It's Golden.

 As you know from my previous post, I surprised the boys with a trip to San Diego after Cole's school let out for summer.  We went to visit my lifelong friend, Meredith, who lives in a beautiful home in Rancho Santa Fe with her husband, Craig, and two boys, John John and Will. Despite the travel hiccups discussed in my post (ha!), we had a wonderful time! This post will be mainly photos because I've already written much of our adventure.

This was the first plane ride (in his memory) for this nugget.  He loved it!

This is how two Boymoms roll...  backpacking, Top Gun style on the USS Midway! :)

The boys loved the USS Midway Museum, especially seeing all of the different planes on deck.

We also went to the Mairtime Museum, where we toured several boats, a US submarine, and a Russian submarine.  Everything was interactive, and these boys ATE IT UP.

Aye, Mate!

Tate (4), Cole (8), Will (5), John John (7)

Meredith and Craig got a sitter for the boys and took me to dinner along the sea in Del Mar.  It was gorgeous, and we really enjoyed an adult dinner.  I still wasn't feeling well this night, so it was especially great to get a little break from four busy boys and have time to catch up with this sweet friend who I have known literally my entire life. Love her.

We took the boys to the beach -- Tate's favorite place of the trip!

Cole-Man braved the frigid waters and caught some awesome waves on the boogie board!

Meredith and Will bundled up (it was chilly, but the sand was warm).

Cole, John John, and Tate

Our last day, we went to (drum roll, please)... LEGOLAND! This was Cole's favorite part of the trip, no surprise.

He played a basketball game and won this giant stuffed Pokemon toy.  It's so beautiful.  Much like the giant stuffed penguin Tate won at Sea World last year.  [Why do they always have to have such good hand-eye coordination?!?]

It's Mardi Gras in Miniland!

I am so grateful to have a friend like Meredith, and so thankful our sweet boys get to know and visit each other.  Their home was beautiful, but instead of taking pictures... I put my phone down and enjoyed catching up over a glass of wine looking at hot air balloons in the evening sky over the hills. 

One of the reasons I surprised the boys with this trip to the Golden State was to reward Cole-Man for an awesome Second Grade year.  He rounded out the year with all As, and made in the 96th percentile or above on all of the end-of-year benchmark exams (100% on both math skills and reading fluency).  We had his class over for a swim party to celebrate all of their hard work this year.

Cole, Zack, Drew, Josh, Landon

Haleigh, Julianna, Brett Lee

This year was a HUGE step up from First Grade, and Cole-Man rarely complained, managed it all along with piano and baseball, and succeeded with amazing grades, awards, and friendships made.  The summer jumped off to an amazing start, and we are ready for more to come.