San Diego

Last year we spent our family vacation in Monterrey with the Linnell family, and we had such a great time, we decided we should vacation together again this year. We decided to go to San Diego this time, and we invited the Ratigan family to join us as well.
Will spent hours on the internet and eventually found a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom home in Mission Bay for the week. When we got there, it far exceeded all of our expectations. It was RIGHT on the bay with stunning views, and the ocean itself was just 2 blocks away. All three bedrooms were very large, so there was plenty of room for all three of our families.

Here's the view from the living room

And the view from the balcony

And if you look closely, you may recognize a few people in this one


As soon as we got settled, we hit the beach. Lainy Linnell thought Sophia was a "very sweet girl" and held her hand as we neared the water.

We weren't sure if Sophia would enjoy the ocean or be scared by the waves, but it was immediately apparent that this little water baby loves the ocean.
She would do her little shimmy-shake dance every time a wave came up and would exclaim "bubbles!"
The kids (and adults too) and had so much fun at the beach that we spent all of our free time there. Sophia learned quickly how fun and how annoying sand can be. She had a blast helping to build some sand castles.
Since Ella Ratigan's hands were covered in sand, Sophia helped feed her some goldfish crackers. I'm not quite sure how a 17 month old and 26 month old communicated, but somehow they figured it out.
And here is Luke Linnell offering Sophie a bite of his mud pie. At this point in the vacation, Sophie had ingested enough sand to know that it was not a good snack! We were having a blast spending all day every day at the ocean, but we finally tore ourselves away to go to Sea World. We started off at the dolphin show, and although Sophia was watching the show, her face was pretty expressionless, so we're not quite sure if she actually enjoyed it.
We also went to a Cirque de Soleil type acrobat show, and Sophia seemed a little more interested in what was going on.
Her favorite part was the aquariums. She pointed out all of the sea creatures she saw and would protest every time we pulled her away from a tank.
She got a little scared as some of the bigger fish approached and pulled her little finger right back in!
She also enjoyed the flamingos, although she kept "quacking" at them. I'm not really sure how to teach her to squawk like a flamingo, so I guess a "quack" is good enough!
Sea World also has the best playground ever! I actually have vivid memories of playing on that playground when I was child. I wasn't quite sure if they would have anything appropriate for toddlers, but they had a whole section that was "toddlers only" and Sophia loved it!



And here are my favorite pictures from the vacation:

Jack Ratigan 4, Alaina (Lainy) Linnell 3, Ella Ratigan 2, Luke Linnell 20 months, Sophia Skeeters 17 months

We had such a great time that we've all agreed: We've got to do this again! So same place, same time next year!