California Fun!!!

The last week of March we took a week’s long vacation to San Diego! It was fabulous and I think the best vacation we have had as a family! I still have not recovered and have wanted to go back ever since we left! We went with my brother and his family and my sister-in-law’s parents. My sister in law’s family has a vacation home in Del Mar. We have stayed with them there before and we were very excited to go back. We left on Sunday March 27^th and came home the following Saturday. On Monday we just settled in and shopped for food. It was Gwen’s 10^th birthday so Jon and Jami brought her donuts for breakfast! We went to the beach for about an hour, but it was pretty cold that day. We wanted to get to bed early because Tuesday we were going to Disneyland!

I love Disneyland! Jon doesn’t share my enthusiasm for it, but he has a good time watching the kids. I think it helped this trip to have Jami there so they could have their own fun. We packed all 5 kids into our car and headed out to the park. The kids were so excited! I got some flak for it, but I made the girls matching Minnie Mouse shirts to wear and they looked so cute in them! Aunt Crystal made the kids the cutest autograph books. The weather was perfect and the day went great. We only missed out on a few rides. Space Mountain was closed periodically throughout the day and it seemed every time we went they had just shut it down. We also missed Astro Blasters, which Derrick really wanted to ride. Splash Mountain was closed too. Derrick was tall enough to ride everything except for Indiana Jones, and he loved Thunder Mountain. I’m so glad my kids love roller coasters! Jon and I treated ourselves to a Monte Cristo sandwich. They are so delicious! It is such a great experience to watch the kids at Disneyland. I remember being that excited when I went as a kid, and it just makes it 10 times better to watch my own kids have so much excitement in their eyes. The kids held up great throughout the day. The girls wanted to meet Rupunzel and the boys wanted to watch the Jedi show. So, we split up and it’s a good thing we did because the boys would have been whining about the hour wait to meet Rupunzel (and I’m not talking about the little boys). The girls all thought it was worth it though to meet her. She was really cute and couldn’t believe that people were waiting an hour to see her. She commented on Emma’s hair flower asking Flynn to get her one just like it. Emma liked that! Emma was also thrilled when we sat down to watch the Mary Poppins show and Mary Poppins looked right at her and waved to her. Emma couldn’t stop smiling! As the night was winding down we tried to go see the fireworks, but we were a little late and didn’t get good seats. There was a giant tree blocking our view, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. After fireworks the boys were really tired. Dylan was asleep in the stroller and Derrick was on his way out. We took the girls for one more ride on Matterhorn while Jon sat with the boys. After that, we were done. Jon and I took Emma, Derrick and Dylan home while the rest stayed to ride Space Mountain. They had a long wait of over an hour. I’m glad we didn’t stay. 11 hours was plenty! We stopped at the gift shop on our way out and Derrick woke up to buy a toy. He picked out a toy monorail and Emma picked a Minnie Mouse. The kids talked about all the fun they had and then completely crashed out in the car. It was a great trip to Disneyland!

Wednesday we were pretty tired. But Jon motivated me to go for a run with him. We went to run on the beach and it is a lot harder than it looks. I didn’t make it very far before going up on the pavement. But we ran up Torrey Bluff and had a great view of the ocean. It was beautiful! I loved running and feeling the ocean breeze. I could easily get used to that. After our run Jon and I went to the outlets and did a little shopping. Later that day we decided to take the kids to the Natural History Museum at Balboa Park. There was an “All That Glitters” exhibit that had some amazing jewels and a “Snakes and Lizards Live” exhibit that had all sorts of gross snakes and lizards! Derrick’s favorite was the iguana! We watched a 3D movie about Sue the T-Rex. Derrick told me he had to take off his glasses because it was too scary. But they all had a good time.

Thursday was our beach day. It was much warmer and the kids had a great time playing in the sand and by the river on Torrey Pines Beach. Emma loved boogie boarding with her dad. They know mom doesn’t get in the ocean, but I love to sit and relax on the beach. That night we went out for bbq and watched Tangled. I love that movie!

Friday we went to Seaworld. Derrick was super excited to see Shamu! But honestly I think that was our last trip to Seaworld. It’s just a lot of money for not a lot to do. It was fun to do once with the kids, but not something we would spend the money on over and over again. It was pretty warm that day so we started off trying to get wet on the Atlantis ride. We didn’t get that wet! It was really hot waiting for the dolphin show. They added a lot of acrobatics into the show. Emma loved it, but I was a little disappointed that there weren’t as much of the dolphins in it. My favorite part of Seaworld is getting up close to the dolphins. I almost got to touch one, but it didn’t come quite close enough. They are such cute animals! I would love to someday swim with dolphins. Jon always tells me to just get in the ocean. He sees dolphins all the time when he’s out boogie boarding or surfing. But I’m not willing to see them that bad! I’ll do a dolphin excursion at a resort someday where it’s in a controlled atmosphere! J Derrick loved the Shamu show and has had all kinds of questions about whales since our trip. We’ve been doing a lot of research on the internet. At the end of the day we rode Atlantis one more time and this time Emma got soaked! She loved it though! We made our stop at the gift shop and Emma bought a stuffed animal beluga whale that came in a little purse and Derrick bought a fill your own tube that he could pick out 12 small animals to put in it. He loved that and picked out a nice variety of animals. He was especially excited that in preschool he was learning the letter “W” so he took his whales for show and tell. Friday night after everyone went to bed, Crystal and I stayed up late talking until 2am! I haven’t been up that late for a long time. But it was so nice to chat with her. I really miss Jami and Crystal and all their great kids. I told her I never once felt overwhelmed by having all 5 kids on the trip. The cousins just played well together and really got along. We wish we could see them more often!

Saturday it was time for us to leave. We debated a few options like staying until Sunday or driving home through L.A. to get some delicious food. But when it came down to it we just decided to pack up and leave on Saturday morning. It was hard to say goodbye and leave. We made some great memories on this trip. While Jon and I were packing up, the kids were writing letters to each other about how much they will miss each other. I am so glad we got to go on this vacation. It was really great!!