After years of feeling alternately inspired and riddled with guilt when reading the Ilnicki's fantastic blog, my sense of inspiration has finally passed the tipping point. Prepare to be bombarded with news and pictures of our family at least twice a year.

Having just returned from our trip to San Diego, I thought I'd share some of the high points. In the following pictures, Joe and Siena were relegated to the bathtub for reading bedtime stories while Joey fell asleep in the hotel room in Portland. (Yes, he requires silence and absolute darkness to do this and the rest of the family goes to extreme measures to accommodate him.)

After that night, we agreed that suites were the way to go.

In San Diego we visited the Zoo, meeting up with Barb and Lynn for the afternoon. We saw a baby hippo learning how to swim, a lion catch a live trout from a stream in it's habitat, and mating polar bears. I kid you not.

Here Joey had just woken up from a nap and was less than excited by the hippos:

With a free-range peacock...

On Wednesday, Barb and Lynn took us out for breakfast and to Coronado Island. It was gorgeous and fun to spend the day together. Here are some pictures, apparently in no particular order thanks to my lack of blogging skills:

I'll post more from the second (beach) part of our trip soon!