SD

Recently we drove 800 miles south and west and despite a few bumps in the road......had an amazing time.

There was a little of this (whatever this is)......

and a lot of that (so fun to have Aunt Melissa come down from L.A.)

and even some

and some

.

We enjoyed time together (here Cass talks Sam into smiling nicely for the camera)

(which sort of worked),

and some solitary time, too.

We rode rides at Sea World...

(Ben is wearing the yellow shirt in the middle)

and saw every whale/dolphin/sea lion/otter show available.

We loved our time in La Jolla...

even though some of us think "bunny ears" are so funny AND original.

Sleeping arrangements were really fun, especially if you got to sleep next to the cast-wielding one-armed bandit (klunk!).

We met up with Uncle Maul at Legoland......

and ran into Mr.Vader, too.

We rode some more rides.....

and some people even made their mom do their dirty work for them because of a broken arm!

A highlight of the trip was hanging out with cousins (you read that right, our cousins) at the SD Zoo.

So fun to meet baby Derek and see JT on his 5th birthday!

We played, we drove, we laughed, we cried (just me), we waited in myriad lines, we rode awesome rides, we got sandy and salt-watery and basked in the 70 degree sunshine without sweating to death. We sat in traffic, emptied our wallets, and had our car broken into and our ipods stolen. We stuffed ourselves at the hotel breakfast each morning, snacked on Skittles and Starburst continually, and had the best dinner ever at a shack of a restaurant on the Ocean Beach Pier during sunset. We loved California, missed Utah, were glad to get back to Lehi, and can't wait to go again.