We love our lazy days at the beach and pool!
There is nothing like a beach sunset!
The kids had so much fun at the game hanging out with their cousins.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Beach Highlights
Here are the highlights from the rest of our vacation...trying to get caught up on this!
We love our lazy days at the beach and pool!
The Hub's cousin's husband (confused yet?) coaches for the Baltimore Orioles. It just so happened that the Orioles were playing the Padres the night we were supposed to leave. When Jamie and I figured this out, we decided to extend our trip by a day to go to the game with them. I got our flights changed but couldn't book another night at our hotel. So...we stayed with the team in downtown San Diego. I absolutely prefer the beach, but it was pretty cool to see the other side of San Diego. I wouldn't normally recommend three hotel changes in a week, but we did ok! The view from our hotel room was amazing!
We also got to swim and hang out with the family that day. We don't get to see them much, because they spend half the year in Baltimore and the other half in Florida.
Finally, it was time to head home. As you can see, our adventure wore every one out!
We love our lazy days at the beach and pool!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Disney Day two and beyond
If you haven't read about Disney day one...then scroll down!
Disney Day two we headed over to the Magic Kingdom Park. We had a great day exploring and riding rides.
We took a little rest break in the middle of the afternoon. We stayed at the Grand Californian Resort and this was the view from our balcony. Pretty cool to get to see Minnie put on a show from your hotel room!
Lollipop quotes the line, "Best day EVER!" from Tangled all the time. We had to take her picture with this sign!
On Friday morning we had breakfast with Chip and Dale before checking out of the resort. Gumdrop was not a fan, but now tells everyone all about it!
Then we hit the road. Anaheim is about 90 miles from San Diego. We decided to take the scenic ocean route since we couldn't get into our hotel until late in the day.
We've never gotten a chance to visit the USS Midway so we made a point to tour it when we got into San Diego. My Boy was in awe!
We then headed over the bridge to Coronado Island. Here is a very excited baby girl on our porch.
More adventures to come!
Disney Day two we headed over to the Magic Kingdom Park. We had a great day exploring and riding rides.
That's us on the Nemo Submarine ride. We are in the Neptune!
That night we bought went back to the California Adventure park to see the World of Color light show. It was fantastic!
Tired, tired kids!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
An (unexpected) Birthday Surprise
In January The Hubs and I decided that we had so much fun in Coronado, CA last summer that we wanted to do a vacay repeat. We picked a week in July and I booked us at room at the Hotel Del's Beach Village (best. hotel.ever.). In the beginning of March he and I took a road trip to Dallas by ourselves. For some reason being trapped in the car spurs our trip planning--I was looking at my calendar and saw that My Boy's 10th birthday was a few days after we were going to be in Coronado. I had this "brainwave" that we should surprise him with a Disneyland trip for his birthday. Much discussion went back and forth with The Hubs but I finally got something like, "That totally sounds like something YOU would want to do....but go for it." But then he requested that we do Disneyland first (which I totally agreed with) so when we got home I changed our Hotel Del dates and booked me a Disneyland Vacation.
And for 5 whole months I kept it a secret. I only told a handful of people. I didn't even tell our parents until around May. I planned and planned and read books and ordered monogramed t-shirts and looked on you tube about ways to surprise them. Let me tell you, I was plum excited.
And then the week before my Mom offered to keep my kids overnight (never happens) so I could pack. The Hubs and I packed five people's bags for an 8 day trip in less than about 6 hours. Then I hid them in various places all over the house. On the day before the trip I told the kids we had to get up early the next morning because we were going to get a passport (really did do this last week). That morning I told them that I told a little white lie and there would be no passport application that morning. I gave him a sappy letter that talked about how we waited for him our whole lives and how we wanted to celebrate his birthday in an amazing way. Then I told him to open the envelope I'd given him to find out where we were going. Inside the envelope was his Disneyland ticket.
He opened it and had no reaction. I tried to pump it up, "What??? Where are we going??? What does it say??? It says Disneyland (girls start squealing)!!!!??? Lollipop pretend faints and Gumdrop copies her. My Boy sits there. No expression. I say, "Are you excited?" and he says, "I really just wanted to be at home on my birthday."
I'd like to say that when I felt the tears I excused myself to gather my feelings. I did not. I yelled at him. Not a proud moment. He cried the entire time we got ready to go to the airport. It was pretty somber around here. I was REALLY really mad and sad and emotional and overwhelmed. Plus, my husband HATES HATES HATES to fly so we always have a little drama surrounding that to deal with every time air travel is involved. Somehow, we made it through security in one piece. By the time we arrived he and I had made up. He wasn't super excited..but he was on board and ready to have fun. Here we are on his birthday Eve just after we arrived:
We made it there early enough to do a little bit of the park before bedtime. The time change was pretty brutal but we managed to ride a few rides our first day.
I learned the following:
1. You never know what is going to happen when you have kids.
2. Trust your instincts. Deep down I wondered if he would be not so happy about this little surprise. I know that this kid is a home body. I should have prepared him. His sisters I could surprise. This kid will no longer get surprises (and I don't mean that spitefully--he's just not a surprise kind of guy).
3. Just because you think something will be really awesome doesn't mean you can wish it to be that way.
4. Go with the flow.
5. Parenting is hard. No matter how hard you work or how much effort you put into something, sometimes, it just doesn't go your way.
All in all, we had a really good time. However, he still contests that he would rather have been home on his birthday. Stay tuned for Disney day two and the rest of the trip!
And for 5 whole months I kept it a secret. I only told a handful of people. I didn't even tell our parents until around May. I planned and planned and read books and ordered monogramed t-shirts and looked on you tube about ways to surprise them. Let me tell you, I was plum excited.
And then the week before my Mom offered to keep my kids overnight (never happens) so I could pack. The Hubs and I packed five people's bags for an 8 day trip in less than about 6 hours. Then I hid them in various places all over the house. On the day before the trip I told the kids we had to get up early the next morning because we were going to get a passport (really did do this last week). That morning I told them that I told a little white lie and there would be no passport application that morning. I gave him a sappy letter that talked about how we waited for him our whole lives and how we wanted to celebrate his birthday in an amazing way. Then I told him to open the envelope I'd given him to find out where we were going. Inside the envelope was his Disneyland ticket.
He opened it and had no reaction. I tried to pump it up, "What??? Where are we going??? What does it say??? It says Disneyland (girls start squealing)!!!!??? Lollipop pretend faints and Gumdrop copies her. My Boy sits there. No expression. I say, "Are you excited?" and he says, "I really just wanted to be at home on my birthday."
I'd like to say that when I felt the tears I excused myself to gather my feelings. I did not. I yelled at him. Not a proud moment. He cried the entire time we got ready to go to the airport. It was pretty somber around here. I was REALLY really mad and sad and emotional and overwhelmed. Plus, my husband HATES HATES HATES to fly so we always have a little drama surrounding that to deal with every time air travel is involved. Somehow, we made it through security in one piece. By the time we arrived he and I had made up. He wasn't super excited..but he was on board and ready to have fun. Here we are on his birthday Eve just after we arrived:
On the morning of his actual birthday we headed back to the California Adventure park and took advantage of our early magic hours since we stayed on site. We speed walked to Carsland and got on the most popular ride in the park. I must say, it was probably my favorite. My sweet friend Marina made shirts for all the kids which are monogrammed. I'm not posting too many pics because their names are on them and I'm still trying to protect the innocent. Plus, I uploaded about 1,000 pictures. A little to many to put on the old blog.
I learned the following:
1. You never know what is going to happen when you have kids.
2. Trust your instincts. Deep down I wondered if he would be not so happy about this little surprise. I know that this kid is a home body. I should have prepared him. His sisters I could surprise. This kid will no longer get surprises (and I don't mean that spitefully--he's just not a surprise kind of guy).
3. Just because you think something will be really awesome doesn't mean you can wish it to be that way.
4. Go with the flow.
5. Parenting is hard. No matter how hard you work or how much effort you put into something, sometimes, it just doesn't go your way.
All in all, we had a really good time. However, he still contests that he would rather have been home on his birthday. Stay tuned for Disney day two and the rest of the trip!
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