Darr Family Blog – Page 12 – The place to follow the Darr Family

Castle Park and Then Home!

Our last theme park is one the kids love and I loved as a kid. Castle Park is a small amusement park with a mini golf attached that is local to Riverside. It’s almost never crowded when we go, so the kids love it. Paul and I switched back and forth with the kids. After Castle Park, it was just one last day where we squeezed in some visits with the Hustons (who Paul stayed with after his mission) and Aaron and his kids (who aren’t really kids anymore). What an awesome vacation!!

Paul managed to get both kids in one shot. Good job, babe!

She loves going on rides with her daddy!

I love that she’s rockin’ the shirt she got when the singing zoologist came to visit the school.

They were happy enough to go on this ride together and leave their old parents to watch. Thank goodness. It did whip around pretty fast, so Joseph ended up needing to hold onto Abigail so she wouldn’t slide across and whack her head on the side of the ride.

The incentive to leave Castle Park: ice cream!

When did he turn into…not a kid? Hard to believe he’ll be thirteen in September.

Trying to wake up a sleeping Abigail at the hotel (after the first leg of our trip) proved to be…difficult.

When one loves Minnie Mouse as much as Hulk…interesting things happen. 🙂

Sea World

After we felt we had sufficiently recovered from Disney, we decided to hit up Sea World. It was kinda crowded but not too bad. We divided and conquered for the first bit (rides) and then got back together to see a few attractions and shows. It was a fun day!

Abigail wanted to do this first thing. She calls these the tickle fish. They come and nibble bits of dry skin off of your hands, but it doesn’t hurt. She was there for probably ten minutes. We also had to stop by on our way out of the park so she could do it again.

Sitting in the sleigh with her new octopus…whom she named Egbert but then ultimately decided to rename him…Octopus. 😀

Meanwhile, daredevil Joseph was on this ride.

I told you this kid could find a playground everywhere!

I was ecstatic when I realized she could go on this by herself, ha. She loves the spinny rides. Me? Not so much!

These sea lions were hilarious begging for fish.

Those egrets in the back were cheeky. They would swoop in and steal the fish as people were dropping them for the sea lions.

This guy finally decided to get closer to keep the egrets from stealing his fish.

She also loved being able to sit next to Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and Oscar.

Mom’s backyard is an interesting place at night. Paul spotted several chubby raccoons and even a gray fox. We could also smell skunks, but luckily didn’t see any, ha.

Christmas!

Here’s the actual Christmas post. Christmas Eve was pretty quiet (Jason brought Luna over so she could play with Abigail) and so was Christmas. It was a pretty awesome couple of days to recover after Disney. 🙂