Steve-o sleeping on the plane
Dad doing his puzzles and with the light looks Holy or something:)
We took the bus to get our rental van and then we headed off for our great day!
Shauri, Shalece, and me on the bus
Steve-o waiting patiently for our lunch to come. . . he wanted to wait by the 'cool area'
Outside of our condo: Shalece, Shauri, and Lez
After unloading our bagage we headed off to the famous San Dieo Zoo. The Zoo turned out to be a lot of fun. We took a bus tour first and saw a lot of the zoo and from there we went on foot. At the end of the day we had prettty much had it. . . We were all REAL tired from waking up early that morning, the plane flight, and then the zoo. I bet we were quite the sight walking out of the zoo that afternoon!
The lions going fishing
The elephant had an itch. . . HILARIOUS!
Next stop was the primates. . . dad said he wanted to go see the family:)
Uh do you see that face!?!? HUGE! I hope to never run into that thing in the wild. The one behind it was grooming it and every now and again I guess it pulled on the hair too hard because the front one would slap the other's hand:)
Waiting in line to see the hippos
Man that looked so comfortable. . . we especially wanted to do that as we were leaving the zoo.
Later that evening we went to the beach. Shauri had never been to the ocean before and the girls were excited to go swimming. The wind was a little too cold for me to get in the water so I rolled up my pants and got my legs and feet wet.
Steve-o motivating himself to run into the cold ocean. . .
. . . and he DID IT!
The girls slowly making thier way out
Love this picture! Kaden telling them to run out and then the girls getting hit with a huge wave:)
Steve-o and Dad having a contest to see who can get the deepest in the sand. Dad almost ate it a couples times when waves would come up.
LOVE the ocean!
Okay next. . . Family Day at the Marine camp! We were all so excited to see Andrew again and of course the tension and anxiety was all mixing together in the van. To get through the gates all vehicles had to be searched, which means it took forever to get through! My aunt Lez that morning suggested that her girls bring thier ID's just in case we needed them. I wasn't going to bring mine, but at the last minute grabbed it. Turned out that it was a good thing Lez read her scriptures that morning. Besides getting out of the car, showing vehicle registration, opening the trunk and hood, we had to also show our ID's. . . Thanks Lez!
At this point everyone is a little more relaxed . . . but man we want to see Andrew. We find a parking spot and see a huge crowd of people and we can hear them. . . . yes the drill sargeants. The Drill instructors voices are shot!!!! They were yelling at us and telling us what they did to our loved ones. . . to say the least my family wasn't impressed much. I could never do that stuff. I would constantly be crying. Anywho then we could hear the marines coming. They were led by thier drill instructors and ran past the families. We didn't know how we were going to find Andrew but Kaden spotted him right off the bat. As he put it "He is the one bobbing up and down". Sure enough there was andrew in the very first group second row, tall one, and making it easy for us to spot him. But man we were very shocked to see how skinny he is!!!! After that they made the families go into a theater to watch a movie and then be introduced to the drill instructors. Then back outside to the stadium seating. By this point we were sick of it all. . . we wanted to see and talk to Andrew!!!! Not much later we got our chance. It was so good to see him again. Man I love my brother so much! I am so proud of him and what he has been able to accomplish.
It was truly a sight to see all of them!
Andrew spotting us. . . don't know if he is suppose to be looking at us and smiling. BUT we really didn't care:)
After the new marines were dismissed for the afternoon. Mom got him first.
Then dad was next
At the luncheon Andrew's Branch provided to the members and guests. The Branch President is a very nice man, you can tell that he cared for each of the marines that he watched over. I love being a member of this church and knowing that wherever you go the church is there to watch over its members!
We left Andrew that afternoon and headed out after a very long day. On our way back to the condo we stopped to see the San Diego temple.
The next day was graduation for Andrew! Here are some pics:)
After the graduation they dismissed them. . . saying goodbye to Platoon 2101!
Then we did some sight seeing on a tour boat of San Diego Bay and then went to the USS Midway. Best part of the day. . . the discounts our family now gets because Andrew is a Marine:) Got on for free to the USS Midway and saved a lot!
Downward dog in San Diego. . Check!
Waiting for our tour boat to take us on our field trip to the bay
Boarding the USS Midway
Sleeping quarters for those who were on board
The place was so cramped! Best part of the tour. . . trying to keep up with my dad as he tried to find a way out. He got a little claustrophobic:)
Ejection seats for airplanes
