San Diego

My clan and I took a much anticipated trip to San Diego last week, and here are the highlights:

1. Serena finished an entire American Girl book in the car ride there...and we didn't even hit traffic.

She brought 2 of them she had gotten recently and hadn't started. She actually put off reading the second one just so she'd have something for later. SHe's really gotten to be an excellent reader, I am so proud of her.

2. The girls went ga-ga for thier room, bunk beds and thier own tv??? It was a castle to them.

Kid's Suites are now a must for every vacation in the future, the kids loved thier own space, and Brian and I loved having our own too. And did I mention it was about the same price as a regular room? So worth it!



3. We went swimming 2 times, in February, gotta love Cali weather!

I think this was the girls favorite part. Chloe used some floaties, and Serena just swam. She's still not very proficient, but she's doing so much better than even she did this summer.


4. Brian took us to this place called Seaport village when we arrived Tuesday.

We had a yummy lunch, rode a carousel, and walked along the beach on a gorgeous warm and clear day.


5. We went to Sea World, twice.

We got fun cards, so instead of spending extra money to go to the zoo (which isn't fun for Chloe yet anyway), we went to Sea World twice. We didn't have to rush, we saw some shows Wed and some Thurs, and it was great. On Wednesday during the Shamu show we got to see National Geographic up close. A dumb pelican flew over to the fish boxes, and the trainers tried shooing the silly bird away. They finally succeeded, only the really stupid bird landed in the tank and just sat there on the water. Then we see a big dark figure speeding toward it underwater, and bam. Bye bye birdie. And since it was the mama whale, her baby came over and started "playing with it" as the trainers called it. So they got those whales and the bird into the back tank, and had two other whales come out to finish the show.
Chloe loved the Beluga whales, we sat at the tank for about 20 minutes while Daddy and Serena went on a ride and everytime the whaled popped up she excitedly would say " OH! There's the whale!" She never got tired of watching it peek out of the water. We even got to watch the trainers work with them and feed them. Then we moved onto the polar bear viewing area and the bear walked right in front of us. All that sperated us was a thin layer of glass, it was creepy and cool. Chloe was giddy, it made her day. Serena's favorite part was feeding the dolphins. She also enjoyed gabbing the ear off of a very kind woman working at the tide pool exhibit. She must have kids, because if you know Serena, you know she can talk, and talk, and talk, and she handled Serena wonderfully.

6. We went minature golfing

Serena got the first hole in one...and on the rest of them...well she still doesn't get that everytime you tap the ball it counts as a stroke, so she probably scored 500 on 18 holes....but don't tell her that.
I technially beat Brian, b/c he didn't cover the point spread =o). Chloe did it "all by herself" as she does everything these days.


7. We visited Old Town

And there we ate the most delicious tortillas I have ever had in my life, EVER. It was at the Coyote Cafe...if you are ever there, just order tortilla's, that's all you need. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also toured an old cemetery, and tried to tour an old chapel, but it was closed already. The cemetery was cool, better than I imagined. Chloe started singing "Ring-a-round-the-rosy" while we were there, and it reminded me that this childrens favorite is a dreary song about people dying of the plague. It was cloudy and windy, and Chloe was snging that song in a cemetery...it seemed like the beginning of a bad horror flick...all that was missing was music box music playing too slowly behind her singing...

8. Serena wrote a song

About how sad she was to leave on Friday morning, it was really sweet. I am so glad she had fun, and didn't want to leave. I was kidna sad to leave too, but happy to come home and rest. After all, this wasn't a relaxing vacation, it was a family memory making vacation. So needless to say I am still recovering from it, and still sad that the maid service stayed behind in San Diego.