Family Vacation: San Diego (Day 3)

Day 3 found us driving toward San Diego.  We were going to celebrate my birthday Melita way: sightseeing, what else :).

Our fist stop was the San Diego temple with its fairytale-like castle architecture surrounded by the constantly beautiful sky. It is a tradition of mine to visit a temple on my birthday.  In my twenty years of living in America, I've seen a lot of temples.  Everywhere I've been, each temple holds a special place in my heart always connected to an event or stage of my life that made that experience really unique.  However, the princess in me was really attracted by this temple, especially having my prince with me, and my four gorgeous and amazing little beings that have made my life so preciously sweet.  So, this day my experience was one of peace, of contentment, and of joy.  Gratitude poured out of my heart for all being right with what's important in life: my family.  At moments like this, you don't see and feel the turmoil that the world is in; you don't worry about money or material things; you don't care about trends or others' expectations.  Your heart is so full with a joy that transcends this world, a joy that includes a clear understanding of your Heavenly Father's love for you, a pure love for your husband and children, a gratitude for extended family, and excitement for the friends we cherish.  It is a moment when you truly see life for what it is.

The next stop was The Mormon Battalion Historical sight.  We took the tour that was very interactive between characters in the video and us the tourists.  The kids enjoyed learning about the Mormon Battalion and their faithfulness, their hardships and their gratitude to God for saving them.

After the tour, the kids loved "looking for gold," and Elijah and I enjoyed the peaceful view and the interesting conversations with the missionaries, who by the way thought I was way too young to have those kids be mine.  Ha ha ha, that was a fun birthday present for a woman turning 39 that day!

Our last stop for the day was La Jolla Beach with its upscale shops, fine dining, and amazing coastline.  But the beach was what interested me.  If I miss anything from my childhood, it is the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the absolutely beautiful sunsets, and the boat rides with friends.  Well, the Pacific tried very hard to make my birthday memorable.  The sky, the ocean and the land created the most stunning panoramic view that I truly couldn't have enough.  I didn't even bring my camera with me because I felt that capturing that heavenly tableau was quite impossible. (The pictures below were taken by my phone :( )  There were several coves covered with sea lions and seals who were bathing with their young, accompanied by myriads of a diverse kinds of gulls, pelicans, and cormorants.  There was a foul odor coming from that area of the beach, but what they lacked in good smells, they made up in beauty.

We ate, played tag and catch, enjoyed the sand and the water, and thanked the Lord for the beauty that surrounded us.  My birthday celebration was a hit!

Next stop, home, and with it, plenty of celebrations - James's birthday, his baptism, fun outings with Mama and Papa, Rebekah's arrival, Christmas celebration, and New Year's Eve partying.  Wow, December is a really fun month...

Family Vacation: Disney California Adventure (Day 2)

I thought that California Adventure was a lot of fun: it had way more rides (especially dangerous rides that brought joy to my older kids' hearts) than Disneyland, and offered a myriad of activities and festivities for older ages.  Gillian and Jefferson went to every single ride that looked as dangerous to me as death itself.  Not to them; they thought it was heaven. 

 The highlight of this resort was its perfect replica of Radiator Springs, and the fun rides for my younger kids and me, very doable and enjoyable, nothing extreme.  We even sat town at Flo's Cafe and ate lunch there (the food wasn't that great, but the kids thought it awesome that we were "inside" a movie set :)

Just like at Disneyland, this resort offered plenty of cultural entertainment, as well as a lot of my favorite - parades.  While the older kids went on finding their own perilous enjoyment, Charlton and I had a blast checking out all the latest movie characters, with our special friends, the Incredibles leading most of the parades.  Right there and then I knew Charlton and I belonged to that family, not because we had any special superpowers, but just because we loved being called the Incredible Melita and Charlton. After all as a snobby European I was able to stop complaining about this over-the-top place, and try to enjoy myself, and even be entertained by people with masks and costumes on. That in itself was a feat!  So from now on when you see Mrs. Incredible think of me and how I used every ounce of power and strength I possessed to halt my aversion to silly American entertainment. But I digress...

 

 

Besides Radiator Springs and the parades, Charlton and I went on a lot of rides, just the two of us.  He is such a sweet boy and I was happy just seeing him happy, enumerating to me all of the movies that those characters were in.  I would ask him where next, and he would say that it was my turn to choose.  So whether I wanted or not, I had to get excited, if not for me, but for this fellow of mine who is as smart as he is adorable.  Monsters Inc. ride was my choice and he kept thanking me for choosing such an awesome ride.  So, of course, we went on that ride twice; a mother's heart was touched.

 

At the risk of repeating myself, and all of the fun we had at both places, let me just finish with this one event that differed my Disneyland experience with that of California Adventure.  At Disneyland, my kids were just happy to have fun and be on their own; well at California Adventure they must have missed the constant presence of their mother, so they kept begging me to accompany them to various crazy rides.  And I did, as long as I had a say in which ones.  Being a beach girl has made me have this forged connection with water, because most of the "dangerous" rides I went on, had something to do with water.  Not all of them; the following three pictures show that in the air, even in a simple wave swinger where Charlton felt as comfortable as the older ones, I thought I was going to die.  But I did it for my kids, even twice!

We ended our night by attending the World of Color, a 28 minute spectacular show, where 1200 fountains shoot water 200 feet high making a projection screen of 19,000 square feet big!  Music and characters from various Disney movies showed up on the screen, and this time Olaf from Frozen was the MC for the evening.  Even my skeptical self couldn't say anything to the magic that this show brought!