2014 - The vacations, anyway.

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog.  We had some great trips last year, so that seems like a good way to give a little re-cap of 2014.

In June we went to Yellowstone National Park.  We love it there!  Unfortunately we decided to go kind of at the last minute, so there were no camping spots to be had inside the park.  We decided to give the Madison Arm Resort a try.  It was a few miles out of West Yellowstone, so we spent a lot of time just driving in and out of the park, but we were still glad to be there.

 In November we went to Arizona to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins for Thanksgiving.  When we lived in Mesa we used to drive down to Queen Creek to see my Aunt Roseanne and Uncle Ray all the time, even spending Thanksgiving with them some of the years that we were there.  We thought it would be nice to see them all again and they were kind enough to let us invite ourselves over. :)

On Black Friday my cousin Karlie and I took the kids to a butterfly sanctuary.  The butterflies really seemed to love Aiden's yellow shirt.  More butterflies landed on him than
anybody.









 Then on Saturday we went off into the desert with Ray and Roseanne, Tyler and Michelle and Hailey, to go shooting.  We packed a picnic, the kids got to go rock climbing with Tyler in his Jeep, and Ray gave us instruction and kept us safe while we shot at clay pigeons.
  It was just for the long weekend, but it was a great trip and we really, really enjoyed hanging out with our "Arizona relations."  They were great hosts. :)

 Kieran enjoyed playing in his first chess tournament on December 6.

Then we were off to San Diego.  Jeremiah had classes there from Dec. 8 through the 13th, so we decided that the whole family would go along.  Man, we had such a good time!
  On Monday we spent the day switching hotels, doing homework, and the kids got to go swimming in the hotel pool.
  On Tuesday we got some homework done and went to the San Diego Zoo.  We bought a 4-day city pass that allows you to see whatever venues you want that are included, and a whole lot of awesome things are included!  I loved going to the zoo when Jeremiah and I lived in San Diego, so that's where the kids and I kicked things off.  The weather was great and the zoo wasn't crowded at all!  The walking app on my phone reported that we walked 5 miles, something none of us were used to, so by the end of the day the kids just wanted to go, but I convinced them to make one more stop.  We were very glad that we did!  The little monkeys had a very cute baby that we got to watch for a long time because there were no crowds, and then we got to get up close to some of the orangutans.  They had a baby, too, which was fun to see, but the highlight for the kids was the orangutan that got up close to the glass and pulled faces, hit the glass, walked back and forth, and put on quite a show.

    For dinner that night we took the kids to a sushi restaurant that Jeremiah and I used to go to when we were newlyweds.  Kieran and Nyah gave the sushi a try, and everybody enjoyed the teriyaki chicken.  The sushi didn't seem quite the same, but Jeremiah and I couldn't decide if that was because the restaurant was using lesser quality ingredients, or if our palates have just changed. ;)  But the point was to walk down memory lane, and we enjoyed getting to do that.

 On Wednesday, after battling through some more homework, we went to Sea World.  Hoo boy, that day was fun.  The park was deserted, so we didn't have to stand in line to see anything.  Kieran and Nyah had a great time on the new rollercoaster, Manta.  We all went once, but that was enough for two of us.  Kieran and Nyah had another turn while Aiden and I watched the sea creatures the coaster was named for. ;)  The shows were fun, we won a behind the scenes tour where we got to see where the rescue animals are cared for and fed sea turtles.  We went through the shark tunnel, we saw the penguins, we went on the sky ride over the bay - we saw everything.  It was so fun!

 The Thursday highlight was our stop at the go-karts in Miramar.  It was like a little race course and we had some great little drivers out there!

   Our next stop was Legoland, which actually turned out to be a big disappointment.  While Legos are great for kids of all ages, Legoland really was geared for younger kids, and we didn't find much that we liked.  The basement set from the Lego movie was fun to see, though.

    After driving downtown to pick up Jeremiah, he and the kids actually had a whirl through Sea World.  Jeremiah wanted to get to spend a little time there, and the kids sure weren't complaining!

   For dinner we went for Mexican in Old Town San Diego.  I wanted to go back, not to go to any specific restaurant but just to be in Old Town again.  I liked the times we had date night there as newlyweds.  Old Town is always busy at night and it's hard to find parking, but I think it has a fun atmosphere.  We had a great dinner and even ended up with an awesome souvenir photo taken by a restaurant employee.

 Friday was super rainy.  We went to the Museum of Man in Balboa Park, which turned out to be pretty boring, but then we went to the Fleet Science Museum, also in Balboa Park, and that was awesome.  So many very cool exhibits!  We explored cells and genetics, how our senses don't always give us correct information, saw an Imax about the reefs and how some people are working to heal ailing ones, and played in the craft room.  A terrific morning.

    Then the sun came out and guess where we decided to go?  Back to Sea World.  We walked down to the viewing tank behind Shamu Stadium and got to watched the baby whale swimming around with its mom.  The baby was just over a week old.  That was fun to watch.  Kieran and Nyah wanted to go on Manta again, so Aiden and I watched the baby sea otter eat and play while we waited for them.

     We went back to see the penguins, the polar bear, the beluga whales, and the walrus.  Everyone was still loving Sea World even though for the kids it was the third time that week.  Yea, we loved it there.  Good weather and no crowds made Sea World pretty magical.

  Another cool place we wanted to re-visit was Little Italy, so we found a yummy Italian restaurant for our dinner on Friday night.  The restaurant was not one that we had ever been to before, we just wanted to be in that part of town.  And the one Jeremiah picked turned out to be very good.  We all enjoyed that dinner immensely.

   On Saturday morning Jeremiah had to take a test so we got checked out of the hotel and went to the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center in Old Town San Diego.  We didn't have time to take the whole tour, but we liked what we did see.  The visitor's center has been re-done since Jeremiah and I were there last.  Kieran and Nyah were just tiny when we took them before.  It was fun to see what we did have time for, and then we were off to pick up Jeremiah.

   One of our favorite haunts when Jeremiah and I were newlyweds was La Jolla.  So of course we had to go visit on our way out of town.  WE stopped for lunch at an old favorite, Spice and Rice, and then we walked down to the cliffs.  We got pretty close to the napping sea lions.  The kids walked out on the wall that you can see on the top left of the picture (it has railings) and got splashed by a big wave.

   Before hitting the road we got some gelato.  The gelateria was actually in the same building as an Italian restaurant that Jeremiah and I used to go to.  The restaurant wasn't there any more, but since so much of this trip was about reminiscing it was fun just to be in La Jolla and in that building again.



    On our way out of San Diego county we drove to our old house in San Marcos.  The couple living there generously invited us to come see changes they had made to the house and backyard.  The highlight of the stop was actually visiting with them, but it was fun to see our old house.  We also drove past the playground where we used to take a very little Kieran to play.  It was dark so we didn't unload and spend any time there.  We just couldn't not swing by after all the other reminiscing and walking down memory lane that we had done on the trip.

    Other highlights of the year were Kieran turning 12 and receiving the Aaronic Priesthood, Jeremiah (as always) getting his elk, Nyah got to play in the Suzuki Association's violin concert with Jenny Oaks Baker, Aiden got his first pocket knife, and I got to start taking guitar lessons.  So, that's the recap. ;)