San Diego Zoo

We had so much fun at the San Diego zoo but we don't have the photos to prove it because the camera needed another battery and it was left in the car. It was seriously hot I don't know how people come to the zoo in July here, we drank so much water I'm sure we caused a shortage. It was fun to see the giant exhibit for the polar bears and panda bears and extra nice that this huge zoo has three buses and a sky ride to make it less tiring to see it all. We were able to spend a decent amount of time at the park because it is so close to the airport, but we were grateful to have a change of clothes so we didn't have to fly home with the zoo on us. Although it was a nice weekend it was good to finally make it home and sleep in our own beds and Luke definitely was grateful to get back to his normal routine because his molars were working their way out, we're just lucky he's a good flyer or we would have not made it through this trip.

San Diego Temple

Andy wanted to take a picture of the temple and I think he did a pretty good job fitting it all in. When we first arrived at the grounds the sister missionaries wanted the kids to take a quiz about the temple and prophets but they were so squirmy they let the kids off the hook. After walking around the grounds in the heat for a while they were ready to sit in the shade with the sister missionaries and I was impressed that they aced the quiz.

I love the San Diego temple, it is so beautiful. I tried to talk Nate into getting married here years ago, but he wanted to be closer to home so all of our family would attend, crazy guy. It was nice to be able to talk to the kids about the importance of temples and to see Maya get excited about getting married in a white dress someday instead of in her little rainbow dress that she tries to wear every day of the week.

More Legoland

Maya loved being able to ride on the rides and she seemed to enjoy everything even though there weren't any "Princesses" running around. I think she loved having play time with her dad and being old enough to drive the cars. Luke was a trooper and held up pretty well despite the heat. The free fall ride was one of their favorites and since the line was short they kept riding it over and over. It was a nice fun day for the kids.

Legoland

We had heard that Legoland was a park for kids between three and eleven years old so we decided to try it out. Legos everywhere, it couldn't have been more exciting for the kids. Maya and Andy had both saved up their allowance and were so excited to choose souvenirs from the toy shops. The thought of buying a toy with their own money was just as exciting as all the cool displays and rides. Andy bought legos, legos and legos and Maya chose a pink fairy umbrella of course.

We loved the miniature cities made completely from Legos. It was fun to see our old home New York city made up completely of Legos.

Most of the park's rides are made for the younger set so it was fun for our shorty pants kids to finally be tall enough to ride the rides!

Weekend Vacation

Since I haven't finished writing about our last family vacation in January I would write about our quick weekend getaway before I forget. Nate had a regional dental meeting in San Diego last weekend so we decided to take the whole family along. We spent Friday on the beach and swimming at the hotel, Saturday we explored Legoland and Sunday we visited the San Diego Temple and the San Diego Zoo. It was a nice warm weekend.

We slept late on Friday because our plane Thursday night was delayed and we didn't make it to the hotel until 3 a.m. Not one of the kids slept a wink on the plane or on the drive to the hotel, they were so exhausted when they finally hit the sheets. By the time we got up and had breakfast it was time for Luke's nap so Nate and Luke napped in the hotel while Andy, Maya and I built a sand castle. After lunch Nate had to go to his meeting so the rest of us hit the hotel pool and hot tub. Our hotel is in the picture to the left behind Maya, the pool was nicer than the beach because the glass wall blocked the wind. Our beach day happened to be the coolest of our 3 day trip wouldn't you know it!

Perfection is a Process

I serve as the primary secretary in my ward and on Thursday we had a Stake Training meeting that was wonderful. My favorite thought of the night came from the Stake President's counselor. We had learned so much that evening and had been asked to do so much more that he was started speaking about the fact that as we act upon the promptings from the Holy Ghost our abilities to recognize the spirit and receive more inspiration would increase. He spoke about the common issue in our church of feeling inadequate because everyone is trying so hard to be perfect in every area of life. He reminded us that in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 Christ told us to follow the example of our Heavenly Father and be perfect, it isn't until the account in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi chapter 12 verse 48 when Christ is visiting the Americas after His death that he adds that He is also perfect. It wasn't until He had completed his earthly mission that He claimed perfection. Becoming perfect is a process, something that we work on over a lifetime. I liked that thought.

Aaugh!

March was full of fun things but so incredibly busy. Now that we've slowed down I'm sick. I'll never get caught up!