2010 Vacation -- Day 7

Day 7 was our first day of beach hopping.

There were:

{Delicious salty naps in the car between sandy destinations}

{Lucky Ladybugs on the window seal of the Diner at the end of the Huntington Beach Pier}

{One for Warren and one for Jack!}

{One less tooth to smile with, since Warren lost another tooth on Day 6 while eating a Churro... for the record the boys ate an astounding number of Churros on this trip!}

{The pier with the Diner at the end -- yum!}

2010 Vacation -- Day 6

After sleeping in relatively late into the morning, I got to do some laundry (much needed!! I think I was having withdraws) at the hotel while we all just generally chilled for a bit. Warren got to play some Cartoon Network Game Creator on Daddy's laptop, while Daddy made use of the hotel gym. Jack played on the floor with his newly acquired Lego toys and Nolan rolled around trying to get his hands on anything small enough to potentially choke on -- he likes to keep me on my toes!

Finally, somehow we all ended up showered, dressed for the day, and buckled into the mini-van heading toward the San Diego Zoo, where we were going to meet my brother, Alex, for a much overdo visit. Alex is in the Navy and is lucky enough to be living in San Diego. He recently was out to sea for a very long time, so we were grateful that he took time to visit with us, since he is very busy getting settled still.

Turns out you should NEVER, EVER attempt to go to the San Diego Zoo on a Tuesday... something about it being free or something left us over a mile away from the main parking lot, still searching for a spot. Alex was circling with his truck too, and we all finally decided there was little to no chance of us all finding parking, while still maintaining some semblance of sanity.

We scrapped that plan and instead went to the USS Midway museum. It is a retired battleship in the bay in San Diego. It was a much more low key venue. After I apologized to Alex for bringing him onto a ship after he just spend months and months aboard one, it was all good. We toured, ate lunch, Alex and Warren went on a flight simulator ride, we took pictures and called it a day.

{Momma and Nolan by the huge anchor chain, the links were almost as tall as him}

.::Brother-In-Laws::.

{Jack, Alex, Warren... Jack kept saluting Alex and saying "thanks for servicing"}

Alex went back to work and the rest of us drove to Coronado Island just to check it out. The boys were too tired to do much else. We found a great place for dinner back by our hotel and then stopped into a (two story!!) Target to get some beach toys for the next day's adventure.

2010 Vacation -- Day 5

Day 4 concluded with us leaving Universal Studios and driving down to San Diego. It took a couple of hours and there was a 6.9 earthquake in Mexico that could be felt throughout Southern California while we were driving. I felt after-shocks early in the morning at our hotel in San Diego on April 5th (the fifth day of our trip).

We had our own disaster of sorts going on inside our rental car on the drive down to San Diego, anyhow. The boys were loud and obnoxious, to the point that we had to separate them and have Grandma Caryl ride in the back of the mini-van -- she is a trooper!

However, I did hear one absolute gem of a comment come from the back seat before they were separated. Oh it was so good I had to immediately get out my cell phone and type it in to the notepad so as to not forget.

Warren to Jack after much arguing and hubbub about Dinosaurs:
"There's lotsa ways to not get eaten by a T-Rex -- your way and my way!"

Classic.

We survived the drive and woke up bright and early on Day 5 and said farewell to Grandma Caryl, who had served us well as Nolan's nanny while we were at all the theme parks. She headed back to Colorado to her much needed post as family chef.

Originally, we had planned to go to Sea World first thing, but it was raining substantially so we quickly resorted to Plan B, which was the downtown Children's Museum in San Diego.

Such a great move on our part. All three boys loved it. As the rain streaked the large windows of this cool industrial building, all of the colorful happenings inside seemed all the more vibrant and fun.

{Driving these super cool little contraptions around the track}

{Jumping in a tubular air castle}

The weather did finally lift and we were able to make it to Sea World, which was fabulous.

Jack had a good nap the first portion of our time there. Warren and Momma went on a fun ride where we got completely soaked. We saw the Sea Lion and Sea Otter show -- so cute!

The boys climbed and bounced on the play area for little ones.

Then we all left Sea World totally exhausted and pigged out on cheeseburgers at In-N-Out... yes, Animal Style!

It was another successful, fun day!

2010 Vacation -- Days 3 & 4

Day 3 we wrapped up our time at Disney Land and California Adventure Parks. Nolan spent the day out and about with us and I had the absolute pleasure of seeing all three of my hooded little boy heads riding a small water craft to the tune of "It's a Small World After all." My heart swelled and I will not soon forget this image.

We saw the awesome Aladdin show in the theater at California Adventure, so now "flying carpet" is a new part of the boys' vocabulary.

The roller coaster in Toon Town was a favorite for Warren. Jack went on it a second time too, but was growing weary of "scary rides" by that point. He is ever the cautious one of our brood thus far.


After a seriously great (and seriously expensive) lunch, the boys happily posed in between Mater and Lightning, only trying a couple times to climb on the hood of the car. Can't imagine they're the first or last boys that will be attempting that.

We said our sweet goodbyes to Disney Land and packed up the rental car complete with all of our newly acquired souvenirs and headed over to Universal Studios.

When we arrived at our very posh Hilton hotel room, we took Warren and Jack down to the pool for a bit, then Momma and Daddy headed out for some alone time for a great dinner at Karl Strauss Brewery since we had discovered this great beer earlier in the week. We shopped a little and enjoyed some quiet time before embarking on Day 4.

If you ask Jack about Universal Studios, he's sure to have a thing or two to say about the escalators.

Holy Escalators, Jack was not a fan.

Most memorable from Day 4 was the Simpson's Ride, the Jurassic Park ride and of course the Water World Show. Warren was absolutely captivated and when the airplane came crashing into the scene right in front of us, it left him nothing short of shocked. The look on his face at that moment was priceless.

Wish I would have brought my camera, but I had left it in the hotel purposely in order to just enjoy the day. Still trying to figure out how to work taking pictures in without feeling removed from the situation behind the lens.

2010 Vacation -- Day 2

After a very fun and exhausting first day, along with a restless first night due to Nolan being very out of sorts in the hotel room, we started Day 2 with some serious powdered sugar... a some beignets buried somewhere in all that fluffy sweetness!

Throw in a banana and some orange juice and we had a meal fit for the second day at Disney Land.

It was a good thing we were all amped on sugar, since Warren managed to be selected from the audience at the Star Wars Jedi Training Academy.

He faced his very realistic opponent, Darth Maul:

Did I mention the costume was spot on?

Preparing to fight Darth Maul with his light saber, "activate"!!

And then looking him right in the eyes at the end of their dual.

The Jedi Training Academy was definitely a highlight of the entire trip, and served to further blurr the line between reality and fantasy a bit more for Warren. Jack was a little disappointed that he didn't get picked, but when we took them to the gift shop to pick out two Mace Windu light sabers, he quickly forgot all his sorrow.

All that excitement led us to a nice break in the shade

And a fabulous lunch at the restaurant by The Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Our lunch left us recharged to climb around

And take in the Pixar Parade, where Nolan watched in awe from his stroller

As THE Lightning McQueen passed before our very eyes.

Our very long second day concluded with a lovely dinner with some of my relatives that live in Los Angeles... and a very tuckered out little babe asleep in his Daddy's arms at the dinner table.

2010 Vacation -- Day 1

These posts are gonna be heavy on pictures! And since I am not gifted at weaving together a tale, I will just stick to sharing our vacation in chronological order. So, get your finger on your mouse's wheel and get to scrollin'!

Day 1 started at 4 am (gotta love "free" mileage tickets) when the alarm clock went off and we shuffled everyone into the car and drove to DIA in the dusky light of dawn. Nolan was the only one who didn't seem bothered to be awake at ridiculous o'clock, probably because he knows he can cat nap whenever he feels like it. The rest of us were a little grouchy to be bumping along on the shuttle from Wally Park to our terminal. I had to keep reminding everyone (including myself) that we were headed to Disney Land, ya know, the happiest place on Earth!

{Jack and his blankie}

{Warren is not a morning person!}

I'd like to say that once we did make the perfectly short and uneventful flight to CA that things were instantly all pixie dust and Disney character fan fare, however, to be truthful it was not.

Our hotel room wasn't ready.
We had to check our luggage with the bell desk.
Fishing out items for Nolan (who was to be left in the excellent care of Grandma Caryl while we hit the theme park scene).
Bryan trying in vain to get our room upgraded.
Boys climbing all over our luggage in the lobby.
Running wild with excitement.
Sunscreen, hats, jackets and we left for the monorail to the park in a blurr.
Boys still in their matching pajamas, but oh well.

I didn't take pictures from our first day at Disney Land. But it went great and the fact that the boys were in matching jammies actually made it easier to keep track of them in the crowds. We went on a multitude of rides and were all very content with what we accomplished on our first day!

The evening was spent patroning the Lego store in Downtown Disney and eating at the Rainforest Cafe.

{Jack in front of the Lego store sign} {Enormous Darth Vader made of legos}
{The lego video game bar was a smashing hit}
{They went back several times to play}
{Little fingers on the keyboard}
{Momma and Nolan posing in front of the lego store}

How does it go?

...snips and snails and puppy dog tails...

...that's what little boys are made of.

Thanks for reminding me, Jack.

California Dreamin'

Can't wait to tell the story of our first big family vacation!

Since I'm just a little busy unpacking, shaking the sand out of stuff, running the washing machine non-stop, and trying to feed the boys from our very empty refrigerator today, I'll just start with this:

{Nolan loves the beach!}