San Diego, Part 2

We spent Saturday at the beach before heading home.  

I've been reading a running book that talks a lot about barefoot running and I have really been wanting to try it.  Living on the surface of the sun doesn't give me much opportunity to do that, but this beach was the perfect spot to give it a try.  Ben played with the kids while I ran a couple of miles down the beach and it was one of the most fun things I've ever done.

Alison following me at the end of my run

These little "sea creatures" were all over the beach, but no one knew what they were.  I even had a lady, who is from San Diego, come up to me and ask what they were.  Baby lobsters?

This was the easiest beach trip we've done to date.  Any time the parents have time to sit under the tent and read while the kids play in the sand, is a good beach day.

This trip was so refreshing for me (I'm pretty sure I've said that too many times) and I am so thankful for our time in San Diego.

San Diego, Part 1

 

 Thursday afternoon, we drove to San Diego after Ben got off work.  I didn't tell the kids about our little getaway until that morning and they were so excited that they didn't want to wait for daddy to get home.  It made me laugh inside that they've gotten used to me taking them on little trips.  Well, daddy knew the way and I was excited for our adventure.  The drive alone was fun...we drove through sand dunes and mountains and ended up in a giant city that ends in the Pacific ocean.

We went to straight to dinner.  Ben took us to a place he found the week before: Karl Strauss.  We watched the fish in the pond while we waited and enjoyed eating outside.

Yes, we took our kids to a brewery.  I decided to jump into the adventure and try a new beer.  Our waitress clearly had fun at this challenge and kept bringing samples to our table.  By the end of dinner, we had at least 7 samples of different beer.

Ben warned us that we'd be cold in San Diego and he was right!  70's compared to 100's is cold, but I was still surprised how quickly we've acclimated to Arizona.  We ate dinner by a heater and all had extra jackets on.

After dinner, we stopped by the beach, right by our hotel.  All I could say was "oh my goodness".

The area we went to was technically a dog "park" and it made us all miss Maya.  We left her at a boarding place right down the road from our house and we're hoping that it doesn't scar her too much more.  Fingers crossed.  There was a place to hike up and we decided that would be the perfect place to watch the sun set.

It was definitely worth the climb!

Can't decide which one I like more...

I could have stood there forever; just soaking it up.

  

 I couldn't tell you why or give you a good reason, but San Diego is a place I've always wanted to go.  I've dreamed about it and Ben made it happen for me and it was a big deal to me.  A lot of things in my life, I do all for our kids, but this was one thing for me...and I savored every moment.

Lucky for our kids, they got to benefit from my dreams.  There are so many fun choices in San Diego, but we learned pretty quickly that they all come at a hefty price.  So, we chose Sea World because it was free!  Military families get to go one day a year for free and we got to go when everyone else was in school!  Yea for homeschooling!

Friday morning, when I told the kids where we were going, Eli said, "But I don't want to see the world."

I had some people tell me that they felt our kids were too young and wouldn't appreciate Sea World yet, but I am thankful to say that they were wrong.  We all LOVED it.

Alison and the polar bear

It was seriously SO cool.  I would go back right now if I could.  Colin would too, not that you can tell from this picture.  He got pretty scared when the animals would come right up to the glass, but the first thing he said this morning is, "Are we going to see the whales today?".

Best thing I did this trip was to give Alison my old phone to take pictures with.

It was easy for her to put in her pocket and whip out when she wanted to take a picture and was a good distraction when she had to wait (i.e. delete all 500 random pictures on that phone that your brothers took).  I also felt like it helped her learn, which sounds funny...I really felt like the kids learned a lot at Sea World, BUT she didn't think she was learning because she was having fun taking pictures.  Previous learning things we've done like this, she got an attitude of "don't try to teach me when school's not in session", which is the complete opposite of our educational goals for our kids.

 

Eli's favorite was the sharks.  We're riding through the shark tunnel here and he's just in awe of the sharks.  

We went to the dolphin show and again, it was amazing.  I can totally see Alison being a dolphin trainer.

 

Second best thing we did was rent a double stroller.  Our boys should have been fine to walk, but both were pretty tired and we knew that we would be carrying them most of the way if we didn't do this.  We may have looked silly, but it made the day way more fun for the parents.

Sitting in the stroller through the park gave Eli enough time to wiggle his tooth so much that it was hanging on by just a thread.  Ben pulled it out for him so he could eat a snack.  I'm not sure Sea World can get any funner than losing teeth there.

Ben took the boys up in the Sesame Street play house and I stayed on the ground following Alison as she climbed up a giant robes course.  

Then we headed back to our hotel and Ben took the kids swimming while I went on a run.  Running in California was so refreshing to me.  I didn't need a water bottle, I could run a decent pace again and it was just fun to explore a new place.  Hearing the ocean crash while you run isn't half bad either.

Fish tacos was high on my priority list for our trip, so dinner was at Rubio's.  It's been hard to find blackened fish (not fried) so I was stoked to find it here.  You also get a nice picture of my black finger here.

Birthday week

 Ben was in San Diego for the week (insert sad face) but we still had a fun week and I still got very spoiled.  And watch out, because I might turn into a brat soon, because the spoiling continues this week as we go back to San Diego as a family.  I CANNOT WAIT!

This week:

It stormed!

It was the craziest thing.  All of the sudden, the sky became dark blue and at first you thought, "Wow, this is really pretty." but then lightening started filling the sky and the wind was blowing like crazy.  Here's the thing about the dessert; wind is no joke.  Since there's no buffer for the wind, a little breeze can seem ten times scarier than it needs to be.  This was our first dessert storm and I didn't really know what to expect, so we all hung out in the living room and watched a movie until it passed.

Pre-lightening, when we were oohing and aweing at the sky

This is a glimpse of teaching Colin.  We've been working on spelling his name...a good skill to know, right?  Every day we work on it and every day he answers "I don't know" or "Rnbt" (aka just starts saying letters).  Also, he's supposed to be making a pattern with the bears.  And somehow his pattern turned into a circle of not patterned bears that started fighting each other.

Hilariously though, he'll often listen to Eli's lessons and interject a random answer that is magically right.  It drives Eli crazy, but completely cracks me up.

Eli taught Colin how to play chess.  It was hilarious because he only kind of knows how to play so he was making up rules as he went and Colin just went along with whatever big brother told him.

P.S. I have no idea what happened to this picture.

 Birthday morning, we had blueberry muffins.

I opened the box that Elizabeth and Kent sent (THANK YOU!) and a destroy-the-tissue-paper party ensued.

Alison found it unacceptable to wait to celebrate until Daddy got home on Friday, so we went to Cold Stone Creamery for our party.

The kids have never been and were completely fascinated (or maybe it was the lady's purple hair).  They shared a cotton candy ice cream with marshmallows and sprinkles cup and I got a peanut butter cup creation.

They inhaled this thing!

Who knew marshmallows in ice cream could be so exciting?

The kids dressed themselves that day.  I asked Eli why he was wearing all orange and he said because it made him faster.

cannot keep Eli in front of the camera for the life of me

That night, a friend from church came over for dinner.  Her husband was out of town as well and Alison helped me make schnitzel.

Eli continues to impress us with his massive creations with legos.

Ben got home on Friday and brought a slew of surprises with him.

First, was a plate of giant gourmet cupcakes.

Each of the kids picked a present for me.  Eli got me yellow flowers and Colin got me peanut butter M&M's, both knowing those are my favorite.

Ben got me a giant bag of dark chocolate covered espresso beans (I fell in love with these on our cross country move), some clothes and a set of dumbbells.

Alison very sweetly got me a necklace that she picked out herself and even earned enough money to pay for half of it.  It has a charm that says "Run like a girl" and running shoe charm.  It was so sweet.  Maybe she got the gift giving gene that I lack.

Saturday night, we left the kids at the Y for 'Parent's night out' and Ben and I went on a date!  We tried a local Sushi place and ended back at Cold Stone...Arizona, I tell you, is changing us.

I am feeling so crazy blessed and counting down the minutes until we are on the beach!