San Diego

 Nate and I had been counting down to go to San Diego for a looong time.  So we were excited to drop the kids off at my parents and finally head down there! (My parents were nice enough to watch our kiddos the whole time we were gone. Thanks mom and dad!!) We went to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  Justin and Alison went down with us and we had a blast with them all week. It's a good sign when you don't get sick of each other after spending so much time together.

We stayed at Humphrey's Half Moon Bay which was located on Shelter Island in San Diego.  When we checked in they upgraded us to a junior suite and it was nice!  The hotel had a beautiful pool area and garden and the rooms were really nice inside.  It was a good find!  After settling into our rooms we rented some bikes and rode around Shelter Island. That first day it was a little chilly there and not as warm as we were hoping, but luckily it got warmer and warmer during the week!  

Shelter island is a harbor for lots of boats and it looked so pretty to see all the boats lined up.

 That first night we went out to eat at a yummy Mexican place and then headed to Seaport Village to shop around for a bit.  After dinner we headed to the hot tub and we did a late night hot tub run pretty much every other day we were there.  I realize now sorting through all of my pictures I didn't get any pictures of the restaurants we went to or us hanging out at the pool...but that was a lot of our vacation too :) That's what we wanted - time to chill and relax and just be together.  So I'm glad we spent some good time at the pool and indulging ourselves in yummy food.

Our second day there we woke up early and headed to the San Diego Zoo.  It's a huge zoo and we had a great time walking around looking at the animal exhibits that morning.  The San Diego Zoo has a lot of animals that we'd never even heard of so it was fun to see these exotic animals...and learn what they were :)

The mama with her little ducklings following her was so sweet.  There was a mama duck and her ducklings at our hotel too and it was adorable to watch them follow her around.

Seeing the hippos up next to the glass was our favorite exhibit. It was amazing to see just how huge they are and then to see them glide through the water so smoothly despite being so massive.

 This okapi was one of the exotic animals we saw there.  It has zebra legs and a giraffe head.  Come to find out it's the only known relative of the giraffe. 

 And I love when we ask Justin to take a picture and he takes it of me and Nate...and Ali too...thinking she's not in the picture :)

 I forget what this thing was called but it was like a pig-anteater thing.  It was fun seeing these unique animals.

 Ali sprained her ankle really bad a few weeks before we went on this trip.  So she rode in the wheel chair all throughout the zoo.  And the San Diego Zoo is super hilly!  It was a good workout for Justin!

 The meerkats were adorable (and reminded me of the little Baby Genius animal video that Graham watches).  And the sleeping koala was so cute too. Seeing all these cute animals made me want to bring our kids back sometime soon!

 After the zoo we headed to the USS Midway ship museum.  That was the top attraction Nate wanted to see while we were there.  We walked around with headsets on and got to tour some of the different planes and jets and helicopters.  And we got to walk through the "little village" on the ship of the cafeteria, doc office, dentist office, mailroom, etc.  Our first night in the hot tub at the hotel we met a man named Jim who served on the USS Midway years ago.  He was super chatty and it was interesting listening to his experiences on it.  

Wednesday we woke up early and headed to the beautiful San Diego temple.  I brought some of the family history names we were working on and Nate and I got to do the sealings for some of those names.  At the time we went, we felt like we were the only people in the temple.  We were the only ones doing sealings and then after the sealings one of the temple workers gave us a tour of the temple and then we went into the Celestial room.  And there was no one in the Celestial room but us because their only session that morning was still going on.  It was SO neat to be in a beautiful Celestial room all by ourselves (plus the Brewers and the temple worker).  It was a memory we won't forget!

We asked one of the landscapers there to take our picture and it didn't end up too centered but it still looked pretty :)

 After the temple we drove through La Jolla and found a fun little BBQ place to eat at.  And then we spent the day at La Jolla Cove looking at the seals, walking along the beach, watching the guys play in the (cold!) water while Ali and I visited on the beach, and relaxed there a lot of the day.

We could get so close to the seals and that was pretty cool.

Gotta love our straw hats to protect our fair Utah skin from the sun :)

The wide-brimmed hats made it difficult to kiss...

 After La Jolla beach we drove over to Torrey Pines to look out over the cliff.  Supposedly there was a cool hike there but we didn't know where exactly.  We did know there was a nude beach at the bottom of the cliff but we didn't really want to walk along that because that's just awkward :) So we walked around the top of the cliff for a bit and then decided to head to Coronado beach to see that one and find a yummy restaurant there.

Coronado beach was BEAUTIFUL and the perfect beach to hang out.  We wish we would've had an entire day there because it was so gorgeous.  We walked along the boardwalk and loved seeing the huge Hotel del Coronado.  We now want to stay there sometime but with it being over $500 a night for a simple room it might take some time to save up for an anniversary trip there :)  We also loved seeing the beach houses across from the ocean.  We found my favorite house and then realized it was $5 million for a 4 bedroom house according to Zillow!  It's fun to dream right?!

The next day we went to the Point Loma lighthouse and we loved looking out at San Diego on the cliffs up there.  We learned about how San Diego was settled too and it was pretty interesting. And we learned how light houses operate.  

 Then we headed to the tide pools on the other side of the cliffs.  We weren't there at the optimal time but the guys still hopped down to see what life they could see down there.  There were lots of crabs and tiny little sea creatures.  

 Then we went and hung out at the pool and laid out (or in Nate's case - hid from the sun in the shade haha).  And we played some games and had fun just hanging out. We were trying to relish in the fact that we had nothing to do and no place to be and no one to be in charge of :)

 It was the perfect getaway and I'm so glad we got to go with the Brewers.  I love spending quality time with Nate.  And I'm so grateful my parents were willing to watch our kids the whole week so we could go!  We loved San Diego so much we're already beginning to plan another trip down there - but this time with the kids!