Fun in the Sun!

Back in December/January my sister called me up and asked if Joey and I would like to go with them to San Diego for a week and stay at a time-share. Since Joey kind of sets up his own schedule we decided on the spot that we wanted to go. Tricia and Dustin live in Arizona so we get to see them about twice a year, which is super sad because if we lived in the same city we would have game nights with them all the time. Anyways we decided that we wanted to go but wouldn't be able to do too many things just relax and hangout at the beach since income during the winter isn't exactly flowing in.

Anyways last Friday(March 2nd, I started this post forever ago) we started on our journey. Since we have Theo and knew we would have to make feeding/diaper changing stops we split the travelling over a few days. Friday night I joined Joey's mom and sisters in their annual attendance to a U of U gymnastic meet. That night we spent at Laura's house and then we headed down to St George. We stopped in Cedar City to spend some time with our friends, Amy and Jono. It was nice weather so we went and hung out at a park for a little while. Then we spent the night in St George at Andy and Jessica's house. Sunday we finished the trip to Newport Beach.

Monday we spent mainly just hanging out at the hotel and planning the rest of our week,We also went on a walk down to the beach. We were mainly just playing around and sticking our toes in the water when some teenagers came and asked if we had seen anything in the tide pools. They told us that they had seen some starfish so we decided to go look and we find a rather large starfish on a rock. It was so cool! Tuesday we went to Irvine and went shopping to pick up groceries and find some clothes. While we were driving back from shopping we saw a "fun center" and thought that it would be fun to go mini golfing one day. We didn't have anything planned for Wednesday so we headed over to go mini-golfing. It was a lot of fun. We had made little deals with each other, I didn't barter too high since I know I am horrible at mini-golf. I ended with the highest score, which in golf means I lost!

Where we stayed

Walking to the beach

A cute trail down to the beach. Ryan was taking his time looking at everything!

These little boys are so cute!

A steep hill down to the beach!

Stepping in the water. Theo put an elbow in the Ocean!

Daddy and Theo playing in the water

Starfish!!

Our Family Picture at the Beach... Theo wasn't too happy he was really tired.

Another starfish picture.

Looking for more sealife

Isn't he super cute?

Thursday I turned to a giddy little school girl. Can you guess where we were headed? The one place that we had decided that we would go and were willing to spend some money on was SeaWorld. If you know me at all you probably know that I am obsessed with SeaWorld. Luckily Dustin has a friend who works as a diver at SeaWorld and he was able to get us discounted tickets! It was so fun to be at SeaWorld again. I learned that SeaWorld in the off-season with children is hard, we made it to all of the shows but weren't able to make it to all of the aquarium exhibits. We were able to run over to the penguins, polar bears, walrus, and beluga whales before it closed though. After SeaWorld we went to the Mormon Battalion Museum which I thought was really cool. Joey said that it is one of the best LDS Museums he has been to. At the end of the video/tour the take a black and white photo with an "old camera" it is a digital camera covered with what looks like an old camera. Then Ethan and Ryan went panning for gold. Then we met up with Dustin's friend and his family and ate at The Cheesecake Factory it was our first time eating there.

Waiting for the "Pets Rule" show

He enjoyed SeaWorld

Ethan dressed up as a soldier from the Mormon Battalion at the Mormon Battalion Museum

The next day we went on a Dolphin Safari that was so much fun. We saw so many dolphins it was amazing! I was hoping to see a whale but we were unable to find any. On the boat they had these little areas under the water that you could lay in and "swim" with the dolphins. The water was a little murky but thanks to Dustin we were able to see some dolphins swim by us! 

Dolphins next to our boat.

Common Dolphins

Our little Family on the boat

At the front of the boat. The waves rocked Theo to sleep!

Dolphins right under our feet!

Baby feeding time. 

The boys thought that it was funny that this sign was on the "bathroom" door.

Sea lions, it was funny to see them fight to get on the buoy.

The last day we had there we spent at Laguna Beach. It was a little chilly and a tiny bit windy but I enjoyed laying in the sun. At one point I opened my eyes to see dolphins swimming right off the shore. I had to contain myself, if I hadn't have known it was illegal I would have totally jumped in the ocean and swam towards them! Also if the water wasn't freezing! My sister was able to get some really good pictures of the dolphins. 

Those gray things in the water are dolphins just off of the beach!

Do you see how close they are?

Theo wanted to read with daddy on the beach.

When we got back from the beach, my sister did a photo shoot of Theo for us. Here are some of my favorite pictures! We just walked around the hotel area finding some pretty spots. 

Right after this picture he rolled over for the first time because he pushed himself up so much. It didn't count because he was on a hill.

Thanks again Tricia and Dustin we really enjoyed our time in California with you! We can't wait till we can do something like this again, even if we do have some crazy kiddos!