San Diego Trip

April 24, 2022

San Diego Trip

In March we took a trip to San Diego. Only a few weeks beforehand we heard about an opportunity for foster families to go stay at a hotel in San Diego for 3 nights, free! There were a limited number of spots and we had just been placed with Orion, so I didn't know it if would work out, but it did! We got a spot and got permission to take Orion with us out of state and Leland got the days off work. It was so much work, but so fun! I know our kids will have these memories for a lifetime and I'm so grateful for the generosity of our local community towards foster families that made it happen.

We left right after church and drove the first day to St. George. Let me just say if you have a big family, airbnbs are usually the way to go, but sometimes hotels are cheaper. We stayed at the St. George Inn and it was great because they had a room with a king bed, a queen bed, and a pull bed which was amazing for our family of eight. After that we woke up and drove on, stopping at Seven Magic Mountains and arriving at our San Diego Hotel just in time for dinner.

This was definitely the fanciest hotel we had ever stayed at. Here are some of the views.

Part of our stay included every meal catered! I have never taken a vacation (since becoming a mom) where I didn't have to do some amount of cooking or putting meals together or worrying about food in some way. The catered meals was amazing! They even gave us gift cards so we could eat out for lunch while we were out adventuring. I mean it was just so nice. Foster care is definitely really really hard at times and stressful for our entire family, so to have something like this given to our whole family just meant the world to us. The kids were in heaven. I didn't get a picture, but we ate every meal in a fancy ballroom with beautiful chandeliers and the kids called it a castle.

After breakfast we went out to look over the harbor while Leland went to get the van. This is where I got my first taste of how Californians react to seeing a family with 6 small children. ha. The counting of children out loud, the "are they all yours", and the many many "you've got your hands full!". I get these comments sometimes in Utah, but nothing like this, where it felt like every person who saw us had to say something. It was fine though, there weren't any rude comments, most people were very nice, it was just different from what I'm used to.

I loved how enthralled the girls were about all the different plants we saw. Every where we went I heard "Look Mama! Flowers!" or "Take a picture of this one Mama!"

That morning we went to San Diego Zoo. There are so many fun things to do in San Diego but we went with the zoo because it seemed to be the most little kid friendly option. I had been before as a teenager but I didn't remember quite how massive and hilly this zoo is! The kids did great for the first three hours, which got us to the back of the zoo, then they were ready to go, but it still took us another three hours to get back to the front of the zoo.

Waiting for Leland to buy the tickets. I dressed all the boys in red so we could find them easily. Still didn't stop Julian from getting lost though. Don't worry, we found him wandering around oblivious a short time later. :) Also the triple stroller was another thing the patrons of the San Diego Zoo were not prepared to handle.

Esther found this blossom on the ground. She also was ecstatic to find a snake plant just like we had at home growing near the garden bed where we were waiting.

We first saw the flamingos and then did the bus tour around the zoo.

There was a children's area that just opened that day that the kids were very happy to play in.

A komodo dragon! Adele loves the Wild Kratts episode about komodo dragons. I myself was surprised at how gigantic it was and how scary looking. I can't imagine seeing one in the wild.

I tried to get a picture of each kid with their favorite animal, but somehow I missed Julian and got some of the others twice.

This mother and baby hippopotomauses were my favorite thing at the zoo. The baby was nursing right by the window, and would come up for air every few minutes, then latch right back on. It was adorable and amazing to see.

This sleeping polar bear was too cute!

While we were walking along a little rabbit hopped across our path. I know rabbits are commonplace like squirrels, but we don't have them where we live so we had to stop for a picture.

An elephant taking a mud bath.

After our exhausting day at the zoo we went back to the hotel for dinner and then some night time swimming. Another amazing thing about our stay was being around so many other foster and adoptive families. Children from hard places, and the behavior that comes along with that, was the norm here, and it was SO GREAT to just not have to worry about being judged for that. While at the hotel we were surrounded by other families that looked like ours and everyone who just gets it and it was really good for us and especially the kids to experience that.

The sunset right before I took the little ones up to bed.

The next day was our last full day in San Diego. We packed it full by first going to La Jolla Cove in the morning. I had never been here before but it was really fun too see the seals and sea lions. They were SO CLOSE to us.

The birds that nest on the cliffs. We first got here, not knowing if we would see any sea lions or seals, so we were thrilled when we saw this pair super far away, not knowing that just down the way we would see sea lions practically laying within arms reach of the path.

There is a La Jolla sea cave tour that we didn't do, but we did see these sea caves from the walkway above. They would be cool to explore.

Then we started seeing sea lions swimming in the waves of the cove. It was fun to watch them going back and forth with the waves.

Then we came upon this big pile, so close to the walkway! They were loud and smelled awful, but at the same time cute and fun to watch.

Can you see the little heads of the sea lions in the water? It was so cool to see how they would decide to be done swimming and climb up the cliffs to get to where the others were laying.

More swimming sea lions. It was also amazing to see how long they could hold their breath! They were beaten down by these huge waves crashing up against the rocks and cliffs but they would always pop back up, no worse for the wear.

Esther loved the sea lions the most. The rest of the kids found some climbing trees and found those much more interesting after a while.

We continued walking down to children's beach. Children's beach was orginally walled off for a play area for kids in the 60s, but soon got taken over by seals, and now it's closed to the public during pupping season. Sea lions have flippers that work almost as legs so they can climb up the cliffs. Seals don't so they would just flop up on the sand and kind of scootch around. I have some videos of them scooting around. It reminded me just of Moses before he could crawl.

We saw lots of babies which were darling. We even saw one baby chasing a seagull, which the kids all thought was a highlight of our whole trip.

After we got some lunch in a little Mexican place in La Jolla. Moses was very eager to eat by then.

After that we hurried back to the hotel, got into swimsuits and headed to Mission Beach to meet up with all the foster families in our group. It made for a pretty crowded beach but the kids loved it. Orion especially loved the water which made me glad because he had a very hard time with the long drive and all the change from routine on our trip. He LOVES swimming and water though so he loved that part of it. Israel and Julian loved the sand. Moses loved eating the sand and the girls made some friends that they had fun playing with.

Right before he dumped this scoop of sand on Moses' head. Stinker.

Leland likes to claim that he smiles for photos. Here is photographic proof that he, in fact, does not.

The next morning we got up, packed up and drove home all in one day. We've found that by the end of trips we are usually ready to just be home so we usually just opt to drive home as fast as we can with as few stops as possible. The kids are usually tired too and sleep more on the drive home.