San Diego

We decided the night before that our goal the first day on the way to San Diego was to make it to Mesquite, NV.  So, we got up early and were all packed and ready to go by 6:15 am.

This was by far the longest leg of the entire trip and both boys did really well.  Everyone was so ready to be out of the car by the time we made it.  When Bryant saw the palm trees, he was so excited.

And Garrett loved all the lights!

We went to have dinner first and Garrett was so excited to be out of his car seat that I'm surprised that he didn't knock over the high chair with his joyful bounces.  He was babbling, pounding on the table and just bouncing like crazy.  It was a late night for Trav and I trying to get the boys to calm down after being in the car all day!  One benefit about the hotel was the arcade for the kids.  As you can see, Garrett was a huge fan of the disco ball!

Bryant got $5 to play and had so much fun.

Here's Bryant "bapping" the bugs.

And here's daddy showing him how it's done.

Bryant's favorite game (and the game where he kept winning the most tickets) was to catch the balls in a net and dump them in a honey pot.

He got to trade in his tickets for some pretty cool prizes...he picked out a snap bracelet, a football stamp, and 2 sports stickers.

He wanted to go back the next morning before we left, but unfortunately they didn't open until noon and we weren't waiting around that long.  

After making this drive for the 4th time, we remember all the landmarks along the way.  One of the most impressive things is in Primm, which is on the border between CA and NV.  The have thousands of mirrors that are angled towards these towers and produce energy.  It was extra sunny on the way down and the tower was glowing.

Keeping entertained with some videos.

We made it to San Diego in our normal 2 days.  We weren't totally sure how Garrett would travel for that long, but he was such a trooper!

The first day, we headed to Balboa Park to check out a museum.

Checking out a coyote in the cave.

We went for some lunch and then checked out the fish pond.  Some of the koi fish were huge.

Bryant and Olivia had so much fun running, jumping, and playing together.

We went to the playground before heading home.  Travis was playing "this little piggy" with Garrett (video later in the post), which absolutely had Garrett in giggles the entire trip.

The next day we ventured to Target to get Bryant a new hat and shoes because we forgot his baseball caps at home.  

Then we headed to the Midway to check out the aircraft carrier.  It was HUGE!  We toured it for 2 hours or so and didn't even see half of it.

Garrett is still big into shaking his head "no"

The ceilings weren't very high, so poor Travis got a quad workout to make sure he didn't hit Garrett's head as walked through some of the different areas

Travis and Brian tried out the simulators.

I love how Garrett is raising his hand in the picture as if to say don't forget about me!

The kids could answer some questions to earn their flight wings, so this was their pinning ceremony.

They didn't understand how to salute, but they still got their pins!

After that we explored Old Town and I got a little thirsty...

The next day was a beach day

Garrett was pretty interested in the sand!

And since everything goes in his mouth, he got a taste of sand (actually lots of tastes).

Bryant attempted to paddle board for a little bit.  He absolutely loves playing at the beach.

I love this picture of Garrett.  He's got sand on his face and milk dripping out of his mouth.

The next day we headed to the Safari Park.  It was a perfect day to go as it was a little bit cooler (just a little bit of rain) so the animals were super active.  The first thing we saw was a desert lynx - his ears are pretty cool and are intended to look like birds.  So when the birds fly down, he jumps up and swats them out of the air.

Uncle Brian is so silly!

We took a little bus tour where you could see a ton of different kinds of animals in one big environment.  I have never seen rhinos doing anything other than laying on the ground.  They were so active...and rhinos actually are so swift on their feet.  I was amazed!  You can see by the tree in the back of the picture that one of the rhinos was running around.  And he (she?) was fast!

Garrett was loving the tour.

The giraffes were entertaining too.

I caught a quick video where you can hear our tour guide talking about the boys in the back trying to impress the girl.

Right as we were about to get on our bus tour, we heard a loud roar and we looked up on the hill and the lion was standing there and letting everyone know why they call him the king.  It was amazing to see the other animals reactions because there were some little deer type animals that just took off running.  Apparently being king is tough work, so when our tour was done, they were already down for a nap.

The Safari Park is definitely a different experience than the zoo as there aren't as many animals as the zoo, but you can also get so close to the animals.

Garrett saw the tiger and then conked for a nap.

Another favorite was that we got to see a baby gorilla that was only 5 days old!  It was amazing how human like they are.  You could tell the baby was fussing a little bit, so mom started bouncing the baby and walking around with her.  We were listening to the park workers talk about them and the similarities to humans is pretty crazy!

So here's the "this little piggy" video

I brag about how well our children travel, but here's proof that it's not perfect.  These moments are definitely rare, but they do happen.  Poor Bryant gets so upset and Garrett thinks it is funny, so the more Garrett laughs, the more Bryant gets upset.

But we also have two kids laughing together!

These trips are always so much fun and I hope that as we got older and life gets busier, we can still find time for this.  Between our family time together and spending time with cousins and family, these are memories we will always remember and cherish forever!