Fun with Friends (Day 3 in California)

Our last full day with Sian and her family was another full one. Unfortunately I felt terrible with a bad sore throat and thick head and wanted to go to an emergicare, but they don't really have them in California for some reason. I took Advil and survived. Danielle came home in the morning and told us stories about her church retreat in New Mexico. It sounded like a great experience and she obviously had a great time. Sofia immediately became Danielle's 'shadow' and dropped Holland like a rock. I'm not sure how Holland felt about it, but I felt a little sorry for her. It's funny the connection Sofia has with Danielle.

Because of Sofia's love of dinosaurs, Sian planned for us to visit the Western Science Center near Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet. THe lake was created in the early 1990s and Sian remembers driving through the valley where the lake is to get to the beach from her parent's house. The lake holds enough water to supply the over 18 million inhabitants of Southern California with water for six months, if necessary. While digging to build the lake, over 500 mastodon fossils where found as well as fossils of mammoths, sabertooth cats and ground sloths. The museum was beautiful and well organized and we nearly had the entire place to ourselves. Sofia quickly pointed out that the fossils were not in fact dinosaurs because they were more recent than dinosaurs. We watched two short movies, one about how they came across the fossils and the other a recreation of how the fossils likely got to be there. Then we explored the museum which was really interesting. There were a lot of hand's on exhibits which Sofia loved and all the girls made impressions of a sabertooth claw and a Mastodon toe which we were able to take home. Olivia was drawn to the computer which had games on it, but she preferred to just push the buttons.

After the museum, we drove up to look at the lake which was very impressive! Then we went to lunch and visited Sian's mom, who lives nearby. Sian and her Mom had plans to go to a play that night, so we left Sian with her Mom and decided to head to a movie. Danielle looked up the times for Despicable Me 2 and we headed to the mall movie theater to watch it. It was Olivia's first movie and I was nervous that she would get restless and want off my lap to roam around. So, I told Danielle that if I needed to leave the theater, Olivia and I would be right outside in the hallway. Olivia was a champ and was totally transfixed! She loved the Minions and clapped when they came on the screen! In the middle, Olivia and I left to get popcorn for the girls, but otherwise we watched the movie and loved it! We headed home and John picked up Vietnamese food from this great little place near their house. Sofia and Olivia weren't too sure about the food and picked at it, but I loved it and was craving it from my last visit to their house!

The girls went to bed and John and I stayed up and talked for awhile. Sian was home late and had a great time then we all headed off to bed.

The mastodon

Waiting for the movie to start - it was a really cool theater with huge rocks as benches

Making a mammoth tooth impression

Checking out the huge ground sloth fossils

She loved every minute of it, of course.

A mammoth skull and tusks

Standing on top one of the exhibits

Diamond Valley Lake