San Diego and a Thrift Store

On Thursday, we decided to do a little road trip to San Diego for the day. Rick, Cody, Lauren, and Sam were pretty sunburned so a day at the beach was out of the question. I am not usually a scenic route kind of person, but this scenery is worth the extra driving time so we took the Pacific Coast Highway to our destination. It was breathtaking at times. We loved the beach towns along the way as well. I would love to be able to explore each one.

We learned a very important lesson the hard way on this little adventure: Always take a change of clothes in the truck when traveling to another city for the day. I will explain why a little later.

Isaiah has been really funny on this trip. He is experiencing things he has never experienced before, and he is so excited about them. He was disappointed to learn that San Diego is not where Diego from Nickelodeon lives. We didn't realize until we arrived and he started saying, "Where's Diego?" that he was confused. He is getting spoiled having movies in the truck. He is going to be devastated when we return home and take those screens out again. He also has a few words that are cracking me up right now. He calls the ocean, "the motion" and sunscreen, "sunscream."

We arrived in La Jolla. After driving around a bit, found the perfect spot for a picnic.

The view from the rocks where we sat and ate our lunch.

We could see surfers, watch the seagulls, and watch the waves crash on the rocks. It was beautiful. Speaking of seagulls, at one point, while we were distracted, the seagulls got into our food and opened a bag of chips and cheese crackers. They were just eating away having a grand old time.

Sam, the man.

The view from the other direction. I wish that was my house!!

The kids came up with this great idea of a game. They would run up to the water and try to run from the waves before the water could touch them. They had so much fun!!

Then, they got a little braver and would go a little closer. Here is where the change of clothes comes in. Before it was all over, they were all soaked, even Isaiah and Laila. We finished out our time eating lunch.

Is he adorable or what?

Sweet Abby

I love me some Laila kissies.

Our little diva. It is so cute when she puts them on top of her head, too.

The kids had so much fun, and then the realization of wearing wet clothes hit them. They were crying and complaining. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. We just arrived in San Diego. We were not about to turn around so soon without seeing more of the town. So, we drove around exploring with much drama going on in the truck. We checked out Coronado Island. We decided we would like to do a tour of the Midway aircraft carrier so I had the brilliant idea of finding a thrift shop to get some clothes for the kids. With the help of our friend, Greg, who was in town and the concierge at his hotel, we were given directions to a nearby thrift shop. When we pulled up, I was a little scared to go in. It was not a nice store of second hand clothes. I went in anyway ready to meet this challenge. There were only 2 racks of kids' clothes, but I was able to find somewhat matching outfits for the 4 big kids for a total of $6.43. I was pretty proud of myself for that little accomplishment. Believe me, if you had seen the selection you would have been really impressed that I came up with what I did.

Here are the kids in their "new" clothes.

The really funny part is that I bought some orange capris for Abby and some orange leggings for Laila. Abby's capris were way too big. So, she tried on Laila's 3T leggings and they look like short leggings for her.

Here is Laila wearing the 3T leggings.

Here is Abby wearing those same pants!! She doesn't look very happy in this picture.

She did think it was hilarious that she could wear Laila's pants as shorts and asked if she could keep them!!

By the time we got back to tour the aircraft carrier, it had closed. So, we decided to head to a park. The kids need to get some energy out before the drive back.

Here are some park pics that Rick took:


It was a good day. We will never forget the thrift store adventure. We need to go back to San Diego to do that tour and see more of the city. Maybe next week.