Spring break 2010

Spring Break 2010--we had been looking forward to this since January, when we bought our plane tickets. We went with two of our neighbors, the Carters and the Pratts, and had a GREAT time!! The Carters found an awesome house to rent in La Jolla, and the kids had great time playing together, swimming, and going to Sea World. We flew out Monday morning, and the turbulent plane ride put Cody right to sleep--yeah!! He slept the whole flight while the other kids watched TV (it was our first time on Jet Blue, but it won't be our last--LOVED the TVs in the headrest thing). We flew into Long Beach, rented our car, and drove down to La Jolla, stopping along the way in San Juan Capistrano to eat tacos for lunch. When we got to the house we unpacked and relaxed in the pool, and the women went shopping for groceries. While the house was great, it was a little understocked and we had to go buy our own towels, soap, TP, paper towels, kitchen towels, etc. The house was great, and really big, but it did have a few issues, mainly a water heater that only worked half the time. Two of the bathrooms always had hot water, but the hot water for the other three bathrooms was very temperamental. We experienced a few cold showers/baths, and ended up taking turns for the one shower with hot water.

Tuesday we went to Sea World. The highlights of the day:
1. Talia rode her first roller coaster, Journey to Atlantis, and LOVED it!! She held her hands up the whole time, and begged to go again.
2. The Shamu show, still a classic and a family favorite
3. The walrus and seal show
4. Feeding the dolphins
5. Cody's squeaky shoes, which drew attention everywhere we went
6. The play area at Sea World--the kids had a blast!!
7. Kids eat free at Ruby's diner in San Diego, which is where we went for dinner after our day at Sea World!

Lowlights of the day:
1. Losing Talia somewhere between the dolphins and Shamu stadium (she was found by the staff and taken to the security office; it was very scary for us and her, and I must say that Chris stayed very calm and didn't lose it while we were trying to find her)
2. Cranky Cody, who refused to take a nap in his stroller
3. Tired, hurting feet after a day of walking

Robbie and the starfish. My kids actually liked the sting rays the best, but I couldn't get a picture of them touching one.


I'm pretty sure this was in the shark tunnel.

After riding Journey to Atlantis--Talia looks ornery becaused I told her we couldn't go again. I splurged and bought a poncho so I wouldn't get soaked on the ride--best $8 spent of the whole day!!

Wednesday we spent the day relaxing at the house. The kids spent most of the day in the pool and hot tub, and some experienced their first sunburns of the year!

Sarah is my little fish and loves swimming!!

The view from the back deck--AWESOME!! Talia is one of those kids in the pool.

This is the back of the house--it was a perfect house for the three families, even if the hot water heater only worked half the time!!

Late Wed afternoon, the women took the kids to the beach while the men went shopping for steaks for an evening BBQ. We had to hike down over some rocks to get the the beach, and just when we were enjoying ourselves, a huge wave came in all the way up to the rocks and covered everyone except me, Talia, and Cody. All of a sudden we had wet, sandy, screaming kids while we were trying to chase down our bags, towels, shoes, cell phones, etc that were being washed away by this wave. Not fun. Needless to say, our beach experience lasted a whopping 45 min, and we were glad to leave. This is a pic of Talia before the "tsunami 2010" hit:

Thursday we lounged around in the morning and went to the USS Midway aircraft carrier in the afternoon. The kids liked the tour, even though we didn't finish it. After the aircraft carrier, we went to Seaport Village and got ice cream at Ben and Jerry's and let the kids ride the carousel (which, by the way, Cody was terrified of).

Talia on her carousel horse

Pics on the USS Midway

Friday we spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing and swimming some more, and then packed up and headed back to the airport. We experienced Fri evening traffic in California (YUCK!!) and then our flight was delayed leaving. We finally got home at 1:15 am, tired and already missing the warm weather and ocean breeze from California. Another great spring break vacation was over!!