We received so many recommendations to visit the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in Old Town San Diego, and I'm really glad we did! It was a fun visit with an excellent interactive presentation. Mormons were instrumental in settling San Diego. It was really neat! Holly loved it and wanted to go through the whole thing a second time, and when I said no, I had the thought, maybe she'll serve her mission here. Who knows? There were lots of lady missionaries in old timey dresses.

We did very little shopping while in San Diego and what we did do was done at Old Town. We bought a nativity and blanket and some tea. I know right? Big spenders. But to be honest, I loved that shopping wasn't anywhere close to important. I really felt like the focus of our trip was being together and making memories. And we did! It was uh-mazing!

Going to the zoo was so much fun! A definite San Diego must. We loved seeing all the different animals and I feel like we saw so many! It was a ton of walking and our girls were troopers about it. Conor gave Greta lots of little shoulder rides to rest her legs.

We saw pandas which was so exciting! Greta was thrilled to see kangaroos (I think a trip to Australia needs to be added to our to-do list). I got a tad emotional thinking that my gandkids may not see some of these animals. And then I thought, well if we lived a 100 years ago I wouldn't have seen any of these animals!

The first day we visited Coronado Beach was our only ill-weathered day of our trip. San Diego gets on average 9 inches of rain per year, so the odds were against rain while we visited, but I suppose we just lucked out. We couldn't feel too awful about it because we still enjoyed the beach and CA so desperately needs rain. Anyways, still had fun, still made memories.

We visited the Cabrillo national monument, where the first European first stepped foot on California. The monument is on Point Loma and the views of San Diego were beautiful! On one side of the point is the monument, at the end on center is an old lighthouse (no longer in use), and on the far side is cliffs and tide pools (and a coast guard station). My phone thought I was abroad (in Mexico). It was a fun outing and felt reasonably appropriate for a Sunday afternoon.

This day may have been my favorite. We all played so hard together and the water was perfect. Clearer than the other beaches we’d been at and it stayed shallow for a longer distance and that made it easy for the children to play in the water.

At one time, I had Greta on my back and I was helping Holly with the boogie board. It was a perfect Mom moment to me and I loved playing in the water and laughing with my children.

I probably got the most enjoyment from the boogie board. I loved watching Holly ride the waves and the lingo she used. “Let’s catch this one!” She was too much! I was so proud of how brave she was and of her persistence. It was a really special beach day.