Girls Road Trip to San Diego

This past weekend Ryder and I were invited on a girls weekend to San Diego. I know Ryder's not a girl, but I think he still gets the pass to go with the girls for a few more years before he stays home with dad on weekends like this. Plus Daddy had to work Saturday so that option was out. Anyhow.... My friend Heather is from San Diego and thought it would be nice to take the opportunity to show us around since we are finally on the West Coast. Until now we had all only lived on the East Coast together. It was such a great opportunity since none of us girls had really had the chance to go to California before (i've only been in the LAX airport on a layover to Hawaii before... doesn't count right?) We headed out early Friday morning....

Welcome to California

A sure sign we were leaving the desert when we saw the mountains with the snow on top ahead of us

When we arrived on Heather's house we went for a quick walk around the lagoon by her house to get a little exercise after our long car ride

Lisa, Danielle, Heather, and Brittany
and of course Ryder down below

After our quick walk we decided we were going to head to Coronado. Please excuse me for butchering the names or terminology on any of this West Coast stuff... i've never heard of most of it before. Heather's mom offered to take Ryder for the afternoon. She has two little girls about my sisters age who she thought would be thrilled to have Ryder around for the afternoon. It worked out great because they got to play with a baby and this Momma got a much needed afternoon and evening with her girlfriends kid free! I can not tell you how thankful I was for this opportunity... Thank You Mrs. Smith!

Anyhow... we headed to an island right by downtown San Diego called Coronado. Heather wanted to show us an old hotel called Hotel Del Coronado. As soon as I saw it I kept saying it looked like The Floridian at Disney World, and after a quick google search we realized The Floridian is in fact modeled after this hotel.

It was a really cool place to see and reminded me a lot of where I went to school at Flagler College.... an old hotel by the ocean. We had a good time walking around, checking a few shops out, and of course checking out the ice cream shop! It was the most expensive small cup of ice cream i've ever bought, but delicious!
Last year we got pictures at the Gulf of Mexico in bathing suits....

This year the Pacific Ocean in hoddies...

After touring around the area we headed to get some dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Miguel's. Before I met Heather I never would have ate queso dip and now I love it. Of course this place had amazing queso and the drinks weren't too bad either! We made our own little concotion of a Strawberry/Mango Daquiri that was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! I can't tell you how nice it was to sit at dinner, order a drink, eat appetizers, eat my meal, talk a little after, pay the bill, and never once have to try to entertain, pick stuff up off the ground, clear the table around me in fear of things getting thrown.... it was SOOO nice!

Heather does NOT drink... After telling her is was a girls weekend, we were out to dinner, and I was baby-less we convinced her to order a daquiri with us. After drinking 3/4 of her small daquiri she was already feeling good... Brit finished the rest after this pic was taken. We got a few good laughs out of it :)

After our dinner we headed to downtown San Diego to see the Gas Lamp District. There were no gas lamps in site, but it was such a cute little area to walk through. There were so many restaurants, shops, and of course a baseball field. We had lots of "When we make the big league" moments. "When we make the big leagues we'll be staying in that hotel", "When we make the big leagues we'll shop in these boutiques before the games", "When we make the big leauges we'll buy that house on the beach".... it's fun to play pretend with my girlfriends living the same lifestyle as me. Let's hope one day we can all turn our pretend into a reality!

Gas Lamp District

The Padres Field... We hope to be back there one day
It was such a great night, but I loved getting back home to this guy and enjoying the BIG hugs he had in store for me!!!

The next morning was a yucky rainy day. We only had the weekend so we made the best of it and toured around with Heather and her mom showing us all sorts of cool places. One of our stops was to a famous golf course.... had to stop for our boys of course and get some pictures

Ryder checking the place out so he could tell his Dada about it when he got home

It just so happened that while we were touring the area there was actually a tsunami warning in affect! Nothing major, but it was still fun for us east coast girls to get a kick out of :)

Ryder happy to be home after a long day in the car

It was such a great weekend away! I know it was much needed on my part after being in Arizona away from friends and family for such a long period of time. I remember Derrik's first season in baseball thinking I would be on this adventure on my own for the rest of my life while Derrik had the baseball team. I felt like I was the only girl out there going through any of this crazy life. I thought I would be alone while Derrik was on the road, sitting in the stands by myself for years to come, and never having anyone who just understood. Little did I know God would introduce me to a whole new family.... my "baseball family". It is an amazing support group and truly the reason I think Derrik and I make it from season to season. These girls know exactly what I am thinking and feeling. Most of their husbands have been through rehabs, lows, and highs in this game of baseball. They know how it feels to see your husband struggle and how it feels to watch your husband go out and have an amazing game. We have lived with each other, by each other, packed each other up, unpacked each other, watched pets while we take visits home, entertained each other while the guys are on roadtrips, searched for homes in various states, sat huddled around computers listening to games while our husbands played (honestly... how many girls sit around and listen to baseball games on computers together and think of it as a fulfilling night?!?!)... basically these girls are what make me love this life we live! I am thankful to them for all the support they give me, and even more thankful we left them for once this weekend!!! They always leave us on roadtrips, and i'm not sure they knew what to think when we told them WE were leaving this time! What a great weekend.... wish all you baseball girls could have been there, but there will be plenty of trips to come!