Monday, June 18, 2012

San Diego - Day 6


Well...last day in San Diego. :( The week has gone so fast, and has been such a blast. 

We started off the last day at our favorite donut shop! We tried out 3 different ones this week and the best was OB Donuts. We read the reviews and people LOVE this place. It's a favorite of the locals and they are even more well known for their breakfast sandwiches I guess! We only tried the donuts, but if any of you go here, you might want to give the breakfast sandwiches a try too! They are open till 5pm. 

Here's a picture of the inside. I overheard the owner telling some customers that people from out of town are the only people who dine in. The locals always get theirs to go. It's a small shop with a small outdoor patio. Fun spot!



This is the face of a boy who loved the donuts this week! Hopefully we haven't created a monster. We already told him we don't get more donuts till our vacation next year! 



After that we headed to the Safari Park. About a 40 minute drive. The drive was breathtaking! And the park way exceeded our expectations. We found online a pass for 7 consecutive days at 3 different parks in San Diego (Zoo, Seaworld, Safari Park). We paid $135 each for Josh and myself (Ty was free) and we got to go to each of these 3 parks as often as we wanted in those 7 days, only having to pay for parking (parking was free at the zoo). So that's why we even came to the Safari Park, otherwise we probably wouldn't have come. But I'm SO glad we did. It was really beautiful and a very neat park. 





Where did the food go?


Here's the view from a lookout tower at the park. You can see some giraffes, the cheetah run track and a few other sites from here. 




Lions. I found out here that they sleep 22 hours out of the day! Wow, no wonder they are always sleeping whenever we see them!




Included in our 3-1 pass was this tram tour at the safari park! (kind of hard to see all the animals from the pictures I took from the tram, but the beauty of the scenery is amazing too!)





Ostrich


Vultures






White Rhino. 1 of only 8 left in the whole world! Will be extinct in our lifetime for sure. Sad, it's an amazing animal. 


Just beautiful






You will see the truck and cart below, that's another excursion you can take, there are several different rides, the tram is the cheapest option. But still cool, just a little less interactive than the others, you can see they are much closer than we are to the animals. 







Headed off to our last supper! We are back at Fish and Chips! It was just so good, we had to go back one more time! We tried the clam chowder too this time, and it was amazing! When Josh asked them how it was, she said it was what they were known for, and it was good. So those of you going to San Diego, this is a must stop and eat place! Really pretty area to walk around too. 






I just HAD to take a picture of these! These are geraniums people! Yup that's right, not an annual, a perennial, it's like a geranium bush! It actually makes me wonder if any flower is an annual in California. Doesn't get cold enough! 



Well, that's it! That's our week of fun as a family in San Diego! We had an AWESOME time here. We love our family vacations together and now we've already started talking about what area of America we want to experience next year! Vacations are so much fun. They are where family memories are made and deep bonding happens! It's been so fun to experience all the 1st's with Ty, and watch his face light up over and over. And it's been fun to experience my own 1st's through this trip to san Diego as well! Just makes you realize how big our world is, and fun to experience the CA culture. It's also funny to talk with several of the Californians about what they think about Kansans. :) 

I love sharing this time with Josh and Ty, wouldn't trade this week for anything! 

San Diego - Day 5


Well it's Sunday! We drove about 1 1/2 hours to Irvine, CA


Where we met my Great Uncle (my mom's Uncle) Joe and his wife Ali. They live here and we attended church with them. The church was awesome. The worship experience was amazing for us and we love how the church operated, it's vision and how they structured their services.  We were so blessed to attend here for one Sunday. It reminded us so much of the church we attended in Springfield, Missouri, we just loved it. The name of this church is Mariners Church. For those interested here's the website... http://www.marinerschurch.org/ 

After church we had lunch with Joe and Ali. I've seen Joe probably 3 times in my whole life. When I was 3 visiting CA, when I was 15 at my Grammy's 90th birthday and when I was 18 at her funeral. It's been 10 years since I'd seen them and they've never met Ty or Josh! So it was fun to see them and introduce them to my family. I felt like we didn't get much time to just relax and visit sadly. We were at church and Ty was very disruptive at lunch because he was hungry and then tired and this time change has been tough to keep a routine. But even though our time was short, it was so good. My Uncle Joe is such a great guy, I wish so much I could just sit and talk with him more about my Grammy and his life. It's so amazing meeting with family you don't see much of, because there's so much of your history with them. His eyes were so engaging and I know this will sound so weird but I felt my Grammy when I looked into them! Wish so much I could have had more time with him. Maybe in 10 more years! 

We headed back to San Diego after that and had some pool time! 

 







Then we went to Outback Steak house for a Father's Day dinner!!! Tomorrow is our last day! :( It's gone so fast. 





Happy Father's Day!



Happy Father's Day!!! To my amazing husband. I couldn't ask for a more perfect man to be daddy to my son. 

You are....


Kind and gentle, 



Loving and tender,  


Happy and playful, 


Funny,



Affectionate, loyal and proud of your family,


All around the ooooooo, so coolest dad ever to walk the earth!!!



Thanks for being the best thing that's ever happened to me and to Ty! We love you dada!