Bodacious

This last weekend, from Thursday the 8th to Sunday the 11th, Trent's parents treated us to a little trip to La Jolla, CA.  To explain the title of this post, during the drive there Trent asked, "What ever happened to using the word 'bodacious'?" and we had a whole conversation about it..haha.  

We pulled into La Jolla around 3 in the afternoon and Trent and I promptly decided to take a nap while Tanis and Kent promptly headed to the boardwalk..haha.  Trent and I woke up maybe an hour later and were wondering why our room was so warm.  De ja vu, anyone?!  We headed downstairs and found out there had been a power outage.  We figured it would turn back on soon and headed to meet up with Trent's parents.

We watched the sea lions for a while.  Unfortunately this is the only picture I got on Thursday.

I was really burning up outside so we headed back to our hotel after a while.  What we thought was just a minor power outage turned out to be a huge power outage all the way from Yuma, AZ up through much of Orange County, CA.  We were informed it could be a while before it came back on.  It was too hot for me to just sit around in our room so Trent and I headed to the pool and read our books.  I finally started The Help :)

Kent came to get us later because the hotel was serving us a free dinner because of the power outage.  There wasn't really anything to do afterwards with the power being out so we took a walk along the boardwalk and then headed back to our room.  The hotel provided us with a dinky flashlight and a glowstick.  We all ended up showering with just the glowstick in the bathroom..haha.  Don't know if I'll ever have to experience that again..haha.  We ended up going to bed early since there wasn't anything to do and the power came back on around 1 am or so.

Friday we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  I LOVE any kind of zoo atmosphere and really enjoyed our time there, but now I know I may want to put that on my list of "places to avoid while pregnant."  It was a little too much walking for me and I was SO hot.  I felt completely worn out after the first few minutes of being there :/  Not a good sign!  Luckily there was plenty of shade and benches to sit on throughout the park.

Some macaws up in the trees near the beginning of our adventure.

A mommy gorilla with her baby.  I love how she's holding it like a football :)

You'll notice that I got pictures of several animals with their babies ;)

Trent compared to a gorilla...

...and myself :)

We got to watch a bird show.  Here is a West African Crowned Crane.  See the crown?

After the bird show we got to take a ride on the Safari Tram.  The next two pictures are looking out on the park reserve.  If you look really close (like zoom in) at the second one you can see several different animals roaming.

On the tram we got to see the cheetahs first.

A flock of about 100 flamingos.  We learned that in the wild they may stick together in flocks up to 1/2 a million or more!

A mommy rhino and her baby behind her.  Doesn't look like much of a baby does it?!  Apparently rhinos can reach 4,000 pounds.  They even said one of their rhinos gained 25 pounds in a day!

Wild donkeys.

Zebras.  Not a great picture because they were hiding in the shade.

Giraffes.  Loved seeing them!

You can see there were several babies!  At birth they are already about 6 feet tall!

At the end of our ride we were lucky enough to get to see this lion! Apparently they will sleep for up to 20 hours a day so many people don't even get to see them!

He headed towards the car in the exhibit...

jumped on...

and posed for the perfect picture :)  Love it!

A lioness.

Next we headed over to see the elephants.  This is a baby elephant.  It was so funny to see them run because they look so unsteady and a bit clumsy..haha.

Love this picture of a mommy elephant and her baby :)

Precious!

Lastly we got to see a cheetah run at full speed - up to 70 miles per hour. They told us not to even bother trying to get a picture..haha.  It was pretty dang neat!  Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and had a VERY nice seafood dinner.

Saturday we spent the day on Balboa Island, like we did last year. Again, we loved walking through the neighborhoods and looking at all of the cute and beautiful homes.  It seems no two are alike!

We grabbed some drinks and fries at the famous Ruby's on the pier! Here is our one picture from the day :)

Before we headed back down to La Jolla we dropped off a duffle bag for Amy (Sister Christensen) at a family's home in the ward Amy is serving in right now (the Trapp's, who happen to be Tiersha's cousins!).  We were pretty bummed that we weren't allowed to see Amy.  When we dropped off the bag, Abby told us she'd be seeing Amy in just a few hours at Stake Conference.  MAN!  She passed a hug on for me :)

Sunday morning we headed down to the boardwalk once more before having breakfast and checking out.

My bump at 29 weeks :)

On our way out of town we got to stop at the Mormon Battalion to visit Hermana Livingston who has just 2 more months left serving in San Diego!  It was so fun to see her and I wish we could have caught up more, but she had to head off to Church.

The Battalion was so different from when my family visited back in high school while my grandparents were serving in San Diego.

Trent and I sitting in a wagon out front (it's kind of hard to tell it's a wagon).

And that concluded our trip!  A big "thank you" to Tanis and Kent for taking us :)  I hope I didn't drive them too nuts!  I learned that it's not too fun to travel while 7 months pregnant.  They probably got so sick of hearing me say, "I'm always hot, I'm always hungry, and I always have to pee!"  Haha.  Thanks for putting up with me Tanis, Kent, and Trent :)

(By the way, on our drive back home (September 11th) I absolutely loved seeing so many flags at half staff.  I am so proud to be an American and I will never forget that day!)