San Diego Temple & Mormon Batallion Historical Site

Today we went to the beautiful San Diego Temple.  This is one of my very favorite temples.  It is incredible on both the outside & inside.  This was the first time we took the kids to this temple.  The last time we were here was at my sisters sealing and Haley was just one year old, so that doesn't count.  It was a great way to start the day.

We headed over to the Mormon Battalion Historical Site in Old Town San Diego.  I was so impressed with the tour and the story it told of the 500 LDS men, a few women & children and their journey 2000 miles to San Diego.  The sister missionaries gave a lot of information and we found out that an ancestor, Henderson Cox was in company A, the same one that the sister missionaries ancestor was from too.  

Jeff's ancestor that served in the Mormon Battalion

The kids had fun panning for gold

This hold some significance, because Sutter's Fort is in downtown Sacramento, and Sydney got to spend 2 days at Sutter's Fort with her class this year. 

Drew in an old wagon.

This has got to be the highlight of the trip by far.  The building at the site is very impressive and the entire tour was incredible. 

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

We left Wednesday morning from Santa Ana and headed South to San Diego to the SD Safari Park.  All I can say is thank goodness for DVD players in the car. The kids stay quiet while Jeff and I can have an actual adult conversation.  It's wonderful. 

Here we are at the SD Safari Park.  It is the largest zoo that has an incredible amount of animals.  They alone have over 500 births a year of different animal species.

We got an upclose look at the giraffe's. There are 17 giraffe's at this zoo and we got to see a 6 week old baby giraffe. It was so cute!

The highlight of the day was Haley & Sydney feeding the giraffe.  They thought it was the coolest thing...and it was. 

Up by Condor Flats, there was a great look out point.  Perfect for photo-ops.

 Drew's size in comparison to a gorilla. 

At the end of our trip at the SD Safari Park, we took a tram around the park where we got to see more animals and learn more about them.  Then we headed to the Cheetah Run, where we got to see a cheetah run 70mph twice.  It was amazing, and such a beautiful animal.

After a long day of walking, we went to our hotel room and relaxed in the spa.

Disneyland Day #2

You know the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again?  Well, that's how I have felt all day today.  We have been to Disneyland for 16 days during the past year as we have annual passes.  This really is the happiest place on earth, but I feel like Bill Murray where I am reliving the same day over and over again.  I was hesitant to come back for spring break, but I felt guilty as a mother/parent.  Because we have annual passes that are going to expire soon, I felt like this was our last chance to come to this magical place before our passes expire, then after that we can many other places for vacations, but for this time, I felt I needed to go back one more time.  So here we are...again.  The last day of Disneyland for a few years {I promised myself}.  The kids had yet another fun day here. 

This morning, I ran 5.5 miles in training for the Ragnar in September, slowly got ready and then we went out to lunch.  It was so nice not having to get up and ready early, we took our time.  After lunch, we arrived to Disneyland.  We spent the afternoon and evening here.  We finally watched the Fantasmic show.  We skipped out on it each time we were here, because we were either too tired, or a CA Adventure watching the World of Color show.  It had changed since I last saw it and it was spectacular.  What a great way to end our final day at Disneyland.

On the Star Tours ride

Riding the tram back to the car.  Drew was cold and tired, and Haley was fighting to keep her eyes open...but she still had a smile on her face.

Disneyland Day #1

We took the kids to Disneyland & California Adventure (again) for spring break.  We had a good time again.  We only stayed at the park until 6pm.  It was nice and relaxing spending the day there.  The kids went on all the rides they wanted to ride, got a HUGE soft serve ice cream cone.  We had a wonderful time at the happiest place on earth.

When life gives you lemons...

After walking through the grove of over 900 lemon trees, we came home with lots of lemons.  We made fresh lemonade with the kids.  This was kind of a novelty for my girls.  They loved squeezing the lemons and making the lemonade.  The end result was very sweet and tasty.

After the park, we went on a hike up the lemon tree grove.  The kids picked a ton of lemons (which was apparently forbidden, but they did it anyway) and then we headed to the Great Park which has a huge orange balloon which we tried to get a ride on, but it was a very busy day.  We opted to ride the carousel and walk the junk...I mean flea market.  It was nice to get the kids outside, run around and get out their energy.

Pictures of our family on the carousel

How high can you go?

Our first day of spring break we spent with my sister and her family.  My sister, Heather and I ran 3 miles to the park and met the hubbies and kids there.  We ended up having a jumping contest off the swings.  The kids were having so much fun, Jeff and I had to join in on all the fun.