Paetyn's original due date was February 11th. We knew this would be a pretty difficult time for us so we thought it might be nice to get out of town and go on a little vacation to celebrate and remember Paetyn! Thinking that it would be nice to get out of the cold Utah winter, we decided to go to San Diego. Well the day we flew out, it was 50 degrees in Salt Lake; so much for getting away from the cold, but the sunny 75 degrees in San Diego was definitely better!!
We got there early Thursday afternoon and decided we would go over to the La Jolla Tide pools to look for some little sea creatures. Unfortunately, it took quite a while to get our rental car, and we were starving and stopped for lunch (Jack in the Box, one of daddy's favorites!!!) so by the time we got there the tides were already coming back in so we didn't get to see many animals, so we walked up the beach to look at the seals!! Turns out, we both love seals!!! Daddy has decided his spirit animal is a seal!
Friday we were up early to head to the San Diego Zoo!!! We had SOO much fun at the zoo. Right when we walked in, mommy got super excited for the flamingos, so we hurried over to see them, and then daddy got super excited for...the ducks!
WOOD DUCK!!!
We walked all over the zoo and saw pretty much everything there was to see! We were literally there from open til close!
Mommy LOVED the hippos
This is a Southern Bald Ibis...but we call it a Paetyn Bird!!
When we got to the elephants they had one in for cleaning and feeding! It was really cool to watch and listen to the zoo keepers talk. Watch the bucket as this elephant takes a drink!
Mommy loved the hippos so much we had to go all the way across the zoo to see them again before we left!!!
After a long tiring day at the zoo, it was off to one of daddy's favorite restaurants in the world, Black Angus!!!
Our waitress tricked mommy into buying a $5 bottle of water! (Tip to any servers out there, if somebody says they just want water...just bring them tap water!)
We kept the bottle and its now displayed proudly in our "trophy case" at home!!
Saturday we planned to spend most of the day on Coronado Island, sitting on the beach, maybe renting a tandem bike and riding all over, and who knows what else! Unfortunately, it was a fairly cold, gloomy, windy day. We did still go out to Coronado and walked around the beach for a bit and happened to see this amazing sand castle art!!
After a few hours on Coronado we decided to find something inside to do because it was so windy, so we ended up going to the Scripps Aquarium! We had a lot of fun there learning about sea creatures! Here were some of our favorites!
Sea turtles! Mommy, LOVES sea turtles, and this thing was HUGE!!!
This silly little guy was one of daddy's favorites!
Sunday was the 11th, Paetyn's due date. We spent most of the morning at the AirBNB spending some time looking through pictures and reminiscing about Paetyn! It was a really nice morning.
We decided to go back out to the La Jolla Tide Pools again and actually be there at low tide! We were much more successful this time around!
We had to make one more walk up the beach to see the seals while we were there! As we sat and watched this cute momma and her pup, the pup rolled onto her side and gave a big wave which instantly reminded us of when Paetyn waved to her cousins! Unfortunately we didn't get it on film.
In the afternoon we went to Old Town and our first stop there was at The Mormon Battalion. Who should we run into there but one of our good friends from Cedar City, Devron!!
We then walked around Old Town for a while, then made our way over to Balboa Park. Unfortunately, we got there a little too late and everything was shutting down, but we still had a good time wandering around.
Since there aren't any Black Angus' in Utah, daddy insisted that we go there again that night!!! Daddy sure loves him so prime rib!!!
Monday was our last day in San Diego, and one that daddy was looking most forward to. We spent the day at the USS Midway Museum. WOW!!! If you haven't ever been there, you have to go! We absolutely loved it. They tell you to plan on 3-4 hours, we were there for almost 5 and wished we could have stayed for about 2 more!! It was one of the coolest experiences we have ever had. It was so much fun to be on an actual aircraft carrier and talk to and hear stories from the Docents; especially listening to the stories about taking off and landing airplanes!!!
Daddy has always wanted to be a pilot so he loved getting in some of the cockpits!
They have a few flight simulators as well so of course daddy had to do it! Problem is, you have to have 2 people or they wont let you do it, and mommy gets motion sickness very easily (especially ever since being pregnant) but being the WONDERFUL wife she is, agreed to go! After paying we were standing in line, next up to go, when mommy looked back and saw a little boy standing there watching. She went over to him and asked if he wanted to do it. He just kind of stared at her, so she said, quick, go ask your dad. A second later he came sprinting over! His name was Jackson and he was SO excited...and so was mommy!!!
Cleared for takeoff!
After a safe landing! (Daddy looks like he just poo'd himself in this picture, but don't worry, he didn't and he had a blast!)
Unfortunately, we needed to be to the airport by about 4:00 that afternoon and needed to get dinner first, so we weren't able to go on a tour of the Bridge, which was a huge bummer, but at least it gives us a good reason to go back sometime!
We had such a great weekend in San Diego and made so many good memories, and even though Paetyn wasn't physically with us, we know she was with us in spirit and we will always think of her as we reminiscence on our time there!