A Harbor Walk

A short walk along the harbor while we waited for Brad's ship.

Padres Game

Maybe you knew that we love baseball around here? Maybe not. I will tell you Addi can make it six innings at a major league game so I am going with the fact she also loves baseball. The rest of us love the game, I love the sound of the bat on the ball, the strategy of the game, the speed of the game, fellow fans at a stadium. Jeremy and I decided when Luke was a little guy that by the time he was 18 we want to make it to every MLB Stadium. That goes into our strategy when we pick our family vacations. We have tackled a few and some others are going to have to be done as a group and we are waiting for them to be a bit older. It is fun to see the difference of every stadium and the fans around. We are not picky the teams that are playing but we licked out this time that the Royals were playing the Padres. Sadly the Royals lost (all 3 in the series) but it was fun to watch anyway.

I love how they took an old building already part of their downtown and made it part of the stadium.

Look what Luke caught

Addi did not make it through the entire game. She would not take a nap during the day so she took one for a few innings, but woke up in time to get a hot dog.

And she is alive. She took this picture by herself, ahh an iphone is an amazing thing.

San Diego Zoo

Jeremy wanted to make sure we got to the San Diego Zoo. After all it is one of the best zoo's in the USA and we are here, he kept saying. I am not a huge lover of zoo's in general but hey go with the flow when on vacation and especially when in So Cal. It is an awesome zoo. They have a wide range of animals and the kids were engaged the entire time we were there. The one down side is the fact that someone built the zoo on the only mountain in San Diego. I kid you not, it is up one side of the mountain down the other all day long. You almost want to complain then you notice a panda bear or a polar bear or heck even a koala. You realize you have yet to break a sweat because it is not even 80 yet and you move on with your day. Now your feet once you reach the car at the end of the day tell you differently but that memory fades quickly.

Lucas was the chief stroller pusher. He was very helpful all day long. The little people all wanted to be together. We had two strollers but everyone wanted to be together and touching.

I had to get a picture of this. We stopped and watched these ducks cross the road and go into a pond at the zoo. We are around rare and endangered animals and the kids were totally blown away by a family of ducks. It tells you, the little things. Don't miss the little things.

It was not always pretty in the stroller.

First San Diego Beach Day

The kids could not wait to spend a day at the beach. The first thing we did Sunday was eat breakfast so we could head to the beach. I kept trying to tell them the water would be cold and they should wait but there was no holding back. Jenny, Corben and Nevie met us at the beach and we spent the entire day. We took a break for lunch back to the beach house. After all who wants sand in their sandwich, and trust me with the kids there is lots and lots of sand where it should not be.

I love this picture, they are playing together, the background is beautiful and there are not a million people around.


We caught crabs when they washed up.


Addi Jo thought a long time about getting on the board before she ever did it. She much preferred to pretend it was her puppy.

Corben was not much of an ocean lover so Addi pretty much forced him to get his trunks wet in the water. His smile when he was running out of the water was the best.

Where is that crab?

Nevie was not about to get wet, I have never seen anyone run so fast from the waves!

We had such great waves come in all day long. Surfers got up all day long. The morning is of coarse the best but the afternoons were pretty amazing to watch. I related more to the paddle boarders more then the surfers. It is funny how easy they make it look, like oh yeah, I can do that.

Riding it in

I remember the ocean when I was a kid but I am confident that Lucas was much more in love with it then I was.

There is my crab....Addi caught this one all on her own.

Hi Jen and Nevie. It was so good to be able to see everyone, even Brad!

What a fun day at the beach, who knew we would have so many more before we left seven days later?

Oh my goodness we are at the beach

We landed in San Diego grabbed some breakfast at The Broken Yolk, which I highly recommend to anyone going to downtown San Diego it is a must stop. After unloading the luggage we walked down to the beach to get our toes wet, or in some folks case their lower half. But hey it is Southern California so who cares.

Ocean Beach 2011

Our rental house was in Ocean Beach. It was a block away from the ocean. The house was not amazing by any standards but the beach was wonderful. The kids loved it, when we asked them what they wanted to do on their last day they picked the same thing as their first day, the beach. It was great and relaxing.

We got Luke a boogie board and he picked up on it very quickly. It was so much fun to watch them run through the water and ride the waves in. It was amazing to sit at the water's edge for hours and not think of a better place to be. The ocean may very well be one of the most relaxing places I have been in years.


Here he is getting ready to head back out.


Addi gave it a try a few times and would do great but she loves standing still and having the sand bury her feet when the water goes back out.

What a view

He is hard to see out there but he is catching some waves. This was the pier at the end of our sidewalk. It had a cafe and bait shop up there. I passed on eating there because it had a cafe and baitshop connected.

There were only a couple days we did not spend some time at the beach, any beach. We went on a drive one day and ended up getting out and walking around another beach. The ocean=amazing.