San Diego - Day 3 - La Jolla and Mission Bay

The first place we headed on Wednesday morning was La Jolla Cove to see some sea lions up close. Eric's sister and one of her daughters met us there for the morning since they also live in San Diego. We started by heading to Children's Pool, where a big sea wall was built and we were told lots of sea lions like to hang out. The beach part of Children's Pool happened to be closed for mating or something, so we started out by walking along the sea wall. It completely exceeded my expectations. We saw tons of sea lions, and the beaches of La Jolla are just gorgeous!

The water there was so blue and clear! I took this picture because you can see through the water to the seaweed below - that's how clear it was:

The waves were crashing up on the seawall (which protects Children's Pool from the harsher waves) and a couple of us got a bit drenched unexpectedly! Lots of sea lions were dozing on rocks, and though I had been warned they were pretty stinky, we were far enough away at this point not to suffer that odor.

Then we walked down to another beach (that wasn't closed) so we could play a bit in the water. I hadn't brought bathing suits or anything because I figured the water would be too cold and we were planning on just exploring La Jolla anyway for the morning.

Eleanor was wearing a long dress, so I ended up tying it up around her waist because she wanted to run in the waves. Next thing I knew, Chris was carrying a drenched Eleanor up the beach because a wave had completely taken her out! She was surprisingly good humored about it all.

I only had one backup outfit for both girls to share and had completely forgotten to pack back up underwear for Eleanor, so she was stuck in shorts and a tank top the rest of the day.

From there we headed on a walk to another beach along the coast line and saw piles and piles of sea lions laying on the beach and a handful swimming right on the beach in the water.

Here is where they got really stinky. We were obviously very close this time, so could smell them quite well...yikes. Chris took a picture with the sea lions and then Eleanor wanted to copy him, which was super cute.

From there we headed back up the beach through the parks on the coast. There was a man blowing huge bubbles with fishing poles and tons of kids were running around popping them. Eleanor had a blast.

EleanorPopsBubble from Katie Stratton on Vimeo.

For lunch we went to check out a local brewery in La Jolla called Karl Strauss Brewing Company. The beer was good (according to Chris and others) but the food was also amazing!

After lunch we went back to Lauren's apartment for naps, and then my aunts, their spouses, and one of my cousins joined us again for the afternoon!

We went back to Mission Bay, prepared to swim this time (because we knew the water would be warmer in the bay than in the Pacific), and Eleanor was desperate to fly the kite Lauren had bought. 

Even Jane took a turn a few times though once just completely let go, walked away, and said, "all done" without realizing the kite would sail away. Chris thankfully was able to catch it.

We also swam all the way to a little island (Chris with Eleanor and me with Jane, along with Auntie Lo and Uncle Benny) before realizing there was a sandbar a little ways down that we could have walked to the island with. The island we swam to is the one with palm trees behind everyone:

We stayed there until dinner time because the weather was so perfect. The girls alternated flying the kite and playing at another little playground nearby.

My sister and I headed home with the girls and the rest of the crew headed out from there to check out a couple San Diego breweries: Bay City Brewing and Coronado Brewing Company (which was the more hipster of the two, with their flights being served out of cigar boxes, a counter made of all books, and a mural of Michael Jackson made out of post-it notes).

All in all, another great day!

Twenty-four weeks with TWO!

All is still well and we are doing our best to get ready for these babies' arrival, likely in just around 3 months. We got an extra crib from a friend, someone donated us a crib mattress and a high chair, and Chris is going to test out our car seat arrangements this weekend to see if we'll be able to fit the ones we have into the van or if we'll have to get narrower seats to fit everyone in. We still need to get another infant seat and a handful of other things.

In this ultrasound, baby A is on the left and baby B is on the right. Baby A has his/her hand near his/her mouth and baby B has his/her arm over his/her head.

San Diego - Day 2 - Coronado and Torrey Pines

On Tuesday morning we decided to head to Coronado Island. It's a gorgeous little island in San Diego that has beautiful beaches that are super family friendly - very spacious and not at all crowded. The ocean was freezing, so none of us went in past our knees, but we played in the incredibly soft sand for hours on the beach.

When we first got there, Eleanor wasn't feeling so hot. We had been bounced around in the back of the van a bit and I think she was just feeling a bit nauseous so she laid down under a towel for a few minutes and had a snack.

The rest of us explored the beach with the sand toys that Lauren had so thoughtfully collected before we arrived!

There is the famous Coronado Hotel behind us...

And soon Eleanor was quite herself again.

She even decided she wanted to be buried in the sand, which she has never done before. I buried my legs, so she wanted hers buried, then she asked to be made into a volcano, and then she wanted to be buried all the way.

From there she decided to explode out into a sand monster and chased everyone (not just our family) around the beach!

And sweet Jane stayed her sweet self...

After our excursion to Coronado we headed back for naps, lunch (which we picked up from In-N-Out!), and regrouping before we met up with my mom's sisters. They were staying in San Clemente for the week and were kind enough to drive down and visit us in San Diego. We all headed to Torrey Pines when the girls woke up from their naps, and my goodness, I could have spent days here! On the recommendation from someone who used to live in San Diego with young kids, we parked up at the top of the National Park and then just took the trails from up there around (instead of hiking up to the top from the bottom).

Everywhere you looked was just gorgeous views of the ocean and cliffs. Eleanor insisted on wearing her yellow "Belle dress" and hiked the entire time by herself. Jane did fairly well but needed to be carried about half the time (which Chris and Grandma took turns doing).

We hiked to a few overlooks and over a couple trails, but there were so many and we just didn't have the time to see them all! If we go back to San Diego, this is probably my #1 spot to explore more.

Overall the entire park was beautiful and we were there at just a gorgeous time of day. It wasn't too hot and was so enjoyable.

From there we headed home for dinner (which Eric had grilled for us) and then celebrated birthdays! We knew we wouldn't see my sister again before our birthdays were over (since everyone in our family is currently crammed into a 7 week stretch!) so while we primarily celebrated Eleanor and me (the August birthdays) we also celebrated Chris and Jane. My mom and Eric and Lauren surprised us all with tickets to visit Sea World later in the week as a birthday gift! We were super excited because we've never been and can see it from Lauren's apartment.

That night we played some Monopoly and then headed to bed to get ready for another fun day!