Chris and Meliss: Goodbye Newport Beach, Hello San Diego!

The last night of Disneyland, we came home early to go for a night swim. We were all crazy and jumped in the cold pool and then would get in the hot tub. The kids did it too! We swam forever and then on our way back up to the condo we found a frog and brought it back with us to swim in the bath tub before letting it go, the kids all got a kick out of the cute little frog.

The next morning while packing, the kids had me paint their faces and they wore their matching shirts. They were having so much fun and had a hard time saying good-bye when it was time to leave. They are so stinkin' cute!

Dave, Kiersten and their kids left for their drive back to Utah and we spent the rest of the morning playing around the grounds of the resort. It was a gorgeous day. Ryan and Staci came to get us and we took the scenic coast hwy down to San Diego and had a great visit.

We hung out at their downtown apartment and I realized how much I miss San Diego. The perfect weather, a friendly downtown, lots to do, and it's where Chris and I had some of our first dates and we fell in love! We would both live there in a heartbeat! We took Samson, their dog, on a walk, had a yummy dinner and exchanged some Christmas gifts. The kids were so excited that Aunt Staci and Uncle Ryan got them cute clothes. Brooklyn got the cutest sweeter and pants and Beckham got Buzz Lightyear pajamas. Both of the kids had to put them on right away, it was so cute. They also loved playing with Samson and feeding him treats. It was a fun day.

The next day Ryan took us to the San Diego Zoo. It was so fun! We saw so many animals and walk a long long way, we were tired and the kids fell asleep by the end. The kid's favorite animals were the panda bears, zebras, giraffes, lions and koala bears. We had so much fun! That night we had some good Mexican food and hung out and watched the Sing Off.

The next day we went to the mall I used to work at just a couple of blocks away from where Ryan and Staci lived. We checked out some fun toy stores and then headed to Seaport Village to ride the carosel, window shop and walk along the bay. We had a great day! That night, we met up with my cousin Jenny and her new husband and went to Phil's BBQ, the best BBQ place in the world!!! It was so good and we had a fun time catching up. From there we went to the San Diego temple to see the Christmas lights. The kids loved it and Brooklyn thought we were at a castle. It was so pretty and we had a great time!

The next day we went to visit my Grandma and Uncle Mark and had yummy crepes for brunch. The kids played with Great Grandma and we had a great visit before Mark took us back to LAX to catch our plane home. We got to the airport and we were all sad, we didn't want to end our vacation. But Brooklyn was so excited to be at LAX because she loves the song, "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. In the song Miley talks about LAX and the Hollywood sign and Brooklyn was at LAX and saw the Hollywood sign and said she was just like Miley Cyrus, too cute! We got on our plane and had a good flight back and got home to find everything just fine.

We loved every minute of our vacation, but most of all just being together!