Every three years we have been doing a Peterson family reunion. This summer we decided to all meet in San Diego, California. It was perfect weather and a great time to be all together!
We flew in early on Tuesday morning. When we arrived, we got our rental car and then went to Seaport village to kill some time until the Cheesecake Factory opened. We did a little shopping, looked at the bay, and watched some adorable baby ducks.
We were the first people into the Cheesecake Factory when it opened. We ordered yummy food and devoured the bread! Brett ordered the spaghetti and meatballs which ended up being super spicy. The waiter took it back and brought him a four cheese pasta instead. We shared the Oreo Cheesecake and the Linda's Chocolate Cake. 
After the museum we drove about 45 min to the San Diego Temple Open House. We arrived before the rest of the family and we had fun walking around, getting some pictures, and waiting. 
Poker was one of the most popular activities for the kids!
We got one of the rooms with its own bathroom which was really nice. Our room a queen bunkbed and a twin bed. Alana and Lizzie were on the top queen, Sean and I on the bottom, and Brett on the twin. I thought the bed was super comfortable and we all slept great! 
On Thursday we went to Lego Land. Sean and I got up and made pancakes for breakfast and then we all drove over to Lego Land. It was about 45 minutes away. It was fun watching the kids play and getting to visit and interact while everyone was getting ready. 
The "L" girls came in our car. Alana, Lizzie, Lily, and Alexis. It was fun to have these cousins all together.
We ate lunch at a food court that was pretty yummy. Lizzie felt a lot of stress with the choices and I think she was just feeling hot and overwhelmed. She was able to get some dippin dots and felt better after a little break. We split up so Lizzie could go do driving school and I could go with the bigger kids to the triple decker couch ride. We did get to ride the new galactic coaster which was really fun! We had a really good time all together. One of my favorite things on this day was that Kaden started putting characters into an AI and it was creating a Hunger Games. Kaden would read it to all the cousins as they waited in line.
This lion statue was really cool!
Brielle took this picture for us, I think I had smeared sunscreen on the camera lens though because its so blurry.
Sean and I went to Walmart to get some more muffins, donuts, cookies, mac and cheese and some cheese and pinto beans. We made ourselves quesadillas and macaroni for our kids for dinner. Brian and Jill were moving from Utah to Oregon and so they brought Watson to San Diego and boarded him there for the week. They needed to pick him up on Friday night since the boarding place was closed on Saturday for the 4th of July. Alana and Lizzie in particular loved snuggling Watson. 
After the restaurant we went to the Museum of Illusions. It was super fun to see all the fun photo opportunities, puzzles, and other illusions.
The inside of the temple was beautiful!! So many details and such a special spirit. It was really fun to reunite with family and especially meet Baby Danny for the first time. Sean and I had the opportunity to talk about the sealing ordinance with a few people in the sealing room. It was neat to share our testimonies.
After going through the open house we drove back to find our VRBO. It was about an hour drive with the traffic and the parking for the house we rented was super hard to find. It was down this little alley. The house was really nice with some weird quirks. The location was bizarre, but also awesome and very close to all the things we wanted to do. We got some groceries delivered and then we went to Costco with Neil and Rebecca to get some more food, paper plates and such, and some pizzas for dinner. On Wednesday we were planning to go to Coronado Beach. Natalie sent an article that morning that was talking about how the water had unsafe levels of bacteria in it because there was leakage from a burst pipe in the Tijuana river. Chemicals and sewage were making the water unsafe. We were pretty bummed and told the kids we were still going to go to the island, but that we couldn't get in the ocean. Our girls were devastated. Playing on the beach is their favorite thing ever. We drove to the beach, walked through the hotel, then went to look at the water. Neil checked with the life guards and we found out the water had been tested again and the restriction had been lifted. Alana had worn her suit under her clothes and jumped into the ocean immediately. Lizzie and I played in the water and got wet. Brett dug some huge holes in the sand. Sean still had a fun time, but wasn't in his swim things so he chose to watch the festivities. We tried to decide if we should go back to the house and get the swim things, it was hard to know what to do.
After going to the beach, we returned to the house and had leftover pizza and ran to get some Taco Bell. The kids played poker and Neil turned on the World Cup game. We went to Seaport Village to get some dinner and do some more shopping.
We rode Ninjago first and then made our way around the park. We rode lots of fun rides and stuck together with Neil and Rebecca and Brandon and Michal and all the older kids.
We ate lunch at a food court that was pretty yummy. Lizzie felt a lot of stress with the choices and I think she was just feeling hot and overwhelmed. She was able to get some dippin dots and felt better after a little break. We split up so Lizzie could go do driving school and I could go with the bigger kids to the triple decker couch ride. We did get to ride the new galactic coaster which was really fun! We had a really good time all together. One of my favorite things on this day was that Kaden started putting characters into an AI and it was creating a Hunger Games. Kaden would read it to all the cousins as they waited in line.
We went to a Peterson family favorite restaurant for dinner called Casa De Bandini. Lizzie didn't want anything there so she got a lemonade and then enjoyed watching a movie on my phone. Alana also just got a drink and enjoyed being with cousins. Brett got a huge burrito and enjoyed his cherry pepsi. Sean and I shared the Mole which was delicious! We sat with Brandon and Michal's family which was really fun!
On Friday we all wore some matching t-shirts and Rebecca got bows and scrunchies for all the girls, then we posed for a family picture. I think they turned out really good!
After our picture we drove to the San Diego Zoo. It was only 10 minutes from the house, but there was so many cars lined up to go in, it took an hour. I was pretty terrified that it was going to be so crowded and just awful, but it was perfectly fine. It was hot, but didn't feel too crowed at all.
Alana got Henna with Lily:
I loved the zoo and could have spent another day there. We all had a good time!
The older cousins did a pretty epic hunger games this day. They each got to pick characters and then they got to send supplies each day to their districts. The kids called each other on the drive to the zoo and would read the story and make their decisions on supplies. We were all super invested in the story as Kaden read it throughout the day. In the end Alana's character Rocky (from Project Hail Mary) won! Here the kids are after we all returned from the zoo listening to Kaden read the epic conclusion.
Lizzie got some time to snuggle Danny!
And Estelle was super brave and got to pet Watson:
Brandon and Michal's family left super early on Saturday morning. The rest of us all left around 10 AM. We had breakfast and the kids decorated canvas tote bags. We cleaned up and packed up. It was so fun to see everyone! 
Our flight didn't leave till about 4 pm, so we went to see Toy Story 5. It was a great movie and we all enjoyed it. Then we went to Panera for lunch and DQ for dessert. After that we made our way back to the airport. We filled up the rental car with $7 per gallon gas! We had an uneventful flight back home and Dad Z picked us up from the airport. We were so happy to see our Oreo and sleep in our own beds! 
