San Diego

We had such a great day today, it's worthy of a blog.

Omar has lots of friends from Ouachita Baptist University that he stays in touch with.  One of his friends, Britney, came out with her daughter, Annika (1 week younger than William), to visit another of their OBU friends, Lindsey, who is due to have her baby soon.  So of course we had to go visit them in San Diego.  I'd gotten to know Britney a little through Facebook because of the close ages of our kids, so I was really excited to finally meet her in person.

The day started out slow.  For some reason, Omar and I keep staying up late on Friday nights like we actually get to sleep in on Saturdays, even though we know the kids are still going to get us up at 6.  Well, I guess the some reason is that we don't have a lot of down time with just the two of us, so we always want to try to squeeze in some time together after the kids go to bed.  But the kids did let us sleep until almost 7 this morning.  Then it was just the typical dragging our feet, trying to wake up, and trying to get everything organized.  It's amazing how much stuff two kids need just for a day trip.

But we made it to Seaport Village just a little later than scheduled.  We just had time to change Joy's diaper and take William to the potty before Lindsey, Britney, and Annika arrived.  After general all around greetings, during which both Annika and William suddenly decided to be shy, we headed to our first order of business: lunch at the Fish Market.

It was a nice walk down the waterfront to the restaurant.  William was so excited about all the things to see that he soon lost his shyness.  Especially when we came across a giant statue of a face that he got to climb all over.

Lunch was really nice.  We got a table on the glassed-in porch so we had a great view of the water without the wind.  The kids were all surprisingly well behaved.  William and Annika sat next to each other in their highchairs and got to know each other a little bit.  William tried to catch a fly, and Annika sang a song for us.  When the food came, William shared his fruit with Annika.  I particularly enjoyed just being able to sit and talk with Lindsey and Britney.  I can see why Omar remembers them so fondly; they are lovely women.  Oh, and my lunch (Dungeness Crab Ciabatta) was sooo good.  Joy liked the crab, too.

After lunch, we headed back towards Seaport Village.  Omar split off from the group for a while, so I got a chance for some good mommy talk with Lindsey and Britney.  I don't really have mommy friends near home, so I always love that opportunity.  At the village, I found a bench where I could sit to nurse Joy, and Omar caught up with us.  Omar and Britney chased around William and Annika while I sat and talked to Lindsey while feeding Joy.  Then Lindsey bought everybody ice cream so we could validate our parking.

We ended our day walking out to the peninsula and claiming a spot of grass to lounge on.  Annika and William ran all over, and they tried to catch the kite that someone was flying.  Britney took some family pictures of the four of us; I need a good picture to frame on my living room wall.  When William had a mild meltdown, we knew it was time to head home so the kids could nap in the car.

Good byes and hopes to see you again were passed around and we parted ways.  I hope we really do get to see them again.  It was just such a nice day.  There was no formality, just hanging out and chatting and watching the kids play together.

The ride home was a little rough.  Both our kids had the classic overtired-child syndrome.  They fell asleep within minutes, but both woke up fussy a couple times during the trip, and we had to stop to feed Joy once.  We walked in the door at home and immediately began our bedtime routines.  After rolling around and getting stuck against the rail of her cribs a couple times, Joy is asleep now.  William just got back up to go potty, but he should be asleep soon.

I'm going to head to bed soon, too.  Sooo tired.  But very satisfied.  I've really been craving some good fellowship, and I got that in bushels today.