Built our house...Now our family: San Diego

The day before we left for vacation was picture day at school. Last time, Bryant refused to have his picture taken, but this time seemed really interested. So we got him all dressed up and practiced taking his picture before school. We'll see how they turn out...:)

On Thursday, he was super excited to wake up and go to San Diego. We left bright and early, but he was still all smiles!

He did so awesome in the car. I didn't have to ride in back with him at all. Between eating, playing toys, reading, and his dvd player, he kept himself entertained the entire time. I'm not sure Travis and I can say the same for ourselves.

The first night we ended up staying in Vegas because we couldn't find hotel rooms anywhere else on the way. It was a super late night, but we go the full Fremont Street experience as there was a concert pretty much right outside our window. Bryant was really upset with us at first insisting that we said we would go to San Diego "today" and didn't understand that it took us two days to drive, but once he saw the lights, he was okay with that:)

We walked around Fremont Street the next morning before heading out and definitely found some interesting places.

Yep...over 350 pounds eats free...

We also bought Bryant a cool shirt that lights up when it hears sounds.

He kept himself entertained at his "office" in the hotel room. He was already missing his Mocha so was drawing pictures for her:)

He was such a big boy with his luggage and wanted to push it everywhere.

After construction and traffic jams, we were happy to arrive in San Diego. It was so frustrating to us to be stopped with as many cars in a traffic jam as there are in the whole state of Montana! The next morning, we started off with playing at the nearby park.

Then decided to head to the Zoo. Unfortunately everyone in San Diego decided to go to the Zoo the same day. Bryant still had fun and said his favorite animals were the hippos, tigers, and raccoons.

He was also entertained for awhile by a huge leaf that he found.

He was so excited to see the parrots from the movie Rio...until he heard them!

We had to park so far away from the Zoo that we actually walked by another playground and the kids wanted to stop and play for a bit.

Bryant was full of energy and ran EVERYWHERE. If he wasn't going to be Captain America for Halloween, I would have made him be Forrest Gump.

Trav doesn't usually take many pictures with the camera, but every time he does, he always captures super cute pictures of Bryant. I absolutely love this one

The next day, we headed to Legoland and we had a blast as there were hardly any crowds.

If you recall from last year, Travis won the giant monkey (named Frog - see the morning picture of us leaving) at Legoland. Bryant brought Frog to school for show and tell and told all his friends that his dad was going to win another one for his baby. When we saw the game with Peppa Pig (Bryant's favorite cartoon) we knew Trav would either have to win it or slip the guy a lot of money just to give us one. Trav was definitely nervous, but pulled through!

It was hard to capture on camera, but I've never seen my boy so happy!

Bryant totally came out of his shell at Legoland. My shy boy told the person manning this ride that he was 4 just so he could do the ride by himself. I thought there was no way that he would ride it by himself or even get on without Trav's or my help, but he did.

He also went down the tunnel slide ride by himself several times.

Silly faces!

Legoland also has an aquarium - he loved looking at all the Sharks and any orange fish was Nemo.

Since he liked that so much, we decided to take him to the Aquarium in La Jolla the next day. This tank was huge!

More running...surprise!

After some lunch in La Jolla, we walked down to the beach where the sea lions have taken over.

On our last day, we went to a park in Encinitas and took a short drive on Highway 1, but I didn't seem to take any pictures. It was really hard to leave, but we had an absolute blast and Bryant always loves hanging out with his cousins. He did really well on the way home too and we were all definitely happy to sleep in our own beds and Bryant was super happy to see his Mocha.

Now that we are home, Bryant talked so much about being Captain America for Halloween that I figured we should probably find his costume. It's a rare sighting to see Bryant around the house without his mask on and not doing ninja moves. This kid is definitely excited for Halloween!