Awesome Weekend!

We had such an awesome weekend!!! We celebrated my brother Sam's 13th birthday by taking him and his friend Elliot to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Does anyone remember when it was Marine World Africa USA?). There were 7 of us, the boys, Adam and I, Auntie Deb, Mom and Dad.

Adam and I started off our morning by driving to Natomas to drop Jack at our friends Derek and Alyssa's house. Their dog, Athena, recently had hip surgery (pretty sure I mentioned her in a previous blog) and has been laid up for 3 months. We brought Jack over to help her get used to running again (since Jack loves it) and to help socialize her again since the only other dog she plays with is a 9 year old German Shepherd that weighs 90 lbs! After we dropped off the dog, we met up with everyone else at the hotel we were staying at in Fairfield to condense cars ($15 parking at the park!), and then drove to the park.

Dad and Mom...see all those cars in the background? The park was packed, which meant we had fun waiting to even get into the park! I wanted off that ride, unfortunately, once my seat belt was on, there was no getting off.

The first stop after getting into the park was the elephant habitat. Now, if you haven't read any of my previous blogs, this is a good time to tell you that we had a good hook up at the park. Two of our friends from college, Patrick and Abby, are animal trainers at Discover Kingdom. Patrick is an elephant trainer, and we caught the end of his show and were able to get a special meet and greet with his favorite elephant, Valerie.

Sam was chosen out of the crowd to feed Valerie a banana.Patrick and Valerie

After the show, we got to meet with Valerie for pictures and feeding. She is such an amazing animal. I can't believe she's 26! Patrick told her she's been at the park for 3 years, and he's been working with her for 2 years. Before living at D.K., she was part of a traveling circus show.

Valerie taking a banana out of my hand.

Say "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Do you see those teeth back there?

From left to right: Dad, me, Adam (peaking from behind me), Sam,
Valerie, Elliot, Auntie Deb, Mom

Auntie Deb saying "hello"

I have to admit, I was a little nervous being that close...
She's huge and could probably take me out very easily!

Valerie is quite the ham!

After meeting with Valerie and Patrick, we got to meet a baby porcupine before we met up with our other friend, Abby. We even got to pet him!

Check this little guy's nose out!

When we met up with Abby, she took us behind the scenes to tour the animal clinic and meet a Bush Baby, a tiny little monkey -like animal with HUGE eyes. The little guy was soooo cute!
After meeting the Bush Baby, Abby took us to a special feeding with the Giraffes. They were awesome...and their tongues are long and black! We even got to pet one of them!

Yum! Gimme those leaves!

We love Abby!

The boys found a game they really liked...it was a ladder that they tried to climb to the top of. If they were able to reach the top, they would have won a guitar! Unfortunately, hardly anyone wins those things, including the boys. They did get some cute stuffed animals, which they ended up giving to some little kids later on. The boys did excel at falling off the ladder with some serious flair!After playing around on the ladders, we went on some roller coasters. The favorite ride of the day was the Medusa, which is the tallest and longest roller coaster in Northern California. It was AWESOME!! We rode in the first row both times and it was so amazing! Dad didn't really like it, but the rest of us did!

While we were riding the rides, mom and Auntie Deb played some of the carnival games and won a ton of prizes, including pink superman capes! Elliot really liked them and decided he was going to wear my moms.

It was so warm outside that the boys decided it was a good idea to play in a water playground. They got soaked!!! It was fun watching them run around having fun.
We also saw the Killer Whale show. Abby and Patrick tried to hook us up with some VIP seats and a meet and greet. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet up with the trainer before the show. After the show, we weren't able to do the meet and greet because Jenny's manager wasn't in, and they aren't allowed to do meet and greets without authorization, which definitely makes sense. It was still an awesome experience to see the show and see this amazing creature!

Dad made a friend.It was such a great day! We topped it off with a family dinner at Applebee's and swimming at the hotel. Mom, Deb and I surprised Sam by getting ice cream to celebrate. Today, we took the boys to a few Skate Parks so they could skateboard. Adam and I left a little early to pick up Jack and then came home to do some cleaning and then grill some hot dogs for dinner.

This weekend was so awesome! I just can't believe how much fun we had...what an awesome birthday for the boy!