Hello, San Diego!

In early October, we were blessed to be able to take a family vacation to beautiful San Diego.  As many of you know, we have fallen in love with DisneyWorld, but decided this time around to vacation in a different spot.  This vaca was the perfect mix between going and doing fun things and just relaxing.  We tried Vacation Rentals By Owner for our lodging, and ended up in a beachfront condo, which was great.  We were able to cook some of our own meals in the condo and have space to just chill out while enjoying a view of Imperial Beach.

We also got to spend some time with family and friends from California while we were on our trip.  Grandpa and Grandma McKinney drove down to have dinner with us, and we also enjoyed a visit from Steph, a friend of ours from college days.  We drove to Camp Pendleton to see Tim and Dawn and enjoyed seeing a military base.  The landscape of the city was beautiful.

We had a great time playing on the beach.  Hadley wasn't real sure about the waves, and the water was COLD, but that didn't stop us for enjoying the sand.  Connor and Kylee were insistent about going to the beach almost every day, rain or shine.  Connor and Brandon played football and the kids spent lots of time looking for shells.  It was so much fun!

The view out our door.  And baby buns.  Couldn't resist!

We could see the Pier from our condo.  We walked down to explore one morning.

A big part of our vacation is eating.  Trying new places is a highlight.  We found a dessert shop that made cupcakes and muffins the size of our heads.  Delicious!

We spent some time in historic Old Town, where the kids enjoyed exploring equipment and walking through historic buildings (well, okay, I enjoyed the historic buildings).  We found a place where the kids could dip their own candles, which they thought was great fun.

Our first official adventure was to go to Legoland.  It was very cool, but probably geared more towards Kylee's age group than Connor or Hadley's age groups.  A highlight of the trip was seeing amazing Lego city (New York, Las Vegas) replicas that were on display, along with, of course, the Star Wars movie scenes and characters that were recreated in Lego form.  Connor and Kylee both attended Lego "driving school" and had a good time with that.  Connor has since declared that when he grows up, he wants to be a Lego designer.  Pretty cool, I say.

We couldn't go to San Diego without visiting the incredible San Diego Zoo:

Monkey see, monkey do!

I love this picture because it captures all three kids' personalities.  This is outside the polar bear exhibit.

Connor and Kylee got stuffed animals as souvenirs from the Zoo.

Sea World was our last destination.  The kids had a great time observing marine life and exploring the park.  They had  Sesame Street World with rides that Hadley thought was pretty cool.  We saw the Sea Lion Show, fed the dolphins (brilliant marketing...hey, folks, want to line up and pay to do routine every day pet care?) and capped off the day with the Shamu Show.  It was a blast!

I mock the marketing, but dolphins are one of my favorite animals. ;)

After a busy start to the school year, this was a much-needed break in the routine.  We are so grateful to have had this time together as a family!