Our sweet San Diego Trip

It has been a week since we got home from our San Diego trip. I finally got back into my routine and am ready to tell about it. The trip was great, NOT TOO NOISY or anything! We all headed out on Sunday afternoon. 6 adults and 8 kids. Of course Aaron and I didn't think it was too noisy since we had 3 of the boys and half the kids.

For our first two meals we went to McDonald's at State Line. It was................well, McDonald's. We were pleasantly surprised at how well the kids did during the meals (Aaron thought he did such a good job at getting a kandid picture of most of the group).

Madison and Chloe loved hanging out together. On the way down they spent most of their time laying on the back bed in the motorhome watching movies. They Loved It!

Ry........Where are You? This is how Ry spent about two hours of the road trip. He loves his blanky, his sleep and being his daddy's co-pilot. I'm not sure life could get any better than this for him.

We finally arrived in San Diego! It was too early to check in to our hotel so we went to "SPANKY'S PIZZA." It was delicious, but not only did we get pizza, we had a little/LOT of fries, onion rings, salad and cheesy bread. YUMMY!

We went to the beach the first full day we were there, which was Tuesday. It was a lot too cool for my liking, but it was still the beach. The kids really seemed to enjoy it. Brayden mostly stayed on the chair next to me and ate. We did get him away from the food and he ventured off for a nice little walk on the beach with his Daddy!

I knew there was a picture of Brayden and I sitting next to each other, but I didn't know he was eating in it! After all, I did say that is what he did the whole time. This picture just proves it! It really does surprise me that he is only in the 10 percentile of weight for his age group.

Madison had fun building sand castles. Ry did the same, then enjoyed destroying them after they were built. I guess Brayd did enjoy the sand for a minute.

I'm such a bad mom! This is the only picture I took of Porter at the beach. I guess I could justify it by saying he was in the water most of the time and I was on the beach. Sorry Porter! I do love you. Do I have too many kids?

We think this is a jelly fish that swept up on the shore and almost took Jill out! Aaron attempted to save it and put it back in the ocean. It was a pretty exciting moment at the beach.

After we left the beach we went back and swam at the hotel. That night Aaron took Madison to a baseball game with Mike, Chloe, Mia and Brent. That was a fun night for them! The rest of us ate too much, watched American Idol and went to bed!

I think this is the only picture we got of our whole family on the vacation.-Thanks Brent!- Here we are at Sea World on Wednesday. The kids did surprisingly well. Brayden and Ryan even took naps in the middle of it!

Madison and Porter had a good time touching the Stingrays until.............

WHOOPS!!! I guess the stingrays didn't like Madison and Porter as much as they liked them!

Ryan and Brayden liked looking at Shamu. They were a lot more interested in the Shamu Show than I thought they would be.

As long as Brayd had food he was happy watching Shamu.

That's a good Shamu! Thanks for the Excellent Show!

The rest of the day went good. After we got back from Sea World we cooked some yummy dinner. We then put the kids to bed and watched American Idol again and had a peaceful night!

The next day-Thursday- the kids and guys went swimming while the girls packed up to leave. After swimming we ate lunch and headed out. About 2 hours into the ride back home the motor home had some difficulties........come to find out there was an air leak in some thing that controls the suspension and brakes. We pulled over and unloaded Mike and Jill's Yukon off the trailer that we were pulling. We loaded all of us in the Yukon except Aaron and Brent. No kidding I was about to cry. It was a little too exciting for me. Mike found an outdoor mall with a big grassy area for us to hang out at while the guys handled the "situation".

This is what the kids did while we waited. Chloe was leading the group with Madison, Porter, Ryan, Mia and MaKenna following close behind. At least they were having a good time.

Are we for real? Did Jill, Lyndsi and I really take our 8 kids to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner? SURE DID! We thought it would help pass the time. It wasn't TOO bad but a little hectic.
Lucky for us the guys called just after dinner and said the motor home was fixed and we would be on our way home that night. By then Jill and Mike were tired of us...........I guess. No, it may be the truth but I don't blame them. The Yukon was already off the trailer, so they decided to drive it home. We arrived home between 2:00 and 2:30 Friday morning. The good thing about having to stop for a bit is that by the time we got back on the road the kids were all exhausted and went to sleep fairly quick.

Madison and Ryan slept on the bed

Porter slept on the floor. There wasn't too much space but he seemed to be cozy. Brayden slept in his playpen in the bathroom.

I think the trip turned out better than expected and Aaron and I both thought the kids did good. It is nice to be to a point where we feel like we can handle the kids without too much confusion. I'm not so sure our friends feel like we are under control but it's a lot better than it was 6 months ago!
LET'S DO IT AGAIN!