San Diego...the trip continues!

Our vacation continued with a more low key day on Sunday.  We attended a Japanese church with Danny and his family.  Timothy chose to go to children's church and loved it.  He made a cute little camel and got to pick a prize as a visitor.  The rest of the adults attended the worship service which was partly in English, partly in Japanese.  It was a neat experience.

Then it was back to the house for some lunch and play time with the cousins and family.  Danny pulled out a lot of his boys old toys much to the delight of our kids.  Timothy had a light sabre fight with Jake.  We all spent some time building with legos and magnet blocks.  Almost everyone went to the park for some Frisbee, games of chase and playground fun.  Timothy especially loved being chased by his cousins Jake and Mark!

We all returned to the park after dinner and were able to get a quick picture of the whole Troftgruben gang.  A pretty good looking bunch!!

Monday was Teresa's big day at the zoo.  She was very excited to see a whole bunch of big cats.  The kids were tired when we arrived at the zoo and it was a hot day, but we managed to have a good time.  Highlights were seeing the leopards, cheetah, lions, and jaguar; riding the sky tram two times and taking the bus tour in the late afternoon when we were hot and tired! Teresa was also excited to pick out her souvenir at the zoo.  She bought a family of white tigers.  Timothy bought his sword and shield at legoland.

Posing with a seal by arctic animal area.

A family picture by the big tiger!

Perhaps one of Teresa's favorite moments of the day--watching the cheetah!

 Dinners all together were a little crowded but lots of fun as we shared together about our days and experiences.

Our last morning in San Diego was once again spent at the beach.  It was a little warmer this day, but the water was still chilly. Timothy and Teresa loved the waves and water.  They could have spent hours playing!  Danny brought along a shovel and built a neat sand castle and moat for the kids.  Timothy was delighted to catch a few tiny sea crabs.  It was a great time!

 Then for the last night of our vacation we drove back up to LA to stay with some collage friends of Troy's.  Joy and Nathan Hoff were so welcoming to us.  It was a nice stop before we headed back to Iowa.  Timothy especially loved this stop.  He quickly made friends with the three boys and had a fabulous time playing with them.  In the morning he helped pick oranges to make fresh orange juice.

The four boys happily eating breakfast.

Creative photography by Nathan to get everyone in the picture

Our return trip to Iowa was long, but smooth for the most part.  The kids were good and patient with all the travel.  We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to experience all we did this past week.  We made many a great memory that will be cherished form years to come!