After Tyler's conference ended, we were able to spend the rest of the weekend with him. We always love going to the beach, so this trip was no exception. We went to Coronado Island again which we enjoy because you go over the huge bridge to get there. With it being June instead of September or February, we thought it would be nice summer weather this time - perfect for the beach, but it was still cold and pretty windy. I forget not everywhere is 90 degrees by June like it is in Texas! Even though the water was chilly, the girls didn't mind playing with sand toys and looking for shells.
They still went in the water a little bit too. Once they were in, they got used to it and liked running in the waves, even though they spent the majority of their time digging in the sand. I love getting pictures with Tyler and the girls by the ocean. I don't know why, I just do. This one is of Tyler and Tessa.
The water was definitely too cold for Taryn, so we entertained her by burying her in the sand. Once she was buried, I decided I could easily turn her into a mermaid, which she loved. We then spent the next half hour or so turning everyone into mermaids.
The people next to us on the beach had created this amazing rendition of a turtle. They left before we did, so we were quick to head over there and take pictures with it. Tessa was so excited because she loves turtles so much. Isn't it amazing?!
We spent the entire day Saturday at the San Diego Zoo. Tyler was excited to do this because it was his one full day off, so this was his real vacation. Plus we all love zoos and all the animals.
Aubrey's favorite animal is the flamingo which was our first stop. We saw flamingo nests and even a flamingo egg which was awesome.
Abby posed in front of a monkey for me which is still my favorite animal. And we of course had to get one with Tessa by her favorite animal.
These monkey face masks were a definite picture spot. I thought it was hilarious that Tessa was able to climb up and reach the tall mask.
Tyler wanted to join in on the fun as well, so he took his turn with Taryn.
There were so many baby animals at the zoo. We stayed and watched the baby hippo for a long time. It was really funny watching the mom push the baby along with her snout to help the baby hippo swim. We watched the baby from underneath the water swim all the way to the top and then climb out which is when I took the picture.
Monkeys and gorillas are my favorite. We saw some baby monkeys too and it was fun to watch them swing and play around. My four monkey girls had fun playing around too on the statues.
They had these metal statues throughout the zoo. I'm only including a few pictures even though we probably stopped to take pictures at all of them. Here's one when all for girls were happy enough to take a picture together. (Although maybe not, considering Taryn's face.) I had Aubrey stop to take a selfie with me and this pretty flower. They were all over, and they were so big and colorful.
We took the sky tram to the opposite side of the zoo. This is what the girls said was their favorite part of the whole trip when we talked about it on our drive back home. We were up pretty high and the girls didn't seem to be scared at all. They liked that each tram car had a different animal on it. Ours had the Kookaburra bird. Tyler and Abby rode in the tram behind us since they wouldn't allow more than four per tram.
One of the zoo's most recent new animals was the polar bear. They had a whole new section called the Polar Bear Plunge with lots of fun picture spots.
They had this awesome sea lion display complete with tunnels for the kids to climb through and these lookout holes. I loved these pictures.
We waited for a very long time to see another one of their newer exhibits - the panda bear exhibit. It was a long line, but the girls were good and we saw some cool animals along the way. The pandas were sleeping when we got to see them, and so was Taryn who had fallen asleep in the stroller during the wait.
The San Diego zoo is the largest zoo in the United States so we did a lot of walking. There are a ton of stairs too, but luckily they also had some moving walkways. We took some pictures as we waited to be carted up to the top of a particularly high part of the zoo. One picture of the girls in front of me and one picture of Tyler and Taryn behind me.
As we neared the closing time of the zoo, we still had a couple sections of the zoo that we hadn't made it to yet. We decided to hop on one of the double decker buses to save our feet and see the last few animals like the lions and elephants. We were able to get on the top deck to be able to see the animals better, but it was pretty sunny. Taryn and I sat across from everyone else.
Our bus drive who talked about all the animals we saw was very excited to tell us about the baby giraffe that was only a couple weeks old. I don't think they had even named it yet. Once we got off the bus, we had to walk closer to get a better look. It was so cute. It's right between the two big giraffes, directly above Tessa's head in the picture.
We finished off our day on the very last tour bus that circles the entire zoo. We were one of the last ones on the bus so we were on the bottom level for this ride, but we were happy to be in the shade.
We had a great time at the zoo and everyone was happy seeing their favorite animals and all the other awesome things we saw and did there. It was a great way to finish off our family vacation and the perfect way to start our summer.
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