Nicole’s Family Vacation [Photos]

My family rarely goes on vacation. We actually figured out before leaving that the last time we had gone on vacation out of state, was when my oldest son turned 8 years old and we took him to Disney World in Orlando. He will be 13 years old in June....that''s just crazy!

This was our first trip as a family of 4, with Cooper being just under 2. I wasn't quite sure how he would do on his first plane ride, but he did awesome! We even had a 2 hour delay while sitting on the plane before we took off from Boise.

We chose San Diego because it was a warm, tropical place that is still close enough to Boise, without a long flight to Hawaii.

We stayed at the Catamaran Resort and OMG, it was absolutely beautiful and exactly what I wanted. I really wanted to be on the water, but also close to all of the activities we had planned.

Our trip to the San Diego Zoo was so much fun! If you haven't been and plan on taking your family, plan a full day. That place is HUGE! After walking through half of the park, we decided to take the guided bus tour to give our feet a break and we ended up seeing so many more animals than we would have otherwise. I definitely recommend it!

We visited Sea World another day and enjoyed it as well. I hadn't been since I was a little girl and sooo much has changed. They are building a new whale exhibit for the Orca shows which will open in the summer. In the meantime, they have an educational whale experience where trainers share information about the whales and their habits and nutrition. We also checked out the dolphin show and Jaden chose to sit in the splash zone!

The coolest part of our trip was a private surf lesson from Surf Diva for JD and Jaden. Their instructor, Davo, was amazing! Neither of them had ever done it before, so his guidance and patience was wonderful. Jaden was a natural! He hopped up and surfed almost every wave that he attempted. It was so cool to see him find a passion for it and now he won't stop talking about getting back to San Diego for more lessons with Davo!

Southwest kicks off their direct flights from Boise to San Diego this June, so I have a feeling we will be back again soon!!