Vanessa Bryant had a fun girls day out this holiday weekend with some of her favorite little ladies. On Sunday, Vanessa, 39, enjoyed a trip to SeaWorld San Diego with her two youngest daughters, Bianka Bella, 4, and Capri Kobe, who turns 2 next month.
Bianka was all smiles as she greeted a dolphin from the other side of the glass in a photo Vanessa posted to Instagram. “Pure Joy~ My Sunshine,” Vanessa wrote in the caption.
The day was filled with new aquatic friends, including a visit with a beluga whale, feeding time with some turtles and a private petting session with a Magellanic penguin.
Vanessa also braved a roller coaster with a friend who accompanied them for the day. The group enjoyed an Elmo & Friends dining experience, posing outside for a photo with the fuzzy red Muppet.
“So happy. My sunshine,” Vanessa captioned a video of Capri getting Grover’s attention and giggling after the blue-costumed character waved back at her.
Vanessa shares Bianka and Capri with her late husband Kobe Bryant, who died with their 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a tragic helicopter crash in January 2020. The couple also shares daughter Natalia, 18.
The proud mom paid tribute to Gianna earlier this month on her 15th birthday. “Today is my Baby’s Birthday,” she wrote on Instagram, after relaunching Kobe’s foundation as the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, a nod to the father-daughter duo.
The nonprofit seeks to empower young girls and provide equal opportunities to underserved athletes — a vision Kobe long championed. “When I thought about how best to celebrate Gianna’s birthday with so many who loved her,
I knew it had to be a combination of sharing her bright and fun personality with her sense of purpose and passion that would help make a difference in this world,” Vanessa added.
Vanessa spoke to PEOPLE in March about how her family is doing more than a year after their loss. “This pain is unimaginable [but] you just have to get up and push forward,” she said at the time.
“Lying in bed crying isn’t going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again,” she added. “But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my girls and for me. So that’s what I do.”
