So with the reunion ending Spencer got a phone call from work and they said that they were sending him to training in San Diego for two weeks. Bummer!! NOT! Perfect timing. The reunion ended and we went straight from Utah to California minus a couple of detours. Spencer didn't have any of the things he needed for training, so on the way down to San 
Diego we stopped in Las Vegas. We had to hit the Treasure Island buffet and then we dropped Spencer off at the airport so he could go home and get the things that he needed. The rest of us headed down to California (wow that was fun driving all by myself with the kids). The next day Spencer was back in Cali and thus began the second part of our vacation (I mean work trip). We were able to stay right in down town San Diego in the marina. It was beautiful. Everything that I wanted to do with the kids was within walking distance. We definite
ly got some foot mileage in. We went to Horton Plaza (a huge mall down town) a few times and got to go to Seaport Village a few times as well. Every time we went to Seaport Village something new was happening so it was fun every time we went. A new children's museum opened up about a month prior with a playground so we decided to get a year pass and go there as
much as we wanted. This museum is fabulous. Everything is very hands on. They have a VW bug that is parked in the museum that the kids get to paint all over. Every time we went the kids got to make clay sculptures. They had a climbing wall area with proper climbing shoes for the kids to wear so they could scale the walls. I think one of their favorite areas was the mattress room. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with mattress. It was like one big bed to jump on. They could slide down the mattresses and everywhere you looked were these pile
s of fabric covered foam tires. The kids would stack these up around them and tip over obviously never getting hurt. We loved it. The imaginations it allowed the kids to have was great. We of course visited the beach while we were there. Our Friends were camping at the beach while we were visiting so we went and visited them while they were at the beach a played around for a whi
le. Spencer decided to "try surfing again" after probably a 12-15 year dry spell. Lets just say he was slightly sore the next coming days. It's a good thing the hotel doesn't limit the amount of pillows your allowed to have. We went swimming a lot at the pool, and got to visit the Del Mar fair w
hile we were there. The kids had a blast riding on the rides. They even got to ride on an elephant, and go to the petting zoo while we were there. One of my favorite things was going to the Padres game. This was in walking distance to the
hotel as well which made it really nice. We sat in the bleacher section for the kids. They have a big sand box at the foot of the bleachers and only kids are allowed down there the call it "The Beach". It kept them well occupied while we got to watch the game. Unfortunately the Padres aren't having the best year so they
lost, but at least they had a fireworks show at the end of the game. The best part of the fireworks show was being able to go onto the field and watch the show. None of us had ever been on a professional field before. We also visited Old Town. This is were they have the Mormon Battalion visitor center and little town with buildings that a
re still decked out like there were years ago. The kids thought that was cool. On the Saturday before we left Spencer, Brandon and Papa went on a tour of the USS Midway aircraft carrier. They got to sit in airplanes and do the training simulator. It was definitely a guys outing. All in all we had a ton of fun, visited some great friends, ate good food, and saw our wonderful families. We miss San Diego, and hope to be back home soon.
Brandon is my very silly boy. Glowsticks and all!!
Emily is my marshmallow girl. She could eat them everyday.
Silly as can be still lovin the marshmallows.
This is the marshmallow lover of them all. You have to love the delay of a digital camera sometimes. It can catch the funniest shots sometimes. 
After our much needed stretch at the dinosaur museum we finally arrived in Orem, UT for the family reunion. Our reu
nion lasted a total of 5 days. The kids had a lot of fun hanging out with their cousins, and the adults had a blast com
peting against each other at Guitar Hero!! We got to go to Bridal Veil Falls. Spencer and I renamed it Procreation Falls due to all the large amounts of families there. Afterwards we had a picnic at a near by park and Brandon caught his first fish. He was so proud. Emily went fishing as well but only nibbles for her. We had a luau, a western BBQ, a bir
thday party for all of us since we are really together for any ones birthdays, and our first Olympics (I rocked of course). The kids got to do some fun crafts, and play a lot outside. We went to Orem Fest and saw some fireworks. We ate great food and just had fun bein
g with each other. Thanks to Mike and Allison for hosting us all. Now if we could only catch up on all of our lost sleep.
So we packed up and left in the morning of fourth day of our adventure and headed for Orem, UT for my side of the families family reunion. On our way up we stopped at the Price, UT Dinosaur Museum. This was a great place to stop and stretch our legs. The kids 
thought that it was so cool to see all of the dinosaur bones. They even had little activity areas for the kids to do som
e hands on stuff. They had an area where the kids could excavate dinosaur bones. This kept them occupied for a while. They had an aquarium tank that had turtles and an alligator in it to represent living prehistoric animals. They had puzzles where y
ou could create your own dinosaur, and the exhibit were fabulous. It was definitely worth the stop. We even tried to lighten our load by trying to feed the kids to the dinosaurs :0) We all had a lot of fun. 
Four Corners. We ended up staying 2 nights there which made it a little more relaxing. We all got showers (yeah) and had some really good meals. Exploring all the cliff dwellings was really fun too. We went to a couple of visit
or centers as well. The kids were really good and even asked questions. I think they learned a lot. There were areas were we had to climb up and down ladders to gain access to the dwellings. 
Aubrey being the climber that she is did really great. There was even a 10 foot ladder that we all had to scale. We were a little worried that Aubrey might have trouble because the
y require everyone to have two hands on the ladder at all times. She had no problem with them at all, and she wasn't even two yet at the time. Everyone was very impressed. We were able to see deer and other wild life from our camp site, and the kids thought that was great. All in all it was a great choice to stay there. We all had fun and were able to relax a little. Next stop Price UT and the Dinosaur Museum.
Our next stop on our trip was the Four Corners Monument. By this time deodorant and make 
up was on ration. We definitely were
not looking or smelling our best. Making sure we didn't get too close to others, we all had a good time. Everyone got to sit in all four states at once and they all thought that was cool
. Of course Spencer has to pull out his GPS and let all of us know that the monument was about 1000 feet or yards (I can't remember) off. Whatever, It was still fun. We got to look at all the Indian shops and stretch our legs. Next stop Mesa Verde, CO, and a shower.
and we start the drive. We drove 2700 miles through out our whole trip, and yes we are airing out the car as we speak. We had a DVD player installed, that was a life saver. 
Wireless head phones are great. The only down fall to them is that the kids feel they need to talk really loud when they are on their ears, and Aubrey just can't seem to figure out how they work yet. Our first stop was to be Big Lake in the White Mountains of Arizona. On the way there we were almost plastered by three very large buck elk (it was dark by this time) , but Spencer's defensive driving t
raining really paid off. After our hearts stop beating out of our chests and breathing back to normal we finally arrive. Spencer and I set the tent up in about 2 minutes (it
was really cold) we had all cooked and eaten in about 5 minutes (did I mention it was cold?), then all settled in for a cold night in the tent. We all got up early to try to catch some fish, but not a single bite was to be had. I think our wards scout troop that went up a week earlier caught them all, and the kids were bored in about 2 seconds. So we went back to the camp site to have breakfast, explore, play some games, and pack up to head on up to Four Corners and Mesa Verde as our next stop/ adventure.
