Thanksgiving Trip to San Diego

(11/18/17) We were lucky enough to snag breakfast with Sam's family right when they got into town and when we were leaving town!

I love this brother of mine!

Wish these guys lived closer!

(11/19/17) Enjoying our first meal in San Diego - RAMEN!!!

Hudson's joining the Mormon Battalion! 

The Mormon Battalion Museum was pretty awesome!

It was a great Sunday stop for the whole family! (BTW - Beau's sleeping in the stroller)

Just panning for gold!

(11/20/17) Our first tourist destination: The U.S.S. Midway Museum

We got there too early, so we walked to Seaport Village to souvenir shop

Beau was feeling very sick and missed almost the entire day sleeping in the stroller - poor guy!

We enjoyed listening to the self-guided tour and exploring all of the aircrafts

Hannah loves her big brother!

Could this guy have a future in the Air Force?

Buckle up!

What a great museum for little boys!

Pretending to take off - we got in trouble for running on deck shortly after this picture was taken!

Oh man - these guys are in jail!

Please don't get used to this idea!

Prison stinks!

A delicious Cheesecake Factory lunch (and Beau posing with his souvenir)

(11/21/17) We love the Seattle Duck tour so much, we thought we'd try out the San Diego Seal Tour

Hannah's hair is blowing in the wind!

Out on the beautiful, blue water!

My sweet hubs

What a pretty day!

A rare full family photo

My kids kept busy eating all the suckers in my purse

I love this ham ball

My favorite part of the tour was the sea lions

They are so big!

There are a lot of government research labs along Point Loma where they study and train dolphins

So fun!

We ended the day at our favorite beach on Coronado Island

And we happened upon the Sandcastle Man!

He had some pretty cool creations out on the beach

The kids have always loved exploring tidal pools - and so do I!

This was probably Hannah's first time remembering the ocean - she had seen it a few times before but as a baby

Her face was pure joy!

She ran around the shoreline like a crazy woman!

The sand here is speckled with gold!

What a doll!

One of Hudson's treasures

Couldn't get enough of this happy girl!

Sweet baby!

As much as I love the ocean, being there with kids always makes me nervous!

Don't get swept away, little one!

Beau still felt horrible, but he enjoyed exploring and playing in the sand

Love my little buddy!

What a cutie pie!

That night, Hannah started to get sick and couldn't sleep - she had a very high fever for several days

Sleeping in a big-girl bed

(11/22/17) By Wednesday, me and all the kids were feeling sick ... cold symptoms, sore throats, and fevers!

We decided to go to the zoo so we could ride the bus tours and push everyone around in strollers!

I LOVED the double decker bus tour!

And seeing my favorite animal in person - the Giant Panda - was surreal!

Blue cotton candy face!

Pandas are the cutest animal - just eating away!

The zoo had aerial trams that you could ride across the park

They were so relaxing that we rode them back and forth several times just for fun!

Frequent Flyer

Another fun thing at the zoo was a 4-D show featuring the characters from Rio

We tried to hit as many "special events" as we could, including a talk on Jaguars

This zoo is enormous!

A neat bridge that goes over the panda cage! Look at that poor, sick family!

(11/23/17) With Hannah incredibly sick, we set up a tent on the beach for the kids to chill out in

Hudson was as happy as a clam playing games on my phone

We ended the day with a visit to Point Loma

Daddy stayed behind with Hannah and I took the boys on a short hike to some tidal pools

Sweet brothers

My silly little guy

This spot was gorgeous!

Wading in the ocean

Trying to skip rocks

Seb and sick little girly eventually made it down to join us

I am about 20 weeks pregnant in this shot

It was so hard to find somewhere open for Thanksgiving Dinner

Eventually, we settled on Denny's where Hannah and Daddy got breakfast food, Beau got nuggets and Goldfish crackers ...

Yum! Yum!

Hudson got chicken noodle soup (his throat was very sore) and I got Denny's traditional turkey dinner

(11/24/17) We cleaned up our Airbnb, drove to Phoenix (with a stop at In-and-Out Burger of course) and stayed with our friends again. Hannah and I were sick, so we skipped out on a trip to the Mesa Temple Christmas lights.

Looks like the guys had a great time

We decided to do a family vacation to San Diego for Thanksgiving Break - it was pretty fun, except everyone but Sebastian got sick. We bought a couple games (Quirkle and Go Nuts for Doughnuts) at a toy shop in Seaport Village and we really enjoyed playing those each evening. It's always exciting to see the ocean and a nice change of pace to be away from home. I do think I enjoy spending holidays, though, more at home than away from home. It kind of takes the holiday feeling out of the holiday! Especially when you're eating Denny's for Thanksgiving! Yuck! We also missed out on Sam and Kiley's visit, which was a bummer! But despite everyone being so sick, we had a great time. And the kids were troopers through it all - even during the awfully long car ride!