San Diego (Day 2) Seaworld

One of the things I was really looking forward to on our trip was our Seaworld day. We had a really great time. We were able to go to the Killer Whale show and the dolphin show and the kids really loved those. I actually liked the dolphin show the very best. Kevin Haderlie went and was asking questions to the trainers after and we got to hear all about that. (They did not have the Otter show going the day we visited, which was a little sad, but we found plenty to do). 

One of the kids favorite things was right as we entered the park, they had a tank you could reach into that had these little fish that would come and eat the dead skin off of your hands. The kids thought it was so fun. 

The kids really loved the rides, but as you can see below, we did have a couple of really sad moments when kids were not quite tall enough for a few rides. Austin was devastated that he was not tall enough for the biggest rides. Caleb was right at the 48 inch mark and there were a few times they let him on the 48 inch rides, but a few times when he could not get on and he was so so sad. 

This was a ride down a river where you get splashed and we had a fantastic time, even if a few of us did get soaked. The park was not very busy which was awesome because we didn't really have to wait for any rides or to do anything we wanted to do. 

This fish tank was at the exit of one of our favorite rides. The ride was called "Journey to Atlantis" and you got a little bit wet and the kids loved it. We rode it a million times. 

Here we are at the While show and the kids touching the fish that like to eat dead skin off your hands. 

It was really fun having the Haderlies with us all day to go and see all of the things. 

When I asked the kids their favorite things from Seaworld they liked best the Orca (Whale) and Dolphin shows and the Journey to Atlantis Ride. 

We finished the day by doing a Little Ceasars Pizza night and we were going to do a movie, but ended up letting them watch a kids cooking show instead. 

San Diego (Day 1) - San Diego Zoo

David really wanted to go to the zoo and the kids were really excited about it. The San Diego Zoo is ranked one of the best in the nation, and I can see why! We've been to the zoo in Cincinnati, OH and Houston, TX and it was fun to add another zoo (in addition to our Utah Hogle Zoo) to our list. We had a lovely day exploring the zoo together and looking at all of the animals. I was disappointed because I thought that they had Giant Pandas but they "said goodbye to their pandas in 2019" and sent them back to China. So sad for us. But they had some other neat animals that you don't see in our zoo, like Koalas, Kangaroos, and bears like Spectecled Bears and Sun Bears. 

We originally had planned to go to the beach this day, but the weather was supposed to be a little cooler so we swapped activities so we could do the zoo on a cooler day and the beach when it was a bit warmer and the weather was beautiful for us. 

The polar bear was eating and we had a fun time watching it be so active. 



These kids were such good explorers together. I loved watching them experience this new place together. 


They had interactive exhibits, statues, and winding paths to see all the animals (we only got lost once). 

It was so fun to be there with the cousins together. 

They had a bus tour of the park, which we loved, plus a trolley bus that you could hop on and off to get to different parts of the park. They also had a skyride that would take you all the way from the front of the park to the back, and we made sure to go on that several times. 

We enjoyed the day at the zoo, although, if I'm being completely honest - I think the kids would have been just as happy if we had gone back to the beach both days. Even so, they had fun and we started our San Diego stay off with a great day.

San Diego Vacation with the Haderlies - St. George and Travel

When David and I started planning our summer vacation earlier this year, we decided that we wanted to go to San Diego. Over the past couple of years we have done more camping-based trips (Redwoods & Utah National Parks) and we were ready for something more city-based. We started looking at places to stay and as we were visualizing the trip, we thought about how much fun it would be if we could convince the Haderlies to come with us and rent an airbnb together. We pitched the idea to Jenna and Kevin and they agreed. We'd been looking forward to this week all year and we had such a great time. 

We've said for a long time that the people we think we'd like to travel with most are Jenna and Kevin, because we have such a good relationship and compatible travel styles. Unfortunately, we are also each other's babysitters, so we don't usually get to travel together. But we were glad to see that our theory was correct and they are great people to travel with. Kevin was only able to be there for a couple of days, so my mom drove out with Jenna to help with the kids and be there with us for the week. 

We didn't drive out together. Jenna and my mom left early in the morning and stayed at a hotel past Las Vegas. We decided to take a slower first day and stop in St George, then make our way the rest of the way to San Diego the following day. 

We had a great time in St. George. We went out to eat at the Pizza Factory (we planned for this to be our "restaurant eating night") and explored downtown St. George a bit, then headed back to the hotel where we went to bed pretty early. Austin, Lydia, and I walked down to the hotel pool and soaked our legs in the hot tub while Caleb and Lucy were falling asleep and just had a fun time hanging out together. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early, ate the hotel breakfast (which is my favorite thing about staying in a hotel), and got on the road. 

Our minivan (a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country) has been having a hard time lately, and so we opted to rent a van for the trip. It didn't have a TV, which was a bummer, but it was a Toyota Sienna Hybrid which was fun to try out for an extended period of time. 

We made it to San Diego within a half-hour of Jenna and Mom and we met up to let the kids play at the beach. We arrived an hour before our Airbnb was available, so we went straight to the beach and were not prepared for the kids to get in the water (we found a beach that had a playground and we thought "the kids will play at the playground and look at the ocean" yeah right, ha). But they had the best hour of their lives and all it cost us was some sandy and soaking wet travel clothes. 

We made it without incident (thank you rental van) and were excited for a great week!