Legoland California

Wow. I have gotten really far behind on chronicling our vacation!

Hurry and take the photo, Mom. --the boys were very good to oblige me for photo ops throughout our trip. You can see Ryan in the background waiting his turn to purchase admission tickets. :)

The Monday of the week we were in California (back in February...) we went to Legoland. We stayed at a resort right next to the park which was fabulous! What was even better was being able to meet up with my brother Jon and his wife Sara and kiddos while at the park -- we spent the day together, and the cousins had a BLAST!

L to R: Logan, Jude, Caleb, Toben, and Jorja

The whole crew! L to R: Spencer, Logan, Toben, Jorja, Jude, Caleb, and Skylar

My twin nieces, Skylar Rose and Spencer Sage

Photo creds to my brother Jon for getting all five of us in the same photo, and even with some smiles!

Legoland was a fun place to go with my little Legomaniacs. They were super excited about this park, and it had a bunch of neat attractions. Two items of interest that I want to remember and pass along to other families with small ones: They had a 'build area' for kids at some of the major rides, where the kids could go in a fenced-in area to build with Legos while the parents waited in line for the ride. You were always within what we called "grabbing distance" of the kids, and there was an entry gate and an exit gate near the front of the line. This was fantastic with boys our ages and we heard very few complaints about waiting in line. Also, if you go... make a snack stop at some point in the day for Granny's Apple Fries. DELICIOUS!

An Evening at the Beach

From the first moment I saw the ocean while driving down "The 5" from Los Angeles to Carlsbad, I wanted to spend some time at the beach. I wasn't sure when we would go, because we had several other places we wanted to experience in our time in California, but an opportunity presented itself after leaving the San Diego Zoo. I had mentioned to Ryan earlier in the day that I had heard La Jolla had beautiful beaches, so on our drive back Ryan asked me to look up how to get to the beach. (Where would we be without our GPS-enabled smartphones these days?!)

It was about an hour before sunset, so we knew our time was limited. That was fine. We didn't have a change of clothes for anyone, much less any towels, so we told the boys we were just going to walk on the beach and maybe put our feet in the (cold!!) Pacific Ocean. They were NOT EXCITED. I'm talking whining, complaining, "why can't we just go to the hotel and swim?", tired boys.

BUT.

Kids + Water = A Good Time.

And an interesting ride back to the hotel. ;)

Three happy boys with their toes in the sand, before venturing to the water.

Keeping it real here, people. This is really what my photos of these three are like.

Caleb would have stayed there the rest of the week if we weren't going to Legoland the next day.

Three soaking wet, totally happy (and loony...trying to be moony) boys. Remember how I mentioned we didn't have a change of clothes or a towel with us? How do you think we went back to the hotel? :) Au naturale, folks. With their hats held in their laps. We did make a stop for me to run into a Ross store for a couple of hand towels and one package of underwear...but it was interesting for a while!

Next up, a day at Legoland with the California cousins!

Our California Adventure

We did something very uncharacteristic for us... 

We went on vacation. In February. During school.

I was nervous about taking the boys out of school for a week, but after talking it through with Ryan as well as other close friends and family who have done this before, it was decided that this was in the best interest of our family to take this trip at this time. 

And I am so glad we did!

Watching as our airplane arrives. It was all so fascinating! We flew at night out to California, which was awesome as it allowed us to not spend a whole day just traveling.

In an effort to document our trip (I know I haven't been great at blogging in a while, but it is my record book of sorts!) I will post a little about our days spent in California. Hopefully this will help me to go through all 500-ish photos and make a book at some point. :) For now, here's a small sampling of parts of the trip... Starting with our first big adventure, the boys' first airplane flight! 

My boys love staying in hotels, and do incredibly well with all of us in one room.

We stayed in Carlsbad (you'll see why in a coming post) but made the 20 minute drive in to San Diego for a day at the zoo! The San Diego Zoo truly is the best.

Can you identify the three animals above? Of all the amazing creatures we saw that day, I went home with my three favorites.

Logan. He has really come into his own and is such a ham for the camera!

The boys took advantage of the moving sidewalks (that weren't crowded with people) to rest a moment. Goofballs.

Photo by Logan.

We saw so many beautiful animals and several babies -- here are two young giraffes. One is nine months old (with the head turned away) and one was just eight weeks old (facing us). Gorgeous animals!

There are so many more photos I could add from our time at the San Diego Zoo! It was a perfect day to experience this fantastic place.
Next up, a spontaneous trip to the beach (that we weren't quite prepared for)...