San Diego Christmas Trip (Dec 26 - Jan 2, 2011)

We had so much fun going on vacation with Bill and Marci and their family for Christmas last year that we decided to do it again. We couldn't go with our travel partners because Marci was recovering from major back surgery, so we decided to venture out on our own. We did it a little different this year. Instead of making it a surprise for Christmas morning, we told the kids about a month before. We thought they might be able to have a little different experience by being able to look forward to and plan our trip. Everyone was excited except Emilee...she was excited for the trip but wished that we had kept it a secret and surprised her like last year. Sorry Em!!

The trip was fabulous. It was sooo good to get out of the freezing cold weather and see some California sunshine. San Diego is such a great vacation spot. Each day was packed. We saw a lot and had a lot of fun. We also decided to make this a little different trip in that we did not go to any theme parks. We did more of the "tourist" things to do. We weren't sure how the kids would like this, but they loved it! Here is a little of what we did...

This is the "Mormon Battalion Historical Center". This was awesome. So well done. There were interactive talking picture frames, panning for gold, an old time family picture and we even found the name of one of our relatives!

"Old Town" San Diego was a big hit for the kids. We could not believe how much they loved it. If there was ever a spare moment, they wanted to head back to Old Town. We ate homemade tortillas on the street, shopped for HOURS to spend the $10.00 they each had and toured several museums. Quincy and Brinley bought guitars with their money!!

Amazing tide pools!!

Brinley and Mom in the sky tram at the San Diego Zoo. She didn't think she should smile for our picture!!

San Diego Zoo

We had pretty good weather...except for Wednesday. It poured almost all day long. We are in line for Scripps Aquaruim. Good thing we found some indoor things to do this day!

Can't see the people in this picture, but they are there! Love the San Diego temple!!

We walked out on a 2000 foot pier in Oceanside that had a diner at the end of it. We got milkshakes when we finally got there.

I thought this was a highlight of the trip. We went on a 4 hour whale watching cruise. It was awesome. We saw 4 groups of whales. Ous ship followed them and we got to see them surface out of the water several times.

We toured "USS Midway" a huge naval ship. We enjoyed lunch on the deck of the ship.

For three of the days this was our transportation around San Diego. This is our double decker bus. We were always the only ones on the bus and Betsy our tour guide was awesome. We would call her on our cell phone, and she would come pick us up.

Homemade tortillas sold on the street in Old Town.

So grateful for the time we got to spend together. Best Christmas gift ever!!!