San Diego (we miss you!)

We decided to surprise the kids for their birthdays this year and take them on a fun filled trip to San Diego. We started planning the trip in December and it was a miracle that Jason didn't spoil it before we left! We got everything packed and ready while they were at school. I made up a scavenger hunt with clues about our trip for them to figure out where we were going. They were still very confused! Needless to say after all the secret planning that went into the trip, the surprise was worth it! They wanted to know when I had done all the packing, if I had packed certain things, when we were leaving, etc. Shortly after we told them, we packed up in the car and headed for St. George, our halfway point, to visit our friends. We celebrated Nathan's birthday while we were there and then left late afternoon for San Diego!

We arrived late Friday night at our condo and left Saturday morning for our first adventure...Sea World! We had debated on whether or not to go to Sea World because we went in Orlando a couple years ago and were a little disappointed. This Sea World was awesome! We had a great day there! Nathan insisted on sitting in the soak zone at every show. One lady called me out for using Luke as a shield for myself during the Shamu show. Hey, he had on a jacket! We loved the Sesame Street section of the park that was especially perfect for Luke who was pretty thrilled when he got to see "Helmo" in person!







Sunday we made a short trip to the Wild Animal Park. A little bit of a dissappointment for us and a LOT of walking for little kids. We did however get some really cool face paintings while we were there AND the kids loved the carousel. We did get to see a lot of animals on the safari ride as well. When they decided they wanted ice cream for four bucks a piece we thought that was a good time to leave and find a Dairy Queen.





Monday was our first day at Legoland and it was awesome! What is not to love about that place...okay maybe one thing. Not the most fun place for Luke. They are pretty strict (and a little ridiculous) about their height requirements. But at least they are consistent. Luke barely made it onto a couple rides that he could go on with a parent. Which meant Jason and I got our full of riding some pretty lame stuff. There was a lot of great rides for Lauren and Nate, really fun souveneir shops, and a large section devoted to the art of lego building. It was really incredible. When it closed at 5 pm we already knew we'd be back for another day.







Tuesday we headed to the San Diego Zoo. They had some really great exhibits there, our favorites being the panda bears and the snoozing koalas. We fell in the love with the Columbus Zoo while living in Ohio and have a hard time not comparing every other zoo we visit to it. This zoo was pretty close. However, Columbus Zoo has NO HILLS! Even still, it was a fun day together.






Wednesday we decided to visit a Science Museum downtown and then visit Coronodo Island for dinner. We stayed at the museum to catch a 5pm Imax show that was included with our ticket. Despite being surrounded by a huge screen and some pretty powerful speakers, Lauren fell asleep!



Thursday we were back to Legoland. I won't bore you with the details again, but we did have a lot of fun! One ride that Lauren and Nate went on was the Volvo Test Track. The kids got to drive little cars around a pretend town and then earned their driver's license at the end. The first time they rode it we noticed Lauren stopped in the middle of the town. We were worried that she didn't know how to operate her vehicle, but then she got going again. Shortly after, she was stopped again. It wasn't until the second time we realized that she was obeying all the traffic signals!! All the others cars were zooming through stop signs and traffic lights, but Lauren was serious about getting her driver's license!





We didn't want to leave San Diego without taking the kids to the beach. So we got the car completely loaded up and decided to hit the beach on our way out of town. Needless to say, we went completely unprepared. The kids were thrilled for about the first hour. The water was freezing, but they didn't care. The only other people in the water were surfers in full body suits, it was that cold. We had one blanket for the kids to sit on but no towels. The freakout began when they were done in the water and decided to play in the sand. Sand sticks to water, therefore we had 3 very unhappy children. We tried washing them off in the wash station they provided, but it just didn't do the trick. So we took them back to car and striped them down on the public sidewalk (sorry residents of Oceanside) and cleaned them off with water bottles. It was a little bit of an ordeal but in the end I'm still glad we took them.





We stopped in St. George again on the way back to home and stayed the weekend with our friends. We celebrated Lauren's birthday and went geocaching. It was a great end to a fabulous vacation!