Coronado Day 4- Friday 5-30-08

I need to hurry up and finish this vacation! I have so much NEW stuff to post...I'm getting behind : )

So, Friday morning we got up and hung around the hotel room in the morning. Kenzie went down for a nap a little after 9am. Chip's parents were renting a "surrey" (this is what Chip's mom calls it....it is one of the two-four person bicycles that has a cloth roof and stuff....) anyway...they were going to pedal around the island and look at all the pretty homes. Liz said that she was just going to stay in the room and study (she is taking her boards soon....she just finished her 2nd year of D.O. school). She was so nice and offered to "watch" Kenzie while she slept and let us get out and do something on our own again! So we took her up on it.

We decided to just walk up the main street of shops and look around, as we hadn't done this yet and it is something we try to do every year. We had a lot of fun just walking by ourselves in the PERFECT weather : )

Every year that we have been there, Chip has gotten me flowers at a little flower stand that is set up on the sidewalk. He got me some on our honeymoon, and since we go CLOSE to our anniversary each year, he has always gotten me "anniversary flowers". This was the PERFECT time to stop and get my anniversary flowers as we were by ourselves and leaving the next day (I like to get them near the end of our trip so that I can take them home and enjoy them!) He got me a bunch of Stargazer Lilies (they were our main wedding flower) and 2 Gerber Daisies (another of my absolute faves...). On the way back, we stopped at a new fountain in front of the Del where Chip told me I was going to do a "photo shoot". Ha! Right! Anyway....below are some of the pictures he got....and a nice man stopped and took one of us together too.



The 29 week pregnant model.............. : )

Haha...I'm such a nerd!

I actually was pretty impressed with the "artsy-ness" of this one!

Awww....the happy couple.......

So....we got back to the hotel around 11:30 or 12 and Kenzie woke up a little bit after we got there. Chip's parents got back around when Kenzie woke up too. So we decided to go for lunch. We TRIED to go to a nice restaurant called The Boathouse.....but we ALWAYS forget that they are only open for dinner. So we ended up going to the new pizza place we were thinking about trying. The cheesy bread was SOOOO AMAZING (I think I already said this in a previous post...but it was just THAT good!) After we got home, Kenzie napped again and we played some dice games. Then around 4, Kenzie woke up and we went to the beach again. We had to get at least TWO beach days in while we were there! Chip had gotten a kite earlier in the day when we were out shopping, and was so excited to fly it. Unfortunately, after he got it up and flying a lifeguard came and said it wasn't permitted to fly it there because we were within a mile of a Navy air landing strip.....so we put it away. It was fun for the few minutes it lasted though....good thing he got the $4 kite instead of the $20 one! It was Finding Nemo. It is pretty hard to see in the pictures, but try to look close!



The Finding Nemo Kite

It was up HIGH : )

Kenzie loving the sand!

Chip...just relaxing.

Me...trying to get comfortable!

Kenzie with her little rake.

SOOO...around 6 or 6:30 we left the beach and headed back to the hotel. We grilled burgers and corn on a grill in the outdoor courtyard of the hotel. YUM! We also had leftover salad and fruit (watermelon, grapes, cherries, etc). Then Chip and I shared some yummy fudge that we bought at a little candy shop for dessert.

We put Kenzie to bed and then we played Settlers of Catan one more time.....guess who won? Yep. Chip AGAIN! Three times in a row. He's just good at the game I guess : )

So that was the end of day 4.

I guess I will write about Saturday here too....it wasn't too exciting. Basically, we did a great job (we thought) at getting packed up and on the road. We were in the car heading home by 9:20am. We stopped once before lunch for a gas/potty break and then we stopped in Yuma for lunch around 12:30. We ate at Jack In The Box. There were a few more stops after lunch. Kenzie only took 2 naps that were each about 30-40 minutes long, but she did GREAT for being in the car for so long! She only had one 5-10 minute spurt of whining/crying! We were home and unpacking our things by 5pm! Not too bad with a whole carload of people and a 14 month old. Chip and I can make the drive in 6-6.5 hours by ourselves, so we were happy with a 7.5 hour trip with the whole gang of us!

SOOOOO.........That was our trip to Coronado for 2008!

Coronado Day 3- Thursday 5-29-08

Once again, as I said before, Day 3 started out bright and early in our room. We would bring Kenzie's high chair into our room and feed her banana bread and grapes for breakfast so we wouldn't make too much noise and wake everyone else up. Then she'd run around the room and play on the bed while we turned on the news or something. Once we heard others up and about getting breakfast we'd let her loose into the main living area.

Lately, she has been trying to "get dressed" whenever she finds any clothing laying around. This is usually the result:

I think it is really cute!

This was how a lot of mornings are....just relaxing...reading....no one rushing around. It's so nice:


Here is a family picture we took...just messing around:


Kenzie took a nap that morning from around 9-11ish. During her nap Dad, Mom, Chip, and I played Settlers of Catan while Liz got ready for the day. Chip ended up winning again. It was fun though : )

After Kenzie got up, we left for lunch. Here we are walking to the car. Kenzie figured out how much she likes pushing her stroller. I have been wondering when she'd decide to try this!

She just kept pushing....

and pushing.....

and pushing..... : )
This is a fountain outside of the hotel we stay at. Kenzie liked looking at it and putting her hands in. (PS. I know it was probably just the angle...but I feel like my belly looks REALLY giant in this picture!)




For lunch we ate at a Thai restaurant. We weren't quite sure where it was, so we drove around looking for it, and eventually found it. It was decorated BEAUTIFULLY with fresh flowers on all the tables and formal place settings. Of course, Kenzie had to be the worst behaved on the whole trip at the nicest place we ate. She still wasn't the worst kid I've ever seen, but it was a challenge to get her to be quiet and not make too much of a mess. She wanted to bang the silverware on the nice plates and throw her snacks everywhere. We also forgot to bring a bib, which made it really fun when it came time to try to feed her blueberry applesauce. She wasn't wanting any of the food from the restaurant....it was wonderful. She had just gotten up from her nap and was full of energy and just wanted to get down and explore, which made her extra irritable. Our food there was good, but no one seemed quite as impressed with it as last year. Dad tried a very different dish....it was a whole fish. He didn't seem like he ever wanted to order it again...... So...that was our lunch experience. After lunch we all packed back into the van and headed for La Jolla...to Birch Aquarium at Scripps. We had directions....so we thought....the only problem was that the hotel had just given us directions to "Scripps" which ended up being the hospital. So we had to track down some help and eventually made it to the aquarium around 2:30. Here were some cool whale statues outside the front of the aquarium:




There were several smaller aquariums inside with really cool ocean creatures! We got to see a giant octopus up close, which I had never seen before. They also had several types of jelly fish, sting rays, and SO MANY fish. It was such a fun thing to see. As we walked through the halls of aquariums we came upon the BIG tank! It was AWESOME! It was 70,000 gallons of water! There were sharks, giant sea bass, and several other fish...along with live seaweed. Because of the live seaweed, the top was open to the sunlight. The glass was something like 10'' thick! It was BIG:



Outside on one of the decks, there was an AMAZING view of the ocean:


We had to get one of the provided photo-ops:


After we left Birch, we decided to drive down to the beach and see the sea lions. I took Kenzie down near them, and she LOVED them. She wanted to get down and play so much. I think she thought they were like dogs...cause she got her same excited sounds she gets when she sees "puppies". Here are the sea lions from a far away view:


We drove home and Kenzie took a little cat-nap in the car on the way. We probably got home sometime around 6ish....maybe a little later. We had left-over chicken salad for dinner. It was so nice that it was such a good meal that was all ready to eat when we got there! MMMmmm. After dinner we went out and got gelato for dessert. I got a mix of a sweet cream and raspberry. It was GOOD. Chip got grapefruit and passionfruit....I was glad we didn't share : ) I tried his grapefruit and it was SO potent!

We got back home in time for Chip's parents to watch LOST at 8pm. We were waiting to watch the finale with T&J, so we went in our room with Liz and watched 2 hours of one of our FAVORITE SUMMER SHOWS: So You Think You Can Dance. When it got over at 10, we went to bed.

Day 3 was another enjoyable one : )

Coronado Day 2- Wednesday 5-28-08

Day #2 started out bright and early for us. Kenzie has a habit of waking up around 6 or 6:30am each morning...but at home she talks to herself for a little bit and plays with her animals and ends up going back to sleep until around 7:30 or 8. WELL....when she is sleeping in a strange room in a pack n play and can SEE us in bed, she does NOT go back to sleep. We ended up having "bright and early" mornings every morning of our trip. But that's ok : )

She was a busy little thing in the mornings, as you can see from the pictures above. This particular morning she found her daddy's wallet....then her daddy's ipod....then settled with climbing in her stroller and reading her Children's Bible. She LOVES her Bible and always picks to look at it over most of her other books. Climbing in her stroller to read it ended up being one of her favorite activities while we were in Coronado : )

Kenzie took a nap from around 9-11am that morning and people just hung around/relaxed/got ready. Chip, his dad, and I played the game "Sorry". We decided it is a game that is fun once in awhile, but after one time you don't have a real strong urge to play it again anytime soon : )

After Kenzie woke up we left and walked to the other side of the island (a little over a mile) to a place called Ferry Landing...where the ferry goes back and forth between Coronado and San Diego. There was a fun view of the city...so we took some pictures:





At Ferry Landing there is a little shopping/touristy area with a few places to eat and some nice outdoor seating. Here we are relaxing at a table while everyone else walked around looking in shops and enjoying the outdoors : )



After the long walk back, we ate lunch at our FAVORITE pizza place.....Village Pizzeria! If you are ever in Coronado and wanting a good pizza....we recommend this place. They also have some FABULOUS pizza fries! YUM : ) (I do have to say, however, that this vacation we discovered another pizza place on the island. The pizza wasn't quite as good....but the cheesy bread was TO DIE FOR! We will probably make it a tradition to hit up BOTH places from now on!)

We got back to the room between 2:30 and 3 and tried to lay down with Kenzie to take a nap, but she would not settle down AT ALL. So we finally just decided to skip the nap and get ready and go to the beach. She LOVED it!!! She was SO excited to get in the water : ) Here are some pictures of her first beach day:


First "walk" into the ocean. Last year we dipped her toes, but she was only 8 weeks old at the time, so we didn't get her too wet!

She LOVES sand/dirt/mud/etc. So the beach was a GREAT place for her!

Mmm...this sand tastes interesting.....

Out in the water with daddy!

We were trying to take a "self-portrait". It came out ok : )

Here is my big beach belly : ) I was 2 days away from being 29 weeks.

Mmm....eating snacks on Grandma's lap... and all nice and cozy in a towel : )

Kenzie is quite our little adventure girl. She likes to explore.

And she doesn't mind doing it by herself.

She really could care less about where we happen to be.

When Chip tried to bring her back, she threw a big tantrum.

We got back from the beach and by the time she was cleaned up and had eaten dinner she was one TIRED little girl. Especially after skipping her afternoon nap! Here she is in her seat at dinnertime....about to fall asleep:


But she still managed a smile : )


Dinner was YUMMY that night....Chip's mom had put some manicotti in the oven before we left for the beach. We had salad and bread with it. MMMMmmmm!

After dinner, we started a game of a board game we like called Settlers of Catan. Halfway through the game, Chip's parents and sister left to go get ice cream. They went on their own so that when they got back we'd be able to go out on a little "date night" to get ice cream and they stayed in the room with Kenzie. That is a VERY nice part of going on vacation with family! It was so exciting to go out, just the two of us, and have a date in the little town where we honey-mooned : ) I had no problem finishing my whole sundae that consisted of: fudge batter ice cream, vanilla icecream, cookie dough, hot fudge and peanut butter! SO GOOD!

When we got back, we finished the game...Chip won. Then we all went to bed : )

Coronado Day 1- Tuesday 5-27-08

Let's see....our day started bright and early! Grandpa Brown was gracious enough to get up at the crack of dawn to take us to the airport. He arrived at around 5:15 and we got all loaded up and on the road around 5:30. We got to the airport and got checked in by 6am. Then we stood in a LONNNG security line. We were in line for 38 minutes. I know this because Chip predicted we'd be in line for 38 minutes...and we were! I couldn't believe he guessed it RIGHT ON THE DOT! We got to our gate and our flight which was scheduled to leave at 7:20am was right on schedule and starting to board.

Kenzie did great on the 1hr 15 minute flight. It worked out well because she hadn't eaten breakfast yet, so most of the flight we were able to keep her occupied feeding her grapes and banana bread. She played with some toys as well. I was glad the flight wasn't any longer....she was JUST starting to get restless by the end of it.

We landed at the San Diego airport at around 8:30am and by the time we got off the plane/picked up our luggage/went to the bathroom/etc...it was around 9:15ish and Chip's dad picked us up. **Chip's parents had driven over the Saturday before which worked out really well as they were able to take some bigger baby items over for us (pack n play, high chair, car seat, etc) We also drove home with them at the end of the vacation.** We got to our hotel in Coronado and got everything unloaded. Kenzie fell asleep about 15 minutes before we got to the hotel, so I sat in the car with her and Chip went up to the room and set up her bed so I could bring her straight in and put her down. Of course it didn't work out, as she woke up the SECOND we opened the car door to get her out and wouldn't go back to sleep as she was so excited to explore her new surroundings!

Around 11am we went out for a brunch/early lunch at one of our FAVORITE little places to eat at called Bino's. Their specialty is crepes but all of their food is GREAT! We like to get a berry crepe or a blintz and a club sandwich and then split both...have some normal food and then some sweets : ) YUM!

We went back to the room after we ate and Chip and I got Kenzie to sleep for awhile by laying down on the bed with her. We didn't mind the little nap either, as we had gotten up so early!

That afternoon we decided to just stay nearby and go to the pool which was right below our hotel room. A scary, unfortunate event happened on the way down to the pool. Our hotel door opened up to a flight of fairly steep tile stairs. Some men had just been spraying down the awnings over the stairs and the bottom few stairs were still wet, but we didn't see this. Chip was going down the stairs first and was carrying Kenzie. He was also wearing flip flops as we were going to the pool. As he stepped on the 3rd step from the bottom, his right foot slipped out from under him and he fell very hard on his right hip and elbow....this was also the arm he had Kenzie in. God really protected them....Chip bruised his elbow quite badly and it still isn't QUITE better, but it could have been MUCH worse. Thankfully, Chip was able to hold Kenzie up enough as he fell that she DID NOT hit her head at all! It was close, but she was not hurt in any way. As if this wasn't enough, Chip's older sister Liz hadn't seen why he fell, so as we rushed down to help them she hit the water and fell EXACTLY the same way he had fallen! It was horrible. The hotel was great about the situation and called and checked up on them once or twice even. Luckily no one had any serious injuries and it didn't ruin our vacation or anything.

So we got down to the pool and it was FREEZING, but I still got in part way with Kenzie...she liked jumping up and down in the water. Here are some pictures from our afternoon pooltime:


Here we are enjoying the water.....brr it was SO cold!Kenzie also really liked sitting on the edge and kicking/spashing : )
































































































After swimming we decided to take a walk on the walkway by the beach. It was such beautiful weather...70 degrees and sunny! Here are pictures from our walk:






We got back from our walk and Mom B made a wonderful dinner of chicken salad sandwiches on croissants. Her chicken salad is my favorite EVER : )

After dinner, Kenzie went to bed and the rest of us played Yahtzee. The first day was pretty low-key and a lot of fun!