San Diego!

We love going on family vacations!  I love being able to spend time with these boys that I love so much.  Our flight to San Diego had a stop in Phoenix.  It was super bumpy.  Daron and I had to remember to breath :)

We arrived on Saturday night and checked into our Days Inn hotel.  The room wasn't wonderful, but the pool and free breakfast were amazing!!
On Sunday we went to church and then headed to La Jolla Beach.  The boys couldn't wait to get some sand between their toes...or was that me?  :)  We found a nice little cove and played there for hours.  We had so much fun!

 Daron dug a hole for Josh and he stayed in it for most of the time!  It was hilarious.  He loved to be in his safe spot.

 After playing, we walked on the pier at Children's Pool and saw all the sea lions.  There are a ton!  After we saw the lions we walked around La Jolla and found a nice BBQ place to eat, called Bubba's Smoke House.  It was very good.  Our goal on this trip was to eat our free breakfast, pack a lunch (we buy stuff at the store and that lasts us for most the week), then we go out to a unique place for dinner wherever we are on that particular day.  It was fun to find new places to eat! 

 On our way back we stopped at the San Diego Temple.  So pretty!

 Monday was Sea World day!  We were so excited.  The day was absolutely perfect.  Not many people there, so we were able to get perfect seats at each show.

 Up close and personal :)

 We got absolutely soaked at the dolphin and sea lion show!  It shocked Josh, but it felt really good!

 The only ride that we rode at Sea World was the gondola ride.

 The Shamu show was awesome.  The boys were hilarious.  We bought a bag of popcorn and during the whole show they both had to have both their hands in the bag.  Because obviously, one is not enough :)

 
 On our way home from Sea World we went on the pier and ate at Anthony's Fish Grotto (Thank you Kiersten for the suggestion!)  It was really good.  It was fun to eat out on the water.  We also saw the boats in the marina.  The Star of India.  I had to take a  picture with Daron by it.

 Tuesday we started out by going to Balboa park.  We drove there, then hopped onto the free trolly, which Austin loved, then stopped at the visitors center.  Balboa park is huge!  I didn't realize all the museums that surround the park.  The only one that we did was the Railroad Museum.  The boys LOVED it.  I didn't know if they would like it, because it's a toy train museum where most of the railroads are behind windows.  But they LOVED it.
 

They did have a nice Thomas the Train section that was hands on.  They loved that too.

After our hours at the Railroad Museum we walked around Balboa park and ate our lunch.  We walked through the Atrium.  It was beautiful.  Josh just woke up for this picture.

 
Once we were done with Balboa park we went back to the hotel and swam in our wonderful pool.  It was heated and felt heavenly.  We then headed to Old Town San Diego for Taco Tuesday at Cafe Cayote.  It was great!  Tacos for $2.  Austin's favorite part was getting this balloon penguin from the random balloon guy that walked around the restaurant. 

 After dinner we went to the Old Town Mormon Battalion site.  They had some fun things at the end where the kids were able to pan for gold.  We hiked up to the bell tower and saw the beautiful night view.

 Our family in the covered wagon.

 
 Wednesday we changed our hotel to our Hilton.  We have a Hiltons Reward Card, so we get free night stays.  We love Hilton.  They treat us like royalty :)
Our Wednesday was the Safari Park.  We decided to do this park instead of the Zoo.  Why?  Because we found a Groupon for half off, and they have a cheetah run, which Austin loves Cheetahs.  Let me just start out by saying, we are not zoo people.  We get bored.  There I said it!  I know, bad bad, but we did it and we saw what we wanted to and didn't see what we didn't want to :)  I think the best parts were the water area for Austin, and the little tram ride through the "African Safari."

Austin and his Gazelle

Our family after the end of the day

After the park we went to dinner in Little Italy.  We found so many great Italian Restaurants it was hard to choose which one.  We decided on Landini's.  It was SO good.  We ate in the back on their patio.  It was so great.  The pizza was amazing and the pasta was super tasty.  Winner!  We had a fun time walking along Little Italy, such a fun place at night!

Thursday was our day at Coronado Island.  We drove over the amazing bridge and saw the city across the water! 


 
We walked along the pier and started shopping in the shops, when we decided the boys did NOT want to be shopping when there was a beach right there!  So we drove to the Coronado Hotel and played at the beach.  It was packed with people.  The boys LOVE the water!  Austin could play there all day long.  The only bad part about this day was the wind!  I had to cover Josh and I for some of the time.  It was crazy. 

That night we went to the Malt Shoppe that was a hamburger joint.  The burgers were wonderful, but the malts were terrible...go figure.  After dinner we relaxed!  The boys loved to relax and watch shows while while eating treats.  Have I said I love vacations? :)

 Friday we went swimming in our pool.  The boys love being in the water.  We then rode over to Coronado Island, again.  We rode on the ferry.  It was so nice to feel the wind on our face.  The BEST part of the ferry ride was on our way back.  We were taking off at the dock and after about 5 minutes we looked down at the water and there were dolphins swimming with us!  It was so cool!  I got video, but no pics.  They swam with us for a few minutes.  There were probably 5 dolphins swimming with us.  Amazing.


After our ferry ride we went back to the hotel relaxed for a bit and then headed up to Dana Point to meet our friends Andy & Nicole Hall and their cute girls.  We met at the Taco Surf Restaurant and ate and talked.  It was SO fun to see them!  They live up in Orange County, it was so nice that they were able to meet us in the middle.  After dinner we went to the marina and the kiddos played in the sand and water.  It was fun to catch up with them!  Thank you Halls!

 

Beautiful! 

 

Our last day on Saturday we walked around Seaport Village.  We bought our souvenirs and ate our lunch and then we flew home.  It was a very fun vacation.  We were all smiles the whole time :)

p.s. New Post below :)