Vacation in Laguna Beach, California

Although Ben and I were married 8 months ago in November, we had to postpone our honeymoon until the summer when we could afford to take time off from work. So, we spent 10 awesome days in Laguna Beach, California.

We flew in on Wednesday and checked into our cute little hotel: Laguna Beach Inn. Then we went to explore the beach called Woods Cove, which is right across the street from our hotel.

This is the view of our hotel from the beach entrance across the street.

Before you get to the beach you have to walk down a set of stairs. There is the most beautiful plant life growing along the stairs leading to the beach. It was gorgeous.

This is Woods Cove, a small beach secluded by large rocks and cliffs on both sides. Very pretty but the waves aren't great for playing in.

Look at these nuts houses perched right on the cliff at Woods Cove. Can you imagine living here? Awesome view, outrageous mortgage, and does home owners insurance cover landslides that take your whole house into the ocean? Probably not.

This is a view of the staircase leading up from the beach. I love, love, love the plants. Gorgeous!

The next day, Ben and I headed to San Diego (about 1 hour south) for Sea World. We love Sea World. It is the best place... ever!

First on the agenda at Sea World was Cirque de la Mer: a bunch of clowns and acrobats doing crazy tricks into the water. So much fun, for me. Ben's not a huge fan.

Look at these guys... "Look, Ma. No hands!"

Then there were some half naked, flexy muscle guys. The stuff they can do is amazing.

This was my favorite trick. How are they doing that?

This trick was cool, too.

After Cirque de la Mer, we saw Believe, the Shamu show. We sat right in the "Soak Zone" next to the platform and were really looking forward to getting wet. The day started out so hot.

After a few tricks from Shamu and friends, I put my camera away because I knew we were going to get wet soon. Nope. We sat right in the stupid "Soak Zone" and didn't even get a drop of water on us. Stupid "Soak Zone". It wasn't even a 'sprinkle zone'. So disappointing.

After our huge disappointment, we headed to the polar animal exhibit to cool off. So much better. I was melting and Ben was loving the heat. Crazy.

We came to the walrus exhibit to find this man splashing up against the glass. We have no idea why. It was a little scary. He was hitting it pretty hard and I was afraid the glass would break and we would have a loose walrus running around.

Here is a cute little penguin man. It was great to see them all swimming around and being playful. The penguins at the Hogle Zoo don't do anything. They just sit there. Boring.

Ben really wanted to swim with the dolphins but it was way too expensive. Then he wanted to feed the dolphins but even that was too expensive. So, we decided to settle for the dolphin show. The show SUCKED! The dolphins were only in the show for maybe 8 minutes. The rest was bad acting and lame acrobats. Man! We really wanted to see dolphins, not weird bird ladies.

Some of the dolphin tricks were pretty cool, though.

This one was my favorite. Look closely in the glass. You can see a dolphin pushing a trainer under water.

Ben and I decided to ride the white water rapids ride (I can't remember what it is called and I am too lazy to look it up). The day started out really hot but then it got cold and rainy. Because we waited to ride the ride when it was cold, the line was practically non-exsistent. So, now we are cold and wet and it is still raining. People thought we were crazy.

Then we wanted to take a picture with Shamu swimming behind us. It didn't work very well, but you can see how wet we are. Well, you can see how wet I am. My hair is plastered to my face and I have water droplets on my sunglasses. Cute. If you look below us you can see a little bit of Shamu as he passes.

*As usual, Ben hates to have his picture taken but because it was our honeymoon (and because he is so sweet) he posed for a pic. He doesn't look too happy, does he?

Oh, look. Another pic that didn't turn out and where Ben doesn't look happy to be looking at a camera. This pic was supposed to have both of us and the whole SeaWorld sign. Oops. We aren't great backward photographers.

So, we found a very nice lady to take our picture. Don't we look so cute all wet?

So, this was just the first two days. More pics to come.

Happy 4th of July!

This 4th of July my sibs and their significants headed up to Evanston where my sister lives with her little family. I've been told that Evanston has a pretty good firework show, and I was stoked to see it.

This is my sister, Kim, with her husband, Neil (who had to leave for work to protect all of Evanston from the dangers of illegal fireworks, ha ha), and their two kids: Devan and Kami.

Here we are waiting for the show to start: me, Kim, Jason and his girlie, Kevin and his wife Stephany. Ben, of course is MIA. He hates to have his picture taken, but he is an awesome photographer. Don't you think?
Me and my sis-in-law, Steph.

We hiked up the mountain behind Kim's house and we could see the whole town.

The people of Evanston were lighting off their illegal-in-Utah fireworks well before it got dark. This is a sloppy view of the town, but it gives you an idea of all the fireworks going on.

Then there was the big show right over our heads! It was awesome. We had the best seats in the house.

Happy 4th of July!!!