San Diego

I'm back. Again. Two vacations in one month's time....how lucky am I. Although I have decided with young children "vacation" isn't really the word I would use. According to Thiago it is more like damage control in another city. It was exhausting. But also exhilarating, priceless and absolutley beautiful.

San Diego far exceeded my expectations. I haven't been since I was 11 years old, and back then you don't really appreciate the beauty of traveling anyways. We had planned and waited for this trip for so long, and it did not disappoint. It lived up to the hype, and I loved every minute of it. (except for the crying, and the whining, and the suitcases, and the car rides, and the sleepless baby, and the stroller fights with Lincoln, and the constant "1, 2, 3 kids..yep they are all still here, the diaper bags.....yeah, its a lot of work). Other than that...fabulous!



We were gone for 6 days. Sunday-Friday night. Late Friday night, we're talking didn't get home til 2:00 in the morning Friday night. Poor Theo...13 hours straight driving. Oh well.

Bright and early Sunday morning at Vovo's house. We went with my father and mother and sister in law. Here the boys are waiting for them to finish loading up their car. New buckets and shovels for the beach.


Anticipating all the fun they are going to have with this little bucket...


Okay, okay..no more random pictures. He just looked so cute though.


And we're on our way.

7 hour drive the first day.
Stopped and ate in St. George, then pushed on through to Vegas.


Our first hotel, right off the stip. It was decent.


Just relaxing for a second...baby and dad.





Then we were off to see the sights. Well, not to many sights. It was late and the boys were tired and lets face it, Vegas has some real weirdos. I felt like I spent half the night shielding Carson's eyes from weird sights. Interesting.


We did of course want to take them to the coke and M&M store. They kinda liked it.


(can you tell we have been traveling all day?? excuse my orphan-looking children)







A large bag of colored M&M's and 3 cokes later (not to mention a few tears when they weren't allowed to buy a stuffed M&M doll) and we were out of there. Oh yeah, right after Drake tried his first sip of coke. We like to start them early...ha!

No, he didn't get any. Just liked to suck the bottle.


And that was it for Drake. He was out for the remainder of the evening. Guess he doesn't care for Vegas. Not exciting enough for him.






And of course the water show at the Belagio. Correction, 3 water shows at the Belagio. They really enjoyed it.

And then it was off to bed. First up was showers though. I felt like I needed to scrub all that Las Vegas scum off my kids. Literally and not so literally. Kinda an odd place.




Next morning, finds us well-rested and happy. And enjoying a few good rides down the escalator. Who needs amusement parks, when you have got escalators.


And more fun in the car.

Where pretty much the only enjoyable time was spent looking like this


Lincoln sound asleep.

He isn't exactly a happy traveler. That is putting it nicely. We were all quite mad at him and one point or another.

Ooh, that kid.


But I was all smiles when I started to see little sights like this



ahh, the beauty. I was surrounded by it. Everywhere you look is just beautiful. So beautiful.


Made it to the next hotel, mid afternoon, we rested up a bit.


Got ready to hit the town.


Started out in Old Town San Diego which was alot of fun. Lots of fun little shops and Mexican restaurants. My favorite.




(Lincoln was absolutely horrified of this guy, trembling, he was so scared. Kinda funny)









They had these little Ukalaylee's (no idea on the spelling, you get the idea) in every single store.


Lincoln had to have it...calls it his "Be-tar". of course if you can't tell that is guitar.


Carson (always the original) went for another spaceship. This kid has more airplanes and spaceships than anyone I know.


Next day...Sea World!




Hands down...my favorite day. I LOVED it here. When we were first pricing this trip out and I saw the cost of Sea World I about died. However, it was worth every penny. So much to see and do. I couldn't get over the landscaping, and the cleanliness and just all of the activities. I loved it and so did my kids.


Ha-ha...these two silly grandparents. Trying to tell us Lincoln would be fine without a stroller.


Yeah right. That didn't take long. They quickly realized that Lincoln and no stroller is not a good idea.




Checking out the map...


planning out our day.










The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. We loved it.




Oh that Shamu. I don't know who was more enthralled me or the kids. I loved watching those cute whales. Those trainers are amazing...how do they do that?









I just got the biggest kick out of my kids reactions. You know those moments when you can just see the light shining in their eyes and their expression is pure happiness. Makes my heart skip a beat. So grateful we got the chance to take them.



Of course we couldn't leave there without our own Shamu's.



feeding the sea lions. Not me. Gross...the boys liked it though.




Riding the little gondola's across the sky. (Take note of my glasses, they broke about 5 minutes later. I blame Thiago. They were resting nicely in the stroller he was pushing, next thing I know they are broke. Makes me mad.)



At least I got to see views like this.



And back to the hotel. Where a baby Drake is zonked out right smack in the middle of our king bed. Little king Tut. Who does this baby think he is.

More later...I'm tired for now.