Vacation - Driving back to Vegas - Day Six

On the way back to Vegas from San Diego, we decided to take the scenic route. We drove up the coast by way of Irvine and Newport Beach. Our friends Dave, Debi and their kids, and Jeremie live in Irvine, so we thought we'd meet them for lunch. Our girls had never met, but they became fast friends.

sharing a cookie

such innocent faces

so cute

a fond farewell

We wished we lived closer to the Fronk's! We miss hanging out with them, and we think that our girls would play so well together! It was fun to see them, even if for a short time!

We also made a stop at the Newport Beach Temple. It is very beautiful and Hailey loved walking around the grounds. I've never seen a temple this color before. Most of the buildings in Newport Beach are a similar color, though, so the Church agreed to make the temple this color so it would "go" with the city.

{i really liked the sun-streaks in this picture}

Since we took the scenic route, we got caught in LA traffic on the way through. It took us 7-something hours to get back to Vegas. It was rough on all of us. When we got into Vegas, we stayed with my aunt and uncle that have recently moved down there. It was fun to spend the weekend with them, since we don't see them very often. Hailey was quite taken with Aunt Bonnie. She preferred her to me much of the two days that we stayed there. I have a really cute video of Hailey singing along to Aunt Bonnie playing the piano that I'll have to share when I upload it to my computer. We are so grateful to all of our hosts while we were traveling. We had a great time with each of them and made some great memories.

Vacation - San Diego - Day Five

Our final day in San Diego we ventured inland to the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. My personal impression of this place - skip it. There is no need to drive 30 miles to see the same animals that you can see at the zoo, and see them closer up. Next time we go to San Diego, we won't be making that part of our trip.

It was about 20 degrees hotter inland at the Wild Animal Park than it was in San Diego. We were sweating bullets after walking and pushing a 35 pound 2 year old, in a stroller, along 2.5 miles of non-paved trail. It was disappointing, to say the least.

We did get to see a few cool animals.

The lions:

these are the lion cubs, they were wrestling.

the giraffes (although, we got closer to them at the zoo)

the meerkats.
I thought this was funny. There were quite a few of them that were doing this...not sure why?

The gorillas

Hailey and I sitting in some sort of egg shell-thingy...
She saw it and told me to take her picture in it. But then she wouldn't get in, so she wanted me to get in with her and daddy take the picture. So I got in with her, then she wouldn't look at the camera...which is why I'm holding her head up.

We spent the rest of the day trying to fit in the few things that we hadn't had time to do earlier in the week. After the Wild Animal Park, we headed to Seaport Village. It was so neat, and I wish we had had more time to spend there. It was really pretty there. We could see the Coronado bridge and Coronado Island from there. After Seaport Villiage, we went back to our rental so we could watch the sunset on the beach:

After we had some dinner and relaxed a little bit, we headed over to the temple so we could see it lit up at night. My pictures are pretty weak compared to seeing it in real life. (Plus I can't figure out my settings on my camera to take very good pictures at night...)


Hailey LOVED the temple. She called it a castle. She kept saying how beautiful it was.

She found these benches outside the entrance of the temple and kept posing and saying "Mommy, take a picture of me!"

We had a wonderful vacation. We had a great time together, as a family, after what has been a really long year. We saw a lot of neat things, and experienced a lot of fun things together. We are very much looking forward to our next family vacation. I'm so grateful for my little family and the things that I learn from them each day. I'm thankful for Ryan and what a supportive, loving, caring, amazing person he is. I'm thankful for Hailey. She is our little ray of sunshine. She is such a sweetheart, and a nutjob at the same time. She keeps us smiling, laughing and on our toes. I'm so glad we had this opportunity to spend some quality time together!

Vacation - San Diego - Day Four

We spent day four recovering from the first three days :) We spent the morning playing on the beach while Ryan's parents did a session at the temple. That afternoon, Ryan and I got the opportunity to do a session at this beautiful temple.

The photos that I have seen of this picture do not do it justice. When Hailey first saw it, she said "Its a castle!" And that's exactly what it looks like. It is absolutely gorgeous, inside and outside.

These are my attempt to be "artsy" with my camera....

Vacation - San Diego - Day Three

Day Three in San Diego took us to the highlight of my trip - SeaWorld!!!! We started out the day at each of the three shows. First we saw the dolphin show, then the sea lion show, then Shamu!!! I didn't get many pictures because I was too busy enjoying the shows, but Ryan got some good video. Hailey LOVED the shows. She kept squealing and clapping and laughing. I was a little worried about her age and taking her some place like this - like she might not get it. But she did. Not only did she get it, she loved it. I was pretty emotional. I was so grateful that we had the opportunity to share this as a family. It was so much fun!

she was surfing on the Killer Whale's tummy!
so cool!

Ryan and Hailey in front of the manatee exhibit.


Hailey watching the GIANT fish and the manatees.



the manatees!!

I don't know if any of you watch Veggie Tales. The whole time I was in the exhibit, the song that was in my head was "Barbara Manatee." Even now as I'm typing this, I can't get it out of my head. Crazy manatees...

The Wild Arctic was one of my favorite exhibits at SeaWorld.

Hailey outside the polar bear cave.

the cute polar bear swimming

the beautiful beluga whales




We spent probably 15 minutes watching this guy swimming around.

He would swim right up next to the glass. Hailey would stand right up next to the glass to watch him when he was clear across the pool, but the minute he started to swim back to the glass, she would get nervous and want one of us to hold her.

They have the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale's at SeaWorld. I was pretty excited about that. I love horses, Hailey loves horses. I still cant get over how big they were. And beautiful.

We spent ALL day at SeaWorld, which meant that Hailey didn't get a nap. Even after that, this is how we ended the day!

Vacation - San Diego - Day Two

We spent Monday morning at the San Diego Zoo. We started out seeing the most gigantic goldfish I had ever seen:

Then we saw my favorite, the koalas. Unfortunately they were all asleep - since they are nocturnal. But as we were walking out of the exhibit, this guy posed for us:

We moved on to bigger:

and some of our favorites:

The Polar Bears

The Panda Bears

and the Giraffes.

We left the zoo - after about 5 hours - exhausted, but we had a great time. It was nice to see so many more animals than we'd ever seen at the Hogle Zoo, and to see them more active.

After naps on Monday, we met up with Ryan's parents - who had flown in that morning - in Old Towne. (Again, didn't take my camera...) We walked around the shops, and had dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant. A grand time was had by all!