more family visits

My sister, Alice, and her kids came to visit last week after spending a few days in Disneyland. I love having my family come visit. It brings a little piece of "home" to me. Our house is small but we make it work and it's nice and cozy while they're visiting.

Alice and I deliberated before hand about what activities to cram into two days with kids in San Diego. Of course, there are a hundred things to do that I could recommend but because of the short amount of time and because they had already spent three days at Disneyland, we settled on spending the first day walking around Seaport Village (the kids loved climbing the gnarled trees on the harbor in cool weather) and then they toured the USS Midway aircraft carrier. Alice's kids loved that! Jack (who is 7) wore his plastic captain wings every second since he got them. He even moved them from his shirt to his pajamas after his shower. It was pretty cute.

On the second day we went to the Mormon Battalion Center in Old Town. This is a really fun place to visit, even if you're not Mormon. It tells a lot about the history of how San Diego became what it is and the part that the Mormons had in settling the area when they joined the U.S. Army and marched from Iowa to San Diego. They've really made it interesting with fun interactive movies, great sets and fun real props. Then you can pan for "gold" at the end. I overheard my niece, Mary (age 10), say, "You guys are so lucky you live here!" as she found her second piece of fools' gold. 

Then we headed over to Coronado Island, toured the Hotel Del, had lunch and rode bikes around the island. It was beautiful and Alice commented that it felt so "romantic". I agree. Riding beach cruisers along side a beautiful ocean with balmy wind blowing in your face has a certain allure that feels really dreamy. We were all tired after our bike ride so we sat on the grass overlooking the bay while the younger kids played in the sand.

Friday was Alice's birthday so I made a chocolate cake sprinkled with toffee and she made vanilla ice cream. It wasn't anything super fancy but there's something so fun about blowing out candles on your birthday. I look forward to it every year. Alice obviously did not turn five years old, but it seemed like a reasonable number to blow out. :) Happy Birthday Alice! Love you!