SAN DIEGO FAMILY VACATION

This marks our first big family vacation with just our little family. We decided to really do it right, and booked an action packed trip to San Diego for 10 days. So far, so good. Here's a little run down of what we've done since we arrived yesterday:

- both kids were fabulous on the flight out. No major meltdowns, but by the time we were preparing for landing,

Brynn kept pointing at the floor saying "down, down". She was ready to be done...but still, she survived the 2 hour 30 minute flight with little to no complaining. She spent a good amount of time flirting with another toddler, named Ryan, who was in the row

behind us. His father made note that Brynn was really "shy". I told him I knew we were in trouble already. Yikes.

- We arrived at our resort to find that they had hard floors (no carpet). It was on the beach...but the beds were much taller than usual and Scot and I were worried about our children's active play and the hard floors. I had booked the resort (which had a 4 star rating) through a Hotwire, which meant that it was technically not refundable - but with 8 more nights, we decided that we needed to see if we could move after our first night there. I worked my magic and chatted with the Manager, Matt - who was so SOOO nice and agreed to let us depart the resort early with no penalty. He was going to call Hotwire to make sure that the charges were reversed. WOW...I didn't expect it to be so easy, but he was awesome.

We ended up moving to the La Jolla Embassy Suites. We got a corner suite, which was over twice the size of our previous place - and 8 nights here will be no problem. It has a full dining room table with seating for 8, a family room with a couch, desk and arm chairs...AND a separate bedroom. Hot, daily breakfasts are included. We love it. Ethan and Brynn are in heaven - Ethan keeps calling this our San Diego home. ( : Did I mention that our new hotel is just down the street from the San Diego temple?

Ohhh yes. LOVE that temple.

-We did enjoy our stay at the previous Resort for 1 night, and since it was right on the beach, we got up first thing and went for a morning stroll along the water. It was Ethan and Brynn's first time at the beach, and they both loved it. Ethan, in our initial trip over for a morning walk, decided to wear his flip flops. As we started walking on the beach, he decided that wasn't his favorite idea and asked if we could return and get him some other shoes. That section of the beach had a lot of twigs and shells and really wasn't comfortable for bare feet. We remedied the situation quickly and returned with shoes that he felt were more appropriate.

- Ethan and Brynn both ran along the beach squealing and calling to each other. Brynn sure loves her big brother, she wants to do everything he does, it's so cute. "E-THAN, E-THAN". I love how she says his name...and hers "Bynn", we're working on getting the "r" in there.

Ethan held his pant legs up as he ran along for part of the time - that's when I wished I had grabbed my camera for their first experience on the beach. Sigh.

Bummer. At least we'll be here for 9 more days.

- We went to Seal Beach in La Jolla tonight before sundown. (Again, just down the street from our hotel).

The kids loved watching the waves crashing against the beach and the rocks, and watching the seals on sunning themselves on this big rock and swimming in the water.

Ethan also spent quite a bit of time climbing the twisty trees that he kept referring to as his "tree house". He said he was going to stay up in the tree forever.

I kind of believed that he actually thought he wanted to.

Brynn was popular with some foreigners, who asked if they could take a picture with her. ( : Her little curls look so cute today, but not in pictures for some reason...it just comes across as messy - but it's adorable in person. Hmmmm, how do I fix that? Hair accessories, which I forgot this afternoon.

- We visited my friend Liz's favorite "must eat" spot in San Diego - Roberto's. Her husband John is from San Diego, so I trust their good judgement, and they've never lead me astray before. Thank you Liz...and thank you Roberto's. It's the cheapest most delicious mexican place, and we will return - perhaps several more times while we are here in San Diego. Yummy. It's little wonder why Liz and her family eats nearly every meal here when they're in town. It's was a feat for Scot to get me back into the car. ( :