San Diego

San Diego was a very relaxing vacation. Every morning Andrea woke up nice and early, so Grandma would either take her for a bike ride or walk, or I would take her down to the beach. Andrea absolutely loved seeing all of the dogs on the beach in the mornings and evenings. She got so excited every time she saw a dog. She would kick her legs, flap her arms, and make oohing noises. She learned how to pick up cheerios and eat them while on our trip. She loved the sand and climbed up the two small stairs leading from the kitchen into the living room. I really enjoyed the mornings that I had with Andrea at the beach. Just listening to the waves crash against the shore and holding my baby close to me helped me feel just that much closer to heaven. I'm so grateful to be a mother, it is such a huge blessing and gift that God has blessed us with.

We went on several walks and bike rides while we were there. Our condo is just down a few houses and on the left.

All of us in the condo.

She was fascinated with Grandpa's mustache.

Andrea looks very tired in this picture and it is because she is. She had just woke up from a long nap and was ready to go back to sleep. Matt and Melanie gave her two gifts: An ASU Onesie and a cute summer dress.

While driving from place to place Andrea was wasted and fell asleep just like this. I guess it doesn't matter which way the binki is facing as long as it works. :-)

While at Costco an older man asked Matt if he would drive his cart back to the store so he wouldn't have to walk back to his car. Of course Matt willingly took it for him.

Andrea's first day at the beach. The weather was really cold the whole time we were there, but that didn't stop us, we still went to the beach and got in the water. Andrea wore the same jacket all day every day, because I only packed one. We also had to go to the store and buy pants for her because I didn't pack any. I was planning on it being warm. This vacation was just a lot more sight seeing instead of tons of water playing and sun bathing.

Playing in the sand with Grandma.

Because it was cold we spent a lot of time making Sand Castles. The boys made a sand sculpture of a bee and flower. I must admit it looked pretty cool.

Melanie and I made an entire Castle Kingdom.

Eventually we made it to the water to boogie board, but we were extremely cold when we got out.

While building our Sand Castles on our first day at the beach there was a herd of dolphins playing in the water right in front of us. We couldn't believe it. It was our own personal show for about five minutes. Here is a quick clip of the dolphins.

On Sunday we went to church. It was a missionaries home coming. His entire family (which was huge!) sang "Where Love is" with two guitars accompanying them. It was really good. We caught of picture of mom and dad just before we left.

On Monday we went to Old Town and the Mormon Battalion. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, all of which was outside because it's San Diego and they can do that. This is a picture of Andrea posing at lunch.

After lunch we went to the Mormon Battalion. It was incredible! The church is completely current on all the latest technology. They had picture frames on the wall that really were TV screens underneath and the pictures (black and white pictures) started interacting with us and telling us their story. Then we moved from room to room following them on their adventure. Each room had incredible sound effects, tons of projectors, awesome decorations, and told a wonderful story. It was extremely positive and showed how the Mormon Battalion was actually an answer to their prayers in helping them get to the west. Each member of the battalion was given clothing or they could choose to take money instead. Almost all of them chose the money and sent it back to their wives and children. They didn't have to fight anyone, but they were automatically given their guns and ammunition. Once they got to California/Mexico at the time they helped the people rebuild their cities and they learned certain skills from them such as how to farm in the west so when they went back to Utah they could teach others and we were able to survive. At the very end of the show they took our picture in front of an old fashioned back drop and printed it out for us and let us email it to ourselves. We also got to pan for gold and Andrea got to play in the water with Grandma and Grandpa. :-)

Here is the picture that they gave us. Pretty cool huh. We learned a lot and were very impressed. The early saints were so amazing. They were incredibly positive and determined.

Panning for Gold. Yes, Steve had a lot!

Steve made Andrea laugh so hard.

On Tuesday we went to the Temple in the morning and did Sealings. The entire temple was covered in scaffolding on the outside, but the inside was still very beautiful. They had all the windows covered with plastic so light could come in, but none of the workers could see into the temple from the outside. In the middle of all the spires they have a beautiful atrium with tons of flowers that normal you can see perfectly from all the windows, but they were all covered, so we had to peak through a little crack in the plastic. :-) I cold tell that the temple must be so extremely beautiful when all the windows are open because the entire thing is all white and there is so much light let in from all the windows. It was a really neat opportunity to participating in sealings together as a family. It was kind of funny though because we were all Brother and Sister Bentz, so a little hard to distinguish for the sealer. :-)

On Wednesday Matt,Melanie,Steve, and I went to Magic Mountain/Six Flags for the day. We went on this specific ride two times in a row right as we got to the park. It was the most intense ride of the park and we didn't even get a break between rides. That did it for me, I was pretty sick after those two rides. I didn't want to ruin everybody elses' day, so I went on one more ride, we took a lunch break, I went on three or four more, and then I only sat out the last ride before we went home. It was really fun to have a lot of time with Matt and Melanie and really get to know one another. Most of the "getting to know each other time" was in the car because we drove over 3 hours to get to Magic Mountain and over 4 hours to get home. Yes, it was a ton of driving! The drive home was very beautiful though. We got off the freeway and drove on Pacific Highway which was right next to the beach for most of the drive home. We played several games which included saying a word and then everybody had to say the first thing/memory that came to their mind from that word. It was really fun. Andrea spent the entire day with Grandma and Grandpa.

Steve and I just before our first ride.

The most amazing Ice cream machine ever! I really want one. You freeze the bowl before hand, then put all the ingredients inside and it's done in 25 min. No salt or ice getting all over the place. It was awesome! Yes, I really really want one now. It would be perfect for Lake Powell.

We ate the ice cream along with Matt and Melanie's wedding cake (the one from their open house) to celebrate their 6 month anniversary.

On Thursday we rented Surf Boards. We tried for quite a while, but the waves were constantly right after one another. We could never even get out far enough to really surf. But we did all stand up on our boards and ride in the smaller waves that we normally rode boogie boards in on. That doesn't mean the waves were small by any means, they were all pretty big. We just were surfing a little more shallow than normal. :-) I'm excited to try it again next year.

We eventually gave up Surfing because of the strong waves and disgusting/insane amounts of sea weed in the water all around our legs and feet, and went back to boogie boarding. Now that was fun.

A shot of all four of us.

Andrea loving her flower made out of some kind of read. On our way into the restaurant a man was making them and threw one to me for free. Andrea loved it! It made for a very cute picture. Thank you for the dress Auntie Sharon, it's one of our favorites (meaning my favorite and Andrea's favorite by default.)

Andrea loved the sand. She actually didn't get too much of it in her mouth either. What a cute beach baby! She's in the dress Matt and Melanie gave her.

Our official 4th of July picture. Notice how Steve is wearing a jacket. Yes, it was the coldest 4th of July they have had in 100 years. It's ok though, it was still beautiful, relaxing, and fun to be with family.

I love this picture! Andrea loves playing with her daddy and wearing her beautiful 4th of July dress.

That night we watched 9 different firework shows on the beach from the Bay Side. It was really neat. We had glow sticks and sparklers. Andrea loved the glow sticks Grandma brought.

Steve and I enjoyed all 20 seconds of our sparklers. :-) I may have bought really cheap ones, but at least we had enough for everyone to have a turn and we kept the tradition.

On our second to last day we decided to go to the Tidal pools. Normal, when the tide is low a person can walk across from where this picture is taken to the beach on the far side, but we went when the tide was pretty high. We still thought that somehow we could get across, so we did. We were insane. The going across part was hard, but not near as hard as the coming back part because the tide was even higher. All of us are on top of rocks that are at least 2 feet tall.

This is a picture of all of us on top of the same huge rock that is over 3 feet tall. you can't even tell we're on a rock, but that's because the water was nice and deep. This was the last final hard spot before we made it to the beach. But on the way back this was the beginning of a long journey of dodging rocks and waves all the way back. Melanie and I didn't fare so well. We both came out with scraped and bloody knees.

The scrape on my left leg is from the rock in the above picture. It was too tall to climb on top of, so I knelt down on it and tried to climb up it, but I slipped and it made a nice array of scrapes on my leg. The one on the right I got on my way back. I was walking through the water and lifting my legs really high so I wold feel each rock on my way down, because the water was so dark we couldn't see them. Well, one rock was just a little too big and while lifting my leg up really high I kicked/kneed the rock really hard and got a nice bruise and cut. It did not feel good. I kind of limped the rest of the way out of the water. It was a good adventure for stories, but not one that I will ever repeat. We all made it back a live and in one piece and that's all that matters.