Family Trip to California

Family Trip to California

Right in-between Rylee's birthday party and Christmas, we decided to take a family trip to California to visit my brother and his family. Sam and I hadn't been on vacation since before Rylee was born, and we weren't sure my brother was going to get to come home for Christmas, so we hopped on a plane and flew to southern California. 

It was Rylee's first time being on a plane, and she did pretty well. She only fussed a minimal amount of times, and we made sure to feed her a bottle during take off to help her ears. Mostly, she played with her baby doll Joy, climbed around in our laps, and slept.

Though the babies weren't too sure of each other at first,

They were soon trying to play with each other, although Rylee had some problems with sharing and Alanna was a little scared of her.

While we were there we drove to Torrey Pines State National Reserve. It was about a 40 minute drive from Tyger and Rachel's house, but worth the trip.

We hiked around the mainland for a bit before the trails ended at bluffs along the oceanside.

After walking many stairs to get down the ocean, we finally made it. The much anticipated beach was gorgeous.

We didn't get to stay too long, so we mostly had lunch and walked around a bit trying to show different things to Rylee. 

She did not like the ocean and in fact was terrified of it. 

Even carrying her so that she wasn't in the water, she didn't want me venturing far and bit me on the shoulder. She's never bitten me before, so I'm guessing she was pretty scared. Poor baby.

We managed to get her a little more comfortable with the beach right before we had to leave, but she still wasn't a fan. I think the waves were bigger and louder than anything she'd experienced.

 One of the days we were there we ventured another 45 minutes or so away to go to the San Diego Zoo.

The flamingos were the first thing we saw, and Rylee was amazed! Even after eating lunch, she and I went back over to them to watch. I think she liked how big and vibrant they were. 

After the flamingos, it was a lot of walking, walking, walking. We saw monkeys and tigers, and got up-close and personal with a polar bear--which was pretty cool. We tried on safari hats at the gift shop, saw lots of cool birds, plants, and even a couple of buddhist monks in their robes. 

We saw penguins, and these acrobatic antelope-type animals eating trees. It was a lot of fun!

We also visited Rachel's work to get pictures with Santa. 

Suffice it to say that Rylee did not like Santa one bit. 

This was the best we could get!

We went to the beach one last time before we left California. I don't remember the name, but I know that it was mostly a rocky beach for surfers. I'm not joking you when I say that ever single car in the parking lot was some sort of sporty vehicle with surf boards. Then there was us with our Honda Civic. It was quite funny, actually. And we had lots of fun watching all the surfers!

By the end of the day, Rylee was actually warming up to the ocean. 

Pax Domini cum spirito tuo temper sit,

Torey, Sam & Rylee

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