Disneyland Day 6 and 7: Beach Day and Travel Home

The only thing we would change about this trip, is switching our beach day with our last Disneyland day. But other than that - we wouldn't have changed anything! We woke up on Thursday, had a slow morning while getting everything cleaned up at our hotel and then headed to San Diego (La Jolla Beach) for the afternoon. 

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We hoped that by driving all the way down to San Diego, the weather would be few degrees warmer. It was, but it was still pretty chilly at the beach. The kids played in the sand, but didn't get in the water very much. I spent most of the time sitting on a blanket snuggling children. (Note from David - Lydia and Austin were still happy to spend the day playing in the water and I spent most of the time running in the Ocean with them). 

We stayed for a while but decided to head back to a hotel in Carlsbad to swim there (i.e. hot tub). We swam in the pool, ate baked potatoes in our room for dinner, and went to bed happy and exhausted from our big week. 

We woke up early the next morning and got on the road just as they were setting out the beginnings of the continental breakfast, allowing us to grab a few items. We drove the remaining 10 hours home (704 miles) in one day. The kids were great in the car and even though it was a long drive, we made it in good time. (I finished all three books I had been pushing to get through for my book club, which was a huge win!) 

We will write a final wrap up post for our trip, but I just want to express how good this trip was for us and our family right now. We made some great memories and had a wonderful time together. I'm so grateful we were able to go and even though things weren't perfect (like a cold beach day) we were happy together.

San Diego Travel Home

 We woke up really really early on Monday so we could drive home in one day. We all got up around 3:30 a.m. and the Haderlies (and Lori Walker) were gone by 4 a.m. Then Shantel and I got the rest of our last things packed and got the kids in the car and we left by 4:30 a.m. The house worked perfectly for what we needed. I feel like it was in a good part of town and was close to all the places we needed to go. The pool is exactly what we needed and the kids loved being able to swim every night. I think that really made it feel like a vacation. There were enough rooms and while it was a little grimy in a few places, overall, it was great. I'm really glad that the Haderlies could come with us because we could not have afforded to do a place with a pool without them. 

It was good that we left so early because we still hit a little bit of traffic as we made our way North and out of the populated part of California. However, we made good time and were able to get to St. George around 1:30. We went to Pioneer Park to do lunch and let the kids climb around on the rocks for a bit and then got back in the car and pushed hard to make it home by 6:30. We did a lot of snacks, etc. in the car and we made it home. I'm so grateful we could go on this trip and especially glad to be able to spend time with all of our kids and Shantel!

San Diego (Day 5) - Church, Temple, Hike, Pool

Our last day in San Diego was pretty relaxed. We drove to see the temple first thing in the morning. (The temple was closed for maintenance, so we did not get to attend the temple while we were there). 

Then we went to church together. 

After church we went hiking on a trail called Annie's Canyon that was really fun. The trail leads to a really narrow steep trail with rocks on both sides and we loved it. 

We finished the day by going back to the pool and doing a last-day pool party with popsicles. The kids were so happy and had a great time. We had so much fun and such a great trip. 

San Diego (Day 4) - Point Loma, Old Town and Date

This day was kind of a catch-all. We had a bunch of things penciled in and then did the things that we wanted to do for as long as we wanted to to them (which meant we didn't get to other things like Balboa Park). 

We started the day at Point Loma, which was kind of a late addition. We had heard that it had good tidepools, and even though we didn't come in the right season for tidepools we decided to go explore anyway. We took a little hike along the beach and explored the rocky shore. This ended up being a huge win, because we didn't realize that Point Loma was a National Park, but it is and our kids each got Jr. Ranger badges to hang on their banners at home so they can always remember this trip. Yes! 

Next, we headed to Old Town San Diego, which ended up being one of our favorite stops. We had only planned a couple of hours and we spent the rest of the day there. One of David's childhood vacation traditions was to stop and get ice cream somewhere, and we've tried to do that same thing. (I still remember the delicious pistachio ice cream we had walking down the boardwalk at Galveston Texas). We stopped at a fun ice cream shop in old town and everyone got to choose their own ice cream. 


We also found this darling little candle shop where the kids got to dip candles. At the beginning of the trip we gave eveyrone $20 to spend on souvenirs. I spent my $20 on tapered candles for each of the kids to dip, and they could choose to spend some of their money if they wanted to upgrade to a shaped candle. Lydia did - a dog of course, and so did Caleb - a boat (and I ended up letting Austin dip a dolphin candle that I told him I would "surprise" him with for his birthday). 

The real highlight of Old Town was the Mormon Battalion museum. We had heard about it, and people said that it was worth going to, but I feel like it was WAY undersold. We LOVED this place so much! (The kids loved it so much we brought my mom back to it on Sunday.) The tour starts in front of a set of picture frames of people from the Mormon Battalion, and then without warning, the pictures interrupt the tour guide and start talking. The kids were shocked and thought it was the best thing ever. It was so interactive and neat to hear about the stories of the Mormon Battalion and the kids loved panning for gold at the end. I loved how faith-filled the story of these early saints was and how their sacrifices made such a difference for all of the saints following after them! 




After Old Town, we went back to the Airbnb and Jenna had a pool party and dinner for the kids and David and I got to sneak out for a little date. We walked around a little shopping district called "Seaport Village" and ate tacos for dinner, yum.  Then we went on a night-time bus tour of San Diego (I only fell asleep once).  David really liked it because it was a really fun and relaxing way to see San Diego and learn a little more about the city.

A beautiful evening together! So grateful to Jenna for being willing to babysit for us so we could go explore together.