Once in California, we stayed at a resort on Coronado Island. We love going over that huge bridge to get to the island and usually do our beach trips there. Here are the girls outside our resort room. In the second picture, you can see the bridge that we drive over to get to Coronado Island. These couches were right outside our resort which was right along the beach.
The cool thing about the resort we stayed at were the flamingos that lived there. We could see them from our room's patio. The girls thought that was so cool. We swam in their heated pool and used their volleyball and basketball courts too.
We ate dinner at the Bluewater Boathouse Seafood Grill and it was super yummy. We tried different fish and shrimp and we all loved all the food. We had to wait awhile to get our table, so we took a picture outside the restaurant by the marina.
We walked along the beach while waiting to be seated for dinner too. The girls liked walking in the waves and looking for shells and sand dollars. We found probably a dozen full sand dollars, but made sure to leave the ones that were still alive (we found some of those ones too!)
While at the resort, we were able to rent their bikes for an hour, so Tessa and Aubrey rode bikes along the beach, while I jogged along with them. It was pretty fun, although Tessa scratched her leg on a broken piece on her bike, so we had to end a little earlier to get her cleaned up and bandaged. Aubrey and I rode a little longer after that, which is where we found this playground that Aubrey had to check out for a little bit.
The next day, we headed to Sea World in San Diego. We haven't been to Sea World since Abby was a baby. It was a surprise to the three younger girls, so they kept trying to ask and guess where we were headed. When we were driving into the parking area for Sea World, Aubrey goes, "It says Sea World on the street. Are we going to Sea World?" And then we pulled into the parking lot enough for them to see the rides and the entrance. They were so excited! It was fun to have animals to see and pet and rides to ride. Tyler helped Taryn touch some reef sharks and we stopped at the swings for our first ride. Abby and I watched while the others swung round and round.
The three little girls liked all the kiddie rides, and I tried my best to get pictures on the roller coasters. Taryn was big enough to ride almost everything as long as she had an adult rider, so it was fun going on all the rides together as a family with no one sitting out.
We wandered around the park going from one ride to another ride to animal shows and displays. Here was a cute photo spot right outside the penguin exhibit.
We saw the Killer Whale show, but made sure to sit high enough up the stands to not get wet. It's amazing the tricks they can do. I was so in awe by watching that I didn't get many pictures or videos. We also saw a dolphin show, a sea lions show, and a pet show which I think was the girls' favorite. It was mostly dogs and cats doing tricks, but they had a pig, an emu, and some ferrets that were also in the show. It was really cute, but I totally forgot to take any pictures of that one.
We spent a lot of time wherever we could find turtles because Tessa was in heaven. She loved the huge sea turtles. Their exhibit was indoors, so these were the best pictures we could get; however, you can see the turtles really well, so I guess they're okay.
Throughout the park, there were lots of fun photo spots. Taryn wanted one in this sea boat while Tyler and Tessa were looking for the perfect turtle stuffed animal to buy for her trip souvenir.
Aubrey chose to have her picture taken on this turtle, and we took a picture by the huge shark teeth after visiting the shark exhibit.
The blue roller coaster behind the girls in this picture is called the Manta. It was the biggest and fastest roller coaster that the girls had gone on so far. Aubrey loved it and still talks like it is currently her favorite roller coaster. Tessa was a little too nervous to give it a try this time and Taryn was too little for this one. Abby and Aubrey rode it twice. Once with me and once with Tyler since one of us had to wait with the non-riders. It was super fast and twisty. It's the kind that gives you a headache from bouncing around so much, but it was fun.
We road the Shipwreck Rapids which is the boat one down the river. We got soaked! It was probably the longest line we waited in; and I think we waited too late in the day to ride it because by the time we were finished, there wasn't enough sunshine left in the day to dry out my soaking jeans. The girls thought it was fun though, and they laughed the whole way down as people got splashed and soaked from the rapids.
Abby, Tyler, and I waited while the girls rode some of the kiddie rides. Sea World had the best food option where you could buy an all you can eat pass and get food every hour throughout the entire day. We tried all their different restaurants during the day, and ate food and snacks while we walked and while waiting for the girls to ride their rides.
Taryn didn't even need an adult for most of these kiddie rides, so we just watched as they tried them all.
The Abby Cadabby spinning ride was almost too much for me to even watch while everyone spun around as fast they could go. The three girls got their own car, so they were happy. We watched a few glow-in-the-dark shows after it got dark, but the girls wanted to ride more rides. I took them for one last ride in the twilight while Abby and Tyler saved our seats at the show.
The final show we saw was a huge fireworks and water show. There were clowns, ribbon dancers, a guy who used a jet pack to fly out of the water, and other acrobatics. It was really fancy and cool. We all really liked it, although it had been a long day and I think at least two of the girls were starting to fall asleep before the show finished. Tessa was super tired by the time I took this picture, but they said they loved Sea World and had a great time.
The next day we headed to Legoland. We had been there so many times that there was no surprise for the girls. As soon as they saw the first Lego letter on the long drive up to the parking lot, they knew where we were headed. It was nice to be so familiar with the park though so we could go straight to our favorite rides. The girls love the Beetle Bounce and the Lost Kingdom ride which was right next to the Beetle Bounce.
Taryn and Tessa both went on the Technic Coaster, which was Abby's and Aubrey's favorite from last time. I'm surprised Taryn did so well because it has a huge drop, but she just screamed like the rest of us and said it was fun when it was all over.
We waited in the longest line for the Ninjago ride since it's one of the newest additions to the park. The girls liked getting their pictures taken with all the Lego creations around the park. This one was right in the middle of the line while waiting for the ride.
We rode on the Cruise ride all together and after taking a picture of the three little girls in front of us, I had Tessa take a picture of us three in the back row.
We paired off for the Safari ride. Abby and Tessa rode together, Tyler and Taryn rode together, and Aubrey rode with me.
We also spent most of our line waiting playing Heads Up on my phone which is a game where people describe the word on the phone and you have to guess. It kept the girls entertained so they didn't complain about the long wait times, and it even entertained the other people around us as they watched us play. It was pretty fun, although it did run the battery down on my phone quite quickly. But it was totally worth it to keep the girls busy and happy.
This was probably the best, or maybe the only, picture of all six of us together. We were waiting in line to go on the Dino Coaster which was the girls' first roller coaster from our first visit there. I thought it was a really cute picture for being a selfie.
The younger girls rode the Lego Friends merry-go-round while Tyler and Abby bought and ate our usual crepe treats from the bakery in the Lego Friends section. We always get a berry crepe and a banana, nutella crepe. So yummy!
The Driving course ride actually has two different courses - one for 3-5 year olds and one for 6-12 year olds. We decided to sneak Taryn onto the older course so she could go with her big sisters and Tyler and I could watch them all together. She was only shy of being 6 by two months and we were confident she could handle driving the car and following the street signs. She did awesome!
The girls all passed by where we were watching during their drive so I could get an individual picture. They each got a card driver's license when they were finished with the course and Taryn was so excited. She was also equally upset when she found out that her "driver's license" got ruined when it got washed in the pocket where I had put it to keep it safe after we washed clothes once we were home. Oops. She really was super proud of herself for getting her very own driver's license.
One of the other family rides we did was the boat drive. Abby had had a hard time with this ride one of our first visits because the steering wheel is moved opposite the way you think and there's a delay before the turning affects the boat's movement.
But we talked her into trying it again and even Tessa was old enough to drive her own boat and ride with Taryn. Aubrey drove the boat with me and they all managed to drive just fine through the water course. I think Abby still decided boating wasn't her thing, but we all survived.
We ended at Legoland a little early for it's closing time, but we had ridden all the rides we wanted to. And we still had more fun adventures awaiting us at the next surprise place...
