Easter always marks the beginning of Spring - no matter what the weather looks like outside. Brandon loves Easter! After Christmas, his birthday and Halloween, Easter is one of his favourites. Early Sunday morning he woke up to a basket full of chocolate, bubbles, Lego, stickers and even a Transformer toy. The Easter Bunny also left him a note - sending him on an Easter egg hunt around the house. Brandon enjoyed his morning and around noon we headed over to Jen and Steve's for another egg hunt with Kahlan and Lachlan. The kids ran around a slightly snowy backyard while the adults dined on a late morning brunch. We had fun but couldn't stay long as we were having company over for dinner. Stacey and Matt were bringing their kids for Jamie's fabulous ham feast. Our evening went well and Brandon loved playing with his friend Kaleb.
As I was tucking Brandon into bed that night he said "Mommy is the Easter Bunny real?" I said "Wow what a great question. What do you think?" He thought about this for a moment and said "Yes, the Easter Bunny is magic".
Spring is the time of year we start soccer. As Brandon's third season approached, he actually got kind of excited about it. We registered at the Mount Pleasant Community Association and were immediately impressed by our coach. Coach Jay is a nice guy who just wants the kids to have fun. We play once a week on Wednesday nights and though our team is still nameless, Brandon sports lucky number 40 on his jersey. As for his skills this year, Jamie describes Brandon as a "perimeter player". He likes to run with the crowd but he's not too interested in making a play and scoring a goal. Maybe he's still too young for team sports.
This Spring Brandon is also back in swimming classes at the YMCA. He's doing so well this year, I'd even go as far as to say he's the best in his class. He definitely takes after his dad in the pool :-)
With my job I'm lucky enough to attend a forecasting conference once a year. In the past my conferences have been held in Las Vegas and San Francisco. This year my conference was being held in San Diego. I've always wanted to see San Diego and I really wanted Brandon and Jamie to see it too. We decided to turn my conference into a family holiday and spend a few days in the sunny city.
I arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel on Tuesday evening, enjoyed my conference, took a private tour of the USS Midway and dined at a fabulous seafood restaurant. My boys arrived on Thursday evening and as I attended my last few hours of conference on Friday, they went to the USS Midway themselves. Jamie reports that he and Brandon loved touring around the old air craft carrier. Brandon enjoyed sitting in the old jets and helicopters - pretending to drive them. Jamie liked the history, at least what little of it he could get of it while keeping up with B.
They met me back at the hotel around noon and after a yummy seafood lunch, we grabbed a taxi and headed to Old Town - the location of our next San Diego hotel. Old Town is called "the birthplace of California" and we found it to be very charming. We stayed at the Hacienda Hotel where it was easy to walk around Old Town at night and shop and dine in this place meant to look like an old Mexican village.
On Saturday we headed to the San Diego Zoo. This place was large and very impressive. We saw animals I thought I would never see like kola bears, panda bears and even a rhinoceros. We managed to last most of the day with Brandon finally getting tired at around 2:30pm. I think his favourite parts were the bug exhibits and his $19 face paint job.
The next day we booked a trolley tour to take us to La Jolla and Mission Beach. La Jolla is a beautiful coastal town reserved for the rich and privileged. It's hilly streets were lined with high end boutiques and charming restaurants. We made our way down to the shoreline only to discover the sea lions had come ashore to sunbathe. Almost fully domesticated, they had no problems with people coming within a few feet to snap their picture. We decided to keep our distance however because we quickly discovered sea lions stink - real bad!
After spending a couple of hours in La Jolla we hopped back on the trolley and made our way to Mission Beach. Unlike La Jolla this place was really busy. They had a beach that stretched for miles along with a boulevard to match. Right behind the beach was an amusement park and tons of shops and restaurants. We found the water really cold so we spent another few hours playing in the sand and walking the boulevard.
On Monday we made our way to SeaWorld - as per Brandon's request. I was reluctant to go but ended up being quite impressed in the end. Like the zoo, this place was huge and, unbeknownst to me, included rides. Brandon loved the rides! It wasn't busy so B was able to hop on all the rides with hardly a minutes wait in line. We saw lots of cool creatures like a walrus, turtles and sharks. Brandon and I even got to pet a dolphin which was the highlight for me. Oh we also were able to pet stingrays which were amazingly soft to the touch. We stopped to view the orcas but didn't bother to watch a show. Overall we were more impressed with the rides and kiddie playgrounds. We managed to put in a whole day at SeaWorld and returned to Old Town to enjoy one last Mexican restaurant dinner (fish tacos!)
In the morning we were off to the airport and homeward bound. Overall San Diego was a great family holiday. I thought the city was very pretty and easy to get around. There was lots to do and the weather was great. Brandon proved to us once again that he is an excellent little traveller and we look forward to more family vacations in the future :-)
Once we were back in Calgary we set up a play date for Brandon and Kaleb. Kaleb has been riding his "big boy bike" for a year now and we thought his skills might convince Brandon to give his bike a try. Well it worked like a charm. In about five minutes Brandon was off and riding on his own. I couldn't believe it! I'm so proud of my determined little guy. Now that he can ride he wants to do it all the time. I think the rest of Spring and Summer will find us mostly in the park, riding our bikes :-)
