California Part Deux

May 16th

We are very fortunate to both have grandparents whom we love to visit while we're in California. So after we left Jayna's Grandma Nilsa and Grandpa Roy's house we headed over to visit Matt's Grandma Olsen in Orange. We always have fun visiting her and we especially enjoy getting to play board games with her. Matt's cousin Hilary is staying with his grandma this summer as well, so it was a lot of fun to get to catch up with her as well. Shaylin and Emmalyn warmed up to her really quick and couldn't get enough of her. Every time Hilary wasn't in plain site, Shaylin would ask where she was. Emmalyn would go straight to Hilary almost every morning we were there. They loved her!

Here's grandma Olsen playing with Emmalyn and Shaylin shortly after we got there...


There's a nice big park a few miles down the road from grandma Olsen's house called Eisenhower Park. They have a big lake there with tons of ducks that Shaylin always enjoys feeding while we are there.


We forgot to explain to Emmalyn that the bread was supposed to be for the ducks...



Here's Emmalyn after devouring an Oreo...


Shaylin decided to put these Lego's on her fingers all by herself and then she was excitedly showing us all.


Hilary reading to the girls...


May 18th

We took a few pictures at grandma's house before we left to Sea World-

Emmalyn running around the driveway...


Emmalyn and Shaylin in front of the house...


Us with grandma Olsen in front of her house...


We got a really good deal on 2009 season passes last year when we were at Sea World, so we were excited to go again this year. We decided to save Sea World until the last day we were in California. Our plan was to get there as early as possible and then come straight home from there, and it actually worked out pretty well. We love going to California, but for some reason each time we go there we're surprised at how much traffic there is regardless of what time of day you're on the freeway. Our pessimistic attitudes towards the traffic started to rub off on Shaylin because the whole way to Sea World she kept saying 'Are we stuck in traffic?"

Emmalyn being cute in the stroller...


We couldn't get Shaylin to take her eyes off of Shamu for long enough to get a picture...


A few of Shamu's tricks...


Another one of Shaylin's favorite things at Sea World is the Penguin exhibit. Here's Jayna and Shaylin on the conveyor belt that takes you through it...


To no ones surprise Emmalyn sucked her thumb and played with her ear through most of the penguin experience...


We tried to go see a few more exhibits this time around and saw a few less shows. This was Shaylin's first time seeing the Wild Arctic exhibit with polar bears, beluga whales, and a few other animals. She watched the beluga whales for a while when we got to the part where you can see them under water.


Emmalyn was so excited when we let her out of the stroller to walk around...


This was later in the day when we were going back through the penguin exhibit again...


Emmalyn and Shaylin on the way home. Shaylin was getting a little delirious and putting the stickers she got from In-N-Out all over the place, including right between her eyes.