California Adventure - Day 7

Another day... another surprise!  We could really get used to a lot of surprises like we've had on this trip... This morning, we wondered what else could possibly make this trip more memorable -- and we were surprised AGAIN!  We were going to the San Diego Zoo!

This zoo is HUGE!  Lots of walking, lots of paths, even some escalators because the hills are so steep.  Our first stop took us past the birds, and straight into the land of monkeys, gorillas and apes!

Neela tried to jump on a MONKEY!

Near the monkeys, Kylie found one of her favorite animals -- SNAKES!  She tried to convince Neela to look at them and touch the glass, but Neela wanted NOTHING to do with it.  Of course, Kylie had to "kiss" the glass when she had to leave the snake... she kept talking about how much Mrs. Rose would "love" it!  (Mrs. Rose is her preschool teacher who HATES snakes!)

The San Diego Zoo is famous for it's pandas... and we definitely weren't skipping the pandas!  We asked about them from the minute Mommy & Daddy told us about our surprise -- and we kept asking until we detoured right to their house!

As you walk into the panda exhibit, they have a "green screen".  They took our family picture, then super-imposed pictures of pandas around us and in our hands... the family picture was cute with the green background, but the "real" picture is amazing!

Inside the exhibit, you had to look hard for the sneaky pandas...

They weren't little, but they were not walking around as much as we thought they would be. 

Of course, when they did finally show up - Daddy wanted them in a picture with us - and we really did not want to turn away and smile at him!

After the pandas, we had lunch - then headed into the Elephant Odyssey.  We really enjoyed exploring the fossils and the teeth of the saber tooth cat (they don't call them tigers anymore), and Kylie somehow convinced the volunteer to pull out even more teeth from the window exhibit for her to look at!

Inside the exhibit, they had all kinds of "animals" to climb on and explore their size.

Kylie, Mom & Neela on the Saber Tooth 'Cat'

Kylie - and her infamous poses!

Sitting on the "teeny" elephant with Grandma

We always hear about how tall Brooke is - well... compared to elephants, she really is "teeny!"  She even proved it!

A Kylie pose - but she's being pretty normal & very cute!

We went looking for the Polar Bears next... that was a HIKE with the strollers down a very steep hill - and back up again.  Brooke found a baby polar bear's statue - and couldn't get enough of the real "teeny bear". 

After a sky ride across the zoo, we explored the children's area of the zoo.  Brooke climbed on playground equipment, Neela fed goats, and Kylie got to pet snakes and insects... a little bit of everyone's favorite things!

Somehow, Mom and Dad made it through the entire week with smiles on their faces - probably from watching the excitement we showed over every little experience and surprise they planned!

Back at the resort, Daddy made steaks for supper... and everyone had a low key evening of swimming and backing.  You can't be the view....

... or the company!

Tomorrow, we head back to Minnesota... but don't expect us to stop talking about this trip anytime soon!

We had so much fun, we asked Daddy about other vacations...  He said we'd try to do vacations more often - maybe fewer surprises than this trip - but with just as much family time!  We can't wait!