What we did while in our house by the bay...

We had been looking forward to our trip to Mission Bay for almost 6 months.  Cord signed up to attend a class in San Diego, so of course, we had to tag along!  I invited my parents to join us.  The kids thought that was pretty fantastic to have two whole weeks of sleepovers with their Grandma!

Here is a record of our travels...

Libby got to drive to California in my parent's car.  She was so excited.  It was weird for us to not have her along in our car, but we got to see each other at all the rest stops along the way!  I was super sick the day we left,  (Darn stomach bug) but it was still fun to stop in Las Vegas and watch the kids swim and play in the warm weather.  We ordered some pizza and soda and watched a little bit of TV in our hotel room that night.  Early the next day we loaded up into the cars and drove into San Diego!  We made great time and the kids were really good travelers.

Our beach house was beautiful.  It was only about 30 steps from the bay and a few blocks from the Ocean.  My parents are amazing to travel with.  The did all the grocery shopping and cooked fantastic food for all our meals.  Mom even did most of the clean up too.  We were certainly spoiled! 

The first full day in San Diego we headed up to Legoland.  The day started off a bit chilly, but the sun came out and gave us some warmth in the afternoon.  I was still sick, so Cord and my mom had to go on all the rides with the kids!  It was fun to watch them from the sidelines.  I had never been to Legoland, so it was a whole new adventure!  I cannot believe the stuff they made out of Lego's!  It was crazy.

The kids had fun on the rides.  There were hardly any lines, so we were able to get on everything.

 

 

They had entire cities built out of Lego's.  You wouldn't believe how real they looked.

 

Nat was the cutest little thing driving in her Lego car.  She was taking it very seriously.

Poor Gage wasn't old enough to drive.  He was heartbroken.

 

He was old enough to go on the roller coaster!  The girl's were too chicken to try, but Gage decided to give it a go.  I don't think he liked it very much.  When he got off he told me, "Mom!  I almost fell out 5 times!"

We let Cord and Libby go on some big kid rides while the rest of us found some french fries to munch on...

We played at a huge Lego Playground, had lots of snacks, and enjoyed our first big outing of the trip!

Our second day was Cord's first day of class.  (My dad took him to class each day so we could have the car to go out and explore.   Nice right?) 

Mom, Dad, Grandma, me and the kids, headed over to the Aquarium to see the fish.

It was a beautiful place with plenty of neat sea creatures on display.

Aren't these awesome sea horses?

 

 

There was an outdoor area with tidepools where we could touch startfish and stuff.

The view of the Ocean was beautiful.

 

There were lots of interactive exhibits where the kids could learn about the Ocean and the Environment.  We recorded a "news report" in front of a green screen and then got to watch it on TV.  Can you see us on the television screen?

There were also a lot of fun educational activities for the kids to do outside.  Gage LOVED this water tank.  They got to build walls and float boats down the channels.  He could have stayed here for hours.  

After the aquarium, we grabbed some lunch and then stopped by La Jolla beach to play at the park and enjoy the beautiful sunny day.


Our next big adventure was the San Diego Zoo!  It is a giant zoo with all sorts of animals to see.  We saw tigers, lions, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, polar bears, birds, donkeys, zebras, kola bears, brown bears, goats, hippos---you name it we saw it!

 

 

 

 

For some reason these cute Koala Bears were my favorite!

 

 

I shouldn't post this picture of Oliver, because he obviously wasn't happy about the sun in his eyes.  :) 

He was such a great little stroller boy.  He loved laying in his stroller and hardly ever made a peep.

He probably won't remember his first trip to California, but I will remember having my sweet little boy along.  He was such a cute little buddy.

 

The bears were out and playing.

 

These girls and their maps!   I think they had more fun looking at the maps than they did the animals. It was cute to hear them trying to figure out what road we were on and where to go next...

 

Here is me with my little MONKEYS!

We loved the Zoo.  It is huge and we did our fair share of walking up and down giant hills.  We ended the day riding the tour bus through the whole park.  We got to learn lots of fun facts about the animals and our legs got a break from walking.  Gage even took a nap on Grandma's lap.  .  .

Since we were so close to Mission Bay, we spend a lot of our time playing in the sand and getting our feet wet.  Gage and Natalie loved swimming in the water.  They are crazy because it was really cold.

 

Cord got to join us in the afternoons when he got back from class.

 

More beach fun...

If you look closely in this picture you can see our house in the background.

It is the wood colored house with the white deck railings.

Libby found a stick and drew the alphabet in the sand.

I decided that is my favorite kind of classroom...

 

Chatting with Grandma...

My fantastic sand castle!

We just loved getting our toes in the sand!

We went on lots and lots of walks along the ocean and along the bay.

Cord and I went on a fun bike ride one evening on some beach cruisers.

There was a nice park along the walking path that the kids enjoyed.

Sometimes my mom would push the kids in Great-Grandmas wheel chair when they got tired.

They thought that was pretty cool.

 

 

Libby is so excited that she can do the monkey bars all by herself!

 

 

One afternoon, we headed out to Point Loma.

 The views from the peninsula were seriously stunning.

There was a monument and a lighthouse to explore.

  

 

 

Another cool spot we got to explore was the USS Midway.

It is a huge navy ship that is now a museum.

 

Cord met us here after class one afternoon. 

We spent a few hours touring the ship.

They had an audio tour that told all about each of the points of interest along the way.

Libby accidentally set her audio to be in Chinese.   :)

 

 

 

Natty got to try out the pilot seat...

My parents couldn't do the tour down in the ship because it wasn't wheelchair accessible,

but our little fam spent over an hour walking through the various parts of the ship.

We saw the engine room, cafeteria, laundry room,  sleeping quarters, jail and all sorts of other cool stuff.  I can't imagine living on the ocean in a ship.  It is amazing.

Of course you can't go to San Diego and not visit Sea World!  

Grandpa bought popcorn for the first show--instantly winning over the hearts of the children.

We were all totally entertained by the dolphins!

 

There was a great Tide Pool area.

Natalie touched almost every single starfish in the place!

She loved it.

Can you believe the size of this turtle?

 

After seeing the Polar Bears and Walrus, Penguins, Dolphin Show, Shamu Show, Turtle Reef, Sea Life Aquarium, Tide Pools, and Shark Tank, Gage and Oliver decided they needed a nap...

After lunch, we caught the Pet Show.

We sat in the "Soak Zone" because we were told we would only get slightly sprinkled.

So, you can imagine our surprise to see the giant stream of water coming our way during the show!

We got quite the spray.  Even Great Grandma got wet.  :)

 

We had a 7-day pass to Sea World so we were able to come back again another day.

The sun was out in full force and it was just lovely.

We were blessed with another slow day at the park, so the kids didn't really have to wait in lines to get on the rides.

 

I let Cord go on the spinney rides.  Aren't I nice?

 

Sesame Street...

 

Sea World is a great place for the whole family.  

We got to be ultimate tourists one day as we took a tour on the SEAL.

We started out on a bus tour through San Diego and then our bus turned into a boat and we took a tour of the bay!  It was really fun.

 

 

We saw plenty of seals and sea lions...

 

It was kind of rainy, so we all huddled under our blankets.  

Our tour guide was great.  She told plenty of lame jokes, knew all our names, played festive music, took pictures with our camera, and handed out warm blankets by the handful. 

 

After our SEAL tour, we headed into Old Town to eat lunch and explore.

We were very impressed with the Mormon Battalion Museum. 

You can always tell when something is done by the LDS Church!

The place was clean, the missionaries were oh-so friendly, the presentation was excellent.

It was amazing to see how much faith our pioneers had.

The kids even got to pan for gold...

One afternoon, Grandpa bought Gage some bubbles.

He sure enjoyed them...

 

My mom was so amazing.

She cooked all the meals, and made us tasty treats.

She read stories to the kids and took them for walks.

She did my laundry!

She is such a good grandma.  I love her.

On our last night, we bought some ice cream and ate it on our top deck.

We watched the sun set over the Ocean and enjoyed our views of the bay.

We licked our ice cream and savored the last few hours of our time at our house by the bay...

 

My best friend.

If you look closely you can see a little speck of the Pacific Ocean.

 

 Our view of Mission Bay...

On our way home we stayed over in Las Vegas in a hotel with a huge group of touring bag pipe players.  They played their bagpipes the whole time we were swimming in the pool.  It was semi-annoying and funny at the same time!

On our way home the next day, we stopped in St. George and met Ryan's and Matt's families for some hiking at Pioneer Park.  We climbed around on the red rocks and explored in the giant crack.  We found a nice big park and had a picnic lunch before our little fam hit the road again.

It was such a great little finale to our amazing vacation!