We drove to Las Vegas the first day. It was a long drive, but the kids did really well in the car. We stayed at Embassy Suites. The first time I stayed in a hotel that nice was after graduating college and went on my first conference. The first thing the kids said when they walked in the room was, "It's kind of small...". They are too spoiled from staying in VRBO rentals. That night we went to dinner at a really sketchy Mexican restaurant. And we went swimming at the hotel pool. It was just to talk with Jamie, Kevin, and Jason in the hot tub.
The next day we drove the rest of the way to California. We rented a house in Encinitas, CA. It was about 30 minutes north of San Diego. The house was really weird. It was huge and had a big kitchen, but the lady who owns it painted really weird hippie pictures all over the walls.
We spent most of the day driving, so we didn't have a ton of time to play. So we drove to LaJolla beach. We heard this was a cool beach because you can see sea lions and seals. But the place was packed. We drove around forever to try and find a place to park. After finally making it to the beach, the kids had fun looking at the sea lions. They basically looked like gray potatoes.
And then they started looking for shells. Luke tripped and got pummeled by a wave and started screaming. He was okay, but it was really funny. The girls also got quite wet and sandy. But it was not warm, so we didn't last very long.
The next day we went to SeaWorld. The first thing we did was go on a roller coaster. But Aspen was too short and started crying because she couldn't go on it. After she calmed down, we went and looked at a bunch of the animals.
Sea World had a section with kiddie rides that the kids enjoyed. They also had a fun playground area where you can climb up a bunch of nets and crawl through tubes. I had to go with Luke, and I don't fit in tubes very well anymore. Everyone but Luke was able to go on a Rattlesnake Rapids type ride. They call got soaked and were freezing the rest of the day.
We also went to most of the shows. The Sea Lion and Orca shows were my favorite. The Dolphin show was a bit disappointing. But again it was quite chilly and by about 6pm we were all freezing and decided to leave.
The next day we went on a whale watching tour. This was really cool. It was the first time I have been on a boat on the ocean (only a few miles from shore), outside of a bay, and it was a lot more wavy. My parents and Jason had to take a sea-sick medicine.
The boat was quite chilly as we were sitting on the top in the wind. But we were able to see at least 4 whales. My favorite part was when we saw a whole pod of dolphins. The boat got right up next to them and we could see them jumping in and out of the water. There mush have been almost 100 of them. It was really cool.
That afternoon we went to Moonlight beach, which wasn't very far from the house we were renting. It was still cold outside, especially with the wind blowing off the ocean. But Isaac and the kids got their swimming suits on to go boogie boarding. They are crazy. It was freezing.
Isaac helped Sophie catch a few waves, and she was doing great. But then he let her go on a wave that was way too big and she got thrashed. She came up scared and coughing, and she wouldn't go again.
Aspen only tried a time or two before getting too cold. And Luke had a blash playing in the sand. But we didn't last very long because it was too chilly.
On Sunday we went to church in the morning. Then we went to the Zoo's Safari Park. Everyone told us the train ride is really cool, but since we got there late it had a huge wait and we didn't get to see it. But the rest of the park was fun. It involved a lot of walking between animals, but it was good to get out and move around.
My dad brought some binoculars, and the kids loved playing with those. The zoo also did a cheetah race there so we could see how fast a cheetah can run. That was really impressive.
I love Aspen peeking through the bottom of this picture.
On Monday, we went to Legoland. We got there before it opened, but it was already really crowded. The first ride we got in line for was a little roller coaster. We waited for about 45 mins to ride it. That was really frustrating. So it felt like we didn't get to go on very many rides because we skipped a lot of things that had long wait times. Plus Aspen and Luke were too short to go on quite a few rides.
But it was cool to see all the things they made out of Legos. I think Kevin really appreciated it. They had a whole section where they had models of popular cities, like Las Vegas, London, New Orleans, etc. That was cool to see how many Legos it took to make those displays.
But we only stayed at Legoland until mid-afternoon. Isaac, Jamie, and Jason went to the University of Utah bowl football game that just happened to be in San Diego. So they left early to go to the game. Right before they left, Isaac and the kids decided to go on a water ride. They got soaked by people squirting them with squirt guns, so they were wet going to the game. And right about the time they were leaving, it started to rain, so we decided to drive to our hotel in Barstow at the same time.
So Isaac, Jamie, and Jason were all soaked and freezing at the game, and it rained almost the whole time. I think Isaac still had fun, but I was definitely glad that I wasn't there.
We stopped for dinner at Chili's, and it was really relaxing. Then we went to the hotel and I got the kids in bed. Isaac, Jamie, and Jason showed up later that evening.
The final day we drove the rest of the way home. Right as we were leaving Las Vegas, our car started shaking really bad. At first we thought it was the road, but soon realized our car was freaking out. We pulled off and went to an AutoZone, but no errors came up when they scanned it. We had my dad drive our car and he said he'd never felt anything like it. I called a bunch of auto shops in Las Vegas, Mesquite, and St. George, but nothing was open because it was New Year's Day.
So we decided to keep driving. They car was still shaking really bad. So by the time we reached Mesquite, the check engine light was on. We had talked to Justin Booth, who talked to a Dodge mechanic, who told us a few things to do. So we scanned the car at another AutoZone and the error Justin's guy predicted came up. So we were looking at YouTube videos about how to change engine coils when the AutoZone guy said he knew a mechanic who could come fix it. So we left Isaac with the car and everyone else went out to lunch. After 2.5 hours, the car was supposedly fixed and we started driving again.
Unfortunately the problem was not solved, so the car kept shaking. We debated stopping in St. George and trying to get it fixed the next day. But the following day, Isaac was supposed to at work and the kids at school. And we were ready to be home. So we decided to keep driving (mostly because my parents were right behind us and could tow us to the next exit if we completely broke down).
Eventually we made it home, but it was the most stressful drive of my life. We kind-of got the hang of driving it and could feel the shakes coming on, so we could quickly accelerate to try and stop them. But it was a long, long way home. And it makes me never want to go on a long road trip like that again. But we got the car fixed and are back in business.
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