Blended. Shaken. And Stirred.: Travel

Monday, May 6, 2013

Safari West

This past weekend we headed to Safari West in Calistoga for a very cool safari. We stayed in Rhonert Park and had a ton of fun all weekend with the kids and our great friends and neighbors.

Emmie all ready to go!

Saturday Jeff, Paul and Hunter played 7 holes (yeah, I know it is supposed to be 9 holes but they only had time for 7) at the hotel golf course. While they were playing real golf Heather and I took the kids to Scandia for some mini golf and arcade games.

Next we headed to Calistoga for our safari. Meg met us there and Jeff ran into an old friend from high school - crazy coincidence!

Thanks to 4 weeks of zoology curriculum at his school, Joey was able to answer a ton of questions about the animals.

All the boys got to ride on top of the safari jeep - which made me nervous but they had a blast!

At one point during the tour Emmie turned to Aunt Megan and said, "this is so totally fun!"

While on safari Logan asked a million questions and our guide was so patient with him. We learned a lot about the African animals and enjoyed the experience so much! Definitely a fun road trip to take for a truly unique experience.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Joey's 7th Birthday Extravaganza!!

This weekend was Joey's 7th birthday and his first grade class had an unofficial field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. So, we decided to make it a birthday weekend extravaganza with Monterey on Saturday and Santa Cruz on Sunday.

It wouldn't be a family vacation without scheduling something the day we are leaving... so to stick with tradition we accepted a very generous invite to join Logan's friend on a behind the scenes tour of Raley Field Friday night. The plan was to have the car packed for Monterey and leave from the field. That's not quite what happened...

Friday was insanely busy as we tried to run all the errands we needed to run, get ready, pack, etc. We were running late for the tour (shocker I know) and finally hit the road only to have the seats of our double stroller also literally hit the road. They were supposed to be secured to the roof, but not so much. Unfortunately for reasons we will never understand, the cars behind us stopped before running them over and then ever so carefully ran them over.... and dragged them... and we refrained from shouting obscenities at them which we deserve a medal for. Minimal damage to the stroller seats despite their adventure and we were back on the road headed to the baseball field.

As soon as we arrived at Raley Field we were waiting to be let in the gates and Emmie announced she peed her pants. Great, just great. Here is the pic Cheri snapped of Jeff changing her pants in front of the gates, lightening speed before the tour guide arrived -

The tour of Raley Field was awesome. The kids were totally oblivious to what a special privilege such a tour was, as was evident when Logan removed his shoes and made himself comfortable on the leather couch in the executive suite we toured.

Jack and Logan (Logan sporting his complimentary River Cats hat)

One of the suites was set up for a photo shoot and the kids took full advantage of that. That 's Emmie being a river cat.

Logan looking happy from the executive suite seats at Raley Field.

We got to the hotel around 11 pm and finally got Emmie to sleep close to 1 am and she didn't even take a nap in the car. Crazy how late that girl can stay awake at age 3! The next day we were off to the aquarium for a fun filled day of exploration!