VACATION!!!

Oh how I loved our vacation, it was much needed. We left home on Saturday heading to San Bernadino CA. We spent a night there and in the morning we drove to Escondido to spend the day at the Wild Animal Park, It sounded like a good idea when we were deciding where to go, it turned out to be a huge headache. The park was soo big and everything was so far apart we didn't get to see much and we actually got lost several times. We ended up leaving early, grabbed some dinner and headed to Imperial Beach, it was nice and warm and the kids had fun playing in the ocean, even Chloe got her toes wet!!

Nate & Sierra playing in the ocean

Only her dad could do this if I did she'd cry her eyes out

On Monday we ventured further south to sunny San Diego, we went to Sea World. It was the first time for all of us, the kids had fun sitting in the soak section and getting splashed by shamu. (Chloe had just fallen asleep so unfortunately I wasn't sitting with them ;) ) While we were there we visited the penguins, polar bears, walrus's, sharks, manatees, dolphins, and we even got to play with some sting rays, and star fish. The kids loved Sea World and have already asked when we're going back.

Shamu doing her thing

The dolphins

Jared, Nate, and Sierra on Journey To Atlantis

The Sharks

We drove to Anaheim after leaving Sea World Monday night we were all so tired and we still had an hours drive ahead of us. The kids fell asleep as soon as the car started moving, it was nice to have a minute of quiet. Tuesday morning we surprised the kids with Disneyland, I'm pretty sure they had a good idea about where we were going once Sierra found their picture and autograph books from the last trip there in the trunk. They were still excited to be going. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Disneyland and California Adventure it was alot of fun, Jared and the older kids were the ones riding the rides. Chloe and myself kinda hung back waiting and walking around alot, we didn't know they had a parent switch thing until the end of the second day there so I didn't get to go on many rides until the last day, which was fine, I don't really have the stomach for alot of the rides there. They have this new ride in California Adventures called midway mania, they show it in commercials on the Disney channel, it was soo much fun. its in 4-d and you go through it shooting at all kinds of things trying to earn more points than your opponent, I went with Nate and kicked his butt. He had gone through twice before me so I felt pretty good about beating him. (I think he let me win though). While wondering around with Chloe I bought Jared and the kids some Pirates of the Caribbean Mickey ears and I got Chloe some pink Minnie ears with their names on them, I couldn't get Jared to put his on for a picture though:(

Nate and Sierra with Chip and Dale

Chloe in her Minnie ears

Nate & Sierra with Cruella Deville

Sierra with her favorite princess, Cinderella

Chloe playin with Daddy

Chloe was soo tired

Jared and the kids with Minnie

Me and Chloe watching the fireworks, she was mesmerized by the fireworks
She didn't like these Minnie ears

Sierra & Chloe with Ariel

Headed for the Indiana Jones ride

Trying to pull the sword from the stone

We just happened to be at Disney the day they released the new stamps for this year, so we bought some and got them signed by the guys that designed them, it was pretty cool, they were really nice and took pictures with the kids and explained the process of designing the stamps.

Playing in Toontown

We didn't have anything planned for Friday so we slept in and decided to go to Newport Beach. It was soo busy, there were people as far as you could see, it took us almost a half hour just to find a parking spot. The kids made me nervous when they were jumping the waves because the waves were so big and they kept going further and further out. I finally had to make them get out and build castles on the beach, I might have had a heart attack right there on the beach if they stayed out any longer.

The kids playing under the pier

The BIG waves

Chloe fell asleep as soon as we got there

We made dinner reservations at Medieval Times. We hadn't been there before but we'd heard that it was a good show. As soon as we got there they put colored crowns on us and took pictures of us in them. Then we all gathered in the arena where the soldiers battled and we were served our dinner, since it was all based in medieval times there wasn't any silverware so we had to eat everything with our hands, luckily they made it easy for us by giving us chicken and seasoned baked potatoes, things that weren't to hard or messy to eat with your hands. It was fun to watch jousting and the other games that they competed in, and to cheer for our soldier as he tried to win the battle for the green team..

Its hard to tell but she was actually laughing

Nate & Sierra standing by the armoured statue

enjoying our fun dinner

The soldiers in battle

On our last day we traveled to Hollywood to visit Universal Studios. It was alot of fun seeing where some movies were filmed and some of the props used in movies, we saw the train and the car used in filming back to the future, some of the props used in ET and how special effects are used . The kids enjoyed going on a few more rides and getting pictures on props used in the movies, some that they've even seen.

Right at the end of the Jurassic park ride

In front of the fake Hollywood sign

With Lisa from The Simpson's

We had a great vacation it was so fun to spend an entire week with just our little family. I can't wait to go again and hopefully next time we'll have more family with us to share in the fun times.

Sorry this one was soo long, it's hard to cram an entire week into a small entry.. Hope you enjoyed!!!