Monday, February 23, 2015

Our California Trip: San Diego

We started off the morning of February 18th by leaving Lia and Ella behind with my mom in the hotel room while Ron and I went off to a timeshare sales presentation with Logan.  We intentionally brought him along in hopes that he would help shorten the entire thing, but he actually did okay and behaved himself.  After we finished up at noon, we headed back to the hotel to check out and begin our drive back down to San Diego.  The traffic was pretty decent, so we made it to our hotel right on the bay in downtown San Diego by afternoon.  After checking in, Ron took the kids to the pool while my mom and I stayed back in the hotel room with a sleeping Ella so that she could take her afternoon nap.  Then Ron and I decided that it was our parental duty to introduce our kids to In 'N Out burgers while we were in Southern California, so we all headed out to eat dinner at the nearest one our first night there.  Since Lia doesn't like eating foods that are mixed, she has never had a hamburger (shocking, I know), so it was a bit of a risk to bring her to a fast food joint that doesn't have any other food options.  But...


I was amazed to see that Lia loved her first hamburger and gobbled it up!  


Logan did a great job, too.  Here is my boy munching away on an In 'N Out fry.


Lia, Logan, and I started off Thursday, February 19th, with a walk to get us out of the hotel room for Ella's morning nap.  We took a stroll through the marina and then found a park in front of the city's children's museum.  


Logan and the boats.


There were some unusual play equipment at the children's museum playground.  Here are the kids spinning around on a cool piece of play equipment.


There was a giant sandbox that Logan loved playing in.


And Lia loved climbing around on the giant net.


After our walk and lunch back in the hotel room, we all headed out to spend the afternoon at the beach in La Jolla.  Although it was cloudy when we first arrived, the sun eventually came out and we had a great time.  Here is my boy drawing in the sand.


Two siblings hard at play.


My mom and I took turns keeping Ella off of the sand (so that she wouldn't put it in her mouth) for most of the morning.  


My kiddos and me.


Lia "letting it go" with little sissy and me.


Logan was fascinated by the giant hole that we found when we got there.  He spend quite a bit of time playing in it.


What a cute kid.  We eventually ended up down by the water's edge where Logan and I started playing in the surf (I didn't take any pictures of this).  Before I knew it, he was wet from head to toe and then got covered in sand.  After throwing a massive tantrum while I tried to clean and dress him, we through in the towel (literally) and headed back to the hotel.  After grandma took the older kids to the pool, I stayed back in the room with Ella for her afternoon nap before leaving to spend the evening with my cousin, Doug, and his family at their home in Poway.


We headed out on Friday, February 20th, to spend the day at Sea World.  Although my mom and I were pretty exhausted by this point, we pushed through another long day so that the children could have this Southern California experience.  Here are Lia and Logan playing in the tidal pools inside the entrance of the park.


Logan also enjoyed climbing around on the fake rocks while looking at the sea life inside the tidal pools.  


One of our first stops was to see the dolphins in the pool where they are kept.  Since the trainers happened to be feeding them, we were able to see them up close and personal!


Lia enjoying another tidal pool with sea life similar to what we find up in the Northwest.


We loved the giant aquariums found throughout the park.  Here are Lia and Logan standing in front of one filled with sharks (you can kind of see them through the glass).


This aquarium was filled with beautiful fish and coral found in warm, tropical water.  A giant see turtle swam while the children were standing there.  I just love this picture.


Another shot of the turtle.


We also enjoyed looking at the tanks with the octopuses in them.  Instead of hiding in a corner, this octopus was up and moving and fun to look at!


Lia and Logan looking at the octopus.


The older kids and me with the giant, sea turtles.


Two HUGE sea turtles lounging on the sand.  I have never seen ones this large before.


We also enjoyed watching the sea lions swim around in their area.


We got the biggest kick out of watches this huge flock of flamingos for several minutes.  I had no idea that they were such a funny bird that made such a ruckus!  Here are grandma and Lia posing with them in the background.



Although Logan refused to pose in the previous picture, he decided to join Grandma and Lia and hold up the Sea World map right in front of his face.  I thought that it was so funny that I took another picture.


We then headed over to the see the dolphin show and was amazed by all of their flips and tricks.  They also brought out a pair of huge, pilot whales which was very impressive.


A group of dolphins jumping into the air.


We then went and watched the infamous killer whale show.  Here are Ella, Lia, and me before the show started.  After six days of no naps, Logan was so tired at this point that he refused to pose for this picture and then fell asleep in my lap after I passed the baby over to my mom.  Poor, little guy.


An impressive killer whale jumping in the air.


Another amazing shot.  It's too bad that Logan slept through most of this show.


And one more.


We went straight from the killer whale show to the sea lion show that was surprisingly very funny. We had a good time laughing at these sea lions and their trainers.


The quintessential, sea lion pose.


After attending the three shows, we stumbled across a petting pool with a bunch of rays in it.  The kids got really brave and spent quite a bit of time touching them as they swam by.


Lia showing off her mad, petting skills!


We waited until the end of the day to stop by the Sesame Street Bay of Play--a huge play area near the entrance of the park.  Lia and Logan could have seriously spent an entire day playing here, but we only had 45 minutes until the park closed.  So, they had a great time while it lasted.  Here are Logan and Lia climbing through one of the tunnels in the giant fort.


Logan and Lia had the time of their lives laughing while jumping on this gigantic, bouncy floor.


Logan helping Lia up.  How cute.


Lia pushing back and forth in this contraption.  


Ernie and Elmo were actually posing for pictures, so we had to get in line and have one taken.  It's not quite the same as having your picture taken with a Disney princess, but it's a close second!


After our long day at Sea World, my mom and I returned back to the hotel pretty tired.  Since Ron had basically had two children-free days attending his conferences, we informed him that we were going out to dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter alone for a well deserved break!  Luckily, he agreed and stayed back in the hotel room and ordered room service for the kids and him.  My mom and I hurried across the street to the Gaslamp Quarter to eat at the Spaghetti Factory.  We enjoyed a quiet, peaceful dinner for a little over an hour before heading back to the room to help put the kids to bed. 


My mom caught a very early flight on the morning of February 21st.  As a result, I was on my own with the kids all day long until Ron finished up his conference right before dinner time.  I tried to keep the kids busy and happy that day.  We started out with another long walk back to the children's museum park for the entire morning while Ella took a nap.  Here is my adorable boy playing along the edge of the big sandbox.


Lia enjoyed climbing and hanging around the giant net again.


We then headed down to the hotel pool after lunch.  Since I had to hold Ella, I was unable to get in the pool and actually swim with the kids.  However, I enjoyed just watching them from the pool's edge.  Logan and Lia spent most of the time playing together in the children's pool.


My crazy boy climbing out of the pool.


The kids at play.


They ran into this little pool holding hands over and over again.  Just precious.


They can be so cute when they get along. :-)


Lia left Logan a couple of times to swim in the big pool.  She has become such a more confident swimmer this school year thanks to her Saturday morning swim class.


After Ron returned from his conference, we decided to head out to Coronado Island for the evening.  Our hotel room had a great view of this massive bridge heading out over the bay.  It wasn't until the third day there that I realized it was the bridge that goes to Coronado Island.  Ron and I had stayed at the infamous Del Coronado Hotel for my 31st birthday on this island the month before we moved away from California.  It was such a cute and quaint island that I insisted we go back out there once I realized that we were so close.  So, we piled into our rental van and drove out there for a wonderful and pleasant evening.  Even though it was at the tail end of our trip, the kids did great and we had an enjoyable time walking through the darling neighborhoods and eating at a local pizzeria.  Here are my girls and me stopping in the middle of a roundabout on our way to the restaurant. 


Ron and the kids examining a cannon in the roundabout.  


Poor, tired Logan waiting for his pizza to come.  Eating out seven nights in a row with little kids is hard work!


Logan giving mama a smile.


A family photo after our pizza arrived.


Ella had a grand time chewing on some pizza crust and it helped to keep her happy until the end of dinner.  We finished off the evening by walking down the street to a candy store where we bought some ice cream and ate outside on a bench.  It was the perfect way to end our trip in San Diego.  


We flew home on Sunday, February 22nd, which was Lia's 7th birthday.  Although I had told her that we would celebrate her birthday the next evening with grandma and grandpa, I surprised her with a large bag of candy and a card from us.  I secretly gave it to our airline stewardess and asked her to make an announcement over the PA system before bringing the candy to Lia.  It was so fun to watch Lia's reaction as the stewardess announced her birthday to everyone on the plane and sang to her.  Here is Lia and me after she got her candy.


Lia showing off her bag of candy and the gift she got from the airlines stewardess.  It's not every day that you get to spend your birthday 30,000 feet up in the air!

No comments:

Post a Comment