San Diego

October has been crazy.  I think it all started with our vacation.  

We went to the beach house again.

It is always such a good time.  

Aunt Diana and Uncle Joe joined us again. 

Yeah!!!!!

Doug and the kids actually left on Saturday and I flew down on Tuesday. 
I had to work and couldn't get it off.

Bummer, I know.

I had to stay home all by myself!!!!!

(That was a vacation in itself!)

So, while I was home working away (and enjoying quiet evenings) 

Doug explored with the kids with the help of Joe and Diana.

They visited a tide pool on the lowest tide of the year.  (Great timing!)

The kids had a blast and found many sea creatures including an octopus, star fish, sea enemies, and hermit crabs.  (Just to name a few)

The next day Doug took the boys to see the aircraft carriers at The Midway and the girls went to the Alien exhibit at The Air and Space Museum. (Note to self- insert Diana's pics for blurb book)

And they also all went to the zoo where Joe 

earned the Uncle of the year award for his help.

I arrived Tuesday night and surprised the kids because I was suppose to fly in Wednesday night, but I was able to rearrange my schedule at the last minute.  The kids were sleeping when I arrived, so they woke up to a fun surprise.  We spent the day on the beach.  It was overcast. (well actually, the remainder of our vacation was overcast.  boo) But, we still had a great time playing on the beach.

 Carter enjoyed finding fun Ocean treasures and posing for pictures!

And writing his name in the sand too.

Diana taught the girls to crochet.
It kept them some what busy in the car on the ride home!

Thank you Diana!

(Nadya is still working on hers.....  Hallie, not so much)

We also spent the day at Belmont Park.  This was the our first time purchasing wrist bands because Carter was finally tall enough!  (Yay!  Go Carter!)

Cute story to go with the hand dryer picture.  We let the kids do the hurricane simulator and then after wards Carter got under the hand dryer and said, "I can make my own hurricane simulator and it doesn't cost two dollars!"  

The boys loved, loved, loved the Vertical Plunge!

And the girls loved this one and the white roller coaster.

We found two letterboxes in San Diego.  

One of them at Belmont Park and the other on Coronado Island.
I took pictures to document because we forgot to take our journal. 

We explored some while looking for our letterbox on Coronado Island.

  We saw Dolphins swimming freely in the ocean.

We visited a pier where Nadya thought she was playing with a dead fish and discovered it was still alive!  

She put it right up to her mouth and pretended she was going to eat it.

And when it started moving, she hollered like you wouldn't believe! 
It was priceless!!!!!  And I caught it on film!!!!!  

(A little blurry because she literally freaked out!!!!)

Carter played with the fish too and then threw it back.

We stumbled (literally) upon Jack-O-Lantern.

We walked right over him and didn't realize what he was until

we took a few steps back.

We got slurpess and found the beach for lunch where Carter found two more sand dollars to go with the many others he already found before I arrived.

We said our goodbyes to Joe and Diana who left a day before us.

We took a picture on the balcony before they left.  

Yet another cloudy day.

We met up with friends the morning we left and had breakfast and went for our last walk on the beach.

We stopped in Vegas where we dined on what we believe to be 

Vegas' best buffet.

(Thanks for the recommendation Belinda!)

It was The Silverton and I highly recommend it. 
We particularly loved the steak, crab and desserts!

I can't believe how much the kids ate.

Carter and Hallie devoured the crab and both boys tried clams.

Alex didn't like them, but Carter did.

I lost track of how many different desserts we tried, but they were all so good!

We lucked out too as it was two for one night and kids 6 

and under were free.  

Not to mention they only charged half price for the girls!  

What a deal!

After wards we swam at our hotel.

Carter jumped in the hot tub and literally swam across the entire thing.

I couldn't believe my eyes so we took him over the to pool and he did it again.

It was just like something clicked and all the sudden he could swim.  

See for yourself!