atherley crack ups: San Diego or bust!!!

Back in July/August we had a fabulous trip to San Diego with the Dixon Family.

Thank goodness we stopped halfway in Mesquite cause these kids were going nuts!

My parents rented a house right on Mission Beach. It was in the perfect location. We didn't have the boardwalk right next to the house. Instead we had a large sandy area, it made little people watching a lot easier.

These two found their favorite thing the second that we got to the house.

Isn't my mom the cutest?!!! She was so great and planned this trip for the whole lot of us. I just love her.

Since Jed and I don't care too much for parks and crowds, we planned an every other day outing. That way the kids would get their park craving taken care of, and we would have the beach or whatever spontaneous destination for the rest of the time.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and after settling in and checking out the beach a few of us headed to the all hectic grocery store to stock up for a few days. That pretty much took the rest of the evening.

Sunday was our choice, being that it was Lily's birthday. She is 2, our baby is 2!!! We chose to stick around and play at the beach all day.

I loved my hat and wore it nearly every day, but it is not very picture friendly. I looked like the mad hatter much of the time.

I can't take a normal picture, always gotta make a crazy face or pose.

Jed kept his awesome tan lines.

Chalese is always the darling poser. Must be where Bayli gets it from.

This was our view.

The birthday girl and her first seashell hunt, she could care less about the shells. All she needed was a shovel and bucket.

Jaren (Saren as Chase refers) was so great, as usual, with our kids. They LOVE him.

We had a barbeque that night for the birthday dinner followed by cupcakes. Our little imp was in heaven.

Happy Birthday BEAR We LOVE YOU!!!

Monday we decided to head to Sea World. We had only planned to spend part of the day there. But, we purchased the all you can eat pass and decided to make a day of it and get our moneys worth and gorge ourselves a bit. The food wasn't too bad, especially when I could get as much as I wanted.

Surprisingly the kids, particularly Lily, did pretty good. She even was able to take a nap.

I am such a planner and had stroller stress from the get go. I packed our umbrella and BOB. We chose to take the umbrella and a backpack because we would have to leave the stroller for the majority of the time anyways.

Majority of the grand-kids (we missed my sister and her family). Don't you love Chase's scary face?

Grandpa and Grandma and the kids and...Rob (or Robby as Lily lovingly calls him).

We couldn't take the little ones on the first ride, so Rick and I got to go on an adventure with them. Lily was kind of unsure the first time Rick picked her up.

Our kids did pretty good at all of the shows. Jed was disappointed at the dolphin show because we watched people more than dolphins, but the rest of us liked it. Especially Bayli because the people were dressed up as birds.

The Shamu show was kind of lame. I hate that the trainers can't get in the water with the whales anymore. It's just not as amazing as it was when I was a kid. I guess that the night show was better, but we couldn't handle staying there that late.

We also checked out the Pet's Rule show=LAME-O! By far our favorite was the seal show, it was fun for the kids and entertaining for us.

Obviously Chase was more excited than Jed.

The best part of Sea World was that our little Chase, who gets terribly car sick, found his love for roller coasters. He couldn't get enough of Atlantis. And, he was nearly in tears when he found out that he was too little for Manta. So to make up for it, Jed took him on Atlantis a few more times.

Rob and his crew.

Jed and Chase.

Poor Grandma had to ride alone.

Bayli fulfilled her two wishes: ride Manta and purchase a souvenir.

Chase's first roller coaster ride was just too memorable not to purchase. I giggle each time I think of his reaction.

Tuesday was a chill-ax day, and Jed and my anniversary. 14 years!!! My parents planned to do whatever we wanted them to. They were there to tend at our beck and call. We lounged around the beach and took a walk to the marina. My parents thought that we would never decide what we wanted to do. Finally, in the evening, Jed and I went out to dinner at The Fishery (which was amazing might I say, but expensive). Then, we went to the Crystal Pier and watched the end of the sunset. After, we had the most amazing gelato I have ever had, also very pricey. But it was so delicious that we decided to take the kids there a few days later.

Wednesday we headed to the San Diego Zoo to get our animal watching on. BOB was definitely our choice for attacking the zoo. Although, the game plan that I had mapped out didn't get played out successfully. I had intended for us to take the tram ride first, but forgot when I had a mishap with my contacts. By the time I remembered, we had walked around the majority of the park and were not willing to stand in line.
Our favorite part of the zoo was the aviary. We spent the majority of our time helping Bayli hunt down all of the birds in each exhibit. I could be content to spend an entire day just in the aviary.

Chase really wanted the already full goat to eat, he even tried feeding it's bum.

the sky ride was a big hit

kitty!!!

Grandpa got worn out every day, the old man ;)

next to the aviary, Bayli was most excited for the pandas

We were lucky to have the little ones fall asleep about this time. Bayli got to feel like the next hour plus was all about her. She was in heaven, with all of the attention on her.

their polar bear impressions

her reward for being a big helper

these two are just too sweet when they sleep

The zoo was actually funner than I remember it being when I was a kid...weird.

Thursday was another free day. We decided to head a little north to La Jolla. It was beautiful! We only spent a few hours there then stopped for gelato before heading back to our beach. Chalese came with our family so we took the opportunity to get some family pics, we love our "nanny!"

I love his wave impression.

Friday we were very reluctant to go anywhere. It was our last full day in San Diego. We would have been content to stay at the beach house. But, we decided to spend half the day at the Safari Park.
It was fun, but we were kind of tired of seeing animals. Rick had gone the day before and told us what route to take to see the most interesting things and get through the park faster. We headed straight to the Gorillas to see the baby Gorilla, very cute. Then headed to the tram ride, which was a hit for the kids and pretty cool.

Jaren joined us for the fast visit. Did I mention just how much Chase LOVES him?

For some reason I love this one of them.

Seriously, mad hatter!

Chase loving the tram ride and being with Jaren.

Bayli wanted to see everything.

Lily loved the tram more than the animals.

Love this one!

Oh, there's that scary face again.

They had a pretty cool carousel ride which was free with our tickets. The kids rode it twice and were in love.

After the Safari Park we headed back to the house to spend the rest of the day at the beach. What a great way to end our fun filled week.

We loved surfing (Jed), boogie boarding, running from seaweed (Chase was completely scared of anything in the water), getting stung by a Jelly Fish (ME, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be), playing in the sand, critter hunting, jumping the waves (that's about as far as Bayli would go, strange since she is in the water nearly every day), and just being in the moment with our family.

I must add that sea level running is amazing! I could totally feel the effects of blood doping, coming from our high Utah elevation. I put out some pretty good times too, well for me anyways.

I know Jed was wishing that he was sailing instead. That was one thing that we had intended to do, but never did accomplish. I guess that we will have to take the catamaran out to get his fix.