Finale

The final evening of our time in San Diego was spent enjoying a bonfire, on the beach, right outside our room... complete with smores and cuddling and blankets.  Great end to a restful time.

Good thing that the time in San Diego was so restful because the trek from San Diego back to our departing flight out of Las Vegas was NOT so relaxing.  Let's just say my most positive character traits do not come out when we spend hours in stop and go traffic in the middle of the desert, in serious danger of missing our flights and having to reconfigure everything about our return travel.

When we were about 30 minutes from Vegas and really cutting the time close, Caleb started yelling from the backseat, "I have to POOP, RIGHT NOW."  There were no bathrooms in sight.  Just desert.  And, we didn't have the 15 minutes to spare to allow for a stop after all of our delays.  So, I told James that i would take full responsibility, but that I thought our only choice was to hope that the little man could hold it.

He did manage to hold it, and we made it on our flights.  The boys and I were the last ones to board our flights (as we made it just in time) with all of our paraphernalia, and I'm sure those folks already on board were thrilled to see our slightly frazzled group boarding at the last minute.  They should have been delightfully surprised as my little men were wonderful travelers, even after such a long day.

It is good to be home.  In a city where travel times are not a big issue :+)

Torrey Pines

Torrey Pines is easily in the "best of California" category for us.  The day was beautiful and we all hiked the couple of miles from the bottom to the top and around the loop and back down.  Then, we played "tag" with the waves.  When we were at the top, Jonathan saw two geckos and it was all I could do to keep him from capturing one and sneaking it home.  The boys both loved the exploration of the hike, and shrieked with delight while playing "tag" with the waves.

Another Boy on the Beach

This boy loves the sand and water, too.  At one point he was sliding down a sand mound, on his stomach, fully clothed.  We went through a lot of clothing due to the moderate temps and the sand and water combo.

Boy, Beach and Pop Bottle

Our first day in San Diego was a lovely afternoon and we spent it tooling around on the beach, playing in the sand.  All it took to entertain Caleb for quite a while was a pop bottle and the endless sand and water combo.

Sunny California

We made the trek to California to see Jamie's sister, Sara, and her family.  We also took a couple of days to visit and stay in San Diego on the beach.  Jamie had to be out there early for work so the boys and I flew solo to meet him.  They are champion travelers so it was smooth sailing.  Jamie met us with the rental car, which ended up being a Ford F150 truck due to a shortage of economy cars.  Jonathan's response, "DAD, THANKS!!!  I have never gotten to ride in a big truck before!!"

As is the norm for me, I forgot to get out my camera until part way into the trip so I don't have any photos of our time with Sara.  Sad, as the boys had the grandest time playing with all of their cousin, David's, cars and trucks.

Our first full day in San Diego was only sunny for part of the day, so we headed to an aquarium to explore some sea life.  The sea horses were a great fascination: Jonathan was enamored by a brief video showing the males giving birth to hundreds of baby sea horses.  A random man walked up to the video viewing area and Jonathan said to him, "you have to watch these sea horses having babies!  It's amazing and the BOYS have the babies."  The man had a good laugh about that!

There were also tube fish on display.  They must have been rather memorable, as well, because today today we were talking about dinner plans.  The request for spaghetti was made, to which Jonathan added, "tube fish are like spaghetti noodles.  They are long and skinny like a tube fish, but they don't have eyes and aren't alive like the tube fish."

This is a terrible photo, but this was a sea dragon from the sea horse family.  Again, Jonathan would remind you that the BOYS have the babies.

Calebisms

The latest from Caleb:

"Mom, I have two names: Caleb and Mr. Mr. Tayebs.  Jonathan has two names: Jonathan and Jman.  You have two names: Sarah and Mommy.  Daddy has two names: James and Daddy.  What is Jake's other name?  What is Aunt Carla's other name?"

"I NEED FOOD!"

"Can we go to Emiwee's house today?"

Whenever he doesn't want to do something: "I'm still wittle just a wittle bit so you do it, momma."