San Diego

  My parents invited us on a mini vacation with them to San Diego a few weeks back and we jumped at the chance to get away. Our life has been so crazy-busy lately that I had moments where I was seriously wondering if I was going insane. :) To me, the whole school age kid business is where being a full time mom gets hairy. That's a whole other story for another time. Going back to my initial story, we left on Friday afternoon after Keira got out of school. The plan was to stay at the same hotel (La Fayette) the entire time, however, things rarely go as you plan them. We've stayed at that hotel on multiple occasions in the past, and it's always been a family favorite growing up. Well, fast forward 10 years and uh, yeah. Things change. There were cracks in the exterior walls and half hearted attempts at a remodel. To be honest, yeah, it looked lower class than it did, but that doesn't really bother me (or at least not as much as it does my dad). My dad considers "Roughing it" the Holiday Inn. Needless to say, he was ticked and rightfully so as the rooms (which were his treat) were priced way too high. Not to mention, by the time we got settled places were closing for dinner and we had to eat at the mall. Strike two. The breakfast buffet was Saturday morning and unfortunately, it turned out to be Sunny Delight and two waffle makers for the ENTIRE hotel. The huge line of people were fuming with me when I started my third waffle and since Daylon doesn't eat, I made the 4 kids go halfsies and gave Brian the third waffle. I have an excess supply on board, so I figured I could stand to wait until lunch. Breakfast brings us to, you guessed it. Strike three. I know that in baseball you're given only three strikes, but since we were all was so desperate to have a vacation, we convinced Dad that things would get better...and they did! We went to the harbor to the playground that merges with the ocean, cool and scary all at the same time in my opinion as a mother. Great picnic, great day.

I love that they're best friends

We went back to the hotel to go swimming. When we got there, music was blaring (seriously. Blaring.), which is never a good sign. Felt more like we were pulling up to a party than a hotel. Our rooms had back doors that lead out to little patio areas, which opened up to the hotel pool. We walked into our room and were shocked to see 75-100 college students partying by the pool. So. So. Soooo much skin. They were in our patio area, sitting around our table! Some were rubbing each other up er, applying suntan oil, making out in the pool, bikini girls sitting on boys laps, a group of men (in Speedos) giving massages to each other (if you get my drift). There was no way my kids were going out there to the Playboy mansion for a swim! We complained, then put up a stink and finally got the money back on the rooms for that night. We spent the next several hours looking for rooms...anywhere. Just before we gave up, we found two room at the Ramada. It was surprisingly nice and even had a kitchen. We went swimming and with the exception of Daylon, we all had a blast. Then we went inside, bathed the kids while the men did a run for dinner, ate and started a super fun game night. I love game night. In the morning we had probably the best breakfast buffet I've ever been to, soaked in the Jacuzzi, walked around Seaport Village and then went home.

  All and all, a wonderful weekend. Thanks for inviting us, Mom and Dad!!

Daylon after he peed in our suitcase

Oh and PS- Don't stay at La Fayette ...unless you like that uncomfortable feeling of your eyes burning right out of your skull, which in that case, go right ahead. :)