San Diego

In San Diego our first stop on Monday morning was to the beach. It was a cloudy, rainy day, but that didn't stop us. It only rained a little bit while we were at the beach. I liked it being overcast because then it wasn't too hot. We went to La Jolla beach. It's for both surfers and swimmers. We set our stuff down on the surfer side so Doug took the kids over to the swimmer side to play in the water while Coleman and I hung out with our stuff.

Playing in the sand. Kenzie was like this kind of a lot on the trip because of her lack of sleep. We all had to be even more nice to her than normal to lessen the amount of melt downs.

Now they're playing happily.

One way we kept Kenzie happy was by giving her lots of snacks.

One reason why we chose to go to La Jolla was because I had read that there were tide pools at one end. After Doug and the kids came back from the swimmer side of the beach we tried to find the tide pools. We walked pretty far, but never found any creatures. We found a lot of huge rocks that may have had some in them, but we didn't go searching through them. On our way back it started raining. And all of our kids decided they either needed to be held or ride in a stroller or they would cry the entire long walk back. So this is what we looked like:

(just imagine me holding Kenzie next to Doug pushing the stroller. as I was taking the picture she was crying because I wasn't holding her.) A girl stopped us and asked if they were all our kids and how old we were. She couldn't believe we had 4 kids. I don't think I've seen anyone so shocked about my kids as her.

After we finally made it back to the car we went to our hotel to eat lunch and let Kenzie take a much needed nap. We decided to try to order pizza that had free delivery. Kenzie just ate a sandwich so we could put her to bed while the rest of us waited for the pizza. The pizza place said it would take 45 minutes (which already seemed like a really long time to wait) but after an hour and a half we still didn't have it. Doug called and said we didn't want it anymore and we decided we'd just eat some food we brought. We figured the pizza would probably be cold anyways if it had been sitting out for so long. Right after he hung up the delivery girl knocked. We told her we cancelled and she took the pizza away. Moral of the story: don't get pizza delivered to your hotel room. At least not on Labor Day.

After lunch Doug took the boys swimming in the hotel pool. They mostly stayed in the hot tub those because it was kind of chilly in the pool since it was raining. After they came back up to the room and after Kenzie woke up we went to Chili's for dinner. I was hoping to be able to get their White Chocolate lava cake. But they don't have it anymore. Instead they have a peanut butter one. We didn't try it. Kenzie was ready to be done which meant Doug and I were too.




The next day (Tuesday) we went to Sea World! The first half of the day wasn't too enjoyable. The kids were whining and crying way too much. Jackson, who is usually excited to go to fun places like that, was pretty grumpy. Kenzie was crying a lot. Coleman started crying during our first show and while I walked around to find a place to feed him. Jordan was, probably for the first time, our easiest child. He was happy and not complaining at all. I think part of the problem was that the others were hungry. After lunch they were much more happy and we all had a good time. We saw 3 shows while there. The sea lion one (Kenzie and Coleman weren't very happy through that one and cried when we were walking out), the dolphin one, and the Shamu one. We also let the kids play in the Sesame Street play area and they rode the rides there.


Waiting for the Sea Lion show to start.

The sea lion show.

Kenzie loved playing the little sprinklers in the Sesame Street play area.

She liked getting her hands wet putting them on her hair to get it wet too.


Watching the Dolphin Show. Mackenzie, Jackson, and Jordan seemed to really like this one. I think Kenzie watched the entire thing without wanting to get up and walk around. There were birds flying around as part of the show and Kenzie especially loved them. The boys were mesmerized by the show too.

A performer standing on a whale. I don't remember what kind of whale. It looked a lot like a beluga, but darker.

One of the dolphins jumping.

Kenzie applauding the dolphins.

Performers riding the whales.

The end of the show.

After the dolphin show we went over the sea lion and seal exhibits. Some people bought some fish to feed to the animals. It was pretty fun to watch them get fed.

begging for food.

The people next to us bought so some fish to feed the animals with so we got a close up view.

This guy just sat on a rock waiting for people to throw some fish to him.






Doug took Jack, Jordan, and Kenzie on this ride. Kenzie cried the most of the time. I think the ride operator may have ended the ride early because Kenzie was so sad.

Jordan and Doug

Jack and Doug.

Doug and Kenzie. She cried through a lot of the ride too.

Doug with the boys. He was done taking Kenzie. The boys loved all the rides.

Kenzie watching the boys on a ride.

I don't have any pictures of the Shamu show because we forgot the camera in the stroller. But we all enjoyed that one. Doug and Jackson were afraid we were going to get splashed and wanted to move up. We didn't get splashed though. After the show we bought some souvenirs, went out to dinner, and headed to Anaheim.