Shanell and Shamu

We had a great surprise when my fabulous friend Shanell decided to come out for a visit!

 

We stopped by the beach after the airport, for a windy stroll and some yummy lunch. It wouldn't be California without some beach!

I found this little display on the Boardwalk so amusing. It's just not right to have ocean behind your Christmas tree! Silly Californians.

While she was here, we obviously had to go feed our wild burros. I don't know who loved it more between Evan and Shanell!We seemed to take it pretty easy the during her visit, which I think was what she needed. Not like there is really a whole ton to do in town anyways, but Evan couldn't have been happier to have a playmate with him all day every day. He and "Nell" are great buds, and he still asks me every morning "Where Nell go?"

 Shanell left us on a flex, so we took her back to the airport and continued onward to Sea World to make use of our passes one more time before the year was up.

 Evan was old enough this time to enjoy the rides, and enjoy he sure did! The firs picture is right before the ride was to start for his first time. He was SO excited!! Nate and Evan rode this Elmo's flying fish ride more times than I could count over the next 24 hours. The bottom pic is at the end of his last time riding. Pure happiness :) 

 He also loved this spinning ride, which I thought he for sure would not. It's like the teacups at Disneyland. Nate let Evan be in charge of spinning it if he wanted to, and they spun a lot! Luckily, they got to ride this one a few times, too.

 It was a lot fun to be there at Christmas time and take in a lot of there fun Christmas shows, which I always forget to take pictures of. I'm just enjoying myself!

 We watched the Polar Express 4D experience, and were so surprised that Evan sat through the whole 20 minutes and kept his glasses on, too! He actually really loved it, and always talks about the "choo choo movie with bells".

 I did manage to get pictures at the Shamu show, because we were sitting so stinking close! Our goal was to get wet, because it was a very warm 65 degrees. Shamu didn't even sprinkle us, but managed to completely soak a little family and baby about 30 rows up. Soak zone my eye...

 We let Evan go wild here after seeing Shamu and the dolphins, and not getting wet once. He was soaked from head to toe by the time we made him leave, and was definitely the only kid to play in the splash zone. Stay tuned for some awesome video...

And if the splash park was not the highlight of his Sea World trip, then this definitely was. Everytime he sees this picture, he laughs SO hard and says, "Elmo, cookie monster so funny. Say cheese, Evan!" (He obviously doesn't know who Grover is, just assumed a blue monster was cookie monster.)

 Somewhere in this same week, Evan and I also had the chance to go to Disneyland with my sister and her kids. Evan got a kick out of the huge tree, and even got to see Minnie walk right by him. He was in shock.

 We saw It's a Small World on crack, Christmas style, as my sister calls it. There was so much to look at, Evan couldn't keep up. We came out just as they turned the lights on outside, and he could not look away.

 I thought the castle looked extra beautiful, and want to make it over there one day. I don't ever manage to take pics of my kid at Disneyland, because we are usually so busy making efficient use of our time, I just snap pictures of stuff I like from my phone as we are running from ride to ride :)

 Disney Christmas is pretty magical, and I was convinced they had gingerbread blowing through the streets.

The best picture I got of the kids was riding the bus back to the parking lot, which is probably Evan's favorite ride. :) They are usually so hyper after we are done, this is really as much as you can make them hold still!

Evan at Sea World Splash Park

We probably let Evan play here like this for at least 20 minutes. We have several different videos of him trying to "catch" the water. By the end of this one, he was starting to get an audience! It made me so happy to watch him so thoroughly enjoying himself. We sure do love that kid.