San Diego! Part 1

Our family trip with my family was to San Diego this year.  I had never been there before and it was a blast.  There was so much to do and the weather was amazing. The Marshes traveled with us again, which is always a blast.  They were in a separate beach house less than a mile from us so we got to spend plenty of time with them!


We left Friday afternoon and stayed at my Dad's friend's place in St. George.  It was nice to break the long drive up.  We swam after we put the girls to bed and hung out and talked while we waited for Tally and Abby to get there.  Then we took this amazing picture to start the trip off right!

We drove the rest of the way on Saturday.  The girls did great in the car.  Emma and Katelyn love when they just get to watch movie after movie and Miley was happy as long as she had an unlimited supply of treats.  When we got to the beach house we were staying at, some of us went to Costco to buy food for the week and the rest of us went swimming.  That night, we went down to walk along the beach.  My dad was nice and stayed home with a sleeping Miley.

Miley and Graham just needed a quick cuddle.

Katelyn's hair went super curly while we were there.  I didn't really know what to do with it.

 On Sunday, we went to church and then headed over to the temple to walk around and take a few family pictures. 

That afternoon, Laurie came over to take a few more family pictures for us and then we headed over to their house to have dinner and celebrate Mike and Dantzel's birthdays.

We are saving most of these pictures for future Christmas cards but look at how cute Katelyn is! And Miley's cheeser face.

 

Emma was Laurie's little shadow at their house for dinner that night.  Laurie was a good sport about it!

On Monday, we headed to Sea World.  We weren't sure if we were going to go because we have heard mixed reviews from people with kids the same age as ours but we are glad that we decided to go!

Miley was so happy this whole trip and would say cheese (DAAAAA is how she really says it) everytime a camera came out!

 I was surprised that both of the older girls were brave enough to put their hands in this pool where the fish would come up and suck on your hand.  Katelyn actually really liked it.

We saw all of the shows except for the Madagascar show.  The sea lion and otter show was our favorite and Shamu was actually our least favorite.  Both Emma and Katelyn loved to look at the map and help us find where to go next.
  

These flamingos were just out for a walk when we first walked in.  So weird and so cool.

Emma's favorite animal exhibit was the penguins and Katelyn's was the sharks.  Although we are pretty positive that Katelyn just liked the sharks because Emma was afraid of them.  They have a little bit of a sibling rivalry going on right now.

Miley just really needed a nap during the sea lion show

Todd and Emma in line for the Elmo ride.

I just really loved Todd's photobomb on this picture.  Sorry Tally and Abby.

Todd and I on the "Manta." It was super fun!  I only felt a tiny bit bad for abusing the baby swap option on this ride.

 Miley loved the baby play area in Sesame Street Land.  Although she wasn't too fond of the actual play area.  She just paced back and forth on the carpet without ever really getting on the mat.  She looked just like a tiger in the zoo.

Papa with Emma and Katelyn on the tea cup type ride.

 Tuesday was our first beach day.  Emma loved playing in the sand but didn't really love the water.  Katelyn didn't really like much of the beach but says she liked the water (again, probably because Emma said she didn't).  Once again, Miley probably ate her weight in sand.  She looked pretty gross but there wasn't much we could do about it so we just had to embrace it.

Spencer was the best this trip.  The girls loved to be with him and he was super helpful all of the time!

 We came home from the beach and hopped in the pool for a few minutes and then we got ready for dinner.  The Marshes came over to our place that night and we had Rumbi rice bowls and roasted marshmallows. We also dressed all of the grand-kids in their pajamas from Japan.  The picture worked out better in my head. It is hard to get my children to cooperated for the camera!  It was a great day!

This is the best one we got! Haha!

Sorry for the Miley overload from this trip, she just was so darn cute!

 And that is about it for Part 1.  Stay tuned...