LA Aquarium

July 2

So-- We moved from Germany to the States. :) I didn't photograph at all during that time, because life was just *crazy*! The important thing is we survived. :) Very soon after getting to Maryland, we kicked up dust again by flying across the country to California!

Anxious to keep the boys busy, we planned an outing a day. First stop: the Aquarium (in an attempt to avoid the HEAT that we just weren't used to!). 

 Trying to be smart, I dressed the boys all in the same color shirt: orange! thinking that would be an easy color to spot.... apparently along with about 50 other kids from a summer camp group! Oops. 

I hadn't remembered ever seeing one of these before-- it was so crazy to watch it swim! 

 This crab was crazy! 

Andrew talked about this otter for weeks afterwards!

 Scuba diver in the huge tank.

 A shark egg-- They had one due to be born the same time as our baby too. :)

 An eel-- the boys were fascinated, of course!

Ah-- it is exhausting being 6!

Cigoland, France

June 18

Since our plans were foiled for the Eagle sanctuary, we headed to an adorable theme park-- Cigoland (Storkland)! :)

The first ride: Galloping horses on a track! We were the ONLY people there for a while, which was nice!

I love Cameron's "excited" pose. What an irresistible kid!

Next, on to the little train to take us to the main part of the park.

ha! A Stork on the carousel. :)

This was on the stork ride. European rides are about 100% different than American amusement park rides. So much of the safety is left up to the rider to determine!

The ride led us over the top of the entire park and talked about the park's history and led us past half dozen or so stork nests. 

This gorilla ride looked terrifying... and really outdated.

A picture of the stork nest we'd been riding in. :)

Bumper boats!

A very P.C. cowboys/Indians ride. ;)

The roller coaster. None of the boys really wanted to go on it, but I told them we wouldn't take them to Disneyland if they wouldn't try it (I'm cruel, right?). Well they all three went and LOVED it!!

Happy boy-- waiting to go on the ride again.

Cigoland had their own little circus! It was so funny! Andrew was exhausted, but totally into the act-- what a silly boy!

It was such a HOT day! Thank goodness for camelbaks!

Monkey Mountain!

June 18

We had only days before we left Europe, and decided we needed one final jaunt to France. :) 

Can ya blame us?!

Our destination was Monkey Mountain! A reserve where you hand feed monkeys.

Family flex!

Inside the reserve. The boys were incredibly well behaved and followed all the rules.

We were so curious what it would really be like-- and then suddenly, there was a monkey! Just hanging out on a bench waiting for a little piece of popcorn.

This momma monkey was carrying around her 1 day old baby!

A neighboring monkey came to see the new baby.

I thought it was so funny how they'd sit with their arms lazily draped over the side just waiting for their treat. 

The monkeys were pretty big!

Can you see how many there were?!

An itty bitty learning how to climb trees, by starting on small branches!

After visiting the monkeys- it was time for lunch.

With my favorite-- baguette sandwiches!

After that fun, we tried to go see an eagle sanctuary. We drove up and made the crazy hike to the ruins of a castle where the eagles are kept.

How pretty!

It was so hot and it seemed to be closed for lunch, so we parked in the shade to wait until it opened.

Drank some soda,

looked at some bugs,

and told Daddy crazy stories!

Kisses for Momma! *heart*

Eventually we realized it wouldn't be opening for another hour or so, so we thought it would be best to go on to a different destination rather than melt there...

When we got back to the car, we realized that yup! We were totally alone there. France has some crazy opening hours of their stores, but this was crazy! haha