It's funny how it says "San Diego 2010." Apparently I am trying to make it sound like we go there more often than twice in my life ever.
We had a great time on our family vacation last week!! Here's the lowdown.
Monday: Mark and I woke up early. Our goal was to be out the door about 6am and we pulled away at 6:15. It felt very much like a win. We drove straight to Balboa Park in San Diego and got there about 12:15. The boys got out of the car and felt the breezy 70 degree weather and demanded their jackets. They did look a little silly at the park as the only ones wearing jackets. After a picnic at the park we drove to our hotel to check in then headed to La Jolla. We saw seals hanging out in one cove and although we weren't dressed for playing at the beach the boys couldn't help themselves but play in the other cove. La Jolla was beautiful and pretty ritzy. The coastline there is gorgeous with the rocks and cliffs.
Tuesday: This was Owen's first birthday. My sister Dawn her husband and four kids met up with us in San Diego after their visit to Disneyland for a few days. They live in Dallas which is a 14 hour drive from here and San Diego is only 6. So when Dawn told me they were going to San Diego this summer I knew we had to make it. We went to Sea World that day and Owen actually sat and watched the animal shows. He loved the animals so that was quite nice. Dallin's favorite was the Atlantis ride which he went on twice. Adam loved everything--especially the aquariums.
Wednesday: Beach day. These days were the best. I had to keep reminding myself after we got to the beach on Wednesday that we didn't have someplace to be or anything to do and really, I didn't even need to know what time it was. The weather was PERFECT for us. The ladies at the hotel kept telling us it was going to be a hot day. Hot for San Diego is 80 degrees--HA! So, it was not freezing cold at the beach like normal--thank goodness. I was so grateful for that because I am sure we all had more fun--especially the kids. We went to Pacific Beach and spent our time playing in the water and sand, boogey boarding, and flying kites. It turns out I am quite good at boogey boarding, by the way. I was totally schooling most of the other folks out there. The kids had fun boogey boarding too. Jack and Wyatt went several times (14 and 12) and Savannah (7) and Dallin (5) got in on the action too. Mark and I would hold a board for them and tow it in as the wave pushed them to shore.
Thursday: The McHalffeys (my sister's fam) went to the zoo and we took our kids to Legoland. It is a fun park for little kids with actually a lot to see and do. There was even a baby care area where I could go and warm up some baby food for Owen and use a high chair, change his diaper, etc. The kids had a great time at Legoland, I think it was Dallin's favorite part of the trip. My favorite part about Legoland was seeing MiniLand with all of the lego buildings. That was awesome. Lots of things at Legoland are interactive, either there are guns for shooting targets on the rides or pedals to keep your skyride moving faster, or the fountain below which was playing music. Whatever instrument you stood in front, it would add that part to the music already playing. We just finished waiting 45 minutes in line and riding the skyride when they closed it and many other rides down because of lightning. So we went to a shop and an indoor activity. By the time we were done with that many people had left the park and some of the rides opened up again for the last hour til they closed. We still hadn't eaten dinner by the time Legoland closed so we drove around Carlsbad looking for a kid-friendly place that was open. Mark somehow found us a Denny's and Owen was asleep so it worked out perfectly. The boys had hot chocolate and macaroni and cheese. During his meal Dallin kept putting his thumbs up and muttering things like, "Yeah. Definitely two thumbs up." Kraft mac and cheese at its finest apparently.
Friday: Another beach day. We started at La Jolla again. We wanted to show the McHalffeys the seals, but the seals were all lounging on a rock a further distance out into the water. So we played for a while and enjoyed the beautiful, clean water there and managed to find a juice and sandwich shop that wasn't so hoity toity. After lunch we drove to Oceanside Beach where we finished the day lounging and playing. There were a lot of families at Oceanside and even several playgrounds right on the beach. The kids had a great time here boogey boarding and playing and finding sand crabs in the wet sand. Owen was ecstatic about the wet sand. He loved how it felt and had so much fun moving it around and playing in it. We walked out on the pier where at the end, about 1/2 mile down is Ruby's Diner where we had dinner too late that night. From here on I have to credit my sister Dawn, because I got lazy with my camera and so I stole several of her pictures from Facebook.
Saturday: We went to the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town San Diego. It is quite an impressive museum and the tour is amazing. After the tour we panned for gold and checked out the other stuff they had outside. Then since we were in Old Town San Diego which is jam packed with great-looking Mexican restaurants we had to have Mexican food for lunch. It was good too. The McHalffeys were happy to have Mexican food and not Tex-Mex. After lunch we gave hugs and said goodbye. We headed back home to Arizona and the McHalffeys stayed in CA for another couple of days.
It was a great week, but it is nice to be home where baby Owen can sleep in his own bed. He did well on the trip, excluding sleeping, which actually accounts for a lot. I finished my Mexican food in the car on the way out of town because I spent my time in the restaurant holding little Owen who had just had more than he could take.
We were in route to arrive home Saturday night about 8:30 or so. A couple of hours outside of San Diego, "in the hottest region of the entire country" (Mark's quote) is where our car's air conditioning went out. We kept driving while the kids sweated in the backseat. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to worry about the little guys getting warm. It was 5:30 on Saturday night so it just made the most sense to just drive home in the heat. But we decided to stop in Yuma and find an ice cream shop. Mark and I were a little frustrated at the delay in our travel home but as we walked towards the shops Adam starting singing, "We LOVE eachother so MUCH!" over and over. How could that not lighten the mood? The Cold Stone Creamery was right by a movie theater which happened to be showing Toy Story 3 which we hadn't seen yet and it was going to start in 15 minutes. It seemed too perfect to pass up. We bought tickets and watched the movie. I was out in the halls with Owen for a while but eventually he fell asleep so I got to see most of it. When the movie was over it was dark and only 99 degrees instead of 112. The boys slept most of the way after that.
We miss the McHalffeys already. Dallin was so funny because he couldn't keep his arms off Savannah and Madeline. He had his arms around them or was hugging them nearly nonstop. If they weren't his cousins I'd have told him to chill out. I'm glad we bothered someone on the Oceanside Pier to stop and take this one and only picture of all of us:
We love you guys!!
