When East meets West

The great thing about going out to CA is that we get to not only see my half of the family, but Paul's family too! Grandma Barbara lives in Escondido (about 1/2 hour from San Diego) and Uncle Mike lives in San Francisco. We all meet up at Mom's house and hang out for the weekend. Melanie, Michael's girlfriend, always comes too! This year Melanie was at her mom's which is close to my grandmother's house so she met up with us for the drive to Barb's. Poor thing the kids talked her ears off! One wouldn't even be finished before the other would cut in and start a new story. Paul and I both agreed that we didn't know that our kids could talk THAT much. I am surprised that Melanie didn't lock herself in a room for some quiet time after that! We played the Quiet game several times, but that was very short lived. Thankfully it was only a 2 1/2 hour drive.

Upside down sunglasses make Mike, Xander and Grandma look like flies.

We got to hang out and on Friday evening go for some good Mexican food and then to cruise night on main street. The kids kept wanting to climb on the classic fixed up cars and we had to keep reminding them that the people would be very mad if they touched the expensive cars!
The next day we tried to squeeze in as much as possible with the beach in the morning and the San Diego wild animal park in the late afternoon. It was a busy day, but lots of fun. The waves at the beach were breaking really far out and not as strong as the beach we went to earlier in the week so it was great boogie boarding. I even went in the water and body surfed for a bit. I can't believe how much the kids love it! They would take a tumble in the waves and ask to go again! After one big tumble I was done! I am so glad that we don't have wimpy kids!
At the Wild Animal Park we got to see some animals, but not as many as we would have liked. They made a big deal of saying the park is open late, but forgot to mention that it gets dark at 8 and all of the animals go to sleep. So the last hour is really a waste! The highlight of the park was the African safari and the Poop show. The actual "Poop show" was not so good so we left early, but believe me we saw many other "poop shows" from the ostrich and the deers. This age is really all about bodily functions and how amusing they are.

Cheeky monkeys- AKA Michael and Melanie

The following day we got to sleep late in the comfort of our hotel (we had been at my grandmothers in a very small room with 4 people) so it was so nice to stretch out and chill. We hung out with Barb for the whole day and spent some time visiting with her 90 and 91 year old cousins whom we hadn't seen since our wedding 17 years prior.
I hope I look that great when I am 90!

We had such a nice weekend with the West Coast Trueman's!
It is always so nice when East meets West.