San Diego Temple

Sunday morning (two weeks ago), we checked out of our hotel in San Diego and started to head up to Los Angeles to see my grandma. We decided to take the I-5, which goes up the coast along the beach. Eventually, you drive right past the San Diego Temple. Mark and I had tried to find it on our honeymoon but we were on the wrong freeway, haha. I've always wanted to see it!

I mean, wow. It's much bigger in person, and every bit as majestic.

I loved this tree. Not sure what kind it was--it looked like an olive? Half the stuff that grows in California is stuff I never see around here.

The kids enjoyed getting their wiggles out on the huge lawn.

"Cheese". What hams.

Look! A little hummingbird joined us for the photo! Just flew right in for the photo op and then flew away.

 

While we were there, this nice looking family asked us to take their picture for them. We got to talking, asked where they were from....they're from Cedar City! Like, our Cedar City! They live just a few miles north of us and know a lot of the same people we do. (Mack and Rachel Urie) It is a small world, I am telling you.

I am glad we got the opportunity to go to the temple grounds and I hope we'll actually get to go in next time.

Ocean Beach

Saturday morning (4/20), Mark headed to his medical conference in La Jolla, and when he came back, we packed up and headed to Ocean Beach just down the road. The weather was great again--we really lucked out. Normally it's still chilly there in April. Basking in the sand and sunshine felt sooo good. I texted a picture to my sisters and they were not very appreciative, being stuck in Utah.

Mark teaching the ways of reading the surf to Luke

 

Look at Luke's lips, haha. He does that when he's concentrating. Mark does the same thing.

Madelyn was in heaven collecting shells. Mostly they were tiny clams or mussels. Mark says his North Carolina beaches are much better for shell collecting.

Luke spent most of his time running running running. Pouring water, getting sandy, running back to the water to rinse off, etc. etc.

Both kids had been looking forward to the beach more than anything else. They had so much fun.

There were a lot of surfers out that day. I counted at least 30.

I love this picture. It reminds me of this one:

 That's Mark and his roommate George when they were surf bums living at Nags Head beach in North Carolina, 1995. This picture has been hanging on our fridge for at least 10 years.

This is what Luke does when I tell him to "say cheese".....

 

Eating sand? Mmmm.

Mark really misses living by the beach. Maybe someday when we're millionaires, we'll buy a beach house in San Diego.

Madelyn went poking around in the jetty...

We found a tide pool with mussels, barnacles and little teeny green spotted crabs (you can see two of them on top of that black mussel in the center, under the water).

On the other side of the jetty was a dog beach. The dogs looked like they were having the time of their lives.

 Mark caught a minnow in the surf, then threw it back.

Then Madelyn caught one again a few minutes later-- it was probably the same fish, poor thing. We saw some pelicans out there.  I have a feeling it became one of their lunch.

Madelyn has a thing for seaweed...

♥

 

After about four hours, we rinsed off and changed and I had Madelyn take a picture with me in it to prove that I was there. As you can see, my hair was in a state of unfettered bushiness for the entire weekend. Darn humidity.

We decided to go stroll down Newport Ave. in the town of Ocean Beach, which had some interesting little shops. It took us 20 minutes of driving around before we found a parking spot.

One of the first shops we walked by was called Humble Hippie ("No Bad Vibes, No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!"). It was blasting Pink Floyd music and I could see that they were selling Led Zeppelin t-shirts inside. As we own all of the albums put out by both Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, it made me stop to wonder if we're actually hippies. And then we heard Bob Marley (yep, we have his music too). Mark will always be a beach bum at heart.

We stopped for souvenirs at Ocean Gifts & Shells. (Madelyn didn't wear her glasses all day--hence the drifting eye...)

Went to OB Surf and Skate

And then to Wings. Luke had zonked out.

And THEN, we went back to the hotel and went swimming! By that point, it had cooled down and it wasn't very warm in the pool. Not that that stopped the kids.

Luke just had his arm floaties on and insisted on "swimming" by himself for the most part. His chin was just above water, so at one point he inhaled some water, *cough*cough* and threw up a little in the pool. Gross. As if that wasn't bad enough, Madelyn then yelled, "MY BROTHER THREW UP IN THE POOL!!!!!!!!" It really wasn't bad at all, it was just a tiny bit, but the pool cleared out after that. Ha. Then to top that off.....

We went back to our room and bathed the kids, and then I had to run to Target (which was right by the hotel, yipee!) to get some milk and aloe vera because Luke and I got sunburned. When I got back, both kids were asleep on our bed, but they hadn't used the potty or brushed their teeth yet. I picked up Madelyn to take her to the bathroom, and she was soaked.

She'd wet the bed. OUR bed. On top of the white comforter, and had wet through all the sheets and blankets. Groan.............. It was already 10:00 pm but we had to call the front desk and ask for new bedding. It was so embarrassing. They sent up a cleaning lady and she was really nice about it and said that she'd leave a note to management so they wouldn't charge us for it. Even though I had to strip Madelyn down and get her ready for bed again, she doesn't remember a single thing. She was just that tired.

In fact, I forgot to mention that the night before that, the fire alarm went off throughout the entire hotel at 11:00 pm. It was a false alarm, but it was super loud and shrill and the kids slept right through it, too!! There's nothing like a vacation to wear you out.