When I asked Jake what he’d like to do for Father’s Day, he replied, without missing a beat,

“I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to tour the USS Midway!”  (An aircraft carrier/museum in San Diego).

Me: “Let me rephrase that. What would you like to do for Father’s Day that I would also like to do?”

Definitely not my first choice of activities, but I ended up giving in and we headed down to San Diego during the week right before Father’s Day weekend.

On the drive down, we kept promising the girls we were going on a big boat… they were pretty confused/irritated when we got there.

YOU PROMISED US A BOAT!

Once S and A spotted all the planes, they temporarily forgot about the fact that they weren’t on a moving boat. 

First day of fighter pilot training. 

Step one: learn how to eject the passenger. 

All those buttons– a toddler’s dream!

Um….I’m a little busy with flight training right now. 

Do they make booster seats for these things? 

Whoa… never attempted a barrel roll before… that was crazy!

Just call me Maverick.

Feeling proud!

I don’t even remember the days when I could still hold both of the girls at the same time.  

Where can I get those glasses? 

Making friends with the other recruits. 

We need camo in our wardrobe!

Just playing with some missiles; nothing to see here. 

About an hour into our tour, the girls started getting antsy, so we took a quick lunch break. With full bellies, the girls were good for another hour– especially after hitting up the souvenir shop. We told them they could each choose one item and I totally thought they were going to go for the pricey stuffed bears in aviator glasses and bomber jackets. They chose some cheap red, white and blue bracelets instead. A win-win. 

S and A’s favorite part of the day was going inside the big helicopters, mostly because they love to run up and down ramps, in general. 

Just got back from a routine mission rescuing marines from insurgents in Afghanistan. No biggie. 

The carrier was huge and we didn’t even get to half of it before the girls went into meltdown mode and we headed to our hotel for nap time. It was a good first tour though… maybe Jake can take the girls on a daddy-daughter date there again when they are a bit older. 

A successful first day of fighter pilot training!

Now the real fun can begin!

Let Operation Tire Twins Out Before Bedtime begin. 

The girls obviously had zero fun in the pool. 

Amelia begged to stay at the pool all night! 

We took a little break from the pool to eat dinner with Cousin Ben, who was on summer break from his first year of law school and was clerking for a judge nearby. It was fun to see Ben– even if not all of us look happy in the picture (AHEM, Samantha)!

After dinner it was back to the pool. 

In a final desperate attempt to tire the girls out, we walked to Seaport Village and let the girls window shop to their heart’s content before they conked out in the stroller on the way back to the hotel. It was a quick Father’s Day staycation, but we made the day count!

Lots of love,