Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California...(Picture Overload!)

Things I Learned From Our Trip:

1. The airport is determined to break everything I own. Casualties now include two strollers, two bottles of souvenier marinade for Justin, and a suitcase. How do you break a suitcase?!

2. It IS possible to wear a sleeping toddler in a Baby Bjorn and go to the bathroom at the same time. All that's required are killer quad muscles and excellent posture.

3. One or both of my children (and I'm sure any future children) will immediately have an accident or blowout on the first leg of the journey so that for the remainder they'll only be in a shirt and a diaper. This along with my 'young' looking face will solidify my 'white trash, teenage mom' appearance.

4. Some airplanes are NOT equipped with baby-changing stations in the bathrooms. The following conversation actually occurred between me and the stewardess after I had checked all three restrooms for said station:

Me: "Can you tell me where I might find the baby changing station so I can change my son's diaper?"
Stewardess: "Oh...we don't have those..."

(insert long pause while I'm waiting for her to offer a solution... I quickly realize she does not intend to do so...)

Me: "Well can you tell me where you've suggested that people change their child's diapers on previous flights?"

Stewardess: "Um...I don't really know - there's not a set place. Maybe...." (Long pause)
Me: "The floor? A seat?"
Stewardess: "Yes, some parents do change their kids on the floor... Or....wherever...Maybe a seat."

At this moment I was not at all impressed with the airline's stewardess screening process. Certainly I was not the FIRST parent that needed to change a diaper on this plane! I ended up grabbing a few of their blankets and changing Eddison on the floor. Meanwhile he had supersoaked through to his jeans leaving me with the above circumstance (see #3). I gave Eddie permission to poop while I was kneeling on the hard floor of the plane just so I could leave it there for the stewardess to clean up. Unfortunately he was unable to oblige - I'm sure because he was too busy wondering why he was on the floor with his 'possibles' available for all the plane to see.

5. Justin and I will forever do vacations together from now on. It turns out we're pretty fond of each other's company. :-)

NOW.... ONTO THE PICTURES!!! (You can click to enlarge any of them.)

Here they are!!! Just a suggestion - grab some popcorn and take a potty-break before starting this photographic journey.

P.S. I would have added the pictures that Justin took of him and Jackson, but Justin is pretty certain Jack destroyed the disposable camera and has doubts about even trying to develop the film. I'm going to cross my fingers and try anyway. :-)

The San Diego temple...Isn't it beautiful?!

A future missionary enjoying the beautiful temple grounds.

Enjoying (enter sarcastic laughter here) our three hour lay-over in Atlanta on our way to San Diego. Eddie was fascinated with the planes!

Taking a stroll in La Jolla with Aunt Julia. It was a perfect day!

Saying a sad goodbye at the airport...Eddison was not thrilled about leaving sunny California OR his new best friend, Aunt Julia.

Auntie at the helm again! She got quite the workout driving the little man around! He loved every second of it!

Love this picture! Story behind the t-shirt: I bought this shirt for Eddison because it simply could not be more contradictory to his nature! He's consistently the happiest kid I've ever known so I get a good chuckle every time he wears it. :-)

The Fantastic Four at Sea World! We had a great time - even though I couldn't help but think the whole time how much Jackson would have LOVED to see everything!

Aunt Julia took us to Fashion Valley where Eddie and I agreed that while the stores were very nice (ahem... pricey!), we're totally fine with shopping at Old Navy and Target. The first indication that the ritziness had started to rub off on Eddie was when he demanded stadium seating...(as pictured). That's when I realized we had to get him out of there before he was swept up in the lights, the glamour, and the competitive world of ridiculously good-looking male modeling. No son of mine will become a mer-man!!!

Aunt Julia and Eddison enjoying the flowers (more like Aunt Julia keeping Eddison from eating the flowers) on temple grounds.

Aunt Julie helped Eddie perfect his "high-five!" over this vacation. He LOVES handing out fives and tens now...:-)

Eddie, Aunt Julia, and Uncle David in the shark cave. By far Eddison's favorite part of Sea World!

Snuggle time with Uncle David. Guitar Hero really takes it out of you!

I think if he had a pair of sunglasses on he could pass for the Unibomber. What do you think? ;-)

La Jolla, California. There were so many cute seals and a few even had babies! The Pacific is so beautiful!

Eddison and Mommy preparing for the big chill... Will we make it back alive?!

Okay, so like any good mother I let Eddie go ahead of me to get hit with the wave first. (Don't worry - he LOVED the water! I couldn't take it for long, though! TOO cold!)

No worries about sleeping in a strange place! Eddison had his froggy and cuddled close to him every nap time and bedtime.

"You are the Guitar Hero Master, Uncle David!! Let me just sit here and learn..." Eddie loved watching David play and especially enjoyed going after the guitar. We may have a future Hendrix on our hands! :-) Uncle David was a great teacher and let Eddison have a turn whenever he wanted. This may be a case of what some might call HERO worship??? LOL!!!

Appearances can be deceiving. We may look like your average 'girls next door'...Sweet, cuddly, some may even say delightful... But deep down we're:

ROCK BAND ROCK-STARS!!! (Who love In-N-Out. Really.) I want this game. Justin...are you reading this? :-) Hint Hint...

"Mommy! I could seriously fit inside that sharks mouth! I would be an appetizer to that beast! Good thing he's on the other side of this glass...because I'm about to blow a raspberry on it and there's nothing he can do about it!!! HA HA HA HAAA!"

Eddison and Mommy enjoying the Shamu Show! The killer whales were beautiful and, as always, good at splashing! We were in the soak zone, but Shamu was kind enough to only hit us with a few sprinkles. (Meanwhile I was still pretty wet from the river-raft ride that Jules and I naively took. Somehow I had forgotten there was a waterfall...)

One of Eddison's latest amusements...Sticking his tongue out as far as he can! It has led to his new nickname: Frog. He could literally catch flies with that thing! It's so long!!! LOL!!!

So I wanted to thank my hosts for their hospitality and made shrimp tacos for dinner one night. Included was homemade salsa - which contained four varieties of fresh hot peppers that had to be diced by hand because there was no food processor available. Little did I know the pain that would ensue from the oils in the skins of those mini-devils! The tops of my fingers were burning for hours even after I washed with dish-soap a million times. Jules finally googled how to treat the pain and found the answer in: Milk. Yes. I spent almost a half an hour with my hands soaking in whole milk. On a side note: the salsa and shrimp tacos were fabulous! :-) Julie hand fed me while I was soaking. Now THAT'S love!!!

Eddie enjoyed bonding with Uncle David...and Uncle David loved playing and cuddling with him! They got along well because they're both easy going and love to laugh. Plus it helps to have a comfortable lap. :-)

For breakfast one morning David treated us all to breakfast burritos from a great little restaurant by the beach. It was fantastic! Eddie and I shared what was probably a five pound burrito log and even then we couldn't finish it! This picture was pre-food and Eddison has his, "Feed me or I'll die," face on.

Another picture in the Shark section of Sea World. Eddison looks a little apprehensive in this picture. I don't blame him! Imagine being his height and realizing that you'd be a mere bite to these big killers!

Aunt Julia LOVED that she got to drive the kid-cart at the grocery store! That is until she found out just how difficult those things are to steer! I think Eddie was whiplashed a few times and fell over a few times (thank goodness for the seat-belt!) and then Aunt Julia reluctantly relinquished the driving to me. LOL!!! There must have been at least six other customers laughing at us as we tried to maneuver the cart through the check-out. I'll admit that I almost wet my pants because I was laughing so hard. Love it!

The double ear-hold. Without fail this means that Eddison has no more than one or two minutes before he's passed out. While Jackson's red-eyes (just like Justin's!) are a dead giveaway when he's ready to hit the hay, Eddie's cue is obviously even less subtle. It's hard to miss an adorable toddler holding onto both of his ears! So cute!!!

"Ack, I think I may have swallowed a rock in that last handful.. Please, just one more bite and I'm done, I promise!!" Eddison is following in his brother's footsteps and has developed an affinity for sand. (Luckily Jack has grown out of that phase.) We can only hope this will not last long as it's pretty hard to avoid the sand when you go to the beach!

We hope you enjoyed the show! Special thanks to Aunt Julia and Uncle David for the wonderful time we had in their beautiful little Cardiff-by-the-Sea and for making all of these pictures possible!

Also - thanks to (honorary) Aunt Ashley for coming to visit and sit with us at the airport in the middle of the night during our three hour layover in Salt Lake City on our return home. Even if I did get laughed at for flossing my teeth in the baggage claim area.