Mission San Luis Rey

We drove to California Thursday, March 5th and arrived at Brian's sisters house near San Diego around 10pm or so. It was a good drive and we stopped for dinner at Bob's Big Boy...one of Brian's favorite parts of the trip. Then the next morning we tried to sleep in but both woke up really early. The kids were all up getting ready for school so I got out of bed and ate breakfast with them. Brian joined me shortly and we had fun getting reacquainted with our nieces and nephews.

Eventually Brian's parents made it down from LA and we ended up outside for a while talking and enjoying the sunshine. It was pretty nice weather but still a little cool most of the time. Then after lunch and two of the kids got home from school, we went to the Mission San Luis Rey. It was really neat to go on the tour and see the museum inside. I haven't posted pictures yet of this place but I have plenty of pictures from all the other things we did on our trip. Look for pictures to be posted of this later.

Breakfast & LaJolla Beach Area

Saturday morning we woke up early to go to breakfast before we headed in to San Diego for the day. We went to Swami's which Brian's sister recommended. It is really close to the beach and serves what I think they call "surfer breakfast" or something like that. I had the french toast, eggs, and bacon. Brian got a really good omelet with potatoes. It was pretty windy and chilly but the food was a good start to the day.
We took up 3 tables and all enjoyed the beautiful morning.
I think she made the biggest mess with all the syrup...it was all over her and the syrup bottle!
After breakfast we took the scenic route down the coast into San Diego. As we got into LaJolla we stopped at a beach and saw quite a site. This beach had tons of seals everywhere! Most of them were basking in the sun on the sand but some were playing in the water too. It was so cute to see the little baby ones.
It was a cool wind but such a beautiful day with the sun shining and the sounds of the beach.
These two seals were playing together in the water. I think this picture is of one kissing the other...so cute!
Oh, how I want to go back on a nice warm day in shorts and flip flops to really enjoy the beach!
The different colors in the water are so pretty and natural. The pelicans and seals add a lot to the picture too.
It was a detour that was well worth the extra time!!

USS Midway

We finished our scenic tour in San Diego arriving at the USS Midway. We took a tour of the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. It is an audio tour so we got to wear these fashionable headsets the whole time. It was very interesting to walk through the majority of the aircraft carrier and see how tight their quarters are in there. Here are a bunch of pictures taken while on our tour. This is only probably an eighth of all the pictures we took but I had to cut back somewhere so it's not too overwhelming.
Brian and his dad tried out the living quarters...tight sleeping space.

This was the "Brig" (prison) on the ship. It did not look like a fun place to be...
I thought this cardboard cut out looked like Brian's dad so I had to get a picture of him next to him. This was on the runway of the ship.


The runway with the San Diego skyline in the background.

This statue we saw when we were in San Diego for our cruise but this time we had someone to take our picture as we reenacted it!
Cool memorial to Bob Hope for entertaining the military men.

We spent about 3 hours doing the tour and still could have spent more time (at least Brian could have). I was ready to be off my feet for a little bit but there were a few things we missed out on seeing...maybe we'll finish it another time.

Model Railroad Museum & Hotel Del Coronado

After the Midway, we met up with Brian's sister and her family and his other brother who was in town from Texas and his family. We met them at Balboa Park to go to the Model Railroad Museum. We hadn't eaten anything since breakfast so I we stopped at a little cafe upstairs from the museum and grabbed a sandwich and then met the kids down in the museum. One of Brian's top places on the list to visit was the Model Railroad Museum. If we had more space in our house he would have a model railroad setup in one of our rooms. The museum was smaller than we expected but it was still fun to see. This was one of the landscapes, some were under construction but the little kids absolutely loved seeing the little trains.
This was one of the really fun model railroad displays. It was very kid intriguing with all the bright colors, tons of different models to make it look like a town. It was really fun to watch the trains go around the town and explore all the tiny little details.
This was my attempt at using my newly acquired photography skills to show the train moving. This was by far the most fast moving train in the whole museum. Most of them went pretty slow.
See...the kids were really intrigued by this one. It was so fun to see their reactions and excitement.
The museum is in Balboa Park and all kinds of different Museums are located there. The buildings had really cool architecture and designs on the outside. This was one of my favorites.
I saw this beautiful flower outside the museum and took advantage of having my cute niece with me to add to her cuteness! She's going to be a heart breaker when she grows up!!
This picture was taken on the Coronado bridge looking back towards San Diego. It's such a pretty city, especially with the surrounding water.
The closest we got to the beach. We strolled down the sidewalk between the beach and the Hotel Del Coronado. It was a beautiful sunset and a beautiful area.The Hotel Del Coronado, a very fancy, old hotel on the island outside of San Diego. It is such a unique design and right along the beach. Brian and I dreamed of staying at one of the hotels little "cottages" that is even closer to the beach. It even had an outdoor spa on the patio. I'll keep on dreaming...
So beautiful lit up at night. This main building reminded me of a light house type building.
Brian and I were the only ones who drove around the island and strolled along the beach. After our sight seeing, we met Brian's entire family back at his sisters house for dinner. It was a long, fun filled day!!

Kyle's Mission Call

Yesterday my little brother got his mission call! I was so excited all day long to see if it came that day. Around 4 pm he called to tell me it was there so we planned to come over at 6pm to watch him open it. Unfortunately Maria was in Layton for a Conference so she wasn't able to make it but Brian and I were there to support him and 2 of his friends were there too. Kyle was on the phone with our parents and I had my phone on speaker phone with Maria on it. It was so cool to be there and see his reaction when he read he's going to serve in the...Florida Ft. Lauderdale mission. I am so happy for him. He will be speaking Spanish and he reports to the MTC on June 10th. He will be missed while he's gone but I am so proud of him for making such a wonderful decision to serve the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 2 years.

Kyle reading his call while on the phone with our parents.

Here he is looking at the map of his mission area.

The proud supporters!!

I have had the opportunity to work with Kyle the past 7 months so I have been able to see him pretty much every day. It has been such a fun experience since I left home for college when he was 10 years old! I know he is ecstatic for this chance to serve and he will do a wonderful job and come back stronger. Good luck buddy!!

I See The Light!!

So, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel!! I started jogging at physical therapy 3 weeks ago. It felt pretty weird the first time and it was only a total of 5 minutes with a 30 second walk to begin and a 1 minute cool down walk. So today the therapist looked at my knee when I first got there and said it wasn't swollen any more so I didn't need the ultrasound machine thing and to just do my exercises. Then as I was leaving we passed in the hallway and I asked if I needed to keep coming if I just have exercises to do. He thinks one more time will be good for me and that I'm doing so great that I can just do everything on my own now. I AM SO EXCITED!! It's been about 4 1/2 months since surgery and I feel like it's gone really well once I got past the first month of not walking and the second month of learning to walk and progressing through the pain. I saw the surgeon last week on Monday and he is very pleased with my progress as well. I feel almost back to normal. I just need to keep strengthening the muscles. I can't fully squat down or kneel on it but the light is shining as I reach the end of the physical therapy expense!! Now I just need to keep motivated enough to do my exercises on my own...

P.S. - Pictures to come soon of our California trip...we had a blast and took tons of pictures so I'm still sorting through them...

Opinions Needed

So, whenever Brian meets new people, they tend to always say he looks like Robert Downey, Jr. When he first told me that people say that, I honestly had to look up a picture to even know who he was talking about. I just don't seem to see the resemblance though. So it seems to be happening even more lately for some reason. Most recent episode: We were at a Receptionist desk and the girl kept looking at Brian even when I would be talking to her. It was really weird to me because it was kind of a weird look. So after about 3 minutes she finally says, "Does anyone ever tell you you look like..." and we both started to laugh. She looked over at the girl next to her and then she finished, "Robert Downey, Jr." Both girls looked at him and nodded. She continued to say that at first she really thought it was him and Brian laughed and yes, I've moved to Utah. We got a good chuckle and she said she had to remind herself we were in Utah so it definitely wasn't him. That explains the stares and looks for several minutes!! I guess I know my own husband pretty well so I don't see much of a resemblance. So today I thought I'd get the opinion of my readers. I googled some images of Robert to compare to Brian. Do you see it??

Here Comes the Sun!

I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot going on these past few weeks to update on but I'll just do a quick recap. Brian went to DC last week for a work conference. He flew out on a red-eye flight Tuesday night so I was up way later than I should have been! (I'm just glad I made it home safely from dropping him off!) I have a hard time being productive while he's gone. I cleaned the kitchen Wednesday night and then just watched TV until bed time. Then on Thursday I had my photography class so I didn't get home until later. I made myself something to eat and then went to bed. Then on Friday I came home from work, made myself a pre-dinner, quickly made chocolate chip cookies to surprise Brian, and then left for the airport. I'm glad I didn't have too much time while he was gone to sit around and focus on him being gone. Don't get me wrong...I missed him dearly but I'm usually more of a basket case when I'm alone.

I gave Brian the cookies when I picked him up from the airport and just as I suspected...he was starving! So we decided to go out for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. We got a Cactus Blossom (onion covered in delicious batter then fried) and then shared an entree. The portion sizes there are so large that we knew we only needed one for both of us...and we still had left overs. It's a fun atmosphere as well as good food. And besides, who wouldn't like Texas BBQ!!

The most exciting thing we get to look forward to this week is we are going to California on Thursday!! We decided after Brian's parents didn't make it out here for Christmas that we would try to go visit family in California. We figured we would want to escape from the cold and need a vacation come February but we couldn't find a weekend that would work in February. So we finally found March worked best. We will be staying with Brian's sister in San Diego and seeing the sights down there. I can't wait for warmer weather (hopefully it will be nice weather). More details and I'm sure tons of pictures to come next week after our trip. That's all for now!