my two week vacation wrap-up

Alright everyone! I finally, Finally, FINALLY have pictures to show you. It only took me like 3 hours to download all of these pics. So ... I hope it is all worth it to you. I'm sorry there is so many pictures - but I had a really hard time making the decision of which ones to cut out :( I promise though, these are just a few.

Again, we went with David's daughter, Ayla, and her half-sister, Laera. Laera is Ayla's biological mother's daughter, however, for about a year and a half, Laera was also David's foster child. He and his ex were getting ready to adopt her when they split up.

So, here are the highlights of my first vacation I've ever been on (except my honeymoon to vegas) that my parents didn't pay for. I already posted the pics of the first Saturday we were there - so I'm picking up where I left off.

Here is Ayla and Laera after the river ride at Sea World:

David and I ... I'm the awesome photographer ... pardon my arm:

Trying to get enough guts to touch the sting rays:

Feeding the dolphins:

In the polar bear cave:

Afterward we headed on a ferry to Coronado Island:

The city from the island was so beautiful:

This is a weird pic. I had a crazy idea to take a picture of a lightpole - and for some odd reason, I love this picture:

On the ferry ride back to San Diego:

Laguna beach:

Disneyland:

We went to Whittier, CA for Father's Day so David could see his grandma Maloney:

Another beach day:

I'm attempting to get David riding a wave on his boogie board:

David and the girls:

Cute sisters:

California Adventure:

(Ayla and I are both trying to tell David to put the camera away because we both feared as soon as the ride blasted upward toward the sky - the camera would be a goner!)

We stayed at California Adventure for a few hours and then headed back to Disneyland. For Dinner we bought a $7 turkey leg. This thing was ENORMOUS:



David apparently thought he could take on the turkey leg:

Ayla being crushed in toontown:

We got to meet Mickey!:

The carousel. Oh yeah, and me:



Ayla and I at the wishing well:

I think she is so beautiful! We were waiting for the fireworks at Disneyland to start:

David and my first night out together. We ate out at Dukes. It was delicious!

After dinner, we saw there was a street fair across the street, so we headed over:

While we were there, we decided to have our handwriting analyzed by this guy! LOL. Yeah. It was fun! Found out a LOT about David. (not really) He hit the head on some things about me -- but really, for the most part, it was all in fun. We both do not believe in all that rubbish. However, this guy told me that he would trust me with his life -- "I rarely ever say that. I mean, I haven't said that in ... weeks." So there you go .... You could trust me with you life:

We ran down to the pier to catch the sunset. IT WAS GORGEOUS!:

Then after the sunset, there was a beautiful full moon:

Off to Universal Studios:

(it was so hot and there was a coke waterpark. we were running through getting wet -- David is trying to dodge the water, here)


Ayla LOVES spongebob. She knows every episode word for word. It was so cute when she turned around saw him standing there. Here eyes got all big and just started blinking in awe. LOL. It was adorable:

Love this pic:

The evening before we headed home. I went down to the pool with the girls and we played in the water. It was fun:

As we headed out of town, we stopped in and said goodbye to David's grandma Maloney:

And .... that is my vacation in a nutshell. We sure did a lot more than what these pictures show. It was a ton of fun!!!

Just want to thank David for letting me tag along and for being such a sweetheart! I'm so grateful for everything you do for me. I sure do think you're mighty swell!