We spent our time walking the temple grounds and taking in the beauty! Piper and Hudson really enjoyed the nativity, but the best part was that they still had flowers in bloom! Spring time in Utah just can't come soon enough!

After the temple we headed to Point Loma Beach. When in San Diego you have to at least go to one beach right? Piper kills me though! Her and her sand castles! This was by far the best thing in the world to her, and her only apparent reason for going on a vacation. The funny part was though, that she hated having to get the water for her sand castles! This girl could guilt anyone into getting water for her! She would first ask if anyone wanted to and when no one said anything she would slowly make her way towards the water until she was about 5 feet away from where the water would reach, and then stand there. Occasionally she would throw a sad look over her shoulder or put her cup (yes she is using a measuring cup, we still haven't even bought her a real bucket yet!) in the sand still five feet away from the where the water reached. It was so sad! So finally someone would give in to her and walk down to meet her and then she would continue the walk to the water with you and stop about a foot from where the water would reach... so you ended up doing all the water gathering while she waited! Clever little girl she is! Then she would walk back the water in the cup just so proud of herself! It was hilarious!

We kept working on her though, and eventually she did fill a few cups with water ALL by herself! Hudson enjoyed running from the waves, but his favorite thing to do was chase the birds! 

 

While we were all playing, Hudson started crying because he was getting hungry and this random little boy came running up to Hudson to make sure he was okay, followed by his sister and their mom. We all got talking and found out that they were also from Utah had had recently moved to California. She told us that if we were looking for some fun and a kid friendly place to go, she would recommend Old Town San Diego. We decided to take her advice since she had two littles of her own who she had recently taken there. So, we cleaned ourselves up and headed there. The first place we stumbled upon was the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, we walked inside not knowing what to expect. We were then greeted by the cutest sister missionaries who asked if we waned to start the tour. This was such an amazing tour! It may have been my favorite thing we did our whole trip. It's such a special thing to be so far away from home, but still feel the sweet familiar sense of the spirit, as well as learning about the amazing people who joined the battalion. It was a top notch little tour with different rooms for different places... Piper was the only one brave enough to volunteer to be a soldier and got to wear their military uniforms, hold the gun and everything! After the tour you were able to get a free souvenir picture, try out a few everyday chores they way they use to be done, and pan for gold! It was a beautiful and humbling experience.

We then took the recommendation from the missionaries to go eat at a Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara! It was delicious, and we were starving! After dinner we went and hopped on the Metrolink and rode it to Sea Port Village. Piper loved it!

Once we arrived at the Seaport Village in San Diego, we made a fun stop at the old San Diego Police Headquarters. It was this amazing old prison that had been retrofitted into a tourist attraction. The kids were able to sit on the old bunks in the cells, and they had the most hilarious pictures of criminals from the 1930's. After that we headed to some of the cutest little shops we had seen the entire trip. Piper was finally able to find her mermaid necklace she had begging us for all week. (According to her we went mermaid watching not whale watching.) After we had made our way through most of the shops, we took a short walk along the marina to see the U.S.S Midway. It was a massive aircraft carrier that had been dry docked and turned into a restaurant and a tourist attraction. Since it was New Years Eve everything was closed and we were unable to actually see the inside of the carrier, but what we did get to see was amazing. I can't wait to go back and take a tour of it! By this time though the kids were fed up with being dragged around and were fully exhausted. We headed back to the train and began our trip back to Old Town. During the train ride Hudson really wanted to be held by Grandpa, and within 5 minutes of being on the train, Hudson Bear was dead to the world.

When we arrived at the cars, we tucked the kids into their car seats and headed back to Aliso Viejo. We had so much fun and saw so many amazing things. San Diego, we miss you and can't wait to come back soon.