San Diego: Day 1-Are We Really On an Actual Vacation?

Well, I realize that I have been away from my blog for awhile, but I have a great excuse. We spent last week on enjoying seven days in San Diego, with accommodations and admission passes paid in full. The weather was in the mid to upper 60's, which was, of course, cold for us transplanted Arizonans. (you would never guess that we both went to school in upstate NY. I feel like a big weather wuss.)

After finishing my last day of school (which is a whole other story)....we hit the road for San Diego, arriving in the evening.

The boys were tired and so we spent the evening exploring our suite....a two story suite, with kitchen, two bathrooms and multiple televisions. The boys enjoyed running up and down the stairs. We put them in the nicer master bedroom downstairs because of the fear of them either falling down the stairs in the middle of the night or climbing over the loft wall to their demise. You can see why....

These views are looking from the loft bedroom upstairs, over the wall. We loved the kitchen and cooked several times. However, we did make it a point to catch the breakfast each morning...eggs, sausage, waffles, yogurt and granola, coffee, juice and cereal.


We kept Friday rather loose. Tom and I watched a movie in the morning while the boys just relaxed and unwound. We set out in the mid-afternoon to drive to the beach.

We didn't bring swimsuits for the kids, thinking the water would be too cold. Apparently, that isn't a huge factor when you have sand castles to build. Instead, the boys, armed with their sand toys, spent a good hour soaking their long pants and shirt while playing in the waves and collecting water for building.

I'd like to announce that I have no idea how to build a decent sand castle. We tried all different amounts of water mixed with the sand and never once did we accomplish a great sand castle. Naturally, Ian would decide that the castle wasn't up to par and would destroy and redo it. Connor just destroyed them for the pure fun of it.








Not considering that the boys would play in the water, we had no dry clothes for them to wear home. Ian's expression is my favorite.

We headed back to the hotel, got washed up and then went back out to catch the movie "Up". Pixar, I am completely impressed. Of course, during the serious tearjerker moments, there was Connor chattering away.

"Mommy? I more popcorn?"

"Mommy? I love you!"

Louder. "MOMMY! I LOOOVE YOU!"

"Mommy, I kiss you? I kiss your nose?"

"Connor, it's quiet right now. Quiet."

Louder still. "NO, MOMMY. I TALKING YOU. I KISS YOU?"

Anyway, that was our first official day of vacation.

Not visiting family.
Creating our own schedule.
Relaxing when we wanted to.
Being able to visit what we wanted and not worrying about the cost.

Now, that's vacation.