San Diego

Our first real-life family vacation was truly a dream come true!  4 days in S.D + 3 days in L.A. (Aaron had a conference there) = 7 days together!  I must say that no cooking or cleaning was pretty awesome, too!  We are attempting to deliberately set time apart each year to make special memories with the girls while they are still little (and still like us) now that they are a little older.  Many thanks to our family for all the great Christmas presents that made this trip possible.  We are so blessed!  Our theme song for our week together was by Sidewalk Prophets,  "The Words I Would Say".  Aaron surprised me by having this cd in the van the day we were leaving.  I always sing this to the girls when it comes on the radio because if God ever calls me to Heaven before they are grown I want them to know these words:

Be strong in the Lord and,

Never give up hope,

You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

Forgive and forget,

But don't forget why you're here,

Take your time and pray,

Thank God for each day,

His love will find a way,

These are the words I would say...

I just love hearing the girls sing the words to this song almost as much as I love hearing them pray.

More San Diego Pics

Here are the girl's when we first got to the wild animal park, by a HUGE pelican (the picture does not do it justice), and watching a duck check out our stroller for goodies...

Some seriously large lions, Hannah feeding a lorikeet (not too long after this one pooped on Aaron and then Hannah--seriously, sooooo funny!), and Madel feeding a deer...

We LOVED the wild animal park--super fun!!

 

 

 

Then, on to Sea World!...

We got to see Shamu, polar bears (a very cool exhibit), and all sorts of other creatures from the sea!  I'm not in these crazy ride pics because I just did them and was still trying not to vomit!  Madelyn has a scared face in the polar bear's den because every 30 seconds or so you hear a very intimidating polar bear roar!

And, last but not least, was the beautiful and very large San Diego Zoo.  The animals were so active and they had great exhibits where you could really feel close to them and get a good concept of how truly strong and powerful God made them.  I also loved that our tickets (from Costco) included the bus and sky tour where you could see most of the animals while sitting down.  :)  We were a little tired by this time!  Madelyn is hugging her baby elephant whom she named Jagwa and really had a hard time leaving to go see the beautiful black jaguar, until, of course, she found her new "baby", Katie, the saber-tooth tiger!

 

  We also enjoyed downtown L.A. (although, quite a contrast from downtown S.D) where we discovered the fashion museum (which the girls loved--of course!!...so funny, how God gave me girls! )  and the girls learned how to slide down those very tricky poles at the playground ALL BY THEMSELVES!!  Needless to say, they were very proud!  :)  We ended our time with a day at the science museum which was very cool!  A lot of hands on learning and fun science experiments!  Mommy and Daddy also got there own special treats--Daddy went to his first NBA game and Mommy had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for her when we first arrived in San Diego!  Truly a dream trip come true!