California

   Bear with me, this is a very picture heavy post.

   On arriving in CA, we checked into our hotel rooms and explored the beautiful coast in hopes of finding a beach to fly kites on.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find an easy way down to the beach.  We did have a fun walk though, and Michael enjoyed walking and talking with his Grandma Veronin:

The next morning, we headed to Legoland, which was surprisingly fun for everyone.  It had some bigger rides for older kids, but a lot of rides and entertainment for young children.  They had a lot of fun statues made out of legos, like this velociraptor:

Michael loved the fossil dig "ride," where he just dug in the dirt for a half hour while everyone else rode actual rides:

He also really liked this water gun where he got to squirt lego frogs.  He had a great time yelling "Water! Water!":

They also had a jumping fountain area where I was surprised Michael had as much fun as he did.  He got really wet, even laying down at one point to get a better look at one of the jets and got absolutely soaked.

Here's just a cute video of him running around and other kids there:

They even had an awesome Sea Life experience that Michael loved:

But his favorite thing at Legoland was the train ride ("Choo choo! Choo choo!").  He loved every second of it and cried every time we had to get off.  We'd immediately jump back in the very short line and be able to get on again within a few minutes.  Michael was very upset at the wait and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him to the train once the gate opened: 

Tess really liked the driving track for little kids.  I felt really bad for the lady running the ride, though.  Most of her job consisted of pulling the terrible, tiny drivers away from walls and back onto the track.  Tess spent most of the time waiting for the poor woman to come put her back on the track:

I even got to ditch Michael for a bit to ride some bigger rides.  The entire day was a lot of fun!:

After Legoland, we headed North to the beach house we would stay at for the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.  We only had to walk a couple hundred feet to the beach in our backyard.  It was really amazing and everyone loved the beach... except for Michael (of course):

Mary got some really cute pictures of Ki and Tess running on the beach:

And though you can't see them in this picture, we saw dolphins! (I will admit I kind of overreacted when I saw a fin off the shore and started yelling "Fin! Fin!" to my Dad.  He saw them and yelled "Dolphins!" to Mary.  I was really afraid it had been a shark.  Silly me.)  Mary swam out to them and I think she got to touch one:

Katie got partially buried and decided to be an octopus instead of a mermaid:

Then Ki wanted a turn:

Michael wouldn't even play in the wet sand down by the beach.  He only wanted to dig in the hot, dry stuff right behind the beach house:

The Safari Park was fantastic.  We went on the African Plains tour and saw a lot of incredible animals.  Michael really loved it:

We also got to see the Cheetah Run.  It was absolutely amazing.  Cheetahs are so beautiful:

I even got a video of the run.  I really wanted to edit it and just get a still of the cheetah racing by, but my software wasn't working.  Sorry.  Watching her run after her toy is pretty cool though.  I'm sorry it lasts 30 seconds since the actual running lasts all of a split second:

The San Diego Zoo was a lot of fun.  I didn't take as many pictures here though.  Just take my word for it that it's definitely worth seeing.  

They had a petting zoo where you could pet goats, sheep, pigs, and tiny ponies (only at certain times a day for the ponies):

We even got to witness two goats get into a small spat.  It was really cool, but a little scary with so many small kids around.  Thankfully, it was really short:

It was a really long, exciting day, but Michael was good enough to take a bit of a nap for me.  What a good little boy:

We came back to Utah and ended up not hitting Lagoon or Cherry Hill, but we had a lot of fun just hanging out with family.  Katie and Amy slept at our house so they could spend extra time with the fam (Amy had really been missing Ki and Tess and they all ended up sharing a bed because the kids didn't want to leave her either).
Overall, it was an amazingly fun trip.  I love roadtrips.  I especially love that Michael is growing up with roadtrips and handles them surprisingly well.
Thank you, Mom and Dad, for inviting us on your fantastic trip!  Let's do it again sometime soon!