san diego or bust

We've been talking about going to San Diego just for some beach time for months and months. Finally, we gave the kids the choice of either one more camping weekend this summer before school started up again, or a weekend at the beach. The vote was unanimous. So we headed west.

Let me say next that there's something to the whole let's-not-tell-the-kids-and-make-it-a-surprise thing-though that definitely backfired on us in May during our Disney trip-because our children, Ethan particularly, asked us each and every day, several times a day for weeks "When are we going to San diego?" and "How many more days until San Diego?" They even prayed about it days and weeks in advance; ("please bless that we'll have a good time in San Diego.") Well, I guess they had it covered. The day finally came and off we went.

Now none of my pictures are great. . .my little camera just doesn't do well in this kind of environment, doesn't have a good zoom, etc etc. But you get the point.

Let's start with this picture of me approximately 2 hours after we got to San Diego. It's the most normal you'll ever see my hair, as my locks got increasingly crazy and frizzy and Monica-esque the longer we stayed in Southern Cal. Man, if I ever lived there, I'd have to invest in some major anti-frizzing serum or conditioner!

We started off in Mission Bay on the Boardwalk where we met up with Dan's sister, brother's family, and parents. We found a spot to eat and then let the kids lose on the beach.

The water was fuh-reezing. But somehow, they got used to it quickly and everyone ended up nice and wet and sandy. Sean got his first mouth of seawater, then threw up his first swallow of seawater, and from then on I assume he learned how to body surf with his mouth closed.

Have I ever shared with you my funky toes? I blame ballet as a child. I kept this shell to scrapbook it, of course. :)

This is pretty much what they did the whole time we were at all three beaches. That. . .and get lost. It was awesome.

As you can see it was fairly overcast on Saturday, yet we all still got just a bit pink before slapping on the sunscreen.

We only stayed on this beach for an hour or so before cleaning up and heading up the coast a bit to Del Mar, which is a really pretty beach and a bit cleaner.

On the way we passed the San Diego temple, and I realize these aren't great shots taken through the window of a moving car, but it's all I've got. It's a gorgeous temple and just pops out of nowhere on the 5 between Mission Bay and La Jolla. Love that place.

Onto Del Mar, where I kid you not it took us about 45 minutes to find a parking place. Insanity!

And again, the pictures aren't that great as I was up on the beach and the kids were backlit by the late afternoon sun.

But I do love this picture of the three of them. Definitely gonna scrap this one!

Everyone but me and my preggo sister-in-law totally went for it and body surfed and everything. Isn't she adorable? She had to totally push out her gut to get even a hint of preggo belly (and she's 4 months along!); I told her it looked like she'd just eaten a taco.

Have I mentioned my aversion to the ocean? I'm not a huge fan. It's dirty, you can't see the bottom, and when you stare out at the horizon, it feels like you're getting sucked out to sea. Not to mention sharks and all the sand sand sand sand. But I was happy to sit on the beach and soak up sun, occasionally snapping pictures of my young.

Ethan and Cameron decided building sand castles was much more fun than surfing.

Though Cameron had fun teasing the waves.

Notice the hair. Oy.

So when the boogie board rentals were up, Grandma and Grandpa took off and the rest of us went back to the hotels to clean up before getting together for dinner.

We went to a place in downtown San Diego called Dick's Last Resort. Anyone ever been there?

The 'charm' of this place is that it's disgusting. Well, not on purpose. The gist is that the waiting staff is totally rude and you are allowed to be totally rude back. There is much wadding and throwing of paper, lots of rude quips, teasing, napkin and paper ball-throwing fights and messes made. Notice the floor on the picture above? Ew. This place must be a complete mess to clean up every night.

But you know what? Everyone had a ball.

...'Cept for Sean.

Who said that the rudeness and paper throwing was 'a sin'.

Anyway, there was loud live music and loud neighbors and I must have been hit with paper (all of us were) at least 3 dozen times, but it's part of the fun. The kids can be as misbehaved as they want and it's ok. Encouraged even.

Our waiter made these hats. Among them:

"I throw like a girl."

"I eat my boggers." (sp!!)

"I pee the bed."

"I fart in the tub."

"If I had wings I'd be an airport."

"Puberty sucks."

And more. :)

Cameron and Ethan even got up to do a little dancing.

It was super fun! (I'm totally on my toes in this picture)

Then we walked downtown a bit and the boys got to handle a parrot!

Downtown San Diego is a happening place, let me tell you. There's nothing like it in Phoenix. Tons of clubs and parties going on. The line outside the Hard Rock Cafe club wrapped around the building and I did not see one pair of shoes any shorter than a 4" stiletto. Just the walking around with the cousins was probably my favorite part of the weekend.

The next day, we got back together with them and headed back to Mission Bay.

Dan finally got Ethan into some swells, though it wasn't his favorite thing.

All in all, we had a great time! The weather was awesome, the kids were pretty well behaved (except for the time we lost Ethan on the beach for about half an hour-I was *this close* to telling the Coast Guard that I'd lost my kid) and we didn't break the bank to do it. It was nice to have one last hurrah before school starts back up next week and the best part was seeing our cousins and family again-hadn't seen them since Christmas!

Thanks for meeting up with us guys, we had so much fun!