Days 5 & 6

Our last full day in San Diego did not start out well.  We went to Balboa park and discovered that our kids don't appreciate awesome architecture and they don't like walking if there's not an amazing final destination!  We started off on the wrong foot by parking super far away from where we wanted to end up, so we had to walk forever to get there.  But, we did catch an amazing view of the city:

I learned that I need to take a leaf from Shafer's book and try to make the most of it.  He whipped out the frisbee and had the kids playing happily in front of this cool building.  I'm not sure what the building is and whether it was appropriate to play frisbee in front of it, but there you have it. 

Our next stop was a cute little park where the boys were happy to play for a while.  Cheeks made a friend:

After several more blocks and a few wrong turns we made it to Balboa park.  We reminisced about our last trip there sans kids when we tested out our new digital camera (it was our first) and took all the time we wanted.  Aaah, the memories! 

In front of this amazing building (it's a museum of some kind) we reached our breaking point and sat down for some granola bars and a new plan.  It's funny, now looking back at the pictures it looks like we were having the time of our lives.  Maybe that's a good thing, the boys will only remember what they see in the pictures! 

After that failed attempt at having fun I turned the reigns over to Shafer and we headed for the beach again.  We spent a really nice afternoon there playing in the water, finding gigantic seaweed whips to chase seagulls with, eating a picnic lunch, and just enjoying the beautiful ocean.  It was exactly what we needed!  When we were all beached out we drove over to Belmont Park and let the boys take a ride on the carousel.  I think that is a happy face on Big Boy:

Monkey with one of his special faces he saves for when you pull out the camera:

Cheeks enjoying the ride:

We got some cotton candy and ate it while watching the sun set on our last night in San Diego.  And, yet another special Monkey face:

 It was so nice to have a house to go back to.  We spent our evenings there curled up on the couch watching movies and eating popcorn with the boys.  It was awesome! 
The next morning we got up and packed the car and headed home.  We drove from San Diego to Las Vegas without stopping once, thanks to a good long nap from the boys.  We stopped at In-N-Out for lunch and decided to press on the rest of the way home. 

 

 The boys actually did a really great job on all the drives.  The last 3 hours of this one were the worst.  They finally had it and started fighting with each other and whining.  We made one last stop, then loaded them up on treats, turned on a movie they hadn't seen and pulled out the kindle so they could take turns playing games.  Once we got home I was glad we did the drive in one day.  It's always good to be back home.  We got home late enough that my parents kept Puppy for one last night.  I was so excited to see him the next morning!  I know it was for the best that he wasn't on those long car rides with us, but I sure missed my baby!!  He was having the time of his life with my parents and Dexter though!

 

This was such a fun trip, I really hope the boys have some great memories stored up from it, I know I do!  I love my boys!  It was fun to get away with them and just have fun together!