Sunday in San Diego

Okay, so the kids thought that they had the world's BEST DAY ever yesterday. . . until today! We woke up and had our FREE breakfast at the hotel. . . which the kids thought was AWESOME!!! They think that this hotel is the coolest because not only do they have an outdoor swimming pool, but they give us breakfast every morning too! Otto has also decided this place is awesome because they have a Mrs. Pac Man and a Galaga arcade game and I love it because of the HUGE yellow sign that is lit up on the side of the hotel so that when I am driving here at nighttime, I can't miss the hotel!! Trust me, this is a huge blessing!! And, we also moved into the room that we will be staying in for the rest of our time here (I had to extend our stay by a couple of days because we could only get flights on those days so we had to stay in the other room for a night), and this room has a little kitchenette. Actually, that is the only difference from our other room. We have two queen sized beds, a roll away cot and Lee's carseat and the little kitchenette and bathroom, and that is the hotel room that the 7 of us are sharing. So far it has been okay. . . well, not exactly ok . . . . last night Dustin screamed for about an hour until Otto finally took him outside and slept in the van. For some reason, sleeping in the van was the only thing that worked, and I was amazed that they actually spent the entire night out there. That is way more brave than I would be, but Otto didn't want Dustin to wake up the girlies, so that was the only way, I guess.
Today we started out our adventures by going to San Diego's Wildlife park. We got to go on an African safari, pet some parakeets and some deer, learn about frogmouth birds and play in the spray park. I think that the highlight for the girlies, though was when they got to have their faces painted. There were these booths and they were amazing at face painting, and Anne kept on asking for it, and because I had saved some money by bringing snacks into the park instead of buying food there, I decided that it would be worth it to splurge some money on these face paintings. Well, Caroline ended up with this beautiful butterfly (complete with sparkles) face painting, Anne had a swan mask (also with sparkles) and Abby had basically a sparkly blue mask painted onto her face. They looked pretty cool, and the girlies thought that they were so special because they got these face paintings, so that made me feel as though it was money well spent.
After we went to Wildlife park, we stopped in to McDonalds for lunch. It was cheaper than eating inside the park and it is food that I know that the kiddies will eat. For a long time now, the girlies have heard me talk about how when I was a little girl and my mom would take me to McDonalds the playplaces were outside. I don't think that they believed me, but when we pulled up to McDonalds and they saw the playplace outside, I again became the coolest mom ever! Anne was the first to point out the face that the playplace was outside just like when I was a little girl, and they all wanted to go and play on it. Even though I was very anxious to get to our next destination, I let them go and play on the playplace so that Otto and I could spend some time with Lee. The poor baby has basically spent the last two days and nights completely in his carseat and I do feel bad, but he has been so good that I have been so grateful for it at the same time. Plus, he will probably have to spend most of this entire vacation in that seat so hopefully he will continue to be the calm, easygoing baby that he has been so far!
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Legoland. People, if you have children 10 and younger. . . . GO TO LEGOLAND!!!! This place is soooooo cool. If I were to do Legoland again, I would probably spend an entire day there because we weren't able to experience the whole park, but what we did experience was soooooooo cool! We went and saw a show and the girls were chosen to participate in it. Pretty much everything in Legoland is actually made out of lego. The rides at the park are all geared towards children and most of them are made to look like lego. We walked through mini land where there are exact replicas of some of the most famous places in North America. There was a replica of New York completely made out of lego that even had a running lego subway and cars. There were moving people and I can't even describe how cool and intricate and detailed everything was. . . . so I took videos of it instead! We got to watch a lego jazz funeral in mini New Orleans and a quickie lego wedding in mini Las Vegas. We even walked by Old MacDonald's farm where the mini lego animals and band were all singing and dancing to the music. . . . sooooooo cool! I had been debating whether or not we should go to Legoland, and I am so glad that we did go. Dustin even got to pose with Lego Lifesized Bob the builder, Thomas the Tank engine and Otto joined him in his pose with Lifesized Lego Darth Vader (they even got their own lego light sabor) and R2D2.
Finally we ended off the day in what Otto calls the most wonderful place on earth. To the rest of us it is known by its other name. . . Walmart. We went and picked up some groceries for the next couple of days and walked around the store for a bit.
Before I end this entry, I just want to say this. I often get teased . . . okay I get teased alot because I always need a plan. If I am going to go anywhere or do anything I have to get everything in order and know where I am going to next and put things into a schedule. Now, I can be flexable with my schedule, but there has to be one in place or else I feel lost and overwhelmed. I get made fun of ALOT for this!! Seriously!!! But today I was so grateful for this little quirk of mine because it has saved us sooo much money and time. There was no wasting time wondering what we are going to do next, and so far we have come up right on budget for our vacation. I have put us on quite a tight budget because we don't have alot of extra cash at the moment, but we have been able to have alot of fun and not really miss out on anything because I have done ALOT of research into our trip before we left. I bought these San Diego Go 5 day Go Passes (which cost me $750 up front) and I was really nervous about getting them because I wasn't sure if they would be worth it or if there would be too many restrictions on when I could use them and other things, but they have just about completely paid themselves off and that is from just using them for 1 day. We still have 4 more days to go before they expire. To top it all off, as we found out today, when we use the Go passes to get into a park, it doesn't just buy the basic admission ticket. . . . it buys the VIP tickets which include extra rides, tours and shows. That has made Wildlife and Legoland so much more fun and cost effective. Since we have been here we have spent less than $100 a day on food, entertainment, gas, and everything else. . . not too shabby for a family of 7 if you ask me. Even though I am a little bit worried about finances (what else is new), with the exception of Anne (who thinks that we haven't done enough shopping for toys and clothes) no one has complained about missing anything (I don't think that we have actually had to give up on anything that anyone would notice) or not being able to do things.
Another day is over and now my beautiful children are all asleep along with my wonderful husband. I always love taking the kiddies on trips and I only wish that I could do it more often. I know that we are making memories that will last a lifetime and I am so glad that we came on this trip.
Until tomorrow. . . and in case you didn't notice, I still haven't found my journal. . . thanks for reading!