San Diego

We had so much fun on our vacation last week! Robert took a half day on Friday (the 10th) and we headed to Yuma to meet up with Cynthia and her family.  We spent the night there and then Saturday morning we caravaned to San Diego! We picked up some lunch and went straight to a park down the street from the San Diego temple.  Robert and I watched all the kids while Cynthia and Chris visited the temple.  Then we  all headed to the condo that we rented just down the street from Imperial Beach.  After settling in a bit we trekked down to the beach.  The kids had a blast and were so glad we found some boogy boards stashed away in a closet at the condo.  The pics from our first day at the beach were taken on Roberts phone so I don't have them on my computer..

Sunday we went to the closest ward and Lucy loved her sunbeam class - she asked if we could go back to that church the next week too.  After church we went to the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center.  I really enjoyed learning about the reasoning behind the Mormon Battalion and how it was a blessing for the saints to be able to earn money and help the rest of the Saints move west.  

Edwin, Lucy, and Kaylee

Benson dressed like a soldier

Checking out the covered wagon

(Edwin had a little too much fun panning for gold - hence the no shirt)

Monday morning we went to the Birch Aquarium where we saw lots of fun fish, sharks, turtles, and an octopus!

Not a great picture but octopus don't like light

 Look it's Crush!

Enjoying the beautiful weather outside while eating our lunch

They had a big area outside filled with activities having to do with different types of power - solar, wind, etc.

 Playing with these boats was Edwin's favorite part of the whole trip - it was hard to drag him away

Monday late afternoon we walked down to the beach again for more boarding, swimming, and burying!

The kids loved burying Robert in the sand

Me and Cynthia

This baby loved the sand!

So did this one! Although I think he liked trying to run into the ocean even more...

Lucy liked to make full body imprints in the sand

Tuesday we packed up and headed to the park again - this time so Robert and I could attend the temple.  I loved seeing the super tall ceilings and the indoor garden; it was beautiful!  After the temple we headed home with a quick stop in Yuma and then all the way back to the blistering heat in Mesa.  I had so much fun on this vacation and was glad the the Tolman's came with us!

San Diego

Since summer has started I have wanted to go to the beach.  At one point we had a trip planned with my sister and her family, but other things came up and we didn't think that we would be able to go.  Luckily, we found out that our other plans weren't really going to happen just in time to still go on the beach trip.  We made the 3 hour drive down to Yuma on a Thursday afternoon and spent the rest of the day and night at my sister's house. 

 We did puzzles

 And built towers

 And just had a great time!

The next morning we all loaded up and headed to San Diego!  We had a great time, and Lucy loves the beach!

 

We also went to the Maritime Museum in San Diego which included touring a submarine, going on a boat ride, and walking around some other really awesome looking ships - including one that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. 

 Steering the ship

 Piloting the Submarine

 Trying to turn random knobs

On the boat ride

At a park we went to after dinner

We had so much fun, and it was great to be able to get out of the heat for a few days! 

New York, New York!

I actually uploaded the pictures for this post quite awhile ago, I just never got around to finishing it.  So let's see if I can still remember what happened...

Back in mid-October Robert, Lucy, and I took a week long trip to New York to visit Robert's sister (and to visit NY). It was such a fun trip!  Some things we did in no particular order are:

We took a double decker bus tour around the city.  On the tour you could either hop on and off at different stops or you could just stay on and enjoy the ride.  We did a little bit of both, and were able to see a lot of the city this way.  It also included a tour of Brooklyn and a boat tour around the statue of liberty (both of which were just tours - not hop on/off).

These pictures are from the boat tour around the Statue of Liberty:

 

 

We also had fun at the Natural History Museum.  We went to a couple of the special exhibits which included seeing butterfly's and frogs.

           

                              

         

We went apple picking upstate and got to see some pretty fall colors too.

 

 

We went to the Library:

 

We went to Central Park:

 

And we played with cousins: 

We had a great time and are so grateful to Iris and Tim for letting us stay with them!