Southern California Vacation!

I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks... but here it finally is!

We went to Southern California this summer for our 10 year anniversary! We had a ton of fun! Spent some time with some family and some friends, and alone...

The first stop we had to make was to one of our favorite restaurants- In-n-Out! We ate there probably 5 times over the course of 12 days...

We stayed with Kristi and Carl for a couple days. Kristi got us into Legoland for free! (Thanks Kristi!)

Kevin fighting Darth Vader, with the help of R2D2.

A full size car made out of legosMiniature land... our favorite part.

Las Vegas

Washington DC

This one's for Kevin's mom and my dad... ELVIS!

Batman! These were amazing how they made these...One night we had dinner at Ray and Tammie's house. (Kevin's cousin)

This is Ryan, Ray, Nicholas, and TammieKevin's uncle JerryWalter, Melissa, Heather, and Karen (Kevin's cousin)We stayed up a little too late...

Kevin, Carl, and Austin went to a Padre's game one night.

Day 1 at Disneyland.

We didn't take many pictures, we were too busy running from one ride to the next, having soo much fun!

Kevin with one of the haunted mansion maids.
For lunch we met up with our friends, Scott & Amy and kids, and Grayson & Carley and kids, at the Rainforest Cafe in downtown Disney. We all planned to be down there the same week so we could play! Grayson and Carley were kind enough to let us share their timeshare in Oceanbeach for the week! We had a blast!

Universal Studios!

(Kevin's favorite spot on our vacation)
I think this is from Jurrasic Park- I'll have to verify with Kevin.

This car is from the mummy.

Magnum P.I.'s car

One of 8 Delorians used for Back to the Future.

Kevin with Beetleguise.

We saw a lot of characters... Woody Woodpecker, and his girlfriend (I don't remember her name)The house from Psycho- I will NEVER see that movie...This was a set from War of the Worlds. It is an actual 757 torn apart in a neighborhood setting, it was pretty cool. I guess they spent 9 million dollars on this set and it's only in the movie for a couple of minutes...Kevin thought this was funny...

After Universal Studios closed we went to Bubba Gumps for dinner. Yum!

Universal has a "City Walk" like downtown Disney...

SeaWorld! (My favorite park of the trip!)
We were waiting for the park to open and were able to stand right next to one of the "Shamu's" tanks, it was funny, Kevin was trying to point something out to me so wasn't paying attention to where the whale was and just after I took this picture he turned a looked in the tank and saw the whale right in front of his face- he jumped, I got a good laugh!

The Sealions were pretty fun to feed. I was laughing so hard I couldn't feed them fast enough.

I LOVED the Shamu show! It is amazing what these whales can do and that they are so trained. When I was growing up I wanted to be a vet tech, obviously that changed as I got older and went to college, but being at Sea World reminded me why I had wanted to do that...

We got pretty up-close and personal with the penguins, they were outside in the hot California sun. They had 2 trainers in with them when we went by and I was amazed at how they interacted with the trainers.

The dolphin show was also amazing! I loved it! I had a hard time wanting to take pictures but also not wanting to miss any of it.

We met Kristi & Carl (and kids) and Ray & Tammie (and kids) at Dave & Busters one night for dinner. It was a lot of fun- it's like a Chuck E. Cheese for grown-ups!

This is Braden (Kristi & Carl's youngest) being so darn cute!

Here is Carl & Kristi and Braden and Austin.

Kevin & Ray

Day 2 at Disneyland. Again, not very many pictures...

For lunch we went to the ESPN zone in downtown Disney. Kevin talked the manager into letting him in the studio to look around and take some pictures... Kevin looks right at home.

We stayed pretty late at Disneyland and apparently Austin was having a rough time waiting in line at Space Mountain. His uncle Kevin found some girls to keep him company...

They had him ride the ride with them and of course wanted their picture with him! When Kristi and I met back up with them Austin told Kristi he didn't want to go on anymore rides with his uncle Kevin.... it was pretty funny.

One afternoon we had a BBQ with Carley and Grayson out on the balcony.

Kevin thought he made the "perfect" steak. He asked me to take a picture of it with the grill marks...

San Diego's Wild Animal Park

We only lasted a couple hours at the wild animal park because we were so tired of all the walking we were doing...

Meerkats

Silverback Gorillas Us feeding the Lorikeets

Day 3 at Disneyland.

We met up with our friends again and went on some rides together.

Scott, Kevin, and Grayson

Chris (Scott's mom), me and Ayden at Small World

We had such a fun trip! And are already planning the next one for next year!