Our Family Vacation

Just before we left to go on our family vacation, Melissa had to run something into the kids' school. Naturally, as we're sitting there in front of their school waiting for Melissa, they got to talking about how fun it was that they were going on vacation while all their friends were in class!

Our first vacation stop was in Las Vegas to see the Donny & Marie Show. Thanks to Wendy and Jerry for getting us the tickets! The show was very entertaining; we had such a good time. All of the kids have become Donny fans as they've watched him on Dancing With The Stars.

It was really nice to have Grandma and Grandpa Besaw with us. After the show we all went to Serendipity for a "little" dessert.

The next day we drove almost straight to Adam's baptism. His baptism was beautiful, and we're so glad we got to be a part of it. Unfortunately, on the drive there, Madison got sick. Amazingly, during the baptism, she was fine. But just before and after were a different story.

The next day Madison was fine, though, and she and Mackenzie had a great time hanging out playing with Annaka. And the two peas in a pod seemed to have a lot of fun being Nerf warriors!

After visiting with Carl and Amy and their family, we headed over to Renee's. We hung out long enough for Annabelle and Daisy to warm up to their cousins (which didn't take long).

Then we zipped off to the beach after having an incredible lunch--probably the best tacos ever!

The beach in October is a little cool, so we weren't planning to swim, but it didn't take but a few minutes before the kids were soaked enough that they didn't care how dirty they got.


So Clayton let everyone bury him, and the rest of the gang seemed to enjoy piling on the sand. Meanwhile, Morgan seemed rather obsessed with finding shells.


We had a lot of fun at the beach. We always do whenever we go. We are glad we got to have so much fun together with Renee's family.


Who would guess that the American Girl store closes at 7:00 p.m.? We had planned to meet Wendy, Jerry, and Michaela at The Grove so the girls could all go to the American Girl doll store. But they were closed! Grrr. (Actually, can't say as I minded so much that it was closed, but the girls were sure disappointed.)


The painful part of the store being closed is that we then had to go back the next day! Clayton was such a trooper: 3 1/2 hours in the American Girl store. Now that is torture for any young boy. Madison, Mackenzie, and Morgan seemed in heaven, though.


Ah, the American Girl doll store. Such . . . fun. Yeah, such . . . um . . . fun.


Now the mission at San Juan Capistrano was fun. The grounds there are just gorgeous.


We got to spend another day with Renee, so we headed to San Juan Capistrano. We visited the mission and then grabbed a quick bite at a fun little restaurant nearby.


The petting zoo was a huge hit. Who'd have thought?


We had another really fun day with Renee and her girls. San Juan Capistrano was a great idea. It was also nice for us that it was along the way to San Diego, which was our next stop.


We spent two days at Sea World and really had a blast. This was our first time to Sea World, so the kids didn't really know what to expect.


They loved the rides and the shows. There was one exception, though. Morgan was not very excited at all about going on Shipwreck Rapids. Truth be told, neither was I.

We'd have probably been a lot better off had we followed Morgan's instinct. We all got drenched and were freezing the rest of the day!

Sorry, Morgan. Next time we'll listen to you!


The shows were a different story altogether. Very impressive.


Touching a dolphin was perhaps the kids' real highlight . . . and Melissa's!

We wanted to show the kids the San Diego temple, so after Sea World, we stopped to take some pictures on our way back to the hotel.


The temple is beautiful and we were glad to have a chance to let the kids see it.


The dolphins were perhaps the Sea World highlight, but swimming at the hotel pool was by far the most anticipated event. And it always is.