Family Vacation (Days 1&2)

Cris and I have been blessed with GREAT family that have allowed us to take multiple trips with just the two of us.  This year however, we REALLY wanted to have our FIRST real family vacation.  We decided to go to San Diego.  One, because the San Diego temple is my ALL TIME favorite temple in the ENTIRE world and Two, there are many different places and things to do.  We hadn't really decided where to go until I happened upon some tickets for Legoland.  We were able to FIVE days at Legoland for the price of ONE, plus, my kids were the perfect size for the rides, they weren't too scary or too big, etc.

We were a little nervous for the drive.  We haven't driven more than 2 hours in the car with Rysa and even those 2 hours were a challenge.  We were a bit apprehensive but the drive was a success with a couple battles here and there.  We stopped in St. George for a few hours to cut up the drive, eat lunch, and visit Cris's sister who lives there.  The house she lives in has a little ditch/stream in front and the kids had a blast playing in the water (we had just come from 30-40 degree weather to 70's, it was wonderful).

Cris's sister Allycin took us to "Dixie Rock".  I am NOT scared of heights, I am not normally paranoid, but man, Allycin probably got a kick out of me.  I will blame it on the pregnancy!  I was a wreck, I was terrified the kids were going to fall, Cris wasn't watching them good enough, etc.  I had a rock in my stomach and I really couldn't handle it.  In the end I overcame and we got some fun pictures of the kids!

We then went to the St. George temple and toured the grounds.  We were traveling on a Sunday to avoid traffic and it was about the only spiritual thing we did that day, it felt really good.

We then headed to Vegas to sleep and then we were off the next morning.  The hotel we stayed in was HORRIBLE, but I couldn't complain since we paid a total of $18 for that night!  I asked both kids what they remembered about the first day and all Rysa could say was "It is berry berry FAR"!

We got to San Diego in pretty good time and were able to go to the beach before sunset.  I LOVE the beach and would LOVE to be able to live closer to a beach one day in my life.  The kids had a fun time at first at the beach.  Cayten  constantly called it a lake and Rysa kept throwing sand into the ocean as "food" for the water.

AND THEN, the kids were standing on the sand when a smallish wave came up.  I was video taping them and Cris was standing behind me.  The kids got a little nervous when all the water came in and as they tried to run away, the water brought them DOWN.  It was sad and hilarious at the same time. 

 

The video isn't as good as it could have been!  I got a little nervous for Rysa and dropped the camera to my side as I rescued her!  Needless to say, they were drenched and covered in sand and the sun was going down.  Rysa was freezing and we hadn't thought to bring extra clothes (they were at the hotel) because we weren't going to SWIM.  Looking through my pictures now, I didn't even get good pictures of them after they were drenched.  Here is what I got with my SUCKY camera!