daughter with a woman who was actually a trainer who ends up "falling" into the water.













The second show we went to was Shamu Show: Believe. It was an amazing but sort of cheesy show that made the bizarre statement that humans and orcas have been trying to become one for ages. Not really too sure what that was all about. Other than that, the show was quite entertaining.













These pictures are at Flamingo Cove where you can gaze at some amazingly colorful (or so I'm told...I'm colorblind) Caribbean flamingos. Then there was this small really red bird that made Micah laugh uncontrollably. It was funny.














The last show we went to was called Pets Rule! It was a jaw dropping show (probably actually my personal favorite) where animals of all sorts did things you wouldn't even believe. I never realized that you could train ducks and cats.

Trip to Arizona - Legoland

For New Years we stayed the night near Disneyland and went to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Jazz Kitchen and watch the fireworks. The dinner was decent but definitely not worth the money. Before dinner we killed time by going to several stores.

Here we are riding the little tram to watch the fireworks. My sister-in-law Jenny read on the internet that there was a good view of the fireworks from the parking garage and so we went. It was funny because we got there like 45 minutes before it started and no one was there. But by the time the show started there were like 50-100 people there. The kids killed some time by playing red-light-green-light.























The next morning we got up and drove about 20 minutes north to Legoland. According to the kids this was the highlight of the trip. They were just the right age to go as it seemed to be geared to about 10 yr olds. Plus Micah is totally into Legos and when we showed up he thought that we were in heaven.

When you first come up toward the entrance you first see this Volvo with a family made out of Legos. When I first saw it I actually thought it was a real family!

Here are some hilarious pictures of everyone riding the roller coaster. Check out the picture of David and Nicole. I told David to cut out his face and put it as his facebook profile picture but he hasn't. I about died laughing when I first saw this picture. So then I decided to spice it up a bit and put David's head with some flames in the background.



















This ride was called Knight's Tournament where you get to select the difficulty of your ride on the robotic arm. It might have been the kids favorite ride though they may have liked the roller coaster better.

















One of the coolest features of Legoland was a section of the park called Miniland which was scale models of US cities built out of Legos with the landscape and such made out of real grass, real miniature trees, etc. It features reproductions of seven areas of the United States (i.e., Washington D.C., New Orleans, New York City, Florida, San Francisco and the Southern California coastline, and Las Vegas), all constructed with 20 million LEGO bricks in 1:20 scale.

One of the areas that we thought would be really cool but didn't turn out so great was the Volvo Driving School. I think the kids liked it but it was a little slow. It featured a miniature city area where the kids got to drive little cars and were supposed to obey the rules of the road (e.g., stop at signs and lights, etc.).

After all the chaos we went on the Fairy Tale Brook boat ride where we road through fair tale stories made out of Legos.

Finally here are some random pictures around the park.