San Diego 2013!

Last week, we took our first trip as a family since 2010 when we went to North Carolina. Peyton doesn't remember that trip, so he considers this as his first time on an airplane and on vacation. Well, it was a vacation for me and Peyton; James had to attend a week-long training session. Genentech offers training to its employees, teaching them all the aspects of the business. Only a few are selected to go through this training each year and, after applying for the last four years, he was finally selected! The class meets one week per month at one of Genentech's four West Coast offices - South San Francisco, Vacaville, Oceanside, and Hillsboro, OR. The August session took place in Oceanside and James was approved to stay at the Four Seasons Aviara, so it really was a no-brainer that Peyton and I would tag along. :-)

Peyton loved playing in the Virgin America terminal at SFO. He was a champ going through security and made himself at home at the lounge chairs by the window with a view of our plane. Well, we thought it was our plane - 30 minutes before the flight, they switched our gate and it turns out this place was heading to Austin. Peyton is getting very good in identifying cities and states, that he immediately wanted to know if we were going to Texas. Ha, not anytime soon, little man!

As we were boarding our flight, the pilot was standing at the cockpit door greeting the passengers. I told Peyton to say hi and to tell him that this was his first time on the plane. The pilot's face lit up and we were whisked into the cockpit (my first time too!). Peyton had so much fun! Poor James got stuck carrying our luggage to our seats so he missed the fun.

Peyton was very comfortable on the plane. He like wearing his headphones and playing games on the iPad and listening to music on James' phone.

He got a little restless about 30 minutes into the flight, so I let him climb on my lap and look out the window. California is beautiful from the air!

When we landed, Peyton was very sad - he wanted to stay in the air flying. Looks like this was a successful test for a future trip to Bolivia to visit my parents. Peyton really misses his Papa (as do we all)!!

Peyton was such a great helper in the airports. He wanted to carry a bag and loved wheeling it through the terminal. He just looks so grown up in this picture. My little traveling man!

As I mentioned above, we got to stay at the Four Seasons Aviara resort. The last time I accompanied James to Oceanside, I was pregnant with Peyton and we stayed at the Four Seasons Aviara hotel. Since then, the Four Seasons sold off the hotel building to Hyatt and now rents out their Residence Club Villas. We found this out when we checked in and received the keys to our "villa" (condo/apartment).

We were unprepared for what we saw when we entered - a fully functional space with a living room, kitchen, dining room, fireplace, balcony a spare bathroom and laundry room!

The bedroom was expansive with a sofabed and sitting area and the master bath was amazing, with the largest shower we've ever seen! A separate tub was very inviting as well.

The views from our balconies.

 
We had made plans to meet our friend Karen for dinner. She lives in San Diego and we always try to see each other when she's up here in the Bay Area visiting her parents or we're down there. As the mother of twin boys (8), Peyton was putty in her hands. We grilled dinner and ate on one of the balconies and then it was bedtime for Peyton. But first, he had to give Karen a proper farewell.

 
They had so much fun together, Peyton couldn't sit still long enough for a good picture!

It was a great way to start our trip and it was wonderful to catch up with Karen!