Summer Vacation - Part 1

At the end of June, we took our wonderful vacation with the Anderson family crew. Since that vacation, I have been struggling to stay ahead in all aspects of my life. Between catching up at work, another horse auction, swimming lessons, and all the everyday happenings between, it has been crazy at the Stanleys. I can definately do my share of complaining but over all we are having a great and fast summer.

I had mentioned in earlier posts that we were taking our extended family vacation to Disneyland this year and it definately did NOT disappoint. My kids are still talking about it and want to go back next summer. (ha ha) If only money grew on trees. The cast of characters that went on this trip are as follows:
Gran & Paw Paw - Joe & Pat Anderson
The Vosses - Randal, Pam, Anna, Avery, Ashlyn
The Daniels - Todd, Penni, Hayden, Elli Kate
The Stanleys - Jody, Amy, Savanna, Shane

We all decided that it would be easier to plan our own way there and meet up at Disneyland for 3 days. Of course, my mom does not fly so they drove all the way to California - yuck. But good for us because we were able to pack our clothes early and have them take them for us. Anyway, we decide to fly into San Diego - visit the San Diego zoo and then travel on up to Anaheim to meet up with the rest - visit Hollywood and then Disneyland. It was the best trip ever!!!

I took around 500 photos. My O My. For today or part 1, I have selected SOME from our flight into San Diego and our trip to the zoo.



On the plane - they did so well. I brought coloring books and my laptop to watch movies.

Jody sat next to a very friendly and nice man who was flying back home to San Diego so he gave us directions and told us about some great places to visit while we were there. But since we were staying over only one night, there wasn't enough time to do everything. With what we saw of San Diego it is the neatest town and we would love to go back one day. This was a seafood place that the airplane guy told us about and it was so good.

Outside of the resturant, there was this performer who was painted and looked like a statue and the kids got a kick out of him scaring people when he moved.

Below are pictures of our ZOO time on Father's Day.

The zoo had recently opened up a new part for their elephants and it was amazing.

We gave the kids disposable cameras to use and Shane took all of his pictures within the first 10 minutes that we were there and from then on he would continually wind it which drove me nuts.

In the park, they had a zip line that the kids loved riding and the views of the zoo were neat to see.

I always love getting pictures of them like this.

These flowers or plants below were in the reptile exhibits and I thought they were unusual but pretty.

While we waited for an animal and sea lion show, I was scoping out the next place we should go. There was so much to see - it would probably be better to see it in 2 days instead of one. We were so tired by the end of the day and we still had to drive another hour.

When we would ask the kids what their favorite animal was, Savanna said this one below was her favorite. She called it half zebra, half mule, but I have no idea the name of it.

We had to wait in line to see the pandas - they are so cute.

Our drive up the coast to Anaheim - we took the scenic route and stopped at a beach along the way.

To be continued ..... hopefully soon.