Sightseeing in San Diego...Pillow Pets!!! :)

**Just a week of posts left to go to finish up the journal of our trip...I am determined to get it complete despite the busy life we are leading right now. To update everyone (briefly) on the happenings here, Paul accepted a job as General Manager with James Ferrell and Co in their Umatilla warehousing and production facilites. He is loving it. We are in the process of moving to the Tri-Cities and are walking through the many transitions with a joyful, peace-filled heart. We are certain that this is God's perfect plan for our life and are excited to see where He is leading us! I'll blog an update soon! :)**

*Saturday, April 3*

Today was a GREAT day! If I could bottle it, I would! :)

This morning, we drove downtown to visit the children’s museum. What a terrific place! I wish that I had taken more pictures…I was just having too much fun! They have a fleet of chariots that you can stand in and maneuver around a course. It was, by far, Zachary’s favorite activity!

The boys painted, sculpted, made music, dressed up like sea creatures and bounced in the rainbow tunnel. They had a blast!

For lunch, we went into Old Town. Most of the buildings are original; it is the first place that settlers homesteaded in San Diego.

There is a lovely remodeled Mission and lots of shops and restaurants. We ate at a fabulous Mexican restaurant where the boys were serenaded by a two-man mariachi band.

Nicholas, you can see, was very polite during their song. Trevor, on the other hand, was a bit indifferent or maybe just confused. To his credit, a speeding train couldn’t stop this kid from eating chips and salsa. The spicier, the faster, the better for T. :)

And, to top it off, the table next to us who was celebrating a birthday, shared their cake with us! Wow – talk about being in the right place at the right time! We were beyond stuffed!!

And now, perhaps the highlight of the trip...ready??...

As we walked through the street fair in Old Town, the boys spotted a vendor selling Pillow Pets. Oh, how frequently we have heard the pleading of 3 boys for a pillow pet. If you are not familiar, they are pillows that Velcro closed to look like an animal. Definitely one of those, "why didn't I think of that?," products.

I thought that they would come out of their shoes when they saw the vast array of pillow pets in the vendor’s booth. They begged (quite politely I should add), we circled the block and returned to the booth to adopt 3 Pillow Pets; an elephant for Trevor, a penguin for Zachary, and after much debate, a monkey with a winning smile for Nicholas. Everyone we passed giggled at their excitement. One gal stopped me and said, “Isn’t it fun to see how something so simple can bring such joy to a child that age? I really miss those days.” So true. I won’t tell you what they cost. (I prefer not to have official record of it.) :) It was worth every penny.

Our day continued at La Jolla Beach where we walked the boardwalk and hung out with the sea lions lounging around on the beach. See the boys’ faces? They were a little taken back by the pungent smell. :) It didn't take long before they were asking if we could leave. "City-boys" for sure. :)

Tired and happy, we returned home, filled plastic eggs with jellybeans (from our Jelly Belly detour) and made Easter Cookies, a tradition in the Landon house at Easter. Unfortunately, w/ no mixer we won't be able to reveal the hollow cookies (empty tombs) tomorrow morning but, the bible verses and memory of past years’ cookies were just as special.

We are all excited to celebrate Easter tomorrow. Paul picked up a local magazine and found a church about 20 miles away that is having a big children's service. It sounds like a perfect place to celebrate the gift of The Risen Christ!