SWEET SAN DIEGO: PART ONE

You guys. I take too many pictures. It's now to the point where I have to split our vacation posts into smaller portions because I'm afraid of inundating you with photos. Last year, I posted 70 pictures from our California trip. This year, it's more than twice that. But - to be fair - we DID do more this year than we have in the past, including a day-long trip to SeaWorld (which will have it's entirely own post in the near future). Seven days well spent in San Diego with my family (and the mr.'s baby sister, of course).

MONDAY: DAY ONE

left home at 5 am and headed west San Diego

stopped at In-N-Out for lunch because Cali...

quick stop at my parents' rental house to ditch our stuff

drove 2 miles to Point Loma tide pools - CLOSED

headed a few miles down the I-8 to Coronado Island

found a park right next to the water

played in the surf, sand, and playground

made it home in time for mac & cheese diner

evening trip to the store with the mr.'s sister for glass bottle sodas

card games for the mr., the mr.'s sister, and myself

TUESDAY: DAY TWO

woke up at 7 and ate cereal for breakfast

made lunch, slathered on sunscreen, and loaded the cars

2.5 mile drive to Mission Bay

found side-by-side parking in the main lot

hit up Belmont Park for about an hour

rode all the rides - mr.'s sister's first roller coaster experience

ate lunch at a park next to the beach

played at Mission Beach for a few hours

drove home and had chips & hotdogs for dinner

card games for the mr., the mr.'s sister, and myself

WEDNESDAY: DAY THREE

woke up at 7 and ate yogurt & granola for breakfast

made lunch, slathered on sunscreen, and loaded the cars

drove 11 miles (gasp!) to La Jolla Cove

found side-by-side parking and trekked a mile up shore

FOUND HARBOR SEALS AND CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS!!!

basically died because of the awful smell

trekked back to the car for food

 ate picnic lunch next to the ocean

drove 2 miles north to La Jolla Beach - PACKED

called it a wash and went to Point Loma tide pools

found limpets, chitons, kelp crabs, & anemones

checked out the Cabrillo National Monument

went inside Point Loma's old lighthouse

returned home and made personal pizzas for dinner

card games for the mr., the mr.'s sister, my parents, and myself

If you made it through all of that, you are an amazing person. It's difficult to narrow down images, not to mention my blog is a visual journal of all that I've done. I could cut out images, but then I'd be cutting out memories. #noregrets

AND THEY'RE OFF

It's the first day of school and four of my six are off to learn and play. I'm down to two. WHAT IS THIS? No tears here, just excitement. I'm excited for them to learn new things. I'm excited for them to make new friends. And I'm excited that the level of crazy has dropped off a notch. Or four... Love these awesome kids. They hopped out of the car without hardly a "goodbye". Go move mountains, dear littles.

GLOW STICK SWIM

I'm falling behind on posts. ALL THE THINGS are happening, so I feel like I'm frantically trying to keep up. Which is why I'm just now getting around to posting about our glow stick swim party with some fun friends. Pizza, glow sticks, light up balloons, and pools make for an awesome mix. The kids always have so much fun with this activity. And this is one that I'm happy to repeat each year.

WINTER WEATHER

Summer is coming to an end and I'll have to say, I feel that this summer was pretty successful. BARRING VEHICULAR ISSUES. But car crap aside, we've been able to do quite a bit together. Including our summer school unit on seasons. Since Arizona has the habit of being hotter than hell for half the year, we pretended to cool down with a pile of fake snow. A little bit of unscented lotion mixed with baking soda goes a long way... Like literally. They got it everywhere. Clearly another summer school favorite.