Saturday the 1st August - SeaWorld !!!

On Saturday morning I decided that I only wanted to go to SeaWorld around 12ish so we could stay late and see some of the evening shows so I told Dave that he should take Jade to the beach for the morning which is what they did and Amber and I hung out at the hotel, man I cannot believe that we were in San Diego and so close to the beach and I didn't even get to put my feet in the sand let alone swim in the ocean, in fact I thought I would get to work on my tan but didn't get out of the shade much other than in the parks we visited of course. Can't say I enjoyed travelling with a baby, thank God she was not too much of a challenge as long as I keep her happy which was a 24/7 job and exhausting. We usually go away for Daves birthday which is the Labor Day weekend but I told him after this trip ... I think I will give it a skip this year, it's too exhausting and well honestly no fun for me at all so I would rather stay home where it's comfy and plan something fun from there.

Anyway after Amber woke up from her nap, I put her in a chair to do her neck exercises and she was in such a happy mood she just couldn't stop smiling, here are just three of the pics I took. By the way she is starting to giggle we think, she has done it about 3 times now, very cute. The first time was with Jade which was very special :-)








Ok off to SeaWorld, wow, wow, wow, what an amazing place, we were there from just after 12 till way after 10 that night and I don't think we saw the half of it, it was so totally amazing, I can't wait to go back again. I have to say very much to I am sure many peoples disgust, I totally enjoyed this vacation more than our trip to Disney, even with Amber in tow ... I loved all the parks we went to and really had a fun time, it would have been more fun had I gotten to go on more rides or see more shows but you know, we will go again one day and see more so we have something to look forward to.

The first show we went to was the Shamu and friends show, well it brought tears to my eyes how close and lovable these animals, these huge animals are with their trainers, they love each other so much it is so clear to see. I think maybe now other than a doctor or a vet, Jade has a third career she is interested in :-)







We totally loved the show, the only thing Jade wanted us to do differently next time, she wants to sit in the wet zone where Shamu splashes you with her tail, actually drenches you but anyway, maybe I will send her and Dave down there next time (hehehe).

Then Dave and Jade went on this wet ride, Jade loves these rides but in all honesty they hardly got wet on this one compared to one they did later the evening which unfortunately I didn't get pics of coz I was feeding Amber but they were so wet I had to change Jade into dry clothes coz it was cooler there in the evening and she eventually got cold.





Sitting waiting for the dolphin show to start.

I missed the Sea Lion show which Dave and Jade said was really funny ... but I did get to see a pet show which was very sweet but I didn't get any pics there.



More flamingos ...



Dave and I ... wishful thinking right (hehehe).



They had a huge, huge, huge fun play area for kids but I wish we had more time to hang around there, next time I think I will do two days at SeaWorld.



Before we left the park, we watched a Shamu and Friends late show, an evening show in the dark, it was amazing and there was fireworks afterwards, what a nice way to end the evening. We got back to the hotel just before 12 that evening after stopping on the way home for dinner which Jade missed coz she fell asleep in the car, poor thing. What a fun day, definitely the best park in San Diego !!!

Remember to scroll down ok :-) ... more to come.

Thursday the 30th and Friday the 31st - San Diego !!!

Thursday I had the most relaxing day ever, we went slow the morning and left the hotel at about 10 ish after yet again a 4h30 morning, golly that made the days very long !!! Anyway while Dave was in conference us girls went to spend the day with Tania and her two girls, Tania is Des Easoms neice, she and I have been in contact ever since we moved over here to the States but we have only seen each other once or twice before but we looked forward to hanging out with them at their home. Jade of course had a ball coz her eldest daughter Talya is Jades age and her youngest is three so the girls got along well. Also Tania has a wonderful outdoor entertainment area with an awesome pool with a waterfall which Jade was amazed by and a trampoline which as you know Jade loves too, so while she enjoyed that Tania and I sat in the shade next to the pool and of course the waterfall sound had Amber sleeping like a log for a good long while.

So we hung out there for the day but hit the road again before the traffic started, I didn't want to get caught in traffic, the road out there to me where a challenge, always very busy and I think they drive far faster there than by us, or it seemed that way, the roads are huge, sometimes with 5 or 6 lanes ... anyway outside the city was ok for me to negotiate but golly the city streets were a little scary for me, they have so many modes of transport that you are always watching out for these little bikes that transport two people in the back, then a train that travels by frequently, oh golly ... the city made me a nervous wreck but thank God we survived it.

Anyway, I didn't take many pics at Tania's place which was sad, I should have gotten a family pic but I think I was relaxing so nicely my brain took a break too. Thank you so much Tania for having us over, it was so nice spending time with y'all and we hope to be back one day to visit again. Wish there was some way to get you to us for a visit, maybe one Summer you could come across for a vacation ... hint hint.

On the way home we quickly stopped off at a local park so Jade could play a bit and well I needed to calm Amber down, she doesn't really like riding in the car so every trip was a screaming session which wore both Jade and I out big time. Anyway this park we were at, what was amazing to me is it is so close to the airport that the big planes come so low over the park it's almost scary and so very loud yet that didn't bother Amber at all. After that we were off to the hotel to wait for Dave.

Then on Friday Jade and I were going to go the Wild Animal Park which is partnered with the San Diego Zoo but yet the two of them are nowhere near each other, it would be my longest drive from the hotel alone which I wasn't too bothered about as long as I could get out of the city in one piece but when Dave said that he would be done shortly after 12 with his conference, I said I would rather hang around the hotel and have him go with us, than way he could help me out in the park with the girls ... I was excited !!! So we had a slow morning and then headed out once Dave got back to the room.

The Wild Animal Park was not as amazing as the zoo but it was still great, I am not going to write much about it, I am just going to add as many pics as I can ... so here goes.



Jades definitely got a thing for flamingos ... great pic of the two of them though.



A familiar South African face ...



There was this huge nest in the middle of this big water feature, the pelican on the right was actually sitting on an egg.



Some pretty birds ...





There were a couple of tours that you could take, we took a tram tour which drove us around the park and gave us a bit of info about all the animals we saw. I was amazed they used the Afrikaans names for most of the animals and pronounced them all pretty well, I was impressed :-)



You could also take a tour like this and get to feed some of the animals by hand but that would just be too hard for us all to do so we passed on that one, thankfully Jade was happy with the petting zoo so we were good :-)



This was definitely a different kind of petting zoo to the usual type, I am not sure Jade will get to touch animals like this very often, what a great experience.











Jade sitting in a nest ... cute house for a cute little girl right ?



Dave and Jade on the wild animal carosel.





After the park, we went off to Tanias house again for a BBQ or a true SA'n braai with steak and boerewors and home made potatoe salad, all very yummy. It also gave Dave and Rob a chance to meet and chat. Jade obviously had a great time with Talya too which wore her out enough thank God that both she and Amber woke up at a more decent hour the next morning.

Thanks again Rob and Tania for having us over, it was great hanging out with you guys and getting to know you more :-) We hope to do it again some day in the not too distant future.





Remember to scroll down to see more on our trip.

Off To Sunny San Diego - July 28th and 29th ...

Well this is going to be a long update but I will divide it up in days again so it makes more sense, or hopefully it does.

Ok so the morning of the 28th which was a Tuesday we had to be up bright and early, we needed to be at the airport by 5h50 to get a plane by 6h50 which meant being up at 3h50 to leave at 4h50 ... everyone showed and Amber got her bottle and off to the airport we went, so far so good.

Check in went ok and we took off on time, Amber did just fine, ate when she had to, slept when she had to and thankfully kept the pacifier in during both take off and landing so that she didn't experience any ear issues. Jade on the other hand has always had ear issues and she really was uncomfortable at times on the flight, no matter how much she chewed or tried to pop her ears, poor thing. The flight attendant actually told me about something to try next time which I must get for her to make it easier.

Anyway so we landed in Texas, had breakfast and then literally ran to get our next flight which at that point we were the last to board, golly, that is so not like me but you can tell that Dave worked out the timing right ? Take off and landing again went well, that was about 5 hours worth of flying time and yet we still landed in San Diego at somehere between 10 and 11 in the morning, the time difference really made for a long day.

Now what we had done to make things easier is we didn't check our stroller in but used it right to the door of the plane, then took Amber and well I held her in my arms for the duration of the trip ... now when we start leaving the plane the stroller is normally at the door for us to pick up but on leaving our last flight there was no stroller and no carseat which obviously totally freaked me out right ? To make matters worse I think Amber needed to get out of my arms, she was hot and bothered and well now so was I. The eventually told us to walk to where our baggage is picked up and hope to God it was there which is what we did, Amber of course screamed all the way which had me wanting to scream with her !!!

So we get to baggage and get all our suitcases on a cart but still no stroller and no carseat, so Dave went to chat to someone, better him than me coz at that stage I would just have been rude to whoever was there to help me. Eventually they found my stroller and my carseat but now there was another problem, the base that Ambers carseat clips into and Jades booster seat were nowhere to be found, they were check in with our baggage but had not come off the plane with the rest of our stuff, now what ? Poor Jade was in tears coz she thought we were going to have to live on the airport for a week !!!

Eventually the American Airlines guy ( Did I mention that now I totally hate all American Airlines !!! ) said we should hang out at the airport for another hour or so there would be another flight from Texas arriving and maybe our stuff was on there but he couldn't be sure of course, so thank God by this point Amber was asleep, and Jade was playing her DS, thank God for Ds's so Dave went off to get our rental car while I waited for the next plane to arrive, well when it finally did I could have shouted with joy to see our two missing pieces come around on the conveyer belt. By that stage we had all had enough of the airport and were very thankful that the hotel allowed us to check in early :-). Very nice hotel, I knew I was going to enjoy spending the week there :-) Thank you Family Dollar !!!

After getting settled, we knew with the three hour time difference that we were all going to be tired early that night so we decided just to go take a drive around and to pop by the store to pick up some essestials to last us the week. In the picture below you will see a big bridge that we could see from our hotel room, well we took a drive across there onto a beautiful island, it was really pretty there and the beach reminded David of Cape Town ... still not sure how come I got stuck in the car feeding Amber and Dave got to go on the beach with Jade, he hates the beach and I love it but oh well right ... Here's a pic of the beach, actually the only one he got really which I was sad about, you know me, I would have taken more pics but at least you can see how similar the beach is to Cape Town.



We got a very early start the next morning, Jade and Amber both were up at 4h30 which totally killed us but I guess with the time difference, that was their normal wake up time but as much as we tried to get them to go back to sleep, there was no go ... so on went the Tv at 5am, I couldn't believe it !!! Anyway this pic was taken later the morning before we headed out, Jade is feeding Amber on the window seat while checking out the view, looks scary right ???



Obviously I wanted the best view out but travelling with Amber I was more concerned about disturbing neighbors etc. so I didn't fight for the best view like I normally did, I asked if I could be put somewhere quiet which thankfully I got but in doing so I missed getting a room that looked over the marina which was so very pretty. Anyway we got a room that for one we could see the pool below which Jade loved coz she could see if there were lots of kids there and whether or not she wanted to go down whenever we had a chance, also we looked over the bay so watched ships go in and out, from passenger liners, to huge military boats that were amazing, lined with navy guys in their white uniforms like you see in the movies or even like below we watched submarines come and go which was totally amazing so the room wasn't too bad after all. Also Daves conference had their breaks on a deck just above the pool so we could look down and see when he took a break too which was nice, we could phone and say hi :-)



Ok so Jade and I went off to the world famous San Diego Zoo and all I can say is wow, wow, wow, what a huge, amazing zoo, just wish Dave was with us so he could help me with Amber, what I didn't give much thought to was that every ride you went on or every show you went to see, you had to park your stroller at the entrance and carry the carseat in, well Amber might only be about 13 odd pounds and with the weight of the carseat and carrying a hugely full diaper bag too, I really carried my ass off and took big time strain. Jade and I still tried to do as much as we could so we wouldn't miss out on anything but it was hot too and as I said I took strain but we spent the entire day there and I think we saw as much as we could. Again, what an amazing zool.

Obviously I took way way too many pics of animals which I won't bore you too much with but here are a few Zoo pics.



There was a huge kids area with a climbing thing and this spinning thing which Jade loved but it left her dizzy all the time, how can she like that feeling yuk !!! There was also a petting zoo here which Jade loved but there was also one at the Wild Animal Park that we went to on Friday so I will add those pics when I do that update.





There were lots of these all over the zoo so when we found one free, they were always busy coz everyone wanted pics on the, then I would quickly snap a pic of Jade.



I got Jades face painted. They actually did the most amazing work there, painted peoples entire faces to look like animals but not only did I think it was crazy to pay the fortune they were asking to have that done, although the work probably was well worth it but the kids were getting all sweaty and well kept on wiping off the paint so before long your face looked a mess so I decided just to go with this little one so that Jade didn't feel left out. It actually looked prettier than in this picture.



Then we did this areil ride above the entire zoo, we stood in a long line in the sun which killed me moving the car seat every few minutes but we eventually made it to the front and it was worth the wait ONLY what I didn't know is that the ride went from A - B and when getting to B you got off and if you wanted to go back to A you had to once again stand in a long line in the sun to get back on and go back to A where of course my stroller was parked ... oh well you live and learn, that took a long time for us and thankfully Amber only fussed at the end so we all survived it :-)





Funny monkey face pic :-)



Another one on the hippo ...



After the zoo we went back to the hotel and we went down to the pool to pass the time till Dave got out of the conference. Because it was soooooooo much cooler in San Diego than it is in North Carolina, Jade actually enjoyed the jacuzzi more than the pool, me of course got to sit on the sidelines with Amber in the shade, oh how much more fun I would have had this vacation if we didn't have a baby in tow, what a fun place, we will definitely have to go back again when Amber is older, so much to do there !!!



Remember I am doing these updates one day at a time so keep scrolling down as you go along ok :-)

27th July 2009

Some of you might know that we have taken Amber to a physio therapist to have her neck evaluated and it seems she has Left Torticollis which means she favors looking to the one side which make the muscle on the other side weak ... thus lots of exercise so wish us luck, we are off to San Diego soon so taking on an exercise regimen now is going to be tough. Anyway here she is lying stretching those muscles ... or trying to, by this point she was worn out.

25th July - Pics of the girls !!!

These were taken last night, everyone in their pj's and ready for bed but still happy as can be :-)









So Tuesday we leave for San Diego so you won't hear from me again till we are back, I think I said we were back Sunday but we are actually back Monday, hopefully it is a good trip, I have a ton of fun things planned for Jade, Amber and I to do while Dave is in conference, hopefully we will have some good beach time too, but that will have to be done after hours when Dave can help me. Also spending the day Thursday with Tania, a friend from Cape Town, that should be fun, her girls are similar in age to Jade. And Friday we are having a BBQ over at their house so the guys can chat too, I know we will have a great time with them, so can't wait !!!

It's a long way there and back and to save money we are not doing non-stop and stopping in Texas :-( I hope it's not too bad of a decision :-( Our flight out of Charlotte is at 6h40 or there about so we need to be at the airport at 5h40 so need to leave home at 4h40 so will probably wake up at 3h40, oh my gosh, that is all I can say, that and all the time changes, it's going to mess us up so much, hopefully little Amber does well.

There are security issues with taking water on the plane so I am trying to find a good way to take as many bottle of formula for Amber without running into trouble, that is a bit of a worry but hopefully we can figure something out. Gosh one would think that if I could fly to SA with a 4 week old with a 10 hour layover in London, that this would be a piece of cake but 7 years later, well that's a long time ago so I can't tell you how nervous I am about all this, thank God there is lots to look forward to and that is all I am trying to focus on.

Amber still has the runs but it is much better now, so hopefully that is almost a thing of the past, golly can you believe that after 1 week of a tummy bug she still put on half a pound, oh golly !!! Shows you how much she eats right ?

Please God let this be an easy trip with Amber, that's all I pray and for our safety there and back, flying is becoming so much more scary these days !!!

Ok so till then, bye for now.