Our Vacation in San Diego
So I've decided to just post all of the vacation in one post since we didn't really have great access to Internet while we were at Grandma's house. It might take me a few days to edit and update this post, get all of the pictures in the right order and what-not but I'll just start by writing the journaling. I apologize in advance for the length, and you can stop reading whenever you get bored of my banter. I will try to post the videos somehow too, but I'm not sure if it will be in a separate post or not.
Saturday- A great day for driving:
So we left West Jordan at around 9:00 am on Saturday morning and headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. The weather and driving conditions could not have been better. The roads were dry and we didn't even hit any traffic. I guess we planned it well being the weekend after Martin Luther King Day, and the weekend before the Super Bowl. Anyway, we arrived in Las Vegas about 5 and a half hours later and went to the Stoker's house. Brandon and Tashina are wonderful hosts and we like to stay at their cute little condo in the North part of the city. We took them out to eat at Chili's and although the service wasn't the best, the company was! Thanks for your help with the crazy two-year old guys!They boys stayed up until about 2 am playing X box. Crazy kids! Tashina and I think it is just hilarious that they like to get together to play X box when they play in different rooms, on different levels of the house, and still think it's great that they got together. We don't really see how this is any different than a regular weekend X box Live game, but we still love them!
Sunday- Unexpectedly Eventful
In the morning we sort of took our time and checked out the strip on Sunday morning. We went into the Forum shops at Bellagio and cruised around FAO Schwarts and Nike Town. We all ended up with new Air Force Ones but I still haven't taken any pictures of those shoes yet. We were on the road by about 11:00 and this leg of the trip wasn't quite as easy. We drove to Barstow for lunch at In-N-Out and until we got there (through the Mojave Desert) it was very windy. I had to drive carefully to keep the car in my lane. From then till El Cajon it was raining. Raining, raining, raining. It was raining so hard in some spots that there were cars sliding off the roads. We took our time and were careful (with much prompting coming from the passenger's seat) and arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house at about 5:00 pm. When we arrived at the house a few family members had come over for Sunday dinner. Mike, Mikey, Aunt Mona, Troy, Kimmy, Grandma, Grandpa and the three of us had some yummy food prepared by Grandma. After dinner everyone went home and Grandpa and Ryan went to bed. That night while we were all sitting around talking, Aunt Mona had a very strange attack. It ended up that she suffered a heart attack. We were fortunate to be right there while it happened so that emergency personnel were called almost immediately. I called 911 while Colin helped me get her onto the floor. Grandma called Troy and Mikey and they were here very quickly. By the time Mikey walked in (he just lives about 100 yards away) we were ready to perform CPR. I was glad he was there because although I felt capable, I wasn't sure I remembered exactly what to do. We did CPR for about 2 or 3 minutes until paramedics arrived and then they were able to take over. While Mikey was performing compressions, Colin administered a priesthood blessing, and I communicated with 911. Once the paramedics took over, we all just stood back and let them do their thing. They were able to get her pulse back and she was breathing on her own again. She was rushed to Grossmont hospital and has been there ever since. The first night she was there, the doctors suspected severe brain damage and told us that, "the prognosis wasn't good". We thought we had lost her. However, within about 24 hours of the attack, she stared coming out of her coma and was doing much better. It has been a difficult road, and I'm not sure were quite in the clear yet, but she was moved from the ICU yesterday. They plan to put her into rehab for about 20 days before she is allowed to come home. Grandma thinks she'll keep her at her house for a while. I'm very happy with the progress she has made so far. I hope that she'll be able to pull through and get some more of her short-term memory back.
Ryan saw this water fountain and ran straight for it. He didn't care that it was roped off for an important brunch meeting, just ran right to it.
Daddy showing Ryan the horse in the fountain.
Posing in front of the horse
Ryan standing next to a giant Lego man.
Trying to take the camera away from mom so she will stop taking pictures
The Zoo was a lot of fun. We got up and left the house pretty early so that we could be at the park for a while in the morning. We did the reptile house, the Galapagos turtles, and caught a few minutes of the Sea Lion show before Michelle, Delaney, and Lathan met us there. We rode the tour bus around the zoo and saw a lot of fun animals. After the tour we walked through the primates and saw all of the different types of monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Then we saw the koalas and elephants and pretty much called it a day. Ryan and Delaney were both more than ready for a nap by then so we headed home. We stopped for fast food on the way home and Ryan fell asleep. When we got to Grandmas we put Ryan down for a nap and went to the Parkway Plaza Mall. I got another pair of Air Force Ones. They had this cute pair of pink ones that I've wanted for about a year but they didn't come in my size. Fortunately, the blue ones were on sale and I wear more blue than anything else anyway. I got some sunglasses too. Carolyn, Mona's daughter stayed with us that night and we had a great time chatting with her. We stayed up until about midnight listening to stories of Aunt Helen and Uncle Grover, it was a riot, Grandma always knows some really good stories. It was good to get to know my mom's cousin too. I don't know the Miles side of the family very well at all.
at the entrance
flamingos
close-up flamingos
all of us at the entrance
these cool lizards had great coloring, I was mesmerized, and you can tell Ryan was too
an albino python. those things are huge!
comodo dragon
also, very huge
the sea lion show
Ryan watching the sea lion show
looking over at the giant turtles
Galapagos Island turtles
isn't that a cute shot!
Ryan and Daddy on the bus
all of us riding the bus around the zoo
Delaney and Ryan holding hands.
hippos
and a shot from the back. they were looking at a parrot that had beautiful coloring but I didn't get a shot of him
Ryan on the Gorilla
the real thing
and another one
mokeying around
who's the bigger monkey here? hard to tell
all three of us at the zoo
elephant
koala in a tree
another elephant
On Thursday Michelle invited Ryan and I to go to the Playtown in El Cajon. This a cool little place similar to the Kid Barn in Draper, UT. I liked just about everything about this place. It was relatively inexpensive and very catered toward the younger children. Ryan and Delaney had a total BLAST running around playing with all of the different toys and activities. Michelle and I had a great time sitting and chatting. It was nice to just let him run around and not have to chase after him the entire time. His favorites were the little roller coaster thing and the Motor Home. I have videos of both so I'll post them here too.
When we got home from the Playtown Colin and I went to a session at the San Diego temple and Grandma graciously babysat our cranky two year old. If he had taken a nap he wouldn't have been so cranky. I knew Colin and I didn't have many opportunities to go to the temple before the new baby is born, so we took advantage of the time and went to the San Diego temple. There are many reasons why this is my favorite temple and the main one is the absolute beatuty it possesses. I have close ties to the temple because it was built just as we were leaving San Diego to move up to Utah. We went through the open house several times and I think I actually gained my own conversion, testiomony, "found God", on the day of the dedication, something I will never forget. Anyway, it was difficult to take pictures of ourselves, but I made Colin go along with it for a few minutes. Grandma gave us some good hints as to how to give ourselves a mini-tour after our session was over.
When we got home that night we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant my grandparents claim to eat at a few times per week. Nothing like great southern California authentic Mexican food! Ryan was a total terd but the food was yummy.
Delaney and Ryan playing on the Thomas the Tank Engine track
Delaney- watch out- she has a good arm
Ryan driving the trains on the track
showing mommy a train
Delaney driving the School Bus
Ryan playing with the cars on the other side of the bus
This was the cutest toy there. It was like a little tikes motor home. Ryan was driving up front while Delaney was cooking in the back- too cute.
another motor home shot
Colin at the temple
me at the temple
the San Diego Temple
both of us at the temple
Friday- Babysitting, Hanging with the Things, i pod Touch, Chinese Food. Friday morning we babysat Delaney and Lathan for Michelle. Ryan and Delaney had started getting more comfortable with one another by then, and by that I mean that they had started fighting. Well, not seriously fighting, but they seemed to be interested in the same toy at the same time several times that morning. Lathan was an angel. He didn't even fuss for his bottle, ate it, stayed awake and happy for about an hour before his nap. When it was time to put him to sleep I grabbed his binky and blanket and he was promptly asleep within about 30 seconds! What a cutie. While Lathan napped I started organizing our stuff for the drive home and packing up a little, did a little laundry. We went to Wal Mart for a few things for the drive home and Colin got a new toy. He bought himself (and me) an i Pod touch. It's a pretty cool little toy and we've had fun with it the last couple of days. Colin is absolutely in love with it. That afternoon Ryan and I ran some errands with Karen and Jean to prepare for Jennifer's (Paul's fiance) Bridal Shower. Brady was with us for a little while but had to go home with his mom. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with the Things while we were there, so it was nice to be able to run around with them for a while. Because I took Ryan on the errands with us, he didn't get a nap- for the second day in a row (not a good combination, Mommy). Anyway, we went out with Grandma and Grandpa for Chinese food anyway and it was pretty much pointless. The company was great but Ryan was a complete disaster. Oh well.
The drive from San Diego to Vegas was great. I was exhausted because I hadn't slept very well the night before but trudged along to Barstow for lunch. Colin took over from there and I got a short nap in the front seat. Want to know what woke me up? Ryan threw something out of the ice chest at me! Ha, just thought that was funny.
Anyway, Saturday night we went out to eat at a fun place called Buffalo Wild Wings. It's a sports bar type place with yummy buffalo wings. Ryan was actually really good, until he was done eating.
Colin and Brandon played X Box the rest of the night, and I worked on catching up with the internet after a week without access!
Ryan was chasing Koda around the dining room and kitchen
they both thought it was a very fun game
trying to make them hold still for a picture
Saturday- A great day for driving:
So we left West Jordan at around 9:00 am on Saturday morning and headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. The weather and driving conditions could not have been better. The roads were dry and we didn't even hit any traffic. I guess we planned it well being the weekend after Martin Luther King Day, and the weekend before the Super Bowl. Anyway, we arrived in Las Vegas about 5 and a half hours later and went to the Stoker's house. Brandon and Tashina are wonderful hosts and we like to stay at their cute little condo in the North part of the city. We took them out to eat at Chili's and although the service wasn't the best, the company was! Thanks for your help with the crazy two-year old guys!They boys stayed up until about 2 am playing X box. Crazy kids! Tashina and I think it is just hilarious that they like to get together to play X box when they play in different rooms, on different levels of the house, and still think it's great that they got together. We don't really see how this is any different than a regular weekend X box Live game, but we still love them!
Sunday- Unexpectedly Eventful
In the morning we sort of took our time and checked out the strip on Sunday morning. We went into the Forum shops at Bellagio and cruised around FAO Schwarts and Nike Town. We all ended up with new Air Force Ones but I still haven't taken any pictures of those shoes yet. We were on the road by about 11:00 and this leg of the trip wasn't quite as easy. We drove to Barstow for lunch at In-N-Out and until we got there (through the Mojave Desert) it was very windy. I had to drive carefully to keep the car in my lane. From then till El Cajon it was raining. Raining, raining, raining. It was raining so hard in some spots that there were cars sliding off the roads. We took our time and were careful (with much prompting coming from the passenger's seat) and arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house at about 5:00 pm. When we arrived at the house a few family members had come over for Sunday dinner. Mike, Mikey, Aunt Mona, Troy, Kimmy, Grandma, Grandpa and the three of us had some yummy food prepared by Grandma. After dinner everyone went home and Grandpa and Ryan went to bed. That night while we were all sitting around talking, Aunt Mona had a very strange attack. It ended up that she suffered a heart attack. We were fortunate to be right there while it happened so that emergency personnel were called almost immediately. I called 911 while Colin helped me get her onto the floor. Grandma called Troy and Mikey and they were here very quickly. By the time Mikey walked in (he just lives about 100 yards away) we were ready to perform CPR. I was glad he was there because although I felt capable, I wasn't sure I remembered exactly what to do. We did CPR for about 2 or 3 minutes until paramedics arrived and then they were able to take over. While Mikey was performing compressions, Colin administered a priesthood blessing, and I communicated with 911. Once the paramedics took over, we all just stood back and let them do their thing. They were able to get her pulse back and she was breathing on her own again. She was rushed to Grossmont hospital and has been there ever since. The first night she was there, the doctors suspected severe brain damage and told us that, "the prognosis wasn't good". We thought we had lost her. However, within about 24 hours of the attack, she stared coming out of her coma and was doing much better. It has been a difficult road, and I'm not sure were quite in the clear yet, but she was moved from the ICU yesterday. They plan to put her into rehab for about 20 days before she is allowed to come home. Grandma thinks she'll keep her at her house for a while. I'm very happy with the progress she has made so far. I hope that she'll be able to pull through and get some more of her short-term memory back.
Ryan saw this water fountain and ran straight for it. He didn't care that it was roped off for an important brunch meeting, just ran right to it.
Daddy showing Ryan the horse in the fountain.
Posing in front of the horse
Ryan standing next to a giant Lego man.
Trying to take the camera away from mom so she will stop taking pictures
This is Ryan on a life-size stuffed cow. Colin didn't think it would hold his weight, but it did, at least for a second!
Monday- Relaxing, Recuperating, and a Water Polo Game.
So Monday we didn't do a whole lot. Colin and Grandma got home from the hospital at 4:00am so they were very tired. I let Colin sleep while we just hung out at the house. Ryan got to play with Brady that day since Tessa brought him over. They had a good time running around and playing with the legos. Brady is big as usual but I forgot to take pictures of the boys together. Later that day Michelle brought Delaney and Lathan over to play too. Lathan is 5 months old and he is just as cute as can be. It was fun to see them and Ryan and Delaney play really well together. I did start working on a quilt Grandma had in her living room. I didn't do a whole lot of work on it, but I got it started a little. Monday night Kimmy had a water polo game. It was supposed to be two games back to back, but they lost the first game so it was only one. Kimmy is the Team Captain and leader of her polo team. It was really fun to see her in action. I'm not sure what was more entertaining though, that, or watching Aunt Linda yell from the sidelines. Too bad they lost, but Kimmy played well!
Tuesday- Vejas Outlet Malls
One place we always like to go while we're in San Diego is the Viejas Outlet Mall. It has some different shops than the outlet mall in Park City and it's pretty close to Grandma's house, so we always go there and shop. We got some stuff for the baby and a few things for each of the rest of us. I got Ryan a cute little elephant shirt and a set of monkey pajamas to get him excited about going to the Zoo the next day.
I can't remember what else we did that day, I know it was something, but who can remember?
Wednesday- Zoo & Parkway Plaza, Carolyn's Visit
The Zoo was a lot of fun. We got up and left the house pretty early so that we could be at the park for a while in the morning. We did the reptile house, the Galapagos turtles, and caught a few minutes of the Sea Lion show before Michelle, Delaney, and Lathan met us there. We rode the tour bus around the zoo and saw a lot of fun animals. After the tour we walked through the primates and saw all of the different types of monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Then we saw the koalas and elephants and pretty much called it a day. Ryan and Delaney were both more than ready for a nap by then so we headed home. We stopped for fast food on the way home and Ryan fell asleep. When we got to Grandmas we put Ryan down for a nap and went to the Parkway Plaza Mall. I got another pair of Air Force Ones. They had this cute pair of pink ones that I've wanted for about a year but they didn't come in my size. Fortunately, the blue ones were on sale and I wear more blue than anything else anyway. I got some sunglasses too. Carolyn, Mona's daughter stayed with us that night and we had a great time chatting with her. We stayed up until about midnight listening to stories of Aunt Helen and Uncle Grover, it was a riot, Grandma always knows some really good stories. It was good to get to know my mom's cousin too. I don't know the Miles side of the family very well at all.
at the entrance
flamingos
close-up flamingos
all of us at the entrance
these cool lizards had great coloring, I was mesmerized, and you can tell Ryan was too
an albino python. those things are huge!
comodo dragon
also, very huge
the sea lion show
Ryan watching the sea lion show
looking over at the giant turtles
Galapagos Island turtles
isn't that a cute shot!
Ryan and Daddy on the bus
all of us riding the bus around the zoo
Delaney and Ryan holding hands.
hippos
and a shot from the back. they were looking at a parrot that had beautiful coloring but I didn't get a shot of him
Ryan on the Gorilla
the real thing
and another one
mokeying around
who's the bigger monkey here? hard to tell
all three of us at the zoo
elephant
koala in a tree
another elephantThursday- Playtown, Temple, and Mexican Food
On Thursday Michelle invited Ryan and I to go to the Playtown in El Cajon. This a cool little place similar to the Kid Barn in Draper, UT. I liked just about everything about this place. It was relatively inexpensive and very catered toward the younger children. Ryan and Delaney had a total BLAST running around playing with all of the different toys and activities. Michelle and I had a great time sitting and chatting. It was nice to just let him run around and not have to chase after him the entire time. His favorites were the little roller coaster thing and the Motor Home. I have videos of both so I'll post them here too.
When we got home from the Playtown Colin and I went to a session at the San Diego temple and Grandma graciously babysat our cranky two year old. If he had taken a nap he wouldn't have been so cranky. I knew Colin and I didn't have many opportunities to go to the temple before the new baby is born, so we took advantage of the time and went to the San Diego temple. There are many reasons why this is my favorite temple and the main one is the absolute beatuty it possesses. I have close ties to the temple because it was built just as we were leaving San Diego to move up to Utah. We went through the open house several times and I think I actually gained my own conversion, testiomony, "found God", on the day of the dedication, something I will never forget. Anyway, it was difficult to take pictures of ourselves, but I made Colin go along with it for a few minutes. Grandma gave us some good hints as to how to give ourselves a mini-tour after our session was over.
When we got home that night we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant my grandparents claim to eat at a few times per week. Nothing like great southern California authentic Mexican food! Ryan was a total terd but the food was yummy.
Delaney and Ryan playing on the Thomas the Tank Engine track
Delaney- watch out- she has a good arm
Ryan driving the trains on the track
showing mommy a train
Delaney driving the School Bus
Ryan playing with the cars on the other side of the bus
This was the cutest toy there. It was like a little tikes motor home. Ryan was driving up front while Delaney was cooking in the back- too cute.
another motor home shot
Colin at the temple
me at the temple
the San Diego Temple
both of us at the temple
Friday- Babysitting, Hanging with the Things, i pod Touch, Chinese Food. Friday morning we babysat Delaney and Lathan for Michelle. Ryan and Delaney had started getting more comfortable with one another by then, and by that I mean that they had started fighting. Well, not seriously fighting, but they seemed to be interested in the same toy at the same time several times that morning. Lathan was an angel. He didn't even fuss for his bottle, ate it, stayed awake and happy for about an hour before his nap. When it was time to put him to sleep I grabbed his binky and blanket and he was promptly asleep within about 30 seconds! What a cutie. While Lathan napped I started organizing our stuff for the drive home and packing up a little, did a little laundry. We went to Wal Mart for a few things for the drive home and Colin got a new toy. He bought himself (and me) an i Pod touch. It's a pretty cool little toy and we've had fun with it the last couple of days. Colin is absolutely in love with it. That afternoon Ryan and I ran some errands with Karen and Jean to prepare for Jennifer's (Paul's fiance) Bridal Shower. Brady was with us for a little while but had to go home with his mom. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with the Things while we were there, so it was nice to be able to run around with them for a while. Because I took Ryan on the errands with us, he didn't get a nap- for the second day in a row (not a good combination, Mommy). Anyway, we went out with Grandma and Grandpa for Chinese food anyway and it was pretty much pointless. The company was great but Ryan was a complete disaster. Oh well. Saturday- Driving back to Vegas
The drive from San Diego to Vegas was great. I was exhausted because I hadn't slept very well the night before but trudged along to Barstow for lunch. Colin took over from there and I got a short nap in the front seat. Want to know what woke me up? Ryan threw something out of the ice chest at me! Ha, just thought that was funny.
Anyway, Saturday night we went out to eat at a fun place called Buffalo Wild Wings. It's a sports bar type place with yummy buffalo wings. Ryan was actually really good, until he was done eating.
Colin and Brandon played X Box the rest of the night, and I worked on catching up with the internet after a week without access!
Ryan was chasing Koda around the dining room and kitchen
they both thought it was a very fun game
trying to make them hold still for a picture
running around- action shot.
Sunday- not a great day for driving
The drive home from Vegas wasn't as good as we had hoped for, but we really knew it would be bad. There was rain and wind until St. George. Then when we got to Cedar City it was snow, lots of un-plowed snow on the freeway. Baker was worse, way worse, and then we were sort of clear until about Draper. I hadn't seen things so bad since the nightmare I had picking up Justin at the airport at midnight. We took it easy though, and surprizingly made pretty good time considering. We're back to the grind now. Well, I have one more week off-track but we've got a lot to do to get ready for the baby before then, and work. Anyway, it will be a busy one, that is for sure.
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