We just replenished our vitamin sea and it was great.  It all started when I got back from a work trip and we decided we needed to plan a family trip.  We looked through our calendars and decided that the next week was the best time to go and that we wanted to take the kids to San Diego.  So we hurried and got things booked, and headed out a couple days later.

We drove to St. George the first evening, and then the next morning continued on down to San Diego.  Here we are at a pit stop at the Mad Greek Cafe in Baker CA.  Everyone was happy to get out of the car!

On down to San Diego.  We got a fun AirBnB really close to Ocean Beach.  We had all afternoon to play on the beach.  It was great.  Everyone had a blast.  Ashley got her first taste of wave conquering and just loved it!

We took the Mavic out for a quick spin from our little back patio.  Check out how relaxed Ashley is!

The next morning we went and saw some tide pools before heading over to Sea World.

Then it was time to go to Sea World.  The girls have been talking about dolphins for quite a while, which was part of the impetus for the trip.  It was great to be able to take them and it was fun to be back there ourselves to sea the place.

We were all mesmerized by the shows.  So incredible to sea the relationship between the animals and the trainers and all the work they put into the training.  We got to sea the dolphins, the orcas, and the sea lions.  All were incredible.

The aquariums were fun too.  We would have to say though that the Draper aquarium really is amazing and well done as well.

The next day we headed over to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.  Several people recommended it to us and we can assure it didn’t disappoint.  We vastly increased our knowledge of the Mormon Battalion and it the interactive presentation was lots of fun.  It was way different and better than I expected.  I would say it’s a must-do activity for San Diego.

Afterwards, we drove over to Coronado. We saw the Hotel Del, but spent most of our time on the beach.  It was a really neat beach with the flecks of mica in the sand that looked like flakes of gold.  Landon got to put his feet into the ocean for the first time and was pretty okay with it.

We really scored a great place to stay and we enjoyed hanging out there.  The girls called it “the beach house.”  We were sad to leave.

We drove the whole way home all in one day.  That was a long long day in the car.  Here we are at Angelica’s restaurant in St. George for a break.  Their sweet pork street tacos are the BEST!  Maybe next time we’ll break up the drive home into two segments.

What a great trip!  There is still a ton of things I’d like to sea and do in San Diego, so I guess we’ll have to go back again someday.  And yes, I know the difference between sea and see 🙂

This is the story about Kathryn’s Utah Symphony Pro-Am Concert.

She was super excited when she found out that she’d been accepted!  Then when she got the seating assignment…

Maybe her application essay was a little better than she wanted.  She was hoping for a nice cosy seat towards the back, not the first stand.  Haha, yeah whatever.  Just look at these pictures and how natural she was and how much she was soaking it all in.

Here are some recordings of the performance.  They did a wonderful job.

Thanks for all of the support from family and friends!

Fun story leading up to the concert.  Kathryn had a violin lesson the day of the concert, and during the lesson, her shoulder rest broke!  She called around and found the same shoulder rest at Summerhays in Orem.  So, we rushed and got the baby sitter and headed out a bit early so we could swing in and pick up the part.  What a blessing that this happened before the concert, and not during this special night!

Love you babe!

I recently went on a work trip that took me over to Europe for a week to Vienna, London, and Barcelona.  Between the travel, meetings, and supporting the work back at home, we did get a chance to go see some of the sites.  Vienna was the first stop, and was an awesome city to visit.  There place was just brimming with history and cool things to go see.   First off, Vienna was a hot spot for classical music.  Kathryn knows a whole lot more, but I tried to soak in what I could.

Beethoven

Johann Strauss

Someone else famous enough to get a nice statue.

I was able to get a standing room ticket for an orchestra concert in the famous Weiner Musikverein.  Weiner means “of Vienna.”

Check out how cool the front lobby of the Wiener Musikverein was.

Speaking of Wiener, Weinersnitchel

And Bratwurst

On the list for the next time I find myself in Vienna, is a visit to the famous Wiener Staatsoper, or the Vienna State Opera House.  This was most recently featured in the Mission Impossible Rogue Nation movie.

The city is full of really cool buildings, like the St. Peter’s church here.

And at the center of city, is the St. Stephen’s Cathedral.  Really an amazing piece of architecture and history build during the Middle Ages.  Lots of interesting facts on wikipedia.

Not shown is our visit through the catacombs.  That was a notable experience to say the least.  Let’s leave it at we saw lots of bones, like Indiana Jones movie quantity of bones, but all real.  You can read more about it here if you dare.

The Schönbrunn Palace is another one on the list for next time.

Schönbrunn Palace from the air as we were coming in.

The Hofburg Palace.

Roman ruins in front of the Hofburg.

On the backside of the Hofburg Palace was this spot that opened up to a large area.  I imagined a king, or emperor standing from here and addressing the people.

Another view of that same spot.

One more view of that same spot.  Turns out I was right.

We were able to go out and see one of the castles in the area.  The Burg Liechtenstein.  Just so you know, this is not the Lichtenstein Castle which is a famous castle in Germany.  I’d heard talk of the Lichtenstein and got it confused with this one.  Still a really cool castle though.

We visited the Museum of Military History.  It has relics going way back in time.  It seems like this whole region has almost always been at war in one form or another.  To go along with the castle above, here are some medieval suits of armor.

And chain mail.

This is the actual car that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in, striking the match that ignited World War I.

Incredible model of the Viribus Unitis ship used by the Austo-Hungarian empire during World War I.

It was interesting going through the World War II exhibit.  The tone was a bit different than other museums from the Allied countries as you might expect.

So, that’s a wrap on Vienna.  Next we went to London.  We were there for less than 24 hours, with a good portion of that in our meeting, so it was a super quick trip.  We did pop up out of the subway for an hour and grab some lunch at the Lamb and Flag restaurant.

In honor of Tim and his love for London, I ordered Fish and Chips.

I’ve eaten with the likes of Charles Dickens and Dryden.

We walked to through Trafalgar Square for a minutes and then over to Piccadilly Circus.  Then that was it, back to the Tube and off to Barcelona.

Valentines Day in Barcelona.  Thanks girls for my amazing Valentines package!

In Spain, lunch is kind of a big deal.  We went out to lunch as part of our business meeting and it took two hours and involved several courses.  We asked the people we were with to order some typical food for us.  We heard some of what was ordered, but it was a surprise when a big plate of caracoles came out.  That’s Spanish for snails.  Admittedly, they weren’t half bad.  Pretty similar to seafood really.  I told the guys we were with that we had snail infestations when we moved into our house and we’d throw them out into the street.  They thought that was funny.  I thought it was funny that theses looked exactly like our garden snails at home.

The one touristy thing we were able to squeeze in was a quick visit to see La Sagrada Familia. Construction was started in 1882 and they estimate that it’ll be finished around 2026.
This is an interesting article on the basilica.
Wikipedia also has lots more information.

I will say that I quite enjoyed Spain.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to use some of my rusty spanish, and I thought that they spoke a very pretty spanish, especially when you compare it to Puerto Rican and Mexican Spanish!

Almost home stretch!  It’s fun to go on a trip, but it sure is nice to come home!  And the first item of business after getting home was to repair the water heater.  The pilot light thermocouple went bad a couple days into the trip, so not did Kathryn have a sick family at home, they didn’t have any hot water!  Luckily we have the req center and Kathryn’s family is close by.  Talk about bad timing!  Auf wiedersehen, till next time, hasta luego.

Here are some pics of the kids and what they’ve been up to.

Eliza loves Landon so much!

Super Bowl Sunday with Gomp and Grandma Suzie.  Landon makes a great little football.

Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point with Cousin Theo and Auntie Em.

Check out these cool butterfly closeups.

Happy guy!

Getting so big!

LOL!

Friendship

Oh so pleased with Mom’s creation.  Super obsessed with Mermaids.

Quick trip to Idaho.

Glimpses of spring.

Still a bit nippy though.

Blessed Sunshine.

Cute little man.