Little tour of the Midway

The agenda item my little brothers were most excited about (well, besides SeaWorld) was a tour of the USS Midway--a real, retired Navy aircraft carrier in the flesh. Okay, it's metal, not flesh, but you get the idea.

Imagine their disappointment when we were running short on time and arrived within an hour of its closing. Just in case you can't imagine what 3- and 5-year-olds do when they're really tired and disappointed all at the same time, I'll spell it out for you: t-e-m-p-e-r t-a-n-t-r-u-m-s. Thankfully, there was a really nice lady who took mercy on us and let us go inside to the gift shop floor. Problem solved!

(Matt was very intrigued by what really went into his meals at Mitches!)

The babies loved seeing the ship and the planes, and buying some of their own. The big kids loved it, too, and can't wait to go back to see the rest!

Oh, and I can't post about the USS Midway without showing you its neighbor--a replica of the famous moment captured in Times Square. So sweet!

Belmont and the beach

I love the beach any way I can get it, but I have to admit that it is definitely more entertaining when my family is around. And though it's far too cold for me to do anything more than jump waves in the ocean this time of year, they braved the weather and hopped right in. Crazy kids. Maybe it's because they were high from the excitement of riding rides at Belmont Park right before hitting the sand.

The roller coaster was pretty legit, after all.

Or maybe they're just crazy all on their own.

Either way, they had a great time jumping over and running from the waves...

... and working on their special projects, which included a gigantic pile of sea weed and Gabe's sand mountain for Petey (he started working on it as soon as we arrived!).

Family just makes everything more fun, you know?

Sea lions and dolphins and whales! (Oh my!)

Pretty sure the last time my family went to SeaWorld, I was nine years old. I don't remember much other than loving the dolphins and Shamu and, well, it doesn't seem like much has changed! The first stop on my family's tour of San Diego was SeaWorld and we were all super excited about it. (Matt and I were especially excited that we got in free thanks to the Heroes Salute.)

We kicked off the day with various exhibits, including the sharks, polar bears and penguins. Gabey Baby loved the penguins so much that he had to have one of his own. Since it was so early into our visit, my parents tried to convince him to wait in case he found something else he liked more. But that cute little three-year-old turned on his magical charm, batted his eyes, and said, "Mom, wisten. When we go to the beach tomowwow, I'm going to twy to buiwd a sand mountain and then I wiw put my penguin on it and he wiw swide down and..." Good tactic, Gabe--pull at those heartstrings! Needless to say, the kid got his penguin and happily carried "Petey" around the rest of the park.

The boys and I decided to brave the coldish weather and go on the water ride early on. We all got drenched! Christian and Matthew sat in the front and got the worst of it by far. We were worried that Kaleb and Josh wouldn't like it, but they loved it so much they wanted to go again. Go figure!

Now, lets get to the shows, shall we? After all, that's the part that SeaWorld is best known for. We started off with a couple shows just for the little ones--Pirates 4D and the pet show. The babies got a kick out of both of them, and the pet show almost made me want to go out and get a pet of my own. Almost. (We're just not home enough these days!)

Then we started the grand tour of marine animal shows. The sea lions had a special show just for Halloween that included them dancing to Thriller. It was adorable.

Meanwhile, the dolphin show was incredible as always. I just love how cute and playful dolphins are. I'd love to swim with them someday. (Hear that Matt? Hint hint?)

Last but definitely not least, we saw Shamu. I'm amazed at how powerful and beautiful killer whales are. "Believe" was captivating!

Kaleb was brave and sat in the splash zone, while the rest of us sat in the safe section above and watched him get a shower from Shamu's mouth.

After the shows, we headed to the Sesame Street Bay of Play. The babies loved the giant pirate ship and playground and all of the kiddie rides. We then made one last stop at the gift shop for more souvenirs before the park closed.

It was a great day at SeaWorld!

Whirlwind weekend in San Diego

Vacations are so not good for my home. As I type this in my family room, I'm surrounded by luggage and purses and shoes and bags and dirty laundry and pillows and all of that fun stuff that I should really take care of instead of blogging. So in the interest of being productive with my time (and getting my house together since we have guests this weekend), I'm going to give you a quick recap of our amazing San Diego vacation with my family.

But don't worry--I'll be back almost every day this week to give you the full details on every activity. That's right, kids. A post almost every day! I'm hoping that'll give me the kick in the bum I need to go through the 1,000+ pictures we took last weekend. I have a headache just thinking about it! (Disclaimer: More than half of those were of the Nicole and Jordan's big event seen below. I'm not really that crazy.) Here's what's coming up on the blog:

*Sea World

You're never too old to love Shamu.

*Belmont Park and the Beach

Everything is more fun with my babies around!

*A Perfect Proposal

Coley and Jordan are engaged! They have now officially begun the second-longest Mormon engagement ever and we are all so, so excited for them! The happy couple was alone in a little cove for the surprise proposal (well, plus the photographer, me and Christian far away capturing the moment with

super zoom lenses

), but they were nice enough to let their families join in for a big celebration about 45-minutes later.

*The Mormon Battalion in Old San Diego

Give the babies guns and gold and they'll love you forever.

*USS Midway

Had Air Force not beat Navy this year, we may not have been so excited about this activity.

*Falcon Football

Speaking of Air Force, we got to see them play in person for the first time this season at Qualcomm Stadium.

*And a slumber party for the record books

My family + Jordan's family (our California family) = BFFs.

I hope you had a great weekend, too!