A very merry Jookie reunion

At the end of July, Matt and I took a few days off to go out to San Diego and visit my cousin Rachel and her husband Clyde before she is deployed. My amazing little jookiebean is in the Navy nurse corps and she is one bad ass OR nurse. Rach used to work in Roanoke, VA at their Carillon (sp?) which is a Trauma 1 hospital, so she has experienced a lot of gory gross stuff. She'll be deploying to Afghanistan for 8 months so we wanted to put in a nice pre-birthday visit with my little sailor before she leaves.
Matt's birthday was in early June and to celebrate no debt from the wedding I was authorized to purchase a big gift! :D So Matthew is the owner of his very on megawatt IPAD! :D It came in about a week before our trip out to San Diego which was perfect timing for my husband because he downloaded games for us to play on our flight...remember I don't do well on planes and need to constantly be entertained. Oh boy did we Boggle! :) Also I believe I ate an entire bag of goldfish, thankfully they were the whole wheat kind...probably doesn't matter either way at this point.
We get in late on Thursday night and hang out with the Burnetts! :) When Rachel lived in Roanoke I was still in Blacksburg so we used to see each other A LOT because its only 30 mins separating us. So after my move to DC we didn't get to see as much of each other which is quite sad because we always have so much fun.
Rach was in a training coarse that Friday morning to get certified to use a defibrillator (sp?) anywhere including in a hospital. Clyde being the gracious host he was took us to IHOP for a fabulous breakfast and then we made a Target run. OMG! Let me tell you...that Target had an escalator for shopping carts. I was so impressed. I think this moment is right up there with the first time I went in a Wegman's (grocery store) with its elevator! Once Rach wrapped up her training and passed with flying colors we headed to the San Diego Zoo for the day! :)

Rachel and I posing with an elephant for our Granma

Me with the Flamingos!


We got to see an AMAZING polar bear!



We happened upon an extremely happy Zebra...Sister it was exactly like your horse experience! :P

I got to see Pandas!!!

Matt made friends with a two-toed sloth

Matt the Bear!

After a long day in the sun walking around checking out all the fabulous we were exhausted and HUNGRY! So we began a search for a restaurant...Rachel was checking out the menu at a potential place when Clyde asks "Do they have halibut?" Rachel: "Yeah they've got chicken." I cracked up over this conversation the entire weekend! We ended up going to that restaurant and you can tell we were worn slam out!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Legoland!!

They had so many AMAZING legos EVERYWHERE, here are a few of my favorites!
Me and Hagrid

Mexicans

L.A.

New Orleans


NYC

Vegas!!!

The Washington Monument (aka the Pointy Thing)

Daytona!!

After Legoland we went to see some amazing views of the Pacific! :)





We then drove to another awesome lookout that had a HUGE cross at the top of this mountain...we found Jesus there. I also found a bathroom on the side of this mountain when I peed on San Diego. Yes I go to California and I proceed to pop a squat on the side of a mountain...this is another reason why Matt married me. :)

We had another day full of sun and walking so we were plum tuckered out again. So we opted for In-n-Out Burger :)

Did I mention that Rachel loves cats? She has always had atleast one big fluffy cat if not more for as long as I can remember and San Diego was no different. She has this big fat fluffy black cat named Cricket. I have allergies to cats with long fur sometimes so we kept the door closed to the guest room so the cat wouldn't get in there and I wouldn't have to take meds every day, I hate taking pills! Well in the middle of the night I feel something on my leg and it wakes me up. It's that damn cat! I scream and of course the little thing gets scared and scurries under the bed. At which point I shake Matt awake to share in the fun of a cat being in our room and then demand that he get the cat out. Poor Matt is on all fours trying to get that cat out of our room and is quite successful. I don't know what I would do without my wonderful husband that rescues me from attacking cats! :) Matt--thank you for saving my life once again! I love you!

Sunday we took a boat brunch on the San Diego harbor...AMAZING!

And they had this amazing chocolate fountain...mmmmm heaven!



We ended our time in San Diego to the trip to the outlet mall, and not just any outlet mall. This mall is located at the very southernmost spot in California, the very last exit in the United States. So we got to see TJ, Mexico! And the boarder. If you look close in the picture below you can see a HUGE Mexican flag and the boarder fence separating Mexico from the US.

If you ever get a chance to visit San Diego you must go, we had an amazing time! :)