California for Christmas

For the first day we wanted to have a chance to go to the beach.  Our hotel was only a block away from Carlsbad State beach and we couldn't check in yet, so we headed over.

It was great, and the kids waisted no time getting into the cold water.

It was low tide, which made for some great finds...three star fish attached to some rocks and lots of mussels.

Carlsbad Beach - making a free slideshow

Legoland!

The second day was spent at Legoland. 
The kids had a blast on the rides and looking at all the things made out of Lego's

Legoland California - slideshows

The last day we drove down to San Diego to see some things before heading home.  The plan was to see a air craft carrier museum and The Mormon Battalion Historical Site in Old Town San Diego(which I didn't know that was were we were going)  I went to Old Town with my family as a kid and it was a ton of fun.  I wish we had more time to spend there.  In fact we ended detouring from the plan when driving down I-5 we passed the San Diego temple, so we had to stop.  The kids all thought the temple was so beautiful and we had fun exploring the grounds.

After the temple we headed to Old Town and had a picnic lunch beside the Battalion site.  After we finished lunch we went it for the tour, it was great!  We all had so much fun, that was the last thing we did that day before having to go home.  We really recommend visiting this church site. 
We didn't get to do all the fun things we had planned, so we are definitely going back some day.

San Diego - slide show

We drove home on I-8, which was an adventure.  Only because a couple of times we were really close the the border with Mexico.  We could see the "wall".  With all that is going on in Mexico right now, it did make me a little nervous, I guess. 

We also had to go through a border patrol check point, with dogs that sniffed our car as we slowly passed by. 

It was an interesting experience!