"somewhere sunny and 75!"

Our traveling adventures have begun! Last Friday Max and I and our good friends Kyle and Emily narrowly escaped what ended up being one of the worst blizzards in the past 30 years or so and made a quick exit out of the state to sunny SAN DIEGO :) We couldn't have chosen a better weekend to leave!
Road conditions on Thursday were not pleasant in the slightest, but after saying goodbye to our kiddos knowing they were in good hands for the weekend ahead, we decided to head up to the cities Thursday night before catching our 9am flight on Friday. Thank goodness we did! Friday ended up slamming us with a ridiculous snowstorm and we were extremely thankful that since we were flying west, and not east, our flight was not delayed/canceled. We landed in San Diego around noon on Friday we were literally shocked by the sight of palm trees and sunshine. We were those OBVIOUS tourists who were literally stripping off layers as we were making our way to Kristin's car. Needless to say, my beloved Merrell wool socks were no longer needed and were quickly replaced with sandals!

First thing we did after finding Kristin was had lunch at the perfect little spot on the water!

Cocktails at noon? Of course! (Okay, mine was a 'mocktail' --but it was amazing!)

We finished off the rest of Friday with a little shopping before making our way to Kristin and Eric's home to settle in. That night we had dinner at Cafe Coyote in Old Town. It was delicious! I can't back it up, but I heard the margaritas were bomb too ;) 

Saturday morning we were up and moving quite early (thanks to the time change!) so after grabbing some coffee, we loaded up and headed to a 9am breakfast in La Jolla at Brockton Villa on the cove. Once again, yummy food and even better views!

The view from Brockton Villa--can't beat it :) 

Post breaskfast - pre kayak tour photo opp ;) 

the girls! 

After breakfast we did a 2 hour kayak tour and then spent some time wandering in and out of the little shops before grabbing a quick lunch at The Cheese Shop (highly recommend their sandwiches!) and heading back to the beach to TRY and eat them. Instead we were attacked by seagulls (duh, what are we, from out of state or something??) and if you know anything about me at all you would know that my deepest fear usually consists of birds, so therefor, we ended up taking our sandwiches to go. We are lucky to have made it out of there alive after Kyle "accidentally" spilled his entire bag of chips. We all ran. Fast. And then we laughed almost to the point of peeing. Live and learn! 

After our morning adventures we relaxed for part of the afternoon, had a little facetime action with my munchkins back home, took naps, and just enjoyed having nothing to do! After a while we began to get ready for our dinner that night at Searsuckers in the gaslamp district. Another awesome place to eat! This was also where Max and I were able to find out the sex of babyj :) I'll save that for a seperate post!

@ Searsuckers anxiously awaiting our gender reveal for johnson baby #3 :) Note to self: remove facial sunscreen before getting ready for the night so you don't look quite so ghostly! Oops!

Following a late dinner, we headed back to our 'home' for the weekend and celebrated for a bit before heading to bed. Sunday morning was another gorgeous day and while Kristin and Eric went to church, the four of us sat outside their garage in lawn chairs because we just couldn't justify spending a second inside since it was our last full day in San Diego. We are classy like that ;) Next up we made the trek up Cowles Mountain for a hike/picnic. Beautiful views awaited us at the top. 

Getting ready to head up! It was a relatively decent hike, nothing too strenuous, but it is the highest point within the city of San Diego around 1600 feet :)

enjoying the 360 view of the city at the top :) 

After dominating that hike, we obviously needed to replenish the calories lost, so we grabbed frozen yogurt on the way home. After relaxing for a while, we made a quick trip to another mall before grilling up some hamburgers and making arrangements to catch our flight the following day. We arrived back home Monday early afternoon and were greeted once again by this damn frozen tundra of a state. Today is Wednesday and due to yet ANOTHER blizzard this afternoon, the kids were released early out of school and we were homebound for the day. I won't complain too much, because our traveling adventures are not quite over yet... We leave again this weekend for a banking convention in Hawaii :) I am going to miss the kids like crazy, but technology these days helps with that and again, I know they will be in good hands. Can't say I will miss this weather, however!