San Diego Trip- Post 1

When I heard that Gina(Mike's sister) was going to get married in San Diego, I thought why not make a longer trip out of it and go the weekend before the wedding and stay all week. So off on another adventure Giada and I went! We left 2 weekends ago and headed to San Diego. This wasn't Giada's first flight but it was the first flight since she has been so mobile. I wasn't sure exactly how it would go- but all was well, she played, ate, and slept! Great start to the trip.

We spent the weekend with Gina and Scott. When she wasn't tormenting their dog Annie, we were collecting shells at the bay, going on walks, eating and visiting the zoo. Neither Gina nor Scott had been so we decided to go on Sunday. World famous it is! Great zoo, feeding the giraffes was the best, and worth the wait. It was quite an adventure to find Giada her favorite Gorilla but worth the trip! Her new souvenir "fingo" is a new favorite. Her other favorite thing to do for the rest of the trip was call every guy she saw "Scooc" (aka Scott)

We thought it would be fun for Giada to sit on the Gorilla, since she loves monkeys. The volunteer that told us to quickly take our photo and GET OFF - they are not for riding....didn't think it was so cute.

Thanks Gina and Scott for having us!

Fingo

Swinging at the Bay

Then Monday it was off to visit Hager and Chad. They graciously opened their home to us for 4 days. And Giada was thrilled there was another dog for her to torment there. Julie took us on quite the adventure. Beaches, pumpkin patches, seal watching, play dates with college friends. Not only that but to have a professional photographer take photos of our trip was awesome!! I asked her if she'd like to move to Lodi and just photograph our life but she declined :)

Thanks Gar! (Check out Thrive Photography!)

The first day we got together will all our college friends and their babies. Fun day. The weather was super rainy so we were stuck indoors, but with the Bells playroom the kids were entertained for hours. Thanks for having us Jess! Then everyone came over to Hagers for dinner the next night. It was great to catch up with the boys too! Hard to get 5 mobile kids to all look and smile for the pic!

One night we went to Ramona to visit the Filices! Great to see their place, they have done so much work to it - it's beautiful. We had a great visit. The girls had so much fun playing. Tate is so calm and just did his own thing, but he missed out on the pictures!

Bailey suggested we stay for a bath - how could we say no to that sweet face in the middle!?

Del Mar had such a fun pumpkin patch with bounce houses, all kinds of rides, slides, wagons and much more! We did a little of everything.

Funny faces while pumpkin ("punkin" as Giada says) hunting!

Heavy!

Loves to ride horses

Riding the horse she would say "choo choo" each time she heard the train and cover her ears

Every time the merry go round came around to where we were standing we did something different. High 5, clapping, kiss, hug etc.

Typically Giada doesn't enjoy bounce houses. But this one had a little practice area outside and that's all it took. We practically had to bribe her to get her out! She loved the slide too!

Of course when I decide to video tape she bails coming down!

I wasn't even sure she would like it but she climbed right up and did it time after time.

The 2nd video the landing is a little more graceful.

Loves driving! Scary!

Then we were off to the beach. We went 2 days in a row to the beach because we had so much fun! One day we stopped to check out all the seals too. I love these pictures and as you could see I couldn't choose just one or two. She was having a blast and these totally capture the moment. I chased her up and down that beach, jumping on the wave "bubbles", popping the seaweed "balls" and chasing birds. She didn't love the waves and would run from them as they came up Too much fun can't wait to go back.

We did lots of drawing in the sand and digging for water.

She followed whoever came in her path....

Loved dragging around seaweed.

These poor birds never stood a chance...