Touring San Diego

My dad was doing an academic conference in San Diego this week so we got to stay in a nice hotel. We stayed in a Hilton right on Mission Bay. It was fun to kind of be tourists around San Diego. I figure the best way to do this post is mostly in pictures. So here goes.

We went to look at the San Diego Temple. They are re-stuccoing it so it is covered in scaffolding.

The hotel room.

Our pod chairs.

The pool.

The view from the pool.

We did some shopping and the girls went and got pedicures.

We went to Little Italy for dinner.

Then we went to the most amazing dessert place, Extraordinary Desserts. These pictures do not do it justice, they are beautiful. To make it ever better they taste amazing!

Dad's

Mom's

Taryn's

Mine

Karleigh's

The we did some hot tub time.

In n Out.

More beach time.

Boogie boarding.

Cute toes at the beach.

Then family came and we had dinner and hung out around the fire pit at the pool.

We celebrated Father's Day a few days early.

Our cute matching San Diego tourist dresses.

SeaWorld and Beach

On Tuesday we went to SeaWorld. It was nice we went in a little later in the day and just had a "relaxing" day there. We didn't worry about getting everything done, we just went and did the things we wanted to do and didn't do the things we didn't as much care about. We did the Wild Arctic ride and Atlantis to start the day. We went through the penguin exhibit.

We saw the sharks. We went and saw the Shamu show. And the new dolphin show. It was pretty cool there was a lot going on. My one complaint was the dolphins weren't out long enough. One thing I had never done before was they have a place where the dolphins are out and playing with balls and you can pet them and play with them. It was so cool. We were looking at them for awhile then the trainers said it was time for the dolphins to get ready for their show so we walked away. As we do a dolphin comes up and starts throwing a ball to the girl who took our spot. We were kind of mad. We ended the day on the rafting ride. We always end on this ride so after we get soaked we can go home. Here are the before pictures.

My parents got totally soaked the first time on. Karleigh and I both got pretty wet. Kars and I went again the second time we got drenched. I only got after pictures of Karleigh and me. We were cold.

On Wednesday we went to the beach again. Taryn was supposed to get here in the morning but didn't get on a flight so it was Wednesday night instead. Luckily it was sunny this time. It was a really good beach day. We enjoyed being out laying on the beach and Karleigh and I enjoyed boogie boarding. There were some good size waves that were less brutal this time.

Shopping and more beach tomorrow!

Carpinteria!

About every 2 years (sometimes every year) we have a family reunion with my mom's family. By this I mean with all of her cousins and their kids, so I don't really know how I am related to them (I'll just call the cousins to make it easier). I think it is like second and third cousins but I don't know for sure. Anyway, we always go to Carpinteria for camping at the beach. Caprinteria is about 15 miles south of Santa Barbara. Taryn, Grant, Jonny and I left Provo at like 6 on Sunday morning, the drive was supposed to take about 10 hours but ended up taking about 13 because my car started overheating again! Makes me really glad we spent $400+ to fix it! We were about 30 miles outside Vegas when we had to pull off on the side of the road and fill it with water. It was like 110 degrees and we were just sitting waiting for the engine to cool down. We even tried driving with the heater on to cool it down more. So we were driving on the freeway in the middle of Nevada in 110 degree heat with the heater on and our windows down.It was not the most pleasant experience ever but we made it to Vegas and we were able to fill the car with more water. We decided to keep driving and we were able to make it the second half without much problem. We had to fill the car once or twice and it did overheat once more but it was only 90 degrees this time so and we were in a neighborhood with shade. So we surprised everyone at camp by getting in at 7 instead of 11 (we kinda led them to believe we were still in Vegas).
So despite the not great start the week was great. We laid out on the beach everyday, went boogie boarding, walked down the beach, played games, had fun with family, and sat around the campfire. We got to see dolphins (Jonny and I went out to the beach right when we got there and saw them that evening and then saw them again the next day). We tried to swim out to the dolphins but they moved before we got there. We also saw seals or sea lions I don't know which. Jonny caught a little crab and some sand crabs.
We had fun playing with the little kids that were there. All of my older cousins now have little kids of their own. Jonny and I helped them find sea shells and stuff like that. He Had a laser pointer and the little kids loved chasing it around and trying to catch it. It was really funny.

Jonny playing with the little girls. Livee, Taryn and Elle.

This is little Taryn and me. She is little Taryn so as not to be confused with my sister and because she is (and always has been very little.) She is such a cutie. Jonny and I always look forward to seeing her. She is eight now.We really enjoyed spending time at the beach. Luckily we didn't get sunburned this year! I know how this picture looks but I swear we are not at a nude beach and we ARE wearing swimsuits!I finally got to wear my beach outfit!

We also got to go boogie boarding. I love it. I realized this trip that I think I was supposed to be a surfer. I just love the feeling when you watch a wave building and then you feel the pull of the undertoe and you know it is going to be a good wave. Then when it picks you up and you drop down the face of the wave. ahhh I seriously love it! The first day the waves were kinda lame but they got better and better. On one my board nose dived and flipped me off. It was fun. Another one Jonny came close to me and accidentally knocked me off. It was so fun though. So here are some pictures of us boogie boarding! I always love spending time at the beach and I love spending time with all of my super extended family. I was so glad we were able to go and I'm already looking forward to the next trip.