Cabrillo tide pools and presents

I should really break this into two posts because it really is two posts.  #1) Our last morning in San Diego.  #2) Spencer's birthday presents.  But, I already loaded all the pictures into this post, so we're going to make it work.  There are lots of pictures.  Not a ton of text.  We'll power through.

We woke up on Labor Day and got ready, then loaded the car.  Spencer bought some shells but other than that our only souvenir was the new fan.

We always like to eat one breakfast at St. Tropez, our favorite French bakery, when we're in San Diego, so we headed for downtown.  Unfortunately it was closed for the holiday.  We found another place a few blocks away.  The line was a few blocks long.  We wanted to try one more place before giving up on downtown and thank goodness it was only a 5 minute wait.  The food was delicious, but a little on the pricey side.  We refused to pay $3.50 for a cup of coffee and $4 for a cup of milk so we just drank water.  After we left we followed the GPS directions for McDonald's so we could get some budget friendly drinks.  Little did we know the McDonald's was on base.  We had to turn around at the guard stand with the military police holding their machine guns (not really) while they laughed at us.

Hydrated and caffeinated, we headed to the Cabrillo tide pools.  After waiting in an insanely long line to actually get into the park we hiked up the hill to the cliffs.

You will notice there are more pictures of Spencer than Elliott.  Elliott can barely walk down the hallway without falling, so I was a nervous freaking wreck with him standing on the cliffs overlooking the ocean.  I made him have physical contact with one of us at all times.

I had to crop the kids out of this picture because I had to crop my stomach out of this picture. I ate 4 pounds of corned beef hash for breakfast and that, combined with some weird folds on my dress give me the appearance of being 5 months pregnant.  It's not pretty.  It makes me feel bad about myself.  I can't put it on the internet.

We weren't on the cliffs anymore.  He was allowed to roam free.

Our plan was to go to the Olympic Training facility in Chula Vista after we left the tide pools, but breakfast had taken so much longer than we had planned for and we really just wanted to get on the road.  Spencer had been excited to go there, but he was totally cool with waiting until next time.

I drove the entire way home so, no pictures.  Because ha, ha, ha, Michael capturing moments.  We did stop at Sonic in El Centro for happy hour milkshakes.  It was the best idea ever.  We also just barely made it past a bad crash before they completely shut I-8 down for TWO HOURS.  Lucked out on that one.

We ordered and picked up a pizza before even going home.  I seriously don't know how anybody did anything before cell phones. How did we function?

Once we were home we ate and then, as promised, let Spencer open his presents.  I had considered, for about 12 seconds, taking all of his presents with us, but that would have been a disaster.

Elliott had specifically picked this stuff for Spencer and we had told him he could give his present first.

Star Wars slipper socks

And new black pants.  He seriously said he wanted to buy Spencer pants for his birthday.  But, really, he says he wants to buy everybody pants when we ask what we should buy.

Hamburger lunch box.  Spencer has been enthralled with this thing since he first saw it in June.

This was actually on his birthday wish list.  He wants so much to be like daddy.

A new bath towel

Star wars vehicles- Death Star, X-Wing and Tie Starfighter

French fries lunch box

Scented markers.  On the birthday wish list.

Body pillow and case.  On the birthday wish list.

More markers.  Birthday wish list.

Star Wars wall decals

Digital wall clock.  Birthday wish list.

King Size Kit Kat.  Birthday wish list.

Money for college from Gramme and Grandpa.  Don't even try to copy the picture and zoom in on the check so you can empty my mom's checking account.  I erased all the information from the whole check.  But nice try.

Almost life size Darth Vader pillow from Gramme and Grandpa.

Money from Grandma and Papa

And then it was bedtime.  Because people had to work (Michael) and go to school (Spencer) and recuperate (me and Elliott) the next day.  We actually all got sick after we got home but I was taken down the hardest.  I went 4 years and 3 months (December 2010 to March 2015) without being sick at all and now I've been sick twice in 6 months. Um, no.  Not OK with that.

Right before I went to bed I changed the countdown from our birthdays to Fall Break.  Because, you know, that's in 2 weeks.