adventure in San Diego

Last week, hubby and I took a trip to San Diego, CA, partially for me to attend a conference for work, and partially as vacation, celebrating our 10th anniversary (which was in October) and hubby's 40th birthday (which was on Dec. 7th). We had a lot of fun together during my time off, and while I was at the conference I was able to send hubby off on adventures he would enjoy (and maybe I would not...ha!).

We also were able to visit with my brother and his family, who recently relocated there with the U.S. Navy. So my pictures may be heavily slanted toward ones with my niece and nephews...love those kids! Anyway, here are some photo highlights, heavy on the people, light on things like airplane engines and below deck spaces on the Midway. If you want to see more, you'll just have to come over and we will bore you entertain you for hours with all of them!

 On the San Diego Harbor cruise:

 This picture (based on the time we took it) is probably my brother flying the Seahawk helocopter! Pretty cool!

 This one I think is someone else but it was a great photo of the helocopter!

 How does a 40-year-old "kid" spend his birthday? At LEGOLAND, of course! It was so much fun, even for us old folks...

 Does this man look like he's 40?

 This is what over 200,000 Duplo bricks (those are the big ones) look like in a Christmas Tree:

 Hubby met my brother and his boys at the U.S. Midway on Saturday:

 And that night hubby and I enjoyed the Balboa Park December Nights festival:

My adorable 4 month old niece:

 My brother with the one who doesn't like having his picture taken:

 And this one is just a ham:

 On Monday, we all met up at the San Diego Zoo, which is truly truly amazing. We have good zoos here at home (Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and National Zoo in D.C.) but this one surpasses them all. In fact, I took so many fun animal pictures that I'm going to do a separate post later this week of just those photos!

 Finishing out our trip with sunset on the beach at Coronado.

All this... and I spent a full  2 & 1/2 days in conference sessions! We know how to pack our days full when on vacation...whew! But it was actually very relaxing, and good for hubby and I to spend some time together. Many many many thanks (probably should add a few more "many"s) to both sets of grandparents for holding down the fort at home, getting kids to and from school, keeping them fed and bathed and oh-so-much more! You are the best!