sea world, a tragedy and some good friends...

This weekend we went down to Sea World. We stayed at some Navy lodging a little south of the park and Maddie thought that was the best! She loved the hotel room. After we arrived, she carried her backpack and suitcase to the room, found a spot "just perfect" for it and started looking in all the drawers. She was very excited to find a Bible in one of the drawers and so we had an impromtu Bible lesson in the evening. :) On to the rest of the weekend...We got up early Saturday and headed for the park. It was sweltering by the time we got there and it was only 9 in the morning! After getting our tickets (military appreciation style!) we were off. After checking out a few aqauriums and touching some huge sting rays, it was time for Shamu! We got seats in the soak zone and waited in the blistering heat, applying sunscreen for the second time that day. :) (We found out later that Satuday was the hottest day on record in San Diego - several people told us they had never seen it so hot there!) The show was awesome and was definetly a highlight for Maddie (Ellie was a little overwhelmed!). We ended up not getting wet - oh well. The rest of the day was spent seeing the sea lion show (Clyde and Seamore's Risky Rescue), Pet's Rule (trained pets doing all sorts of crazy tricks), and Dolphin Discovery where we actually did get soaked in the soak zone! It was a wonderfully fun day to see the amazing animals and what man can train them to do.
...Are you wondering about the tragic part of the title yet?
well, it is with great regret and sadness that I tell you our very sad news that Barnabas, the monkey, was lost at sea world. We realized it about halfway through our day and spent the good part of the last half of our day looking and praying to find him. We retraced our steps through show stands, aquariums, and even bathroom stalls trying to find Maddie's favorite friend.
(side note - for those who are just reading this blog and have no idea who I'm talking about, Barnabas is a beanie baby monkey that Maddie had adopted as her "lovey". Barnabas was very special to her ever since she was a little baby.)
After checking the lost and found for the second time and giving them our contact information we decided to continue enjoying our day as best we could. We told Maddie about him being lost and she told me "you can just go find him!". It's so hard when in our kid's eyes we can make everything better and in reality we can't always make that happen. On our way out of the park, we stopped at the gift shop and bought a few postcards and that's when we decided to get a little dolphin for Maddie. She actually found them and picked it out. She snuggled right up with it and said, "let's buy it Mommy!". How could I say no to that? She loves her dolphin but still asks about Barnabas every few hours and wants to call him and talk to him! We're not holding out much hope of finding the monkey, but if you think about, please pray for sweet Maddie that she will not miss Barnabas so much and that if he is found, he will be returned to us as soon as possible.

On Sunday, we went with my cousin Adam and his wife Corrie to their church, the Flood. It was a wonderful time of refreshing worship and teaching for us. After church we went with them to a small cafe place and had smoothies. As we headed towards naptime we drove to see some longtime friends of my family's, the Whites. They are missionaries in Turkey that are back for the summer. It was lots of fun to see them and catch up.

Since we were so close, we decided to check out one of the houses I grew up in. We drove to Lemon Grove and the people that now live in the house let us come in, look around and take pictures. I can't believe I remember living there since I was only 4 but looking around brought back a few memories.

Where are the pictures of this vacation, you say? well, our other news of the weekend is that our camera is not working (stopped working right before we left on Friday). So we used a friend's camera and when I get the pictures from them I'll post them.