Legoland, Balboa & Gaslamp

Today started out at Legoland. While the rides and sites are geared towards a much younger crowd, we still enjoyed a few things about the park. As we walked around we each mentioned how much more fun it would be with our kids at this particular park. The rides would have been perfect for them. 

Some of the lego creations were pretty neat to see! They had a whole section devoted to the different US cities such as Vegas, New York, San Francisco, and San Diego. The giant buildings were neat to see and it was mind blowing to read the plaques that tell how many hours were put into building these things.  

Near the end of our time there, we finally found the apple fries and each bought some to enjoy! Such a unique flavor and idea. They were yummy!

The afternoon brought us to Balboa park to wander around the check out the various buildings and museums. 

Our first stop was the Air and Space Museum!

The history as well as the flight simulators were pretty cool!

We then headed back to the Museum of Us for a 4:30 tour up to the tower. Our tour guide gave us a lot of cool information regarding Balboa Park and how it all came to be. It is a 1,200 acre historic urban cultural park filled with outdoor gardens, museums and incredible architecture. 

We could have probably spent much longer walking around and checking out everything there is to see, but we were getting hungry and decided to head to the gaslamp quarter in search of some dinner! After getting lost in the parkade and walking way further than we needed to due to walking out the wrong exit, we finally found the smokehouse we were in search of and ordered food and milkshakes. 

It was a great way to finish up the day!

 

Sea World

Today we spent the day at Sea World! There was lots to see and lots of fun rides to be enjoyed! Being pregnant, I ended up sitting on benches with the backpacks while they enjoyed roller coasters and other rides. 

I wasn't too sad about that though, because amusement parks are really not my thing and I hate feeling sick. I happily watched them and snapped pictures!

I think my favorite things about the park were the dolphin show and the orca show. It was neat to see how smart these animals are and how well they can be trained. 

Mr. Stannix sat us all in the "splash zone" for both performances. Luckily, with the dolphins, it really was just a few drops of water that we ended up getting on us.

The orca show was five minutes after the dolphin show, so we hurried across the park to grab some seats.

Again, Mr. Stannix sat us in the splash zone, and we all laughed as we apprehensively sat down.

And then while Mr. Stannix was taking videos of the performance, we ended up DOUSED in water. I've never laughed so hard. Thankfully, it was a warm day and the cool water felt nice. Josh and Step were sitting to the right of us near the edge of the row and didn't get nearly as wet as we did!

In the late afternoon, after we had seen all that we could see, we headed back to our hotel for a bit before dinner.

We had passed by a cozy looking Mexican joint the other night on our walk and decided to give it a try tonight!

It was delicious! I could eat Mexican food every day.

We wandered back to our hotel via the Pier and enjoyed watching the sunset!

 

Electric Guitar

Today we...

had lunch with Daddy at DQ...

And admired Hyrum's new electric guitar that he bought with his own money!

 

San Diego Zoo

This morning we woke up and had breakfast at our hotel. We then made our way to the San Diego Zoo for the rest of the day! We grabbed a map when we arrived and tried our best to chart out the best paths to take so that we could see as much as possible while we were there. By lunch, we were tired and ended up stopping at one of the restaurants in the zoo to eat (a very expensive sandwich mind you) and rest our feet. Once we were rested up, we were able to walk around for a few more hours. We saw a lot of really neat things! I think Mr. Stannix's fav was the polar bear swimming. After checking out some shops at the end, we were all ready to head back to our hotel for a swim and rest. 

San Diego, CA

This morning we jumped on a plane with friends and headed to San Diego for the week sans kids. We have been planning a trip like this for years with these long time friends, and it was fun to finally make something happen! For the last six months we've been getting together for date nights and making plans. The Millers had been before, and knew all of the fun places to go and the passes to give us the best discounts. We scheduled activities for each day we would be there together. 

We arrived at the airport bright and early and watched the sun rise while we waited for our flight. 

We were greeted with the perfect weather when we arrived! We caught a quick bus ride to the car rental place and then made our way to our hotel and explored the neighborhood.

Our room had a tiny little balcony overlooking the marina. It was so fun to see all of the different boats!

In the late afternoon we took a drive to the San Diego temple. We had hoped to be able to attend this temple while we were visiting, but alas it was closed for extensive construction and renovations. The entire thing was covered in scaffolding. It was still beautiful to see the grounds and the building!

The palm trees surrounding us were also a delight.

As well as this bird of paradise plant!

The evening brought us back to the pier for a walk in the sunshine!

The air was salty and sea-foody smelling, and I loved it! I so enjoy the ocean.

It was also pretty fun to have this guy to myself without any parenting responsibilities. Huge thanks to Gramma and Grampa for holding down the fort back home (I left them a two page schedule of events). They are champs!

We finished the evening with a dip in the pool before heading to bed early so we were well rested for our full week of fun ahead!

 

Putting Things in Order

Today I spent a good chunk of time putting the house in order before Mr. Stannix and I head to San Diego for the week. I made up a batch of raspberry jam this morning while Mr. Stannix ran errands and grabbed some groceries to stock the fridge and school snack cupboard.

We enjoyed spending time with the children in the afternoon and chatting with my parents before we left. 

In the evening we checked into our hotel and then met up with the Millers to begin our holiday together! We went for dinner at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed visiting together. It's not often we are able to get together without all of our littles, so it was nice to sit and relax over a warm meal! Tomorrow we wake bright and early to catch our flight! 

 

Big Shoes to Fill

Happy Friday from Miss Joy who insists on walking around in her big brother's shoes today!