Hotel California

 King children LOVE staying in hotels (don't all children?). They are fascinated with the maid service, they love looking through all the drawers and closets, they are overjoyed with the free breakfast, and they squeal in delight at the sight of the swimming pool:

And my favorite.....

For the record, Ben played one of the carnival-style games at the midway in Sea World and WON this cute Sea World bear for his brother. For $5 you get two tries to make an almost impossible basketball shot and if it goes in you win. Let's just say Ben's got some skillz......
The little lion lying on top of Sam was a treasure we got at the Wild Animal Park. Evidently we must collect stuffed animals wherever we go...


And one more random picture, because I only took this one:

We spent one fabulous evening in Old Town San Diego at the Mormon Battallion Visitors Center . If you have never been there, I cannot say enough wonderful things about this place! In the last year or so they have totally redone the entire building to be a sort of museum showcasing the Mormon Battallion and the amazing efforts of these early pioneers. They have this awesome interactive media presentation they do, and at one point they chose GARRETT to play the part of soldier and when they brought out this big gun for him to hold he could barely contain himself. It was such a moving, inspirational evening that all of us enjoyed. Promise me you'll go if you are ever in the area!

USS Midway

One of the most memorable things we did in SD was to visit the USS Midway, a retired Airforce Carrier that was used in active duty from 1946 through the Gulf War. The entire tour was AMAZING! I wish I could remember all the cool facts they rattled off, but what the kids enjoyed the most were seeing the sailors' quarters, climbing in and out of all the fighter planes and helicopters, and seeing the inside workings of this enormous ship. The gas tank of this ship holds 3 MILLION gallons! It was so amazing:

Inside the 'brig"...(can we get one of these installed in our basement?)

trying to reel in the enormous anchors..

getting our "pre-flight" briefing...

ready to fly!

Inside a rescue helicopter used in the liberation of Kuwait.

The view of the San Diego Bay, from the USS Midway. In the distance you can see the Coronado Bay Bridge.

Coronado

I love this picture. One day in SD we drove over to Coronado Beach, a favorite of ours. The best part is driving over the Coronado Bay Bridge to get there. We had wonderful beach fun, digging, building, finding, eating sand (among other things) and people watching (probably only me on that one).

Sea World

We enjoyed a few wonderful days at Sea World San Diego. Here, the highlights:

Since we spent a lot of time waiting for shows to begin, Garrett amused himself by playing photographer with my camera. Note to the lady sitting in front of us in the Shamu show: a deep conditioner and some hair product would really go a long ways.

We saw Shamu....

and the penguins.....

and these strange creatures.

We gazed at the sea turtles,

played keep-away with the dolphins,

laughed at the sea lions (or is it seals? I can't remember),

and crashed at the end of the day.

We rode rides,

stopped for ice cream,

and had a few meltdowns.

We got soaked on Journey to Atlantis,

and spent some quality time with Star Fish.

We love Sea World! We had perfect weather and made some fun memories, including one we will never forget: How Garrett got lost after the Sea Lion Show and how it took 15 minutes to find him. I think for all of us it was the longest 15 minutes of our lives! Our family was reminded that day of the tender mercies of the Lord, and how He so carefully watches over us and hears and answers our prayers.

4th of July

There's nothing like posting 4th of July pictures on the 21st of July. I'm so on top of things, and organized, too!

We celebrated the 4th with  a backyard BBQ including family, food, fun, and crafts (is there a word for crafts that begins with an f? It kind of ruined my alliteration). I like this picture of Cass and my mom. We are so lucky to have grandparents who live close by and we get to see often.

Nothing but healthy snacks and veggies at our house...

Ooooh....there are so many tempting captions for this pic, here are a few of my faves:

Like father like son

(Okay, like mother like son)

Diet caffeine free mountain dew: it's not just for breakfast anymore

To report child abuse of any kind, please call Family Services at 1-800-stop-giving-your-toddler-soda

(look closely for the Cheeto dust on Garrett's mouth)

It is official---we now own every single t-shirt in the world that uses the word "King" on it. It is so cheesy and I love them all and only wish they came in bigger sizes for me! The one pictured above says "King of the Court".

We did some fun crafts. They involved paint. Sam thought it would be fun to paint my mom's dog, so he did, but I forgot to get a picture. I don't think Garrett painted any animals, though.

We did sparklers,

expressed gratitude for our freedom,

tossed water balloons,

and tried to take the perfect slide picture.

We ended the night by going to Thanksgiving Point for fireworks and a few mosquito bites. They didn't disappoint.