California

It was great! But I should start from the beginning.

(Thanks to Kate for some needed pictures!)

On the 26th Jared and I went to church and right after to the airport. We were lucky he was able to get his first official vacation in a year. The flights were good. The only annoying thing was that for some reason in an airplane every person that sat next to me felt that their space was the arm of the chair and whatever hung over, just did. I was always trying to smash myself against Jared so not to have one of those embarassing moments with the people next to me.
We left from Ky to Midway to San Diego!
We got it just to sit and wait while my dad figured out he had gone to the wrong airport...

Then we got to the beach house we were staying at. It really was next to the beach. So nice. That night I got to see my family and chubby paul! The girls all went for a quick walk along the beach
(Paul included) Only to end quickly because Jared and I were tired. It was 9 there but midnight in Kentucky. So we crashed for the night.

Monday. BEACH. It was fun. we all boogie boarded and jumped in the waves and played in the sand. We made a wall when the high tide started to come into shore. It a losing battle, but it was hilarious.

Mom and Dad

James supporting his favorite place
Cob
Jared and I reading it up, and getting a tan
Boogie boarding
The wall
That night we also celebrated Jared's birthday.

Tuesday. Our first stop was old San Diego. We were going to go to the mormon battalion memorial but it was being completely renovated and was not open so we got tickets to go on 'THE SEAL'. A big vehicle that could drive on land but also move in the bay of San Diego. It got boring after a while of going 5 mph in the water, but it was neat. And Paul was the talk of the boat. After that we all went to the Midway. A huge battleship that was in commission from about 1945 to 1991. It was crazy how huge it was, but also how compact and claustrophobic. We then booked it home and called it a night.

At SeaPort Village

The SEAL. Believe me it was uglier in person.
Hanging out in the bay on 'The SEAL'
The USS Midway. Huge.

Wednesday. The beach again. We pretty much did all of the same stuff. Jumping in waves, boogie boarding, and playing with sand. And that night we played apples to apples... ps if you play with kate always pick the weirdest one.

Beach

How can you not just love this little chunk.
The Nerds building Helms Deep out of sand.

Thursday. Off to Sea World. We saw all the good shows, shamu, circus de la mer, pet show, and dolphins and even got to see a dolphin up close. They are huge!

Shams the whale

Circus de la Mer

The whole family at sea world.

Dolphin show

Friday. About this time, Jared and I realized that our vacation was almost over and I was super sad, but we tried to make the best of it. We went to the beach yet again. And did all of the same things! But this time James and Jared made a huge ice cream cone castle. It was cool. I dont think we got any pictures though. That night we met up with Jon at Olive Garden. And had a great dinner. It was nice to actually have all the family together and when we got home we played apples to apples again with Jon.

Jake got buried in the sand, par request.
Digging himself out of the sand... we just watched, but we did give him the shovel.
The goose
The sand creation
Friar Tuck
Paul learning how to boogie board

Saturday. Everyone went home...except Kate and Paul... they are still in Ca with Jon trying to figure out if the bank will give them the home they want.

Poor Paul's cheeks were burned, look at those rolls :) And a purple popsicle mouth?

It was a great vacation and Jared and I relaxed enough that he read a book for fun! And I read 2. My sisters keeper, and the first twilight book. It would seem that I am addicted now and I need to read New Moon as soon as I can find it. Jared and I also came back to with a tan. We are happy to be back home, but miss being on vacation. We picked up Charlie on Sunday morning. Can you imagine a hyper dog to begin with being overly hyperactive? The one thing that I wonder about is on this "pawgress report" that the petsmart hotel gives us after his stay. It says that he is 'quite the ladies man'. I wish I knew EXACTLY what that meant... but it cracks me up anyways!
All in all, we had a great vacation and I hope that we can do it all again sometime.