First Day of School 2010

I can't believe Aspen is starting 5th grade, her last year to be the top dog until 12th grade. She was anxious and a little nervous but couldn't wait to see her friends. Britain was all excitement. He will be in 2nd grade and even though he doesn't have close friends in his class this year, he is excited for his teacher Mrs. Bowness. So we have to show off our shoes, backpacks and lunch boxes, because when you go to a school that has uniforms the only way to show your personality is through those little things. At the end of the day they both said the day was good! Another school year in progress!

Bats Bats Bats!!!

A member of our church Jason Shaw works with bats at UNC. So he let us come down and watch as he fed them apples and mangoes. We each held a baby bat and got to pet a larger one. I even did it even though there are no pictures to prove it.

Loup Lake with The Rothes

Britain's friend Jay from school invited us out to their private lake. We had fun playing and enjoying are last days of summer.

Our San Diego Trip

Airplane Ride

We left on August 4th and came home on August 10th. This was Aspen's first time on an airplane since she was 2 and Britain's first airplane ride ever. They loved landing and taking off. We made a stop in Phoenix on the way to San Diego and we made a stop in Las Vegas on the way home so they got a lot of landings and taking off. We had a great time and loved San Diego!!!

First Day in San Diego

We had fun looking at two submarines and two very old battleships. The ship called Surprise was used in a movie with Russell Crowe. We also took a harbor cruise and saw the USA Stars and Stripes Sail Boat.

Harbor Tour

Submarine

Russian Submarine

Seaworld

After we left Seaworld Aspen wanted to train dolphins and Britain wanted to train Shamu. Of course we always had to be in the splash zone. We had a great day. We went on rides including Atlantis which is a roller coaster on water. Aspen hated it and cried while Britain hated it and then loved it when we got off. We got to pet stingrays and feed them. We got to see many wonderful shows also. We all loved it!

San Diego Zoo

We had so much fun at the Zoo. We first got on a double decker bus to tour the majority of the zoo. Then we set off on our own visiting the animals we really wanted to see. We saw a few shows, our favorite was the bird show. We also had to ride the sky tram like 4 times. At first Britain was scared when we went over the pole part, so one of the pictures of him and I he has the funniest face. After the first time he wanted to keep riding it though. We got there at 9am and left at 5pm and still didn't see everything.

Olympic Training Center

We looked on the Internet for things to do in San Diego and found this tour for free. It was very interesting and even the kids enjoyed it. We rode around on carts to see the whole place. It was huge and we even got to see one of the athletes training. His name is Jared and he is a discus thrower.

Coronado Hotel and Beach

This is the first time the kids have seen or been in the ocean. It was a cool day probably not even 70 degrees but we all had to go in. There is one picture in the water where all you see is Ryan and Aspen look closely and you will see some hands and feet in the air that is Britain. We had fun looking for shells and we also saw some dolphins. I don't think the kids realized how cold and salty the ocean is. What a great day!

Point Loma Lighthouse

What a great view! Ryan loves lighthouses so we went up to see this one and it was definitely worth it to see all those great view.

San Diego Temple

Beautiful Temple! The only thing was they were repainting some of it so we only got pictures of the side that wasn't scaffolding. Ryan told the kids to touch each temple so they can really remember it. So every temple we go to they have to touch the walls.

Los Angeles Temple

We had a wonderful time looking at this temple. They had just opened up a Visitors Center and it was fun to walk through it with the Sister Missionaries.

Hollywood

We drove through Beverly Hills and saw Rodeo Drive and Bel-Air. Then ended up in Hollywood we had fun but it was extremely busy. We are all glad we do not live in a big city and loved returning to San Diego.

Mission Beach
It was cool the whole time we were there if it reached 7o degrees I would have been surprised. So this was the second time we hit the beach and neither Ryan or I got in. Britain had fun playing in a hole someone had dug and Aspen enjoyed the waves. Britain rode some rides and Aspen didn't want to. I wanted to ride the roller coaster but no one else would so Brit was the only one to enjoy some rides.

Old Town San Diego

We had fun going to The Mormon Battalion Historic Site. The Church again did a great job with a historical site. We enjoyed panning for gold and doing laundry as they did during pioneer times. Old Town was really fun walking around and looking at different stores and historical sites. Don't you love all those cactuses.