san diego & sea world

the last part of our trip ended in the beautiful city of san diego. we stayed in the most gorgeous resort! grandma and grandpa did not disappoint when they found this place.

we arrived there in the later evening and had our little bbq. the next morning we woke up and took family pictures all together. the first plan was to take one on the beach. but since we were on a little island of sorts, there were buildings in the background. the resort was so pretty though we just decided to take them around there and they turned out pretty good.

after the pictures we headed over the sea world! i hadn't been since i was super little and didn't remember a thing about it. anything with animals though i am bound to love. the day started out pretty overcast and a bit on the chilly side so we wore close fitting to that temperature. little did we know, as the day went on, it got soooo hot and soooo humid! i love the warm weather, but not in the jeans and sweater-ish type shirt i was wearing. despite that, we had a blast. quin just laughs at me when we stop and look at the animals. i just want to take all of them home!

we went to all the shows that sea world offers (except sesame street) and walked around all the aquariums with the different fishes and animals in them. the first show we went to had dolphins, exotic birds, and whales in it. i think that one was my favorite! it's unbelievable how high the dolphins can jump. they are so much fun. one day i will swim with them. they had things you could buy and swim with them there but we didn't have the time or, most likely, the money for it. after that show we went to a cirque de la mar show where they did acrobatic stuff over the water. it was pretty awesome. it's unreal how flexible people can be. then we went to a pet show where dogs, cats, and even pigs did tricks and put on a show. it was fun to see that. we also did a sea lion show and, of course, the shamu show!

the shamu show was pretty awesome. the killer whales are really incredible. they are huge! they have the soak zones at all the shows that are the first like 12 rows and the people got pretty wet. on such a hot day, the soak zones filled up quick! grandpa had went and bought pizza's for everyone so we had to hurry between shows to go eat and then hurried back for shamu so our seats were decent thanks to grandpa and amber, but not in the soak zone, much to the kids dismay!

quin and i didn't stay all day at sea world. we came home after the sea lion show and decided to lay out by the pool for a little bit. that night we also went into town with the rest of the fam and went to the mormon battalion and then ate at a mexican restaurant. the mormon battalion was actually more interesting than i though it would be (i hope that doesn't sound bad)! we took a tour with two sister missionaries and they took us through different rooms where the story was told. it was pretty interesting. after that, we ate at the restaurant. the atmosphere was so fun. they had a live mariachi band playing and we ate outside by a fire. the food was okay but nothing too outstanding.

we were sad that the trip was over but had so much fun! thanks grandma and grandpa monson for everything!! they definitely sacrificed a lot for us all to go on this and we are so grateful for them. they are amazing grandparents (and parents of course)! now we'll have to start planning the next family vacation soon :)