Koalafornia Kid

I truly enjoy working in marketing for Sonic Drive-ins.  Not only am I blessed to work with great people but a lot of my time is spent talking about topics ranging from Real Ice Cream Shakes to Pretzel Dogs ... there are certainly worse ways to spend a day!  One of the other fun parts of the job is the convention that we have each fall.

The Sonic Convention is a special way to celebrate our prior fiscal year and to kick off the new one.  It's always a great party and I get to hang out with fun people (like Tonnya Acree!):

This year's convention was in beautiful San Diego and what made the whole experience even better than what I described above was that I kicked off that week with Zac and Cael.  We thought this was a perfect time and place for a little family escape so we tacked on a few days to "Sonic Prom" (which is what Zac calls our convention) for some fun on the West Coast.

Cael, being a lover of all things related to airplanes, airports and air travel in general, would have been content just taking the flights to and from San Diego but we managed to fit in a little extra fun.  We started our adventure at SeaWorld where we spent the day with dolphins ...

 ... and turtles.

Seeing Franklin definitely made Cael's Top 10 life experiences to date ... he was thrilled to see his turtle buddy and walked right up for a hug.

SeaWorld had a great part of the park for toddlers that included a fun splash pad (we were thankful to have extra clothes with us that day!) ...



 ... and a few rides that Cael absolutely loved.

The belugas, penguins and sea lions (plus funnel cakes) kept our guy looking like this all day:

Zac's dad and stepmom came down from San Francisco to spend some time with us which was so special.  They headed with us to the San Diego Zoo to meet the animals.  Cael enjoyed seeing everything from the camels to the monkeys but he really connected with the various animal statues throughout the park including koalas,

snakes,

and hippos.

Zac took Cael's lead on the QT with the cool statues.

Other highlights of the day for Cael included riding on the zoo bus (while singing "The Wheels on the Bus," of course) ...

meeting a parrot named Sam ...

... and hanging out with the goats.

SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo were awesome but we took a little break from the animal friends on our final day.  We headed to the state park at Torrey Pines to take in a little more scenery on the trails and at the beach.  Cael really enjoyed the "pines" on the cliff-side trails ...

... and loved chasing the gulls on the beach.

We wrapped up the day at Seaport Village where Cael stretched his legs in the park (he is either sleeping or running these days),

checked out the boats,

and polished off his first ice cream cone.

It was a beautiful trip and we hope to visit San Diego again.  We're not sure how long Cael will hold onto any of his memories from this adventure but we loved experiencing San Diego with our little guy ... and I think he had a good time too :)

"We goin' 'Ruba?"

Our summer trip to Aruba took on a whole new level of fun this year in that Cael was actually able to look forward to the adventure.  It was adorable to watch his excitement build as the vacation neared and as we talked about all of the fun that he would have.  We spent the weeks prior to the trip discussing everything from the flights on the airplanes to the family members that he would see.  All of those conversations resulted in Cael's favorite question of the summer:

"We goin' 'Ruba?"

He was so excited to go on the trip and we were anxious to see what he thought of his first Aruban adventure that he could fully walk and talk his way through. 

Even with a super-early start to a long day of travel, Cael was a great traveler and loved all of the time associated with airplanes ... looking at them, talking about them, riding in them.  Our day of travel went beautifully and before we knew it, we were in the full swing of Aruban fun.

There were many construction projects in the sand.

Cael loved driving his car, both in and out of the pool.

Iguana feeding was a big hit.

The Benihana chefs were totally awe-inspiring.

There were new and exciting things to look at everywhere we went.

Cael enjoyed every minute of the trip but there was one activity that he clearly loved the most ... the waterslide.  I did not think that this would be "the year of the waterslide" but Cael wanted to give it a try and that was all it took for him to decide that he wanted to go again ... and again and again.

He had no fear stepping onto that slide,

zipping through the curves,

and splashing into the pool!

That face says it all as our kid could not get enough of that slide.  That was a huge highlight of the trip but here are a few of my other favorite shots:

 



It was an amazing trip and on top of the exciting activities, we were able to take in all of the fun with most of our family ... such special times.  Understandably, Cael has already started asking "We goin' 'Ruba?"