California Picture Attack

Well, we did go to sunny California last week for our family vacation and we had the best time!!! We started off the week with Brian's Aunt Jan in Vegas. We beat her in a couple of games of St. Petersburg (my fav) and it felt good to win. I've been on a mean losing streak and it was nice to break that. She is hilarious!!! I'm glad we got to stay with her and get to know her better!

Next, we finished our drive to glorious San Diego! I must admit, I think San Diego is my new favorite spot in California! We had sooooooo much fun! We really should do another vacation there and spend the whole week. There was so much to do and we didn't get to do it all! We stayed with my best friend, Lindsey for three days and she was more than the perfect hostess! It was like old times again! Staying up late and laughing our heads off. She was also the perfect escort around San Diego. We kicked of SD with a walk around beautiful Balboa park. MY. GOODNESS! It was GORGEOUS! Why can't Utah have parks like this? Here are some pictures:

Rose Garden

Is it just me, or does that background looks like Louie's place from the Jungle Book?

We made Monday a beach day. We started off at La Jolla Cove snorkeling and looking at crabs. Although Brian thought the snorkeling was a little disappointing, we still had a good time. Lindsey even took a shot at it and didn't hyperventilate too much while breathing under water. :) Nice Job, Linds! It was a beautiful day. Claire didn't like the water much at first and would really scream at them when they crashed on the rocks, but after a few big waves hitting her diaper, she was a beach baby. She even ate the sand, one pincer grasp at a time.

We also went to Mission Beach for the second half of beach day. Brian and I went boogie boarding. He was in a wet suit, nice and warm, and he FORCED me to go in without one. It was sooooo cold, but I'm glad I did because we had a blast. Thank you to Lindsey for watching Claire for us! She took some HILARIOUS pictures of Claire while we were out there. They still make me bust up!

Here they are: Hilarious!!!

That night we spent in Old Town. We got a few real oil paintings for a STEAL! Seriously!!! We got two and are so excited about them. Brian and I have always wanted real art in our house, but it was always too expensive.

Tuesday was San Diego Zoo day, one of Brian's bucket list items. It was enormous and so fun! We did the whole zoo in one day, where it's definitely big enough to do in two! Claire really liked the meerkat's the most. She slept through the Panda's, which was sad, but they were one of my favorites.

She LOVED petting the goats.

Hugged every panda stuffed animal.

Ok, this Panda sat there for literally, 5 minutes taking a drink!

Seeing a enormous Polar Bear swim? Highlight.

Wednesday we left SD for LA. We stayed with Ian and Makenna for three more days. Claire had SOOOO much fun with Ethan and I think she is still going through withdrawals. She definitely misses having buddies around maybe even more than we do. We also had a blast hanging out with them. We went swimming together, which Claire and I loved. We also watched Megamind for the first time. HILARIOUS!!! I'm glad we introduced Ian and Makenna to Redbox. :)

Even though it doesn't look it, they were having a blast on the air mattress.

We also went to Downtown Disney, which made me soooo hungry for Disneyland. It was too expensive for one day, but maybe next time, when Claire is a little older.

She loves build a bear!

We finished our trip at Aunt Jan's in Vegas again. Breaking up our trip proved to be a huge lifesaver with a baby. Claire got to ride around in this adorable whale and loved every second.

Hopefully you can see how happy Claire is in this picture below.

HUGE thank you to Lindsey, Ian and Makenna for letting us crash at their house! We had so much fun catching up and hanging out. We miss you guys already! We really did have such a wonderful vacation and miss California!