california trip

At the end of June we took a family trip down to California to visit family. It was an early flight -- early enough that our little guy was tired enough to sleep for half the flight!

We were excited to see family -- Evan was buddies with Perry right away.

Some friends from church offered to let us swim in their pool while they were away -- given the fact that the temperatures were three digits, we eagerly accepted! It was Evan's first time swimming and he loved it.

He loved swimming with Grandma...

...and splashing with David.

Brooklyn had a blast too -- she loved holding onto the pink water noodle while Daddy swam her around.

Brooklyn was especially excited to see Emily get home from trek!

David got out some of his Hot Wheels cars which had Evan very interested.

We timed the trip so we could visit over Father's Day -- Brooklyn made Austin some very cute paintings.

These cute kiddos love their grandpa!

So... the primary reason for the trip was to let the kids spend some time with Laura's parents and siblings so that we could have our own little vacation during the week. Monday we drove down to San Diego and made our first stop at the USS Midway Museum.

The Midway is an old US Navy aircraft carrier that went into service around the end of World War II and was used from that time through to the Desert Storm missions in the early 90s. Pretty impressive.

They had airplanes on board from all those eras, from this WW2-era Corsair...

...to this 80s/90s era F-14 (made famous in the movie Top Gun). There were lots and lots of other airplanes and helicopters, many of which were types that even Austin -- childhood airplane and fighter jet fanatic -- didn't even know existed. We also toured most of the inside of the carrier, seeing things from mess halls to admiral's quarters to laundromats and everything in-between.

After the Midway, we grabbed lunch at a place called Tender Greens (very tasty) and went to the beach at Coronado. It was a really nice day and perfect for a walk along the ocean.

Coronado's most famous landmark is the Hotel del Coronado, which is right on the beach. We made a note that it might be fun to stay there someday.

Instead we stayed downtown at one of San Diego's oldest hotels, the US Grant. We found a fun Mexican restaurant nearby and had some tasty tacos for dinner.

Tuesday morning we went to the San Diego Temple up in La Jolla.

With two young kiddos it's tough for us to find time to go to the temple together, especially for any length of time, so this was a special treat.

It's a very beautiful and unique temple -- well worth a visit inside or out.

After the temple we went into the coastal part of La Jolla and treated ourselves to more Mexican food. We went to a place called Puesto, where we had the best meal of our trip -- fantastic street tacos. Some of the tacos were almost like little enchiladas -- wrapped and fried in cheese and spicy sauces. Better still, they were doing Taco Tuesday specials so it ended up being one of the cheapest meals of our trip too!

We stayed in La Jolla Tuesday night at another classic hotel called La Valencia. They were super nice and upgraded us to a suite with a spectacular view. 

We walked down to the beach and had fun exploring a little bit.

It was yet another nice day to be on the coast.

There are a lot of seals at the La Jolla cove. They're loud and stinky and kinda cute. We enjoyed watching a little seal climb over all the big seals to get to the top of the rock they were all sleeping on. Pretty entertaining.

We changed and walked along the cove a bit more...

...watching the sun go down...

...and getting to the restaurant that Austin had picked out -- with reservations right at sunset.

The place we ate at was called George's and it was really tasty -- the photography doesn't do the food justice.

Wednesday morning we drove up to Anaheim to go to a mid-day LA Angels game. It was hot! We'd forgotten in our short time in San Diego how hot it was everywhere else in Southern California.

Luckily there were enough empty seats that we could move up and over to some shade.

After the game -- which went extra innings -- we went and checked into our hotel and headed to Downtown Disney. We decided not to do Disneyland on this trip but thought it would be fun to go to a movie (another luxury since having kids), get some dinner, and watch the nearby Disneyland fireworks. We saw Inside Out, which we didn't have super high expectations for and really really enjoyed. We both might have cried and it might have made us miss our little girl a little bit!

After the movie we were hungry for some dinner -- we found a place that served New Orleans style food that Austin had read was a good spot for watching the fireworks. The food was tasty (we will be back for some beignets next time we're at Disneyland) and Austin's research proved correct.

Thursday morning it was time to head back to Apple Valley to see our kids and spend one last day with Laura's family. On the way we stopped at the Fender guitar factory and visitor center in Corona.

We did a factory tour -- the craziest part was a room where they have hundreds of guitars hanging from the ceiling waiting for their finishes to dry and cure before they're assembled and shipped off to stores around the world.

After the Fender factory tour we made it an official California trip.

Nom nom.

We had a great little vacation together but we were excited to see our kiddos...

...who, thankfully, were happy to see us too. :)

We enjoyed being with Laura's family for one more evening -- Brooklyn got to stay up extra late to play her favorite game with Emily and David and Perry.

Then, Friday morning we ended the trip the way we started it. An early flight (not quite as early, thankfully) and a sleepy little guy (or two).