So here it is, 2025. A lot of things are happening for the Thompson family, some things coming to an end, others just beginning. After two years and countless hours of studying, Andrea graduated nursing school and as part of the celebration, we decided to take a vacation, our first family vacation! Destination.. CALIFORNIA!!

It has been a few years since our last trip, a lot of huge changes since then. A soon to be nurse and two beautiful little girls. The main focus of our trip was to visit Andrea’s grandmother Donna. She has never met Akira so we were excited to introduce the two. We planned out our trip along with Cindy, booked the flights and minivan. We are ready to go!!

May 17th we arrived at the Tri-Cities airport a little early to make sure that we didn’t encounter any problems. This would be the first time that we have flown with the girls so we were trying to expect the uexpected. Bags, stroller and car seats checked in without any hiccups so on to security. Ah, no issues.. I can feel a little stress lifted. After a little over an hour of waiting it was time to board and the first troublesome moment of the trip. Akira was set to sit in one of the adults laps and because of the seating arrangements, they had to make some changes, which almost put the entire flight behind schedule.

After the minor delay, we found ourselves in our seats ready for take off. We have been hyping up Aurelia about flying for months now, so she was ready to do it! The first section of our flight was a short one, TRI to ATL, then a 40 minute layover and off to ONT. We booked night flights in hopes that the girls would go to sleep during the flight and that ended up being a wise decision. We did it.. California!!!

The next few days we spent visiting with family and taking in the sunny days of California. We were able to find a great playground for the girls to play at and it was less than a mile from grandma’s house.

We decided before making the trip that we were going to spend most time hanging around with grandma but we did plan on making a trip to the San Diego Zoo. We got to the zoo nice and early so we would have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. I must admit, I have been to a few zoos over the years but I really appreciated the atmosphere there. The animals were happy, the place was clean, there were volunteers everywhere and they were extremely friendly. It was a great day that I will be able to cherish for all my days. If you ever find yourself visiting the San Diego area, I’ll just tell you now.. visit the zoo, you won’t be disappointed!!

Wow, what a vacation so far!! Only a few days left but we still had a big adventure planned.. San Jacinto Mountain. Andrea had brought this place up multiple times to me so it peaked my interest. “Now we will have to ride the air tram to get to the top” she said. Ok I think I can handle that but boy I didn’t realize that we would go from 2600 feet elevation to over 9000 at the top.. WHAT?!? Wait, it also rotates 360 degrees as it goes up and down. WHO thought this up?! All joking aside, this was amazing day. The pictures or these words cannot describe how amazing it was to ride to the top and then hike around the mountain. One of the biggest kicks for me.. everyone was smelling the tress and Cindy told me to do so.. I had to fit in, so I smelled the trees…

There are miles and miles of hiking and you could definitely spend multiple days exploring. After some hiking we headed to the restaurant that sits on the ledge of the mountain. Man, what a tasty treat. Well another adventure in the books and that about closes out our first family vacation. We spent the next day packing and visiting with family before making our way back to Kingsport. I am very thankful for this time that we spent with each other and building memories with my girls, all three of them. I look forard to our next get away, when that will be, well that’s up in the air for now. Thank you Cindy for all you help with girls, thank you Donna for housing us and thanks to all that helped make it a trip to remember. Till next time.. Captain out…