Discovery Kingdom

Last Saturday we cashed in the kids' Read to Succeed tickets they earned from Six Flags and headed for Discovery Kingdom, which is only about a half an hour or less unless you run into traffic, which of course, we did and sat in it for like - ever. None of us had ever been even though Yohn and I have lived here for almost ten years (can you believe it's been that long?). Animals and rides in one place, it's a great combination for kids needless to say.

The dolphin show was the first and best show we went to see. The dolphins were very cute and entertaining with all of their high flying jumps and tricks. I think the kids liked this show the most too.

We saw lots of characters throughout the park and the kids had, repeat had, to have their pictures taken with each and every one.

We did not get to see Oden in Oden's Temple only the other tigers that share space with him. We never really did find out why but the tigers were beautiful to see. Too bad my camera kept focusing on the fence because I took some great shots that got ruined because of it. One of these days I'll learn how to manually focus my camera instead of relying on the autofocus and then I will not whine about moments like this.

One of the tigers "tricks" is to dive for food. The older tiger got tired of doing it by the time he got around to our side of the tank, but when the 11 month old cub came out he seemed very excited to dive for his food.

Shouka is one of the park's main attractions and her show was absolutely packed out. We had this great idea for Yohn to go get us something to eat while the kids and I saved our seats. The show started and no Yohn. Elisha and Bethany spent most of the time watching out for Daddy who stood in line the entire time we were in the show and just barely had gotten our food when the show let out. Too bad, but seriously he didn't miss much. She was beautiful to look at and really soaked the audience (or those daring enough to sit in the very front, of which I was not because of my camera and the fact that it really wasn't that warm out) but the dolphins were more fun to watch.

After getting "showed-out" (meaning we kind of got tired of watching the animal shows) we found the kiddie rides. Bethany was very disappointed to find out that she could not ride all those big rides she saw on the way in because she is too short. I was not because #1) I don't ride roller coasters and #2) I hate those long lines. The only rides I like are the water rides and it was too chilly out for those. Elisha was neither disappointed or excited about missing the big rides so I don't think he really knows how he feels about them. However, he is a lot like me when it comes to these things so only time will tell if he'll be a ride kid or not.

This camel was cracking us up as we (Yohn and I) waited for the kids on the rides. She would not leave this stick alone. One time she dropped it over the fence and couldn't reach it by leaning over the fence. So she laid down and stretched out her neck as far as she could to reach it. Did you notice these are double humped camels. I seriously thought these were not really real. I mean I had seen them on cartoons but had never really seen one or a picture of one in real life so I kind of thought they were made up. Okay, okay, so I don't really know everything!

I love Elisha's face in this picture. This was his reaction the first time the frog "hopped".

The kids really loved this ride, but in Bethany's excitement to see the giraffes (and Yohn's need to use the bathroom) they only rode it once.

Bethany's absolute favorite animals are giraffes so, as you can imagine, we spend quite a bit of time watching them eat and walk around.

This is the park's baby giraffe (I can't remember his name). Did you know that baby giraffes are six feet tall at birth?!

The kids loved this tank where they could watch the dolphins and frankly, I think the dolphins like to be watched. They spin, swim upsidedown, and play a kind of peek a boo thing. Yes, we were here a while.

Yohn and the kids in line for the roller coaster in Bugs Bunny land (or whatever it's real name was).

Comin' around!

Elisha had a blast pretending to be Bugs Bunny. See him pretending to eat a carrot?

This is the one and only picture taken of me the entire time we were at the park. Hmmm.... Is that good or bad?

Apparently Yohn loves Speedy Gonsalez and I never knew it. See you can learn something new about your spouse all the time!

Oh no! Oden's loose and roaming the park! Or maybe it's just Bethany in her new costume.

Elisha had a hard time choosing what "friend" to take home but finally settled on this crocodile puppet. Beware you just might see him in a future posting if Elisha and Bethany's planning to do a puppet show we film comes through.

One last picture before we leave the park. Bugs is definately being himself here, eh?

Two very exhausted children sleep on the way home. You guessed it! They slept very well once we got home.