This summer, after a jam-packed few days in June Lake celebrating Uncle Will’s wedding, our family made what turned out to be a very LOOOOONG trek south to my hometown…San Diego.

My happy place.

And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

But seriously, folks, this trip south was a doozy.  We drove all day through wind and dust storm-laden deserts in a car that boasted untinted windows and a malfunctioning A/C.

We even had to resort to covering the side windows with black trash bags just to keep the car’s internal temperature mostly bearable.  It was, shall we say, HOT.

But with a lot of cookies and a whole lot of iPad time, we made it.

Thank you, Jesus.

And thank you, Apple products.

We salute you.

With only 4 precious days of respite before our next journey, we filled up our time with super fun outings to Mission Bay...

To Pacific Beach…

(Let’s make America CUTE again)

(Kid zen)

(A rare cuddle with my Lil Mister Wiggler)

To our favorite parks…

And, of course, made many MANY trips to Mr. Frostie’s.

How much ice cream can a few kids in in just four days?  Lemme tell you…A LOT.

And then on our final day we had the BEST surprise ever.

We went to another favorite spot, La Jolla Cove,

and got to spend the day with our best buddies, the Mugfords, who moved to San Diego just the day before!

What amazing timing!

For those of you who’ve followed our blog over the years, you’ll remember Cohen Mugford…the Little Missy’s First Ever and Most Bestest Friend.  Sigh.  We heart Cohen and his sweet family!

And the kiddos took up right where they left off…

After spending some time at the Cove we took the Mugfords up to Soledad Mountain so that they could bask in the beauty of their new dominion.

Not bad, eh?

Then we brought them back to the Plaxico family Homestead for a little R&R.

And by R&R I mean we let the kids rollick and be rowdy, of course.  Cause that’s how we roll.

Especially this one.

And these two are pretty silly as well.

We love the Mugfords!!!  And we’re so glad that they are Californians now!

And so with that, our peaceful and rejuvenating few days in San Diego came to an end.  We packed up and headed out (in a rental, I’ll have you know, with lots of space and a fully functioning A/C…cause Mama ain’t crazy) for the our final leg of our Westward sojourn.

Our few days in San Diego were short…too short.  But we had such a nice time.

And we’ll be back.