Our San Diego Family Vacation!

We took a fun family trip to San Diego! We had the time of our lives! We told the kids that this was their trip, and they got to pick where we ate and what we did, and we told them they could even interrupt us whenever they wanted. They liked that part the best and took full advantage.

We started out at Legoland.

We went on our favorite ride first, the fairytale boat ride. This is how the kids were waiting in line, so precious!

Winston and I dug for dinosaur bones while Daddy and the big kids went on the T-Rex "rollercoaster."

Noelle finally got to go on the ride that she was too little for last year. She has been patiently waiting for 365 days.

Stanton loved the Star Wars lego guys all around the park! He and Daddy also loved the soaking wet pirate ride, and we all go nuts over the Dragon coaster. I think we must have gone on it at least ten times! There were no lines anywhere! Not only did we get in free everywhere, but we never had to wait in a single line all weekend. It was so fantastic!

And of course, the water part was a big hit!

On the way home from Lego land wefound our favorite strawberry patch and stopped to pick some! For me, it's one of the highlights of the entire trip! This time Winston was old enough to really love it. He was having so much fun that he didn't even care that he was soaking wet and diaperless (oops, my fault, but how could I have known that he would go through 3 diapers in one day? I thought it was commendable I even remembered to bring that many.)

We picked (and ate) lots of strawberries and had the most perfect time doing it! I remember picking strawberries when I was little and hearing my step-mom say they should weigh me before and after to see how many pounds of strawberries I ate while we were picking. Let's just say nothing has changed, and my kids have followed in my footsteps.

Daddy is so good at planning trips and making them memorable and special!

The next day we went to Sea World! I got to pet the dolphins, and they completely drenched me for the second time that day. Earlier we went to the dolphin show and sat in the splash zone. They're not kidding when they say splash zone! We were loving the show, especially because when the trainer opened up her balcony window, ripped off her pajamas and dove into the water to ride on a dolphin, while colorful bird-people danced and flew around her, Noelle shouted, "This is just like in my dreams. This really happens in all of my dreams!" Robert and I were so busy cracking up, that we were caught off guard when the dolphins splashed the heck out of our little family. Then Noelle started crying and said, "That part never happens in my dreams." We bought them some candy to make up for it, since it was a kids' trip afterall!

Stanton was finally tall enough to go on the water rafting ride! Robert had been waiting for that moment for 5 years! They went on it 5 times and sent most of the day sopping wet. Stanton even convinced me to go on it. I was reluctant because I can't stand being in wet clothes, but I was glad I went with him because he kept hugging me and thanking me for being brave for the rest of the day. It was So worth it! I didn't get too terribly wet on the ride at first until Daddy paid 25 cents and convinced Noelle to shoot me with the giant water blaster and soak me even more. However, I then convinced a nice family from India to share their giant, expensive, walk-in people dryers with Stanton and I. They were so nice, and more than willing

Noelle's very favorite part was the discovery tank with star fish, sea urchins, giant sea snails and anemones. She also loved asking the trainer as many questions as she wanted to.

Winston's favorite part was our behind the scenes tour of the baby sea turtles. He loved feeding them lettuce, and when he ran out, he even tried to feed them his pacifier.

At the end of the tour we got to go back to see all of the newborn and/or sick animals. Noelle ignored the warning not to touch any of the animals in case they're sick, but she touched this sea turtle's flipper anyway (because it's her favorite animal.) Turns out this sea turtle has eczema, which is okay because she does too. Stanton kept his hands to himself, as always, and Winston only touched the baby seal cage (he's fast), which the trainer said was the one thing you absolutely did not want to touch or rub up against. She didn't say why, but I figured it couldn't have been too much worse than the McDonald's play place. We're just trying to build up an immunity one day at a time, exposing ourselves to every germy thing we can.

Before we ended our fun filled day, we saw the Shamu show. It was pretty amazing to see the enormous whales do backwards flips.

On the way out, Stanton and Noelle simultaneously spotted the Sea World "slug bug" at the same time and insisted they get a picture by it. This one brought their score up to Stanton=222 points and Noelle=226 points. (Later the next day Stanton caught up and passed her. As of today they are tied again. It's getting hard to keep track of all of our points. We have also seen 2 cars with eyelashes, 5 Truely Nolan mouse mobiles, and we've gotten 9 semi-trucks to honk at us by doing the universal up/down fist thing. We've had to give up on counting "van twins" because there are way too many.) Anyway, they said this was the coolest slug bug they've ever seen!

One of the kids' favorite parts of vacation is the hotel room! They love that we all sleep in the same room, and they love jumping on the bed and brushing their teeth outside!

That morning we went to the San Diego zoo. It was so cool to see the gorillas! They;ve always been my favorite animal, ever since I was little, and it was the first time I've ever seen one in person! That's because Robert makes all my dreams come true (:

Robert got to see his favorite animal too, a grizzly bear.

Seeing the hippos were also a highlight, especially since I'd promised Robert for years that the Phoenix Zoo had hippos. I was totally sure cause I'd been there a million times, and I could even picture right where they were. Turns out, I get things confused, they were rhinos. Tomatoe, tomato. Apparently Hippos are confusing to Winston as well because he stood there moo-ing at the top of his lungs!

We also liked the African elephants. They're supposed to be way bigger, but I couldn't tell. Again, tomatoe, tomato.
My other favorite animals of the day were the panda bears, who were so cute just munching on their bamboo, and the okapis, funny deer with zebra bums! Out of all the cool zoo animals, the kids said the best part of the zoo was that we surprised them by getting them cotton candy when they weren't looking...oh, and the black bears.

At the end of the day Robert convinced me to do the sky ride back to the entrance, since we got it free. Since I am almost always swayed by anything free, I reluctantly agreed, even though I am petrified of high heights. Ladder type heights, no problem, but this was practically Empire State building heights. My fears went from bad to worse when they wouldn't let our whole family ride together, so me and Winston and Noelle rode by ourselves, and Robert and Stanton went in the other. Then when the lady was putting us in the unsafe, sky-high death trap, my stroller fell out and hit her in the face and knocked her backwards while she was trying to pick up my shoe that had fallen off. By this time I was a little frazzled, especially as I realized as she shut the door that there were no blasted seat belts! I was panicking and shaking, while Robert and Stanton were behind us laughing and waving. Then I made Noelle say a prayer with me that we would be safe. By that time I realized I was freaking her out, so I put on a happy face, and just concentrated on taking pictures of each other. It was so scary that when we landed back on earth, I had to run straight  to the bathroom. As many of my friends know, I have an actual physical reaction to nervousness and fear.

Later that afternoon we went to the beach.
Daddy and Stanton were brave enough to swim in the freezing water, but the rest of us were not.

We made a sand palace out of sea weed, rocks, sticks and sand and a sand man (instead of a snowman to stand guard.) We also helped Winston feed graham crackers to the pigeons and we tried really hard to get a seagull to eat a gummy worm, mission accomplished!

We also dug for sand crabs, one of our favorite beach past times! Wisnton went from being interested, to screaming at them, to poking them, to squealing at them with laughter. In the end, he even held one.

That night we went to Seaport Village, another place I have fond memories of from when I was little! We got cheese fries and gourmet cookies and climbed trees and walked around the pier and the shops.

On our last day we stopped by the San Diego temple!
It is undoubtedly the most beautiful building I have ever seen!

Stanton and Noelle took dozens of pictures of each other.

Those two love the camera! Winston declined the photo op and instead tried smelling every single flower on the Temple grounds.

Our last stop was the Mormon Battallion Vistior's Center. It has been completely redone, and it's even more fun and interative! It's definitely a must see!

Noelle volunteered to be a soldier!

At the end they built clay bricks, played with the water spicket, sat in a covered wagon and panned for gold with the  missionaries! It was a really wonderful time!

The whole trip was just the best time ever!

The car ride was even fun, finding slug bugs, making up jokes, and listening to Winston meow everytime you asked him any question at all. It made us all laugh so hard!

Noelle made up and sang lots and lots of songs, and we talked in great detail about all of our fun trip memories, including how many times she fell down on the trip and where. (she fell 16 times. We kept count.)

  Stanton made his first ever comic book (so cute!) and he kept cracking us up because whenever it would really noisy in the van he would say, "Hey guess what my favorite animal is? The be quiet animal." He also led Noelle and Winston in many quick rounds of the quiet game. He won everytime. He even beat me!

It was so nice to just spend uninterrupted time with them, and listen to them tell us every little detail about what they were thinking. It was the best 4 days ever!