San Diego vacation

So our Christmas present from my parents this year was a family vacation!  It was planned over a year ago and I can't believe it has already came and went!  It was such an amazing time and we were definitely spoiled rotten!  Thank you mom and dad for taking us on such a fun vacation and for all the time, money, effort and stress that went into planning the whole thing!  We are forever grateful! We missed Tasha, Roger, Alyssa and Conlan who couldn't make it :(  Hopefully, if my parents ever entertain the idea of doing this again, everyone can make it.

Fair warning:  This is the ultimate picture overload!  I literally had my camera on my hip most of the time and so we basically captured all the moments and memories:)

Jadelyn loved her first plane ride and she did sooo good!  Thanks to the modern technology of the Ipad.

Here we are in California leaving the airport in "The beast"!  It wouldn't be a family vacation without everyone cramming in a giant van right?!

On our way to the rental house in Encinitas, we stopped at an enormous Pier and ate lunch in a really cool 50's diner called Ruby's on the end of the pier. 

Not a bad view for lunch!

I love this pic :)

The whole gang!  Yeah, it was bright:)

The dude finished his sand art by the time we were done~ pretty cool!

We made it to our beautiful house and spent the night getting settled in, grocery shopping, and enjoying a firepit.

On Monday we went to Moonlight Beach!  This beach was so perfect and hardly anyone was there!  Seeing Jade's reaction to the ocean is definitely one of my favorite memories of this trip!  She was sooo cute chasing the waves in and out and playing in the sand.

My mom and I tried out our sand art skills... dang we're good.

Crazy Tom and Gregg went clear out and really swam in the freezing ocean

Luke pretty much learned to walk on this trip so that was pretty awesome to see!!

I think the look on Tom's face tells you all you need to know about the ocean's temperature!

Cutest little beach babe!

Later that day we went and played at the park!  People probably thought it was crazy having 4 adults playing at the park with just one little girl haha!  Jade was definitely not short on attention that week!
I love these two pictures of her cheerleaders/ fanclub!

That night we ate at an AMAZING Mexican restaurant Casa De Bandini~  so delicious!  It was so good in fact, we ate there again on our last night in Cali.

On Tuesday we went to Seaworld!!!

She loved the shows!  She would clap over head when everyone else would clap.  This show was the Sealion/ Otter show.

Seaworld now has some pretty awesome rides!  This was the Manta.  And I don't know what the deal was, but all the parks we went to the whole week were not packed AT ALL...which was so great!  No lines for anything!  We even got to just stay in our seats and ride this twice in a row.

While Gregg and I went and rode the Atlantis ride that nobody else wanted to, the rest of the fam found Jade a play area that she loved!

The dolphin show

And the Shamu show!

On the way home we ate at a 50's diner called Corvette Diner!  (Apparently my family likes 50's diners and Mexican food!)  So good and such a fun atmosphere (My mom couldn't stop dancing haha).  It has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives!

On Wednesday we went to The San Diego Zoo!  It is massive so we did a ton of walking but we loved it!

Jade was pretty intrigued looking at all the animals.

What the heck is that thing!?  Weird right?

A miracle occured on the ride home... she fell asleep in the car!  (With a little coaxing and feet tickling from Tom:) )  This hasn't happened, no matter how tired she is, since she was like 3 months old.  Very sweet and Tom even got her to do it the next two days after that! He's got Skills!

That night we went "hwhimmin!"  Swimming (hot tub) and Jade loved it and asked for it constantly the rest of the week!

On Thursday we went to Legoland!  Wow this place was so fun!  Definitely a must for us to return to when we have a little bit older kids!  Some of the stuff they have built out of Lego's is so impressive!  And there was so many fun rides but Jade could only do a couple:(  She was an inch too short!

Jade can never get enough of her "Gammy Gammy!"

She loved the "choo choo twain!"  Despite the unamused look on her face!  She is also great at not looking at the camera:)

She would raise her hands and say "Ta da!"

She even got to ride it again with Luke!

This is most likely the only Santa we will take her to see this year!

Man we love this little babe!

Tom and Gregg braved this ride and loved it!

She liked the airplane ride for about the first ten seconds then she got a little freaked out.  I probably should have had her sit by me:)

Still nervously eye-balling the "paine" plane

Luke was a little braver:)

We ended our day in Mini town!  This stuff was crazy!  They have built most of the major national cities and globally well-known landmarks out of Lego's!

Vegas..

New York City

Pictures of some of the fun we had at the house:)  Aww so fun!  And every night after the kids went to bed we played some serious card games of Wizard and Rook!

On Friday we went on a San Diego bay cruise!  We basically had the ship to ourselves but too bad the weather didn't want to cooperate and it was pretty rainy and cold.  But we still got to see some amazing views of Military bases and San Diego

Then we went over and toured the USS Midway!  It was a ship that was actually used in WWII.  Very cool to see the living conditions and read about some of the experiences of the men of the time

Jade was pooped!

We then went over to Coronado Island and checked out the beach, an amazing hotel and ate lunch at Miguel's!  Yes my family loves mexican food:) 

Saturday morning we lounged at the house for a while and went to Denny's for breakfast.

I love this picture!

We attempted swimming in the pool and lasted about 5 minutes, but it was just too dang cold!

So into the hot tub we went!  I don't know why we all look so crazy in this pic, but I like it!

That afternoon we hit up the "n'ocean water" again one last time

Again at Bandini's!  Oh man we ate soooo much this trip!!! But we lived it up and it was worth every pound we gained!

And we ended our trip with a visit to the BEAUTIFUL San Diego temple.  I mean wow!  This is the only temple I've seen where the pictures of it do not do it justice.  It is seriously breathtaking.

What a great way to end an awesome vacation!  It was such a blur!  We loved the time we got to spend with eachother and my family.  Thank you so much again mom and dad for creating so many fun memories for us (including all the many renditions of "The wheels on the Bus" we had to endure!)