30 Hours of Fun...

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the San Diego area to hang out with two of our favorite families. A short but sweet trip that definitely deserves documenting.

Sunday night, we drove to see the Petersons--my cousin and his fam... and my aunt and uncle.
Jan and Christine were moving back to Rexburg, so we wanted to see them before they left.
We crashed their going away party, and met a lot of Eric's family which was nice.

That night we stayed at Eric and Sarah's house where Michael enjoyed a late night sleepover with Kaile, Garrett, and Claire. They talked and watched movies while the adults talked and laughed and discussed education and health care while eating brownies and ice cream. We love spending time with them.


Monday we went to the Wild Animal Park with Christine and the kids. It was really a lot of fun.

Here is Michael with Garrett. When they are together, they are like two peas in a pod. Seriously... they are really so similar in their likes and mannerisms it is cute.


Different from the zoo, the Wild Animal Park focuses on keeping the animals in wider, more natural spaces and allows for more observation of natural behaviors. There is a lot of walking. And fun places to stop here and there...


Paul was amazing at chasing/herding/corralling the kids, and Ella was a trooper. And cute pregnant Christine was an even bigger trooper as she walked and walked and WALKED! We didn't see even 1/2 of the park, but felt fulfilled in what we saw. Some highlights:


Feeding the Lorikeet birds. You can buy a small cup of serum that the colorful lorikeet birds love. (At first, Michael thought it was for him and drank it all! The worker laughed and laughed, and filled his cup again.) They come right up to you, giving you an up-close-and-personal experience with the birds.




Michael's experience was especially fun. He had a lorikeet perch on his head... twice! Was it the shampoo we used?? Who knows. He thought it was pretty cool.




Petting the deer. At first, Bekah and Abby were wary about getting close enough to pet the deer. In fact, Bekah didn't even want to get close at all. But after some encouragement from Paul, Michael, and Garrett... they did get around to petting them.







The biggest hit was probably a little water-park area... great for cooling off. No surprise--Bekah and Abby stripped down first thing. I was lucky to talk them into keeping their little diaper covers on. Michael whipped off his shirt, and begun running imagined Olympic races down a hill and around the park.





Claire and Abby splashing away:





Thanks to Christine for sacrificing a valuable packing day to hang out with us. Thanks again for making us a part of your busy, busy week!



That evening, we drove down to downtown San Diego to meet Jared and Allison (and cute little Aiden) Harwood.


Jared is a friend of ours from the BYU days. He had many pre-med classes with Paul, and we saw him through many dating experiences before he found Allison in DC. He is serving as a navy flight surgeon traveling on aircraft carriers. They were porting in San Diego for a week, so they made a family trip out of it.


We were so happy to meet them for dinner, and afterward Jared took us down to the base and drove us right up to see the carrier. It was bigger than I could have imagined... quite a sight to behold. Michael was enthralled, and we all came away with a bigger respect for the service the military provides for us.

But the fun didn't stop there! The girls made their own fun in the dark by making up songs while we made the late-night drive home:






All in all, a marathon of fun with family and friends!