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Preface: So, the weirdest thing happened. We went to San Diego at the beginning of the month (yes, I am way behind on blogging). While we were in SD I had this idea to title this blog post "There and Back Again". I thought it sounded catchy. But then yesterday I was catching up on a good friend's blog, and I saw that she had called her post about their family's vacation "There and Back Again." How weird is that? Cue the theme music from The Twilight Zone. So now I can't use that title or she might think I copied her.

We had a good time in San Diego, as usual. This time we spent a day at LegoLand. Chris and the big kids went on roller coasters all morning, which made me happy because it means that my kids are way braver than I am. (I didn't go on a roller coaster until I was 17, and that was because my then 12-year-old brother called me a chicken. He was right, of course, and laughed the entire ride because I was screaming so much.)
Anyway, Chris and the big kids were on coasters, which left me to entertain the twins. I remembered about "Duplo Playland" which is dedicated to little ones, and I thought that the twins would have a good time there. But since I didn't want to try and push our two umbrella strollers at the same time, I abandoned the strollers and let the twins walk all the way across the park with me. I was really, really nervous because the twins like to run away, and I was just praying the whole way over there that I wouldn't lose either of the boys that day.

It took us about 30 minutes, due in part to our detour to say hi to the boys' beloved Thomas,but we finally made it across the park to Duplo Land. It was there that the twins fell in love with the Water Works fountain band. I seriously think they could have watched that all day. (Don't mind my super-lame-white-girl "Go Drew! Go Drew!" I wanted to be able to remember who was who 20 years from now. Yes, I know that's no excuse.)

It took a bit of searching, but I finally found a play area with only one entrance. So I just parked myself there at the entrance and the twins were able to run free for a couple of hours, which was just heaven for them. I don't think they've ever had so much fun.
We were even able to go on the train ride, which was really exciting because the twins love, love, love trains.
The rest of our week was pretty low-key. We spent a couple of afternoons at the beach, where my kids were the palest kids by at least five shades,and ate at my new favorite lunch spot. We took in a Padres game and froze our little tushies off, but at least we got to see them win! (I don't think Haley or Carter really cares if the Pads win or lose as long as Dad buys them cotton candy.)

The most pleasant surprise of the week was the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town. The museum was recently revamped and is now completely interactive. (And bonus: it's free!) The kids absolutely loved it and Chris was a good sport.
At the end of the tour you can take as many pictures as you want with their old-time camera. You can take a print with you and also have a copy of the picture emailed to as many people as you want.When you're done taking pictures you go out to a courtyard where the kids get to pan for gold and keep whatever they can find: fool's gold, pretty rocks, whatever.
I was kind of embarrassed by the amount of stuff my kids took, but the missionaries were super nice and assured me that the kids were welcome to keep it all. The whole experience was a treat and I highly recommend it.

We had some good times at Grandma & Grandpa's house too. We spent a decent amount of time in the pool where Carter repeatedly treated us to his new, unfortunately-named "Hoo Ha Dance":

and Haley tried to learn to dive, but looked an awful lot like the old man in the game "Mouse Trap".

We were able to spend Grandpa's birthday with him. I don't remember her exact words, but Chris said something about Steve being young, to which Haley replied something to the effect of, "If 68 isn't old, what is?" Luckily Grandpa was amused and not offended. We clearly need to hold a family home evening lesson about proper birthday etiquette.

Mother Nature gave us a special treat on the way home; somewhere near Beaver we encountered this massive and extremely bright double rainbow. These pictures don't even do it justice - it was amazing.

I was completely disappointed though, because I thought for sure there would be four pots of gold out in that field since we could see four ends of the rainbows. And yet, nothing. I guess somebody beat us to them.

So, with the exception of the middle-of-the-night pool alarm false alarm (the boys wear wristbands that sound an alarm if they get wet), we had a wonderful vacation. Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa for letting us crash your pad! We sure love spending time with you.