Sunny San Diego

We had a great time in San Diego. Not only did we get to visit all the animals but we got to see lots of cousins too which was really icing on the cake!

Day 1 was Sea World. Yes although we spend many weekends in SA, the kids have never been to Sea World. So we were excited to take them. Even better, my cousin AJ came in from LA and my cousin Shelley and her daughter Abby from SD and Doug's cousin Ed who just finished law school in SD all came with us!!! Marlie was fascinated with Shamu and Matt rode a real roller coaster. I couldn't believe he did it. I chickened out myself!

I love this picture...it pretty much sums up the day for Marlie...she would not leave Ed alone and poor Ed carried her throughout all of Sea World!!

Here are the girls...Marlie and Abby...SO very cute!

And here's Shelley and I with the kids. Hey girl we did pretty good huh? They are adorable.

Here are the boys on the roller coaster. Apparently Matt loved the first drop, but after it went faster and dipped more he had completely buried his face in Ed's armpit! Here we are at the Sea Lion show. The spooky cooky castle!

Darn I wish you could see this picture better. Abby and Matt are making their scary faces!

Funny look who's riding with Marlie! Hilarious!

And we couldn't skip the tea cups!!!

And after a long day we had great Mexican food in Old Town.

Day 2 was relaxing. We got up leisurely and headed to Fletcher Cove. The kids played on the play ground and we sat and watched the waves. After a nice long nap we headed down to the Hotel Del Coronado to take some family pics. Those will be coming soon and I can't wait for you to see them. I got a sneak peek at a few of them and some are super cool. Afterwards we let the kids play in the sand and they had a blast!

Day 3 we went to the Wild Animal Park aka Madagascar to the kids (if you haven't seen that movie it's hilarious!). It was really awesome to see so many animals living in similar to habitats to where they live in Africa. We got to see them feed the cheetahs so the kids came away loving the cheetahs.

We ended the day with dinner at In-N-Out Burger and dessert at Cupcake Love where we shared 4 amazing cupcakes!!!

Day 4 was busy! We got to the zoo early and were lucky enough to see a zebra who was only 1! We also watched the gorillas for awhile. There was a baby and it was so cute to see her with her Mom. The baby gorilla was gazing at Marlie. Maybe she recognized she was little too. It's almost as if she wanted to play with her. It was so cute!

After the zoo we went back to the Hotel Del where we met cousin Rick and had a picnic on the beach!! Matt played football in the water with the boys and Marlie was happy as a lark sitting and playing in the sand. The seagulls ate most of our lunch but no one cared because it was so beautiful out there. Honestly we could have skipped the parks and just played on the beach every day and the kids would have loved it. We will do that for our next vacation for sure!!

That night we rushed home to get ready for the party! Ed tried to teach Doug how to surf and Doug said after only a few tries he was exhausted! Everyone came to our little condo (which turned out great), Doug grilled some steaks and we had a great time hanging out with everyone one last time. Shame on me for not taking pictures. We enjoyed one last sunset and promised to come back and do this all again! Thank you Ed, Shelley, AJ and Rick for spending time with our crazy family!! It wouldn't have been as fun without you!

Lots of Good News

Thank you God! Matt had his heart check-up on Friday and we got great news. His EKG looked good (well I couldn't tell squat, but that's what the doc said) and we don't have to go back for 3 years!! Doug and I were so nervous with Matt playing sports but she said he has no restrictions! This was a huge relief!!!! Thank you everyone for your prayers.

Another really cool thing happened on Saturday. Matt scored 5 goals at his soccer game!! I'm not kidding...the final score was 7-0 and Matt scored 5!!! This is his 3rd game and it's like it just clicked. He scored early on and after that just got the feel of it. It was AWESOME! And each time after he scored he ran to the sidelines to give me a high-five and I tried hard not to get emotional. He smiled like crazy all the way home and for the first time in years I think he skipped his nap because he was on such a high!!! The whole family had a blast!!