Spring Break in San Diego!

James and I took a little road trip to San Diego for James' spring break this past weekend. We left on Wednesday night and drove back on Sunday (today). The weather was beautiful and we had a very relaxing, animal-filled vacation! Here's what we did:

Thursday

 STARFISH

James was so excited about the turtles 

 Dori from Finding Nemo!

 Cool shark zooming past us

 Turtles are totally awesome dude!

 NEMO!!!

 Awesome picture I took of this fish

 Turtles on land

 They look cool but smell awful

Sky Tram Ride! 

Me: "what would you do if you fell off into the water?"

James: "I would start swimming for shore" bahaha

 Sea Lions

 Just chillin'

I LOVE this picture. He looks so smug.

 He looks like he's gonna eat the bird but really he was waiting to catch a fish & the bird was poised & gonna snatch it up!

 James is a shark boy!

 I'm not gonna lie...the sharks were pretty cool to watch

 James laughs at this picture

 Dolphin show! Loved this. 

 We were so close to Shamu!

 I love killer whales. Seriously I do.

 He was so cute relaxin up against the wall

 "Oh heyyyy"

 Shamu Show!

 Ta-Da!

 Cool flips

 Penguins!

 Mates for Life <3

 Beluga whales 

 He looks so peaceful. There was a daddy, mommy, and baby.

 I LOVE polar bears.

 2 polar bears.

 Added black & white for cool winter-esque effect

 He's posing for James

 Mr. Blubber Walrus

 Just sitting in my ice cave

 Sting-Rays!

 We got to pet Buster the African turtle!

 He was chomping away on the grass!

 Sea World Beetle! 

 James riding the tail

 Leaving Sea World. Bye Shamu-we love you!

For Dinner we ate at this super unique restaurant called Devine Pastabilities. It was voted best sandwich shop in San Diego! They serve Torpasta~a hollowed out Italian garlic roll stuffed with pasta! It was super delish!

 James & his Meatball Torpasta

 Me & my Ravioli Torpasta with "blush" sauce 

(alfredo & marinara combined)

Outside of Devine Pastabilities.

The sandwich shop was small & cute & scrumptious!

We went back to our hotel and redboxed the movie Hugo. It was a pretty excellent movie. We both enjoyed it.

Friday

Whale & Dolphin Watching 

on the Adventure Hornblower Cruise Boat

 The U.S.S. Midway Museum. We wanted to check it out but we were so tired after our boat excursion.

 James trying to take a picture of me but the sun was SOOO bright!

 "Sea" ya later San Diego! 

 Excited to be out at sea!

 We ran into some pirates--I mean sailboats--on the way!

 Doesn't he look so hot in his jacket & binoculars!?

 Right after we saw some beautiful dolphins

And here they are! 

 They were jumping & swimming alongside our ship!

 Gorgeous.

 We were pretty excited.

Here are some sea lions lounging about in the sun

being lazy and sun bathing.

We didn't get to see any whales because the majority of them have already swam back to Alaska. The Hornblower Cruises people gave us 2 complimentary tickets to come back and do another whale watching adventure for free. If anyone is going to San Diego before November and wants to go whale watching then let us know and we'll give you the tickets. We probably won't make it back to San Diego before then.

We were EXHAUSTED & definitely got some sun from dolphin watching but we were pretty excited for our plans for the afternoon...

First, lunch at the cutest restaurant in La Jolla, The Cottage.

 I had the Cottage Club

James had the Chicken Ciabatta Sandwich

Then we went to one of the most beautiful temples on earth.

The San Diego Temple

Luckily, the Sister Missionaries were studying/planning nearby on the grass and were able to snap a couple of pictures of us.

The best part about going to the temple was being able to perform sealings. If you are following our blog and don't know what this is, feel free to visit mormon.org or lds.org for more info. The temple is such a beautiful place. It was wonderful to escape the outside world and feel the Spirit of the Lord touch our hearts. I'm so grateful for temples because the temple is truly the House of the Lord and it is a place where I go to feel Heavenly Father's love for me.

We were so full from lunch that we decided to skip out on dinner and go straight to dessert. We found Coldstone and ate this and this:

Brownie A La Cold Stone (for me of course)

Strawberry Mango Smoothie (for James of course)

Then we redboxed the movie Abduction. It was okayyyy. Not huge fans of Taylor Lautner's acting skills, or lack thereof, but at least he's in shape (both my words and James')

Saturday

Wahoo the Zoo! Haha see what I mean about an animal-filled weekend?

I love flamingos because they look pink (they are actually white)

Leopard of some sort

 First animal picture of the day

 Here I am with the leopard

 Meerkat like Timon on Lion King!

Love me some elephants

He is in between our heads

So close to us!

 these two were so cute I had to take a pic.

they remind me of rudolph & clarisse on rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

 momma watching her kiddos fight

 anorexic much?

 more polar bears

Her name is Tatqiq meaning "the princess"

Her favorite toy is the PINK ball! 

Twice the size of James

 Peek-a-boo

 Why hello there

 Just eating a carrot

 Cute ducklings with momma duck

 huge vulture-ish bird

 pretty pink!

 Lovin the San Diego Zoo!

 PANDA!!! Sleeping in a tree.

 James & I were most excited for the pandas.

 The best picture we could get of her.

 Another sleepy bear

 Giraffe in the background

 baby giraffes eating

 beautiful

 love these creatures

 rhinoceros 

 zebra

 kangaroo i named joey (how original)

 I know I know, more flamingo pictures

but they were everywhere & so pretty!

 cute kitty

 hungry kitty

 sleepy kitty

 on the sky tram to get to the other side of the zoo

 lunch! carne asada burrito

 california carne asada. has french fries in it.

 monkey love

orangutans always remind me of chewbacca from star wars 

 tucan-type bird

 hippo playing with the monkeys

 mandrill-baboon like Rafiki on Lion King! 

 monkey chelsea

 tiger? James

 it's an ant-eater type animal?

 tiger looks just like one of those stuffed tigers...

only he can turn his head & bite off your fingers

beautiful tiger 

 i'm naming him tigger the tiger

 cute cute cute! baby & momma hippo

 baby hippo is smiling

 momma hippo is helping baby hippo

 up to the surface for water

"let's go for a jog under water"

haha so cute!

Those are the adventures we had this Spring Break weekend! We had an absolute blast & it was so fun to get away for a while. We love spending time together & experiencing new places. On our roadtrip we played two road trip games I found thanks to The Dating Divas website.

The State License Plate Game

We found 40 states! We got all except Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, 

Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, 

South Carolina, & West Virginia. Pretty impressive!

Road Trip Questionnaire 

There were 50 questions. We got to know each other a little better but also discovered how much we already know about each other. 

Now we are home & school starts back up for James tomorrow! It's back to school & work for me as well. Looking forward to our next vacation together!!!