Up, Up....and Not Really Away:)

Today we did something special together as a family.  We realized recently that we have very few memories of our time in San Diego so far where all of us are present.  We want us and our children to have positive memories of this period of our lives, other than the idea that "Daddy is never home."  In recent months his ship has barely been in port, and when it has been, he has rarely been home before dark.  He is getting ready to be gone again for a significant period of time, so we decided now would be a good time to do something that together that the kids will be talking about for a long time and take lots of pictures for them to hold on to when they miss their daddy the most.

A little over a week ago, a friend and I took our children to the Safari Park to see "the butterflies".  Every spring they import thousand of butterflies and put them in a greenhouse for people to walk through.  It only lasts a couple of weeks, so we opted to go even though Nathan wasn't home.  While we were there, we saw the huge helium balloon ride that takes you up 400ft in the air to allow you to view the entirety of the park, as well as the surrounding landscape.  I was a little apprehensive about the kids being scared of being up so high, but it was so reasonably priced (2/3 of our children were free), that I pitched the idea to Nathan anyway.  He thought it sounded great, so today we made it happen!




Waiting for it to be our turn while we ate lunch...it's really hard to tell how big it is, but the basket is about 15-20 feet across.




A better view of the basket, we loved that it had birds on the bottom!




Baby-wearing on a balloon ride!:)







A different perspective on the wildlife...




And some great views of the surrounding area.




Looking up.






Everyone was very happy to have gone up!




And especially to have gone with Nathan.:)