Cali here we come!

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 definitely 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 piles 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 while. 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 while 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 are 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.