Sweet San Diego

Ahhhhh San Diego... maybe my most favorite place ever. It might be that I spent 5 of my most fun, crazy, wonderful years of my life there going to college but truly, there is just something about this city that I love. This summer we spent almost a week there enjoying all the great things (and people) that San Diego has to offer! On our first day we joined my best friend Jenn and her family at their house in North County. Jenn and I love any time we get to just hang out and chat (don't mind the 4 kids getting in our way)... just like old times (almost)! The last time we came to visit, neither of us remembered to take out our cameras at all. This time we remembered, but I can't believe in the chaos of 3 toddlers and a baby... Jenn and I never got a picture together! Bummer.
SWIM DAY

Here is Ryan (the big girl of the group) with Charlie and Holden (TOTALLY, two peas in a pod these two). They were adorable to watch together. Ryan kept rolling her eyes at their silliness (you know, kindergarten girls are sooooo mature!).

This is Baby Cash. He just wanted to be part of the big kid fun too!

You should have seen these little swimmers! It was amazing to watch their little skills.

The country club area of their development not only had a pool but this amazing water park area. The girls openly wished we had "one of these" in their yard! Me too...So awesome.

LEGOLAND
We all got a good night's sleep and spent the next day Legoland. We met some more friends there and had a great day! It is truly amazing what can be done with Legos.

Holden, Charlie, and Ryan posed with the camera guy by the front entrance. Their first experience of the day with a large Lego man! Charlie looks truly amazed!

Ryan rides the train.

One of Charlie's famous poses.
Seriously... what is with this kid and her poses? Who taught her this?

Charlie on the bumper cars.

Holden on the bumper cars... a total natural! This kid is amazingly coordinated! He started riding a 2-wheeler bike without training wheels at two!!!

The Lego raceway. Look how real it looks! Amazing.

Awe... a princess was found! Charlie kept asking where Ariel was! Haha... we luckily found this princess to make her feel content.

The girls and I posed with Thomas.
(Check out the pose on Charlie!)

LA COSTA
After Legoland, we made our way to our hotel for a late afternoon swim on the highly anticipated water slides.

Sister love.

Pure joy.

Tons of fun.

SEA WORLD
The next day was all about Sea World. Jeff's girlfriend, Julie, met us there for the day. Ah, she is such a godsend! Steve spent part of the day with us but then headed to Seal Beach for the night to sleep and work so Julie filled in as the best helper EVER! We had a great day!

This is where we fed the seals and sea lions. A bird totally swooshed in a took a fish just as a dropped it for a seal. Oh my, so scary.

We had lunch with the killer whales. It was awesome to see how the girls got so excited to be so close to the whale in the lunch show.

This is our table. You can see Ulysses behind us under the water. So cool.

After the lunch show, we went underneath to see Ulysses in the tank. What a truly neat experience. And then off to the Shamu show.

This picture was while we were waiting for the dolphin show. A lot of waiting for things at Sea World... it was so nice to have Julie to help me snuggle, cuddle, and help me entertain little munchkins.

A break from the heat in the arcade. Charlie immediately spotted the dancing machine. My little Back Street Girl can cut a rug!

Ryan was awesome at earning tickets. The girls were destined to win these big items. Julie and I had to work hard. It started with skeeball... but at an average of 4 tickets a game Skeeball wasn't going to cut it. We relied on Basketball hoops and a wheel of fortune game that got us to our goal. We needed approximately 500+ tickets all together to get "equal" prizes that they wanted so off to work we went!

With a little hard work and perserverance, we earned those prizes. Oh ya!!

Our favorite show of the day... the Sea Lion and Otter Show. Totally hilarious.

Did I say Julie was a godsend already? Oh ya, I did! This proves it! The girls wanted to go on this jungle gym and they were too young to go alone so Julie (oh heavenly Julie) took them up there while I waited on the sidelines. Whoa, so great! They loved it.

A DAY POOLSIDE AT LA COSTA

I had to get a picture of this... Charlie turned the bar area of our hotel room into her personal little play area and played so well in there throughout the whole vacation. This bar area play was the best because it made a nice break for mommy! We were lucky that we had a separate living area from the bedroom because here is Charlie late into the night just playing away at her heart's content while the rest of us were dozing off.

Here is Ryan enjoying a break from the sun... coloring and doing word puzzles!

Charlie could not get enough of the pool! She was trying to tell me that she wanted her goggles!

Me and my lovely girls.

Lunch time!

Swimming with daddy is always the best part of the day!


DINNER ON THE BEACH

After an exhausting day at the pool, we took a long nap and headed out to dinner. The girls got to use the real glasses to toast and drink their water. They loved it.

CORONADO
On Saturday morning, we headed to Coronado for our final stop on our trip. We checked into our hotel and then headed to the beach with Julie. Her family has a condo on the island that is so perfectly situated on the beach in Coronado. We were able to hang out with the girls all day on the sand and not worry about normal beach day worries like access to bathrooms and a place to rinse off. We felt so at home and loved our time there.

My posers... Charlie and Ryan.

Frolicking in the waves.

Using the sand toys to build some fun stuff.

A yummy snack.

The view of the bay from the condo. So awesome!

A night out on the town to get ice cream after a big Mexican dinner.
(Again, check out the poser)

Thanks Julie for all your help and hospitality. We had a great time visiting.

Ah... San Diego!!! We'll see you again next year my friend! You'll be missed!