July 15-19
Early Monday morning we went to the Provo airport to head to John Wayne airport then down to San Diego to celebrate Larry and Janene's 50th wedding anniversary. We met up with everyone but Josh and his girlfriend, Amberlee in Provo. They left earlier and drove so they could visit her family as well.
My dad is a bit John Wayne fan so we had to take a picture with The Duke at his airport for him.
Once we had our luggage, rental van and food in our bellies we had to get sand between our toes and salt water at least on our feet. We ate at a fun little place in San Clemente called Cafe Rae. It was really little. Our group of nine took up about half their seats. It was really good food and they had great hospitality.
Our next stop was the USS Midway in San Diego. Larry had talked about visiting this and the Saint Mary for a long time. It was one of the main reasons we went to San Diego. It was nice to make it happen. I am not really in to military stuff but it was impressive.
Josh and Amberlee met up with us at the Midway. Josh was geeking out a little because he hope to become a pilot. They are in the picture above though it's not a great shot. I think it is the only one I got of them. :/ Janae, Mikayla, Colton and Topher decided to go to Disneyland instead of the Midway so we missed them.
Beth, Ruth and Lilly listens to the kids audio tour and answered the worksheet to earn their wings.
Wheel chairs saved us and Grandma and Grandpa Richins. We pushed then all over that ship making it so they could see much more. It did age them a bit. They really enjoyed it and our kids were great to take turns pushing them. Sometimes it did go the other way. :)
On our way to the house we stayed at we ate at Nessy Burger which was really good and had cool art on their building wall .
Once we checked in to the house the kids quickly took advantage of the pool and showed their love to Glen with wet hugs.
The kids and Glen reenacting the Scar and Mufasa scene from The Lion King. :)
Tuesday we went to the San Diego zoo. It was really great for Wild Kratz watching, animal loving kids. We thought we would only stay a few hours but ended up almost closing the place down. Once again wheelchairs made it all possible.
Ruth reading about flamingos, which are probably her favorite bird.
Grandpa Larry enjoyed the wheelchairs a lot.
Grandma was happy to see tortoises. She said some of her best conversations had happened with turtles or tortoise.
Above was us in low sugar and calorie mode. We did not plan well food wise for the zoo and were too cheap to buy their $60 family meal deal pizzas. Luckily Janae, Mikayla, Colton and Topher came to our rescue when they came to the zoo. They brough us snacks so we could finish seeing all the animals we wanted to see. Unfortunately they were ready to see animals when we needed to eat so we only saw them briefly
One of our favorite things was seeing cougars so close while they were pacing the fence line
Leaving the Zoo just before closing time.
Wednesday was a beach day since we spent all of Tuesday at the zoo. We went to La Jolla Point to see the seals and sealions and pelicans. It was pretty stinky but worth it.
This seal looked like it was living it's best life.
I also caught this beautiful gal among the pretty foliage.
And these great observers.
I don't think I got any of us playing at the beach , if I did it was on the film camera that isn't developed yet. We were playing or enjoying our time together too much for pictures. It was a shame because Josh and Amberlee met up with us at the beach as well. We were better prepared with coolers and food for the beach so we didn't repeat our low blood sugar zoo experience. They visited and snacked with Grandma and Grandpa while we played in the ocean and then we all had lunch.
Even though we spent time in the ocean the pool was still put to good use that night.
Grandpa even got in to swim his laps while we were playing in the pool. I am happy to report that no one hit or jumped accidentally on Grandpa and his laps got swam.
Thursday we went to Old Towne San Diego. We went to the Mormon Battalion center and went through their experience where the kids got to pan for gold at the end. Then we went over to some of the other shops in Old Town. It reminded me a little of This is the Place Heritage park.
Jed and his family did a San Diego trip before we went on our Egbert family trip. A couple of his boys came to that with cool ponchos. Daryl set his heart on getting one and was able to join the cool poncho club with his cousins. The only bad part is he is pretty cocky now. ;)
After Old Town we went to get lunch at a place Joe had recommended to us, which also happened to be a place Guy Fieri, had been too in his show. El Indio was pretty good. It got a stamp of approval from Janene. After lunch we headed to the house to enjoy it more before we had to leave.
On the way back, Beth needed to make a potty stop. We found a public beach with a bathroom and used it as a chance to go to the beach one last time. It was a good call. Then I navigated us up the Pacific coast highway for a little bit. We drove through Carlsbad and Oceanside and through a cool car show that was happening. No pictures were taken but it was a very cool perk. Plus we got to see the ocean a little longer and it is always impressive.
Grandma didn't bring the best walking shoes and by Thursday one foot was really hurting. They didn't make it down to the beach the last time. There was a pretty good hill to hike. They enjoyed the view from the little park/playground area where we parked.
Once we got back we made sure she got her feet up. Grandpa also takes good care of her.
Friday we had to pack up and head home. It was also Janae's birthday. She wanted to go out to eat together since we didn't see much of each other with their trips to Disneyland most of the days.
We had an earlier flight than Mikayla, Colton, Topher and her. We checked out of the house early and Mikayla found a great place for us to have brunch not far from the airport. It worked out great and was just what Grandma and Grandpa had hoped for on this trip.
Josh and Amberlee had left on Thursday so we missed them. The three pictures above are the best I could do at getting almost everyone on the trip. It was such a great time.
We were fortunate to get back to Utah only and hour or so later than scheduled with all the flight problems that happened with the Windows and server problems.
Some of us thought we would never make it to the ground but the plane landed and our great San Diego adventure ended.
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