Oh man, we sure picked a great week to visit San Diego. The entire time we were in California it was pouring down rain here in Portland:) Hyrum had a medical conference from September 24-28 and we decided to make his trip into a little family vacation...Hyrum goes to boring lectures all day, the boys and I play...sounds OK to me:)
My three boys on the airplane checking out the "safety information." Our flight left on Tuesday at 6:30 AM, which meant we had to drag our boys out of bed at 4:30 AM to get to the airport, park, take a shuttle, check in, go through security and get on our flight. They were in pretty good spirits considering the early start.
We got to our hotel and they let us check in early. The boys headed straight for the pool! I think they spent at least 2 hours in the pool every day of our vacation!
Hyrum's conference was in San Diego but we stayed across the bay on Coronado Island. We had to go down and check out the beach on our first day. Emerson had fun playing with all the kelp that had washed up on shore. It was a beautiful beach and within walking distance from our hotel.
Sunset on the beach. My favorite part of the week was taking an evening stroll. There were cute little shops to browse through and fun places to eat and, of course, the beach! The weather was just fantastic, low to mid 70's the entire week!
Hyrum played hookie from his conference one day so we could spend the day as a family at Legoland. I think my older boys are right at the cut off age for Legoland. Any older and I don't think it would have been much fun. Julian had a blast on all the rides but this is a place designed for ages 10 and younger.
There was a special Star Wars exhibit. It really is amazing to see all the things they have created out of legos.
Julian loved this little car ride. He had a gas pedal he could push and he got to steer the car all by himself. He rode this 4 times during the day. Luckily the longest we had to wait for a ride was about 5 minutes. The joys of visiting in the off season:)
Townsend and Daddy on one of the rides...love Hyrum's face!
Of course we had to see "lego America" It was pretty cool to see all the famous US cities built out of legos.
We stopped at La Jolla beach on our way home from Legoland. We hit the beach just as the sun was going down and the lighting was just perfect for photos. What a beautiful spot on the California coast.
The reason we stopped at La Jolla was for the seals. They come up onto the beach and hang out. You can get within 50 feet of the seals but you can't go past the barrier. There were so many seals just hanging out. It was really neat to see.
We weren't really planning on getting wet but how can you stop your boys from playing in the waves.
Julian even dipped his toes.
Once a wave pushed Emerson down and he got all wet it was all over. Townsend and Emerson didn't even try to stay dry...but they sure had a bunch of fun letting the waves roll them over.
Julian taught himself to swim on this trip. Here he is jumping into the pool. He would jump in, swim to the surface and then I would grab him, point him to the wall and he would swim under water to the wall all by himself!
Our hotel let you borrow beach chairs, boogie boards and sand toys. Townsend was the only one that tried the boogie board but he sure had a lot of fun...look at the smile:)
Julian was content jumping in the waves and playing with a little toy boat.
Emerson spent a lot of time making trails in the sand and then watching the waves wash away his work.
Hanging out in the hotel room. We had a 2 bedroom hotel room and a total of 3 t.v.'s! The boys loved that they could each watch the show they wanted and didn't have to fight over the t.v.
Hyrum took the ferry back over to the Island after his conference one of the evenings. It was a beautiful day to be on the water.
On one of our evening strolls. This place reminded me so much of Spain. I think it was the wonderful weather and the cute little town we stayed in.
On our last day in San Diego we went to the zoo. The kids all loved these colorful flamingoes:)
Only 4 people were allowed in the "zoofari" tram car so Julian and I had to take our own car. That was OK because then Hyrum could get this cool shot of me waving to him:)
Koala!
Peek-a-boo Julian:)
The boys picked out these cute little stuffed animals for their souvenir.
Of course Julian wanted to ride the zoo train:)
After the zoo we walked around Balboa park. This cool looking building is actually the "museum of man" Unfortunately by the time we got here it was closing in 1/2 hour. The boys would have liked the special "instruments of torture" exhibit that was on display. I think San Diego is a city I would like to come back and visit again, so maybe next time we'll hit this museum.
A pretty fountain in Balboa park.
The boys had fun at the playground and could have stayed longer but we had a plane to catch. So it was off to drop off the rental car, catch the shuttle to the airport, check in, go through security and finally get on the plane at 8:30 PM. We didn't get back to Portland until 11:30 PM and didn't get to our home until well after midnight. Needless to say we had some tired boys on our hands but they all climbed into bed and got to sleep right away...I hope they all dreamt of our fun family trip to San Diego:)
