Thanksgiving in San Diego

We took off the weekend before Thanksgiving for our much anticipated trip to San Diego, California! My parents generously treated us to a week there and it was amazing to be all together, enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery, in such a fun area! Our week was packed full of activities! We took our new van on it's maiden road trip, and I think we all give the van two thumbs up! The DVD player saved us- as did all the additional packing space! We split the road trip up with a night in St. George- and you should have seen how giddy the boys were about our hotel in St. George. These boys love to travel (and apparently aren't that hard to impress!) After another six hours of driving on Saturday we were so happy to be out of the car and at our resort. We didn't have much time before sunset, but the boys were anxious to hit the pool, so we did!

Sunday after church we headed out to La Jolla to see the beautiful San Diego temple. Then we headed to the beach to see the seals and sea lions- they did not disappoint! Hudson loved seeing the animals up close, and Chase was much more interested in playing in the sand, discussing the architecture of the wall and how it was possibly built. True to their natural personalities! 

 We paid a little money to go tour this sea cave- it was pretty cool! 145 steps down and you end up with this view! The boys thought it was a grand adventure and worth the short stop.

 Monday was a full day in San Diego- the boys started by touring the USS Midway, a retired air-craft carrier that is in now permanently in port in the San Diego Harbor. The boys loved it! After lunch at a delicious place Ben found we headed out to Coronado to play on the beach for a little while. We ended the day in Old Town, toured the Mormon Battalion Museum and had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant.

 Tuesday we had a "chill at the resort" type day. The men golfed, I napped (a lot- all this traveling took a tole on my pregnant, tired body) and in the afternoon we entered cupcake wars! We let the kiddos have a lot of creative license and ended up with a Martian-Dolphin cupcake- that was mostly covered in sprinkles.

Wednesday was our big day at the San Diego Zoo! It was such a fun day. The whole family was there and we had a great time. The panda was so active, just sitting there eating bamboo right in front of us! Hudson said his favorite was the elephants, bears, and lions (they were huge!). We were there for almost the whole day and still only saw about 2/3 of the zoo.

I don't actually have any pictures from our Thanksgiving day, but it was maybe my favorite day of the trip. We hung out at the resort, swam and enjoyed the pools (and Chase used the waterslides a lot). We had a good afternoon nap and then all congregated at my parent's condo for dinner. Our dinner was mostly bought at Costco and included very little preparation, and it was still delicious. After dinner we played a hilarious game of Taboo and some Apples to Apples (Chase's favorite game these days). We have a lot to be thankful for, and this trip was a good reminder of the things most important, our healthy, happy family!

Friday was our last full day in San Diego and we spent it at Legoland! It was pretty crowded, but the boys had a great time nonetheless. Chase is so obsessed with all things building related, so this place was great for him.

And then our trip was over! We took two days driving home, stopping in St. George again. Although there was a little traffic that slowed us down, the drive was otherwise uneventful. We laughed pretty hard when we finally pulled into Kaysville, to my parents house to drop them off and Hudson suddenly burst out in angry protest "NO! I don't want to go home! I want to go back to San Diego!!!! Vacations are supposed to be long! That was short!" It apparently did not occur to him during our entire two day drive that we were going back home. He's since adjusted, but it was very obvious that both boys loved our trip just as much (if not more) than Ben and I did. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving full of wonderful memories.