San Diego! (Part 3, aka Aquarium Fever)

I promise this will be my last San Diego post! Hee hee. The last day we were there, we decided to first go to the Point Loma tide pools. We got to see a bunch of little crustaceans and creatures! Pretty cool. Something kinda random? All our cell phones thought we were in Mexico. :)






It was cool to walk around and see whatever was stuck to the rocks...this was a super weird thing, because we all kinda thought it would be hard, but it was so squishy! Shells and moss/algae, I guess we should have known. Ha ha.


A crab and more photos....




We ventured out into the water a little, but then came back...




I even saw some pink/purple seaweed stuff! (I was excited because it matched my shirt in the right light... :)


Next stop: Birch Aquarium! So, I found something out about myself that day. I DIG aquariums, dude. I couldn't get enough of this place. We would go to one section, the kids would all look and think it was cool for, like, 5 seconds, and they would move on. But here I was, staying behind, searching for every kind of fish listed, bound and determined to identify each and every one I could see swimming around. I realized that day that I'm kind of a fish nerd too. And that's cool.




They also had this super great "petting zoo" kind of deal out the back, where you could stick your hands in the water and touch sea creatures, like sea urchins and sea cucumbers! I was kinda nervous, I won't lie, but I did it! And it was awesome!






We chilled outside for a bit.




Then, we went back in (wahoo!), and we saw the seahorses. I had never seen one in real life before. I loved the tiny ones and that the males are the ones who have to be pregnant! Crazy.


And these? Dragonfish. DRAGONFISH! (I love dragons, and fish...plus, they look really cool.)


We had a hard time taking this picture...but it worked out ok! Good day in San Diego. :)

I LOVE books!

Has anyone read the Inkheart series? I read Inkheart a while back, and it was not my favorite...but good. I liked the movie better (I know, weird). I recently finished my last book and needed one to read, so I started reading Inkspell. I actually like it better so far...but that is beside the point. As I was reading the other day, I came across this quote...

"Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read 

it several times? As if something were left between the pages every 

time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells...and then when 

you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself 

there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had 

preserved you like a pressed flower...both strange and familiar."

I LOVE this quote. It describes so well how I feel about reading the books I love! Even though it may not be my favorite book series, I love how much the main characters' lives revolve around books. They collect, preserve, repair, and read books over and over! It makes me happy, and a little jealous of these fictional characters... 

:)

LOOK! (San Diego part 2)

I just had to put a couple of random (but awesome) pictures here from our San Diego trip.

First, Rachel took this amazing picture from her hotel room of San Diego at night:


And on the drive to the tide pools, I saw this sweet trailer:

Anyone else find this funny? I love Brian Regan...you can thank Travis for that! Here's the bit, in case you missed it:

Jokes.com
Brian Regan - Show Horses
comedians.comedycentral.com
Brian Regan Videos Brian Regan Jokes Brian Regan Standing Up

:) (One more San Diego post, coming soon...)

San Diego! (Part 1)

San Diego. Holy smokes. What an amazing place! I had only been there one time for a couple of hours (like 8 years ago), so when Rachel suggested that we come on her family trip, we totally jumped at the chance. We were a little tight on money, but with a budget and David's hotel connections, we were able to make it work!

Travis and I drove over to Cali on Friday night. We wanted to go to a temple in California, and since both San Diego and Newport Beach were closed for maintenance, we took a detour to the Redlands temple. It's a small temple, but so beautiful! We felt a little rushed and stressed before we got there, but once we were inside, the Spirit was amazing.


Our hotel was way nice too! We weren't there enough to use the living room, but it was cool to have...Plus we had a Sleep Number bed. Kinda cool, but not my favorite.

Saturday was beach day!

Sand castle (more like FORTRESS) building was a pretty big activity. Another event included burying ourselves in the sand (Travis so graciously volunteered to do the burying, and I was the only adult to brave the sand graveyard...

I wrapped a towel around me to try to avoid getting sand in, ahem, certain places. See the sand line on my legs?

More events? Frisbee throwing, "shark" sightings (which really turned out to be dolphins...super cool!), and Spencer burning goldfish crackers with a magnifying glass...I have to admit, pretty impressive.

All the kiddos :)

This little girl gave us quite a scare...She accidentally ran off unnoticed, but luckily there were some wonderful people over by where she was, and with the help of the lifeguards and good communication (not to mention lots of prayers), she was found not too much later. Phew!!

So...apart from the Morgan scare, the sunburns, out of control fly infestations, and slight injuries, it was a magnificent day at the beach! :) (More San Diego stuff in the next post, this one's already too long!)