San Diego

For our Christmas gift and Marley's birthday present, Jerry and Ruth took us, along with Kevin's sister's (Noelle) boys (Ryan, Seth, and Luke) to San Diego! It was such a great gift!  I love San Diego and if we ever had the chance, we'd move there in a heartbeat!!!

 Ryan, Marley, and Luke.  Marley loves to ride the "bus" (i.e. the shuttle) from the airport parking lot to the airplane terminals.

Seth, Ryan, and Luke Bennett

This pizza was INSANE!

 Luke, Grace, Ryan, Marley, and Seth

 I had Marley and Grace wear these "big sister" shirts on the plane ride over to San Diego.  It was mostly to kind of make a surprise announcement to Jerry & Ruth about Kevin and I having a baby boy in August of this year.  On the plane when Jerry saw that Grace was wearing the shirt (as he didn't notice that Marley was wearing the SAME shirt), he asked "Is that a hand-me-down? Why is Grace wearing a hand-me-down that has 'big sister' on it?"  Although slow & dangerous behind the wheel, Jerry finally pieced it together, and realized what messages we were trying to convey with the shirts!

I wanted to get pictures of Grace and Marley together wearing the shirts in San Diego so I could send out announcements of our upcoming arrival, but neither would cooperate!

 It was a little on the cooler side for swimming, but Marley and Grace were dying to swim, so they braved the chill.  Grace let me wrap her up in a pool towel and waddled around with it on.

 The first day of travel to San Diego meant Grace got up early and didn't nap.  At the end of a long day, she climbed up on to the hotel bed and immediately fell asleep next to Kevin!!

Oh how do I LOVE this little girl!!!

 I love Lego Land and was excited we got to go again this year.  It's so perfect for little kids as they have all sorts of ride geared for even Grace's age!  Grace loves to run the tail of her monkey binkie on her face...it's really cute!

 Marley has always had this fascination with the "Big Bad Wolf" ever since she was about two years old. I think she has a big, intense imagination, and for whatever reason, the stories about the "Big Bad Wolf" have stuck with her, and she was quick to point them out on the Lego Land story book ride.

I waited with a sleeping Grace in the car while everyone went into The Museum of Making Music.  I'm kind of bummed I missed it because apparently they had all sorts of interactive displays!

Marley and Grace really seemed to love Sea World.  I feel that Sea World is kind of a pain.  They have the animal shows at certain times, and if you can't make it early, there isn't any space left and you have to wait several hours before the next show.

 Grace is attempting to pack...

 ...and starts crying out of frustration when she is unable to put the hotel towel into Marley's backpack/suitcase.

San Diego Wildlife Preserve

So these aren't the best pictures of Marley's beloved teddy bear.  It has valentine hearts all over it and is kind of a tan-ish color.  We made a HUGE mistake!  When we got home from San Diego, and the first night back, Marley asked for her bear because she sleeps with it every night.  We looked EVERYWHERE for it and could not find it. We called Jerry and Ruth, asked Noelle if her boys had seen it, called the hotel we stayed in, the airline we traveled with, the car rental company and no one had seen the bear.  I have no clue where it went and Marley was absolutely devastated at it's loss!! Kevin managed to find the exact same bear on e-bay, but white in color.  Marley was sort of happy about the replacement, but still missed the original bear.  It made me so sad for her!