Sunny San Diego

The weekend after Charlotte's birthday, we drove down to Cedar City to celebrate my little brother's 14th birthday. He didn't know we were coming, so we arrived around dinner time and my mom distracted him while we snuck into the house and hid in their pantry (big pantry). Then she asked him to get out some paper plates and as he walked into the pantry, we scared the living bahgeebee's out of him! So fun.


(Ellie was looking really cute in her little H&M outfit from our good friends the Law's. This was taken right before I opened the door in the back and accidentally dropped David's church pants in the mud...)

Reese's ice cream cake. yum.


I love these little ballerina pajamas on the Loo.

Bradley, Hazel and some of Lacy's kiddos.

That Sunday, the 23rd, was also little Ellie's first day at church. It was fun to dress her up and show her off a bit in sacrament meeting.
(We only stayed for the first hour; I was still leery of germs!)

That hair gets a lot of attention. Little cutie.

So we've been wanting to visit some of our very good friends in San Diego and Cedar City was four hours in the right direction...so last minute David decided to take a few more days off of work and we headed to San Diego! It was definitely TIME for a little family vacation and we enjoyed every second. Even the long drive wasn't too bad.
(Well, I slept a lot. So I didn't mind.)

Our friends, J.R. and Whitney, live in Coronado since J.R. is a Navy SEAL. Not only does he have crazy stories that kept us up in the late hours of the night, but they live in the most beautiful place! The beach was just a short walk away...We went every morning with the girls and then David did some work on his computer while they took naps. Such a nice and relaxing vacation.

This was our first day there and the girls took their time on our walk to the beach, collecting every little treasure along the way. I LOVED the homes in the area--a lot of them were renovated older homes; several were Victorians. Everyone was so friendly. It makes me feel happy just remembering that walk.

Little Ellie slept the entire morning in the wrap. What an easy baby!

This was the girls' second time at the beach. The first time was at the Oregon coast and Hazel was caught off guard by a knee-high wave. Since then, she'll have NOTHING to do with the ocean. Lottie on the other hand loved it. She and I chased the waves together for most of that morning while Hazel hunted for sea shells.

I just don't get it. Never will.

I took this picture so that I wouldn't forget the funniest part of that day. One of these seagulls found Ellie's binky which was tied to a piece of fabric I clip to her shirt. He had the rubber part in his mouth and was flying off with it when I shouted to David to get it back. He started chasing this seagull around the beach as it landed briefly and then flew off again just as David got closer. A small crowd started gathering to watch and cheer him on. Man vs. Seagull.
Finally David ran as fast as he could through shallow water and caught the binky just as the seagull gave in. Everyone cheered. Man won.

By accident we took the long way home and had a great time. I don't think it's common to have three kids under the age of 3 1/2 in Coronado, so we turned a lot of heads.

Day 2: Just about the same thing...


The Hotel del Coronado is breathtaking.



I think this guy called himself the Sandcastle Man. There was so much detail in his castles--so fun to watch!

We did find some rocks on the beach that had some colorful tide pools. We poked some sea anenomes, found hermit crabs, and a little family of larger crabs. We had to make sure Hazel was on the highest rock possible whenever the waves would come in.
David found a beautiful shell in great condition (in fact, I think this is still in our glove compartment...)


Um...I had to take a picture. You don't see something like that every day in Ogden.

Day 3:
More warm Coronado sun, sea shells, and sand.

In the evenings we wined and dined with J.R. and Whitney in some amazing restaurants near the beach. They were fantastic hosts and we couldn't have asked for a better vacation. More to come...