San Diego

Mark, Carmella and I all hopped on a plane last Sunday morning to accompany Mark on a business trip. His company was making a big joint venture announcement and it was a massive excuse to see some special relatives.

We arrived in sunny San Diego, checked into our hotel, and then headed up the coast to visit with Mark’s Aunt Dona. It was so sweet to see Carmella interact with her Great Aunt. We had a delicious dinner together, chatted up a storm, and drove back down to San Diego for a much needed night’s rest.

The next morning Mark went downstairs to attend the conference and Carmella and I got back in the car to spend some time with my sister and her family. Mark knew he would be booked from morning to late night so he placed his blessing on our little trip—glad that we would have company while he was working.

We had so much fun at Laurel’s house. Ella got to visit with her cousins and meet Sheena! A very nice, but large German Sheppard. Ella wasn’t intimidated at all… Eyes, teeth, nose...she explored them all.

She tried so hard to play with all of Luke’s toys, but he really didn’t want a pesky little girl climbing on his things, so he did his best to keep everything away from her. But Ella can be quite sneaky. She managed to get a few giggles out of it. Plus, I guess it was only fair since she pretty much yanked away any toy Leah was interested in and played with it herself.

On the second day of our visit, we went to Disney’s Boardwalk and ate at Goofy’s Kitchen. Ella got to meet some characters for the first time. She got so excited any time a character walked by. Oh, oh, oh…
On Wednesday, Laurel and Lars came to San Diego. That evening we all went out to dinner at The Beach House. We sat outside and admired the ocean, dolphins and surfers. It was perfect! Afterwards we took a little walk on the beach. Ella got to dip her feet in the Pacific Ocean for the very first time.

She didn’t like it so much.

Carmella and Leah in their matching Minnie Mouse onsies we picked up the day before.

What a fabulous trip. See you in Chicago next time!!