Our First Road Trip

Even though our road trip to San Diego was a month ago, I still wanted to get these pictures up on our blog.  We had an amazing time and Abe did great in the car and hotel!  

We were nervous because the longest trip we have taken in the car has been 2 hours and Abe usually cries for half of it so we had no idea how he would do on an eight hour drive, but he was fantastic!! He maybe cried for thirty minutes of it (both ways). 

We left early Monday morning and of course I had a long agenda for our three day trip. We had places to go, people to meet up with and good food to eat! 

My first "must see" place was Sea World. Now, I know it is extremely controversial right now, but Sea World has such a special place in my heart. My family took numerous trips to Sea World when I was growing up and I have many wonderful memories.  I even wanted to be a trainer until I was a junior in high school so one year my dad arranged for me to meet one and get a "back stage" pass. :) Needless to say, I couldn't wait to take Abe!! I was so excited and couldn't wait to get inside. And to make the day even better, our dear friends from Hawaii (who now live in Laguna Niguel) drove up to spend the day with us.  

Abe didn't know what to think of this Shamu...

Watching the Shamu show with Papa.

Watching with dolphins with Abe's new friends, Haylee and Hunter. So sweet!

Trying cotton candy for the first time. He wasn't a fan!

Of course we never miss a chance to go for a ride with Papa! It's one of Abe's favorite things!

Our dear friends, the Hughes. We just love them and it was wonderful to see them again!

That evening we had dinner with our sweet friends from Sasebo, the Johnsons. Donna was one of my best friends (we spent many evenings eating dinners together while our husbands were deployed) and James was the chaplain on Chris' ship.  We love this family! They were so excited to meet Abe and they even put up with his crankiness after a long day at Sea World. :)

On Wednesday, Chris and Chaplain Johnson played a round of golf so Abe and I hung out at Chick-fil-A and a park. After we all took a nap, we took Abe to a model train museum. He loved it (so did we). The models were pretty cool! Chris decided he wants one in our basement one day. 

After the train museum we met some more friends from Sasebo.  We had dinner with Annie, and her husband Sean.  Sorry we didn't take pictures... we were too busy eating the delicious Korean barbecue and honey toast. But we had a great evening with them!

Our last day we went to the San Diego Zoo.  Abe just loves zoos and he loves to make animal sounds.  We had a blast.  I just love these pictures... 

Standing like a flamingo... so cute!

With the huge hippos!

Of course we had to see pandas, but they were sleeping. :(

After lunch, he was out! 

Our final evening we went down to the beach and took Abe to fly his kite. He has been waiting to fly this kite for the longest time. It was the perfect windy evening to fly it!

I love this picture of them!

I know I included a ton of pictures in this post, but we had such a great time I didn't want to leave out any of them (besides, I know Abe's grandmas will love them)!