San Diego- Part One

First, I must say that San Diego is GORGEOUS!!!  Matt and I are in love and extremely impressed with the people there!  They are all so nice.  Just a quick (okay, probably not so quick) run-down of our first family vacation with all four of us!  We really did have a great time.  I'm not going to lie though...  It is hard traveling with little kids.  It is So incredibly different than before.  Although I wouldn't trade these memories for anything, I am looking forward to the day that traveling together becomes something that is relaxing again!

Day 1- Departure Day (Brinley's first plane ride)
We woke Cayden up early in order to catch our flight out. Cayden was crying because he was so tired, so Matt brought out the matches. (Yes- we bribed our son with fire!) This changed Cayden's mood instantly.  He loves blowing out matches (thanks to Papa)! As Cayden blew out the flame, he used his nose and burned the tip.  Ouch!  Major Bummer #1. 

Ashley was kind enough to offer to take us to the airport.  She actually drove us to the airport for Cayden's first plane ride too!  It's tradition! They took a later flight, and it was probably good.  They would not have wanted to be seen with us!  I'm sure we looked like a circus.

At the airport, I lost my driver's license...but didn't know it.  Major Bummer #2. Yes! I am that stupid- and it gets worse.
We boarded the plane after a custodian chased me down and handed me my license.  She recognized me from my picture.  Oh Wow.  Praise God!
We borrowed our neighbor's DVD player because ours was discarded by Matt. Being the most prepared person that I am, I plugged it in the night before and there was a green light next to the word "charging." I thought that green meant it was good to go, so I unplugged it.  Wrong!!!  About 10 minutes into the flight, ELMO ran out of batteries.  Major Bummber #3. 

We spent the next two and a half hours trying to entertain Cayden in a seat by stuffing him with all kinds of food.  Apparently he got a little too much with his last twizzler and puked ALL over me and him.  Major Bummer #4.
After FINALLY arriving to San Diego, we were getting our rental car and had Cayden sitting in the stroller.  (Bad idea to ask a toddler to sit in a stroller after being stuck on an airplane for three hours.)  I was strolling along the car aisle checking out the rides when Cayden squirmed out and ended up face-planting on the concrete.  You'd think I would learn, but we put him back in the stroller and did a repeat.  This time he really hit hard and ended up with a huge bruise and bloody elbow and forearm.  Major Bummer #5.

Believe it or not, we still thought we were having fun!  Little did we know the fun would only get more and more intense!! Ashley called me Thursday and said we had hotel problems, so we ended up finding a smoking hot deal at a Doubletree Resort on a golf course.  It was awesome.  I requested early check-in because our kids desperately need to take naps.  Check-in was at 3:00, and they told me they would have our room ready by 12:30.  Perfect!  We ended up getting there early, but had to waste time because our room was NOT ready at 12:00.  Major Bummer #6 was that it wasn't actually ready until 2:45.  Yes- you heard it right... 15 minutes early.  You have GOT to be kidding me!!  So how did we spend our time?  We ate at In N Out Burger, played with the phones at Best Buy and played with all of the animals at Pet's Mart.

We were so annoyed, and the kids were literally crying in their sleep by the time we finally got in our room.
3:00 Cali time = 5:00 Texas time = no naps for the Culli kids. 
So what do you do with SUPER cranky kids in Cali?  You go to the beach, of course!!
The beach was amazing.  The flowers were gorgeous, and the waves were huge!  There were tons of surfers, random rabbits hopping along, and lots of smooth black rocks along the shores. The only hard thing was actually getting down to the beach.  We were on a local beach and you literally had to rock climb to get down to the beach.  That was what the locals did, so when in Rome....  We tried.  At one point, I asked Matt if he thought we were going to die.  I was holding Brinley and slipping down this super steep and narrow slope.  Cayden was crying because I kept saying we weren't going to make it, and he REALLY wanted to see the rabbit that was about 20 feet below us on the beach.  Somehow, we made it back up the slope and down a different slope without killing ourselves. The water was freezing, but that didn't stop Cayden.  He was having the time of his life! "Bubbles!!! Water!!! Rabbit!!!"  Brinley was freezing, but she was still a really good trooper. 

Joe Cool at the hot tub before we left for the beach...

Seriously gorgeous flowers everywhere!!!

The water is about 50 feet below them.

This is the beginning of our journey down. 

This is the slope we tried to go down....  bad idea!

(sorry the picture is sideways)

This is showing what we just attempted to climb down...  How do they do it with surf boards and wet?

This was the second and much safer path down.

On our way back up, we stopped to talk to a lady who lived on the beach.  Meanwhile, Cayden amused himself by digging in the backpack.  It wasn't until later that night when we realized that Cayden had taken my cell phone out of the bag and left it on the bench where we were talking to that nice lady!!  Major Bummer #7!!  We spent the next few minutes cancelling my cell phone.  We were just thankful he didn't take our wallets out or our camera.  We finished the evening by showering and eating at In N Out Burger AGAIN before falling into bed.

God promises new mercies each morning.  We were really looking forward to receiving them!