Matt and Marlie: Sunny San Diego

Just before school started we took our summer vacation and went back to San Diego. No cousins in the area this time but the Hatters joined us and we had a great time!

You know how we roll...hop off the plane, unpack our stuff and get going! We went straight to the Padres game. Matt was so excited. At some point we all almost fell asleep and then caught our second wind in the 5th inning! The weather was amazing and we actually had to put on our jackets! Matt got an autograph from the Mets coach and also ended up with a free t-shirt too!

The next day we got up slowly and went to Coronado. We had lunch, bummed around in the shops and then spent most of the day on the beach. Marlie and Hayden found these BFF necklaces in one of the shops and wanted them right away. This is just too cute...

I guess I was too busy talking because I didn't get any pictures of Cale's awesome sand castle or the boys playing football! I also didn't get pictures of Marlie and Hayden on the boogie boards which was super cute too!

The next day it was off to LEGOLAND. It was a great park for the little kids. Marlie and Livi rode their first roller coasters and they both did great! There were Legos everywhere! At the end of the day the kid's got to pick out Legos from the gift shop. Matt put his together right when we came back to Houston and I was so impressed that he did it all by himself!

Day 3, the Maziur's headed for Sea World and the Hatter's went to the SD Zoo. The last time we went to Sea World Marlie talked about Shamu for weeks! Matt and Dad headed straight for the roller coaster and Marlie headed straight for the stingrays! As you know from my last post from Great Exuma, Marlie loves stingrays. Again we stayed with these creatures for a long time, fed them, petted them, loved them, etc.

We spent a lot of time watching the dolphins too. After this we went to all the shows but it got very hot and we all sort of petered out at about 3:00pm. Marlie slept through the last show which she would have loved. It was a lot of dancing and singing to the Madagascar movie songs. Oh well!

Then we met the Hatters for dinner at Hodad's. Hodad's is a surfer hole-in-the-wall at Ocean Beach and they are known for their bacon burgers. The burgers were awesome! Neat, funky little place with great food!

Day 4 we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. It was super hot here too but we managed to find some shade along the way. The first stop was to see the Gorillas! Doug could have stayed here for hours. There was a baby which Marlie just loved.

M&M also enjoyed the Lorikeet's. They fed them and even let them climb on them!

We did a "behind-the-scenes" tour and the kids asked tons of great questions along the way. It was really interesting and we realized what an amazing place this really is. But maybe the highlight of the day was watching the cheetah run! He ran way too fast to take a picture. The adults and kids loved it!

Day 5 was our final day and we needed a relaxing day on the beach. We played on Mission Beach, where our condo was, for hours. The kids made sand castles, played baseball, flew a kite and played in the water. I was so mad that I did not have my camera to snap photos. After a little nap we got dressed and Nicole took some family pics for us on the beach. We managed to get a few cute ones on our camera too. The kids all looked very cute, sunburned and sort of tired, but mostly cute!