Still in San Diego (at least in my mind)

Tuesday we were going to go to Legoland but Ella had woken up the night before with a fever (which never came back) and we thought it was best to have a low key day. We wound up looking at another preschool, which is the one we chose, going out to lunch and then the girls both took super long naps while Ricardo and I took turns working out.

That afternoon/evening, we had plans for dinner with the Pullmans and the Stadwisers. Riley (Pullman) was born 3 days after Ella. In fact Julie came into the hospital while we were leaving. Riley now has a little sister, Mia, who's 16 months old. So it's very cool that Riley and Ella are the exact same age and Sofia and Mia are close in age too.

We first met at the Pullman's house so we could see it. They were in the process of buying and gutting their beautiful home in Cardiff-by-the-Sea when we were moving so we never got to see it. It's beautiful! I'm so impressed with Greg's vision and ability to see the changes and apply them. I don't feel it's right to post pictures of their home on my blog, but it's amazing and the view of the Pacific ain't so bad either.

Riley, Ella, and Emberlynn and their daddies (at our house on New Years Eve 2005)
Julie and Riley (NYE 2005)

Riley and Mia now-my girls of course wouldn't pose

We then caravaned together over to the Stadwiser's house in Encinitas for dinner. Jean and Mark have one daughter, Ryan, and our pregnant with their second daughter. We are serious girl making machines in San Diego! Emberlynn also has a baby sister who's close to Sofia's age.

Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of the adults together. I'm bummed about that but luckily we have lots of time to make up for that later.

Here's all 5 girls eating dinner (Sofia, Ryan, Riley, Ella, and Mia)

The next day, Wednesday, was our last day in San Diego. We originally were going to try to go to Legoland again, but as all our SD friends like to remind us, we brought the crappy NJ weather with us and it really wasn't warm enough to play in water, so we instead went to Birch Aquarium at UCSD in La Jolla.

Giant Lobster
Ella was fascinated with the guy cleaning the tank
Sofia and Me
The touch tide pool-not a bad view, eh?
The view off the lower balcony
Ella touching a starfish and a banana slug
Sofia preferred climbing up and down the steps
Ella playing with some of the camp kids
Playing out the whale fountains

We then had lunch at Cozymels in UTC and then headed back for naps. Like I mentioned before, the girls were really tired this trip. Neither one really adapted to the time change until Wed (our last day) so they both took they monster naps and were still exhausted and ready for bed by 7:30 pm. So, luckily it was a chill trip and we were able to allow them to rest a lot, but I was really surprised with how tired they were.

Anyway, after naps we drove around a bit more looking at areas and wound up in The Village of Carlsbad. We stopped at a local park which we dubbed "The Dad Park" because besides me there were only dads there with their kids...which was super cool.

There was a father who was flying a Nemo kite and his kids were running around chasing it. In typical Ella fashion, she just joined in. The kids were so nice and didn't even bat an eyelash and let her play. She had a blast.

We then picked up Pizza Port and headed over to Greg and baby Noelle's house. Unfortunately, Tara was on a business trip.

Ella loved Baby Noelle (16 months). Not like it's ever easy to get Ella to look at the camera but she was not about to take her eyes of Noelle.

Sofia and Noelle playing-I know Sofia is 4 months older, but she is an amazon compared to sweet, petite Noelle!
A cute picture of Greg and Noelle

We headed back to the hotel and got the girls to bed because our flight left SD at 7:45 am.

It was a wonderful trip but definitely too short. We were succesful in finding Ella's preschool and narrowing down the areas we want to be in. It was so wonderful seeing our friends and knowing that soon we'll be back with them. We already started making plans for when we return.

San Diego Continued

After naps on Sunday, we headed over to the Slover's house for Easter.

We started out with an egg hunt which was humorous, because as expected, only Ella really got the concept. When I said Go, Sofia dropped her basket and Nick just wanted to pile all the eggs in the middle of the grass. But it was hysterical to watch.

Ella on the go

Nick making his pile o' eggs
Another attempt at a family picture
An even funnier attempt at a picture of both families-well that turned out well!
Sofia and Nick

Thank you so much Pete, Stacey and Nick for having us over. It was so great celebrating Easter with you guys like the old days. :)

Monday morning the girls were still really tired. They had a really hard time adjusting to the time change this trip.

Sofia was a little grumpy, so Ella said, "Come here, Sofia, let me rub your back." and she did. It was very sweet.
After breakfast went and looked at a couple of preschools and then after naps went down to Belmont Park at Mission Beach. It was a little overcast but still nice and the girls had a blast.

Bad picture of Belmont Park and the roller coaster taken from the inside of our mini van-which by the way, I liked. Ricardo would have no part of owning a mini van though.
Sofia and Daddy on the Carousal
The girls and their GIANT shaved ice
Then we played at the water. It wasn't warm enough to be in bathing suits, but that didn't stop Ella.

Sofia on the other hand, didn't even want to touch the sand which is so crazy since it's not like this is the first time she's been to the beach.

With Daddy in front of Canes...oh memories of Canes. Rooftop bar, great bands, good times had by all at Canes, back in the day.
We had to take turns holding her since she wouldn't step foot in the sand. Here we are with the view of Mission Beach (leading towards Pacific Beach)

After naps, we headed to Red Robin to meet up with "Aunts" Lori and Kristina. Both Lori and Kristina were there the day after Ella was born, so it's really great to know they will be back in the girls' lives on a regular basis.

Lori with Ella 9/27/05
Kristina with Ella 9/27/05

The girls with Kristina

With Kristina and Lori...I think Ella was trying to kiss Lori here

San Diego

We just got back from a wonderful trip to San Diego to look at preschools and begin our search for areas we want to be in. We had such a wonderful time seeing so many friends and re-learning the area.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to-but luckily we'll be back soon enough so we can see them all!

We arrived really late on Friday night. By the time we got to the hotel it was 10 pm CA time (1 am NJ time) so everyone was exhausted. We all passed out quickly-the girls even shared a room. But everyone was up for the day at 5 am. So Saturday was a long day.

Our first stop was breakfast with Ricardo's Big Brother from his fraternity(Pi Kappa Alpha) in College, Greg, and his awesome wife Tara and adorable baby girl, Noelle.

Before we went over we made a stop at Von's to pick up flowers and we turned the corner and saw this:
Now, you guys in CA think I'm crazy for getting excited about wine in a supermarket, but you don't understand, we can't buy booze in supermarkets here. Not even at Costco. You have to go to a liquor store, so it's awesome doing one stop shopping. It's also awesome to see the amazing selection of wines you can get in CA for great prices. Yum!

We had a great breakfast with Tara, Greg and Noelle but I didn't take any pictures except this one of Ella feeding their pet bunny, who is defying all bunny odds and is living at 12 years old.
The girls were really jet lagged and really wanted to nap. We went back to the hotel and they both slept for 3 hours. After their naps we went to one of our old favorites, Islands.

It was just as good as we remembered!

Ella enjoying a Root Bear Float
Sharing with DaddyElla liked the burgers too!

We were lucky enough to be in San Diego when the beautiful flower fields were in bloom. It was so beautiful and the girls had a great time running around.

Can someone tell me why my children won't look a the camera?
They had a Sweet Pea maze that Ricardo and Sofia went through while Ella and I went and played at the playground. What a beautiful place to play in.
Playing with the waterfalls

We were supposed to meet the Witt's for dinner at Pizza Port, but the girls were just so exhausted so we settled on a quick dinner at Rubio's. Ricardo and Jon met up that evening for drinks at Tidewater Bar & Grill (I can't find the website, but I know they have one) in Solana Beach. I was so sad to miss Shelly and the girls as we Ella. Emberlynn was her first friend in San Diego and she was excited to see her again-er, for the first time-since she was 7 months when we moved away. But it was the right thing to do, the girls were just exhausted.

Sunday was Easter and we started the day with swimming at the hotel pool.

Ready to swim!

Loving being in the water
Look at them thighs!
Sofia and Mommy just hanging out.
I forgot my bathing suit and Sofia wanted nothing to do with the pool.

Ella made friends with these brothers, Patrick and Will. Since she couldn't cannon ball they came over to her and spent a good 20 minutes showing off and showing her different jumps. She was hysterical with laughter.
Swim lessons with Daddy

We grabbed some lunch and then the girls both napped again. Then we were off to celebrate Easter with our good friends, The Slovers (Pete, Stacey, and Nick).

I'm too tired tonight to continue but I'll be back tomorrow with more pictures.