San Diego

    We arrived in San Diego late Saturday afternoon.  After so much time in the car, we were all more than ready to be out of the car! We had time to take quick showers, before it was time for our dinner reservations.  We went to a Mexican seafood restaurant that some of us had eaten out years and years ago when we went to San Diego.  They are famous for their seafood lobster buckets.  It was a popular place on a Saturday night, but the food was wonderful and I think we all got our lobster fix for quite some time!

Ready for dinner!

Dinner time

After being in separate cars on the trip down, they were so happy to be reunited again.  

The seafood bucket for two.  It was so good!

Ella trying some corn

    We were all pretty tired after dinner, so we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.  The kids had to burn off a little energy first by jumping on the bed.

   After a good night of sleep, we were all ready for our adventure filled day in San Diego!

Looking so handsome and ready to go

  When planning our trip, we went back and forth between Legoland and the San Diego zoo.  Both sounded wonderful, but we only had time for one.  Ashlyn's favorite animal in the world is the panda.  She has liked pandas for quite some time and it has been her dream to see a real panda. (Giant pandas can only be found in 4 different zoos in the United States).  Also, we knew we were going to have plenty of theme park time later in the week, so we went with the zoo.  

   I have heard so many good things about the San Diego zoo and I can say it did not disappoint at all!  It was incredible and we all had so much fun seeing all sorts of animals we normally don't get to see.  I am not the biggest fan of zoos, and I even had a great time.  The only problem was that there was so much to see and we didn't get to see it all. Maybe next time.   

Our zoo crew

    Like always, we got there right when it opened to avoid the crowds.  They did a little opening act and freed some birds.

   Joey researched and discovered the first thing we needed to do was take the bus tour.  It is very popular and lines get very long later in the day.  We headed right to the bus tour and made it on the first bus.  The bus tour was a great way to see a bunch of animals without all the walking.  I wish more zoos did such a tour!

Family Photo

We got to ride on the top of the bus

Gracie ready to go see some animals

   We got to see polar bears on our tour. They were actually active when we saw them and the guide said that was rare for them.  I have never seen a polar bear before and I could have sat there all day and watched them.  They were smaller than I imagined and there fur is much less white.

Beautiful boy

The one in the water was a male and that is a female walking around him

So cute

These three decided to all hold hands and it was so darn precious that we had to get a picture

   Since pandas are so rare, they are quite special to see at the zoo.  The San Diego zoo made an entire special area for the pandas.  They had a male and a female on display.  Since they are so very popular, they don't let you linger there long.  You kind of have to move through the exhibit quickly.  We were kind of bummed to find they were sleeping.  Apparently eating all that bamboo takes some major energy, so they sleep most of the day.  Even though they weren't active, they were still so amazing to see.  They were such beautiful animals and Ashlyn was so very happy to get to see a real live panda.

The boy sleeping (Apparently he had been eating for three hours straight prior to that).  

Our very happy girl (she even wore her panda shirt)

Doing some panda watching

   The San Diego zoo also has a sky tram that takes you across the zoo.  By the time we got in line, the line was pretty long.  The ride was pretty short for how long we waited, but it was still a neat experience regardless.

The sky tram from the ground

Ms. Hollywood 

The boys showing off their muscles while waiting in line

On the sky tram

The Leones riding

   After the ride, we were ready for a little snack.  Since we were on vacation and at the zoo, we let the kids fill up on pretzels, popcorn, and cotton candy.  Not at all healthy, but the kids loved every bite.

Dawson fell in love with cotton candy

Silly boy

   After we ate, it was time to go look at some more animals.  We saw all sorts of neat animals that we have never seen before.  I really liked that leopards. They are such beautiful animals.

Going for a quick ride

Dawson found an elephant

I can't believe how tall my baby is getting!

Just scaling some walls

The best way to see the zoo

Ashlyn in front of a hippo sand sculpture

   We let the kids each pick on souvenir from the zoo.  Of course, they all picked pandas.   Dawson has never asked for a stuffed animal before, and I was hesitant to buy it for him because I didn't think he would play with it.  He named him "Panda Blue" and wouldn't you know that panda did not leave his side the entire trip.

The kids new pandas

Already giving Panda Blue some love

Being crazy kids

Such a cute trip

Checking out some turtles

    We could have stayed at the zoo all day, but we were hungry and it was getting late.  We had more adventures waiting for us.  For lunch, we went to a fast food place called Tommy's.  We have eaten there on past California trips and it is one of our favorites.  They specialize in chili burgers and they are so good!

Gracie loving her shake

   After lunch, we had to make our way up towards the Hunington Beach area.  The kids were dying to see the ocean.  Bryan used to live in Southern California and had a favorite beach that he loved going to.  He really wanted to go back and told us if he saw it, we were stopping.  He remembered where it was at so we made a quick beach stop.
    The beach was located right near the Ritz Carlton and it was beautiful!  It was such a clean beach.  None of my children remember or have been to the beach, so they were besides themselves.  They instantly fell in love with the ocean.  The smiles and giggles from those kids were beyond priceless.  They all wanted to stay longer, but we needed to get going.  We had plenty of beach time ahead.  

Beach babe

Joey and Gracie checking out the ocean

    We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to our next hotel.  It was so very scenic and so much to look at on the way.  We checked into our new hotel that was located near the Seal Beach area.  We found a restaurant to try on Yelp and it was so good.  It was a great day first full day in California.  The kids all slept very well that night!

Spring Break 2017

    We had an incredible spring break vacation this year.  We have gone to Scottsdale for as many years as I can remember.  Sadly, my family sold our house down there this past year.  We decided to branch out and go somewhere new this year.  Since we did Disney World in September, we immediately knew we wanted to go to California.
    Our California trip took some planning, mainly because we stayed at 6 different hotels during our trip!  We did a lot of moving around.  We decided to drive just because we are used to driving, and it it is not that much further than Phoenix.  Plus, driving is so much cheaper and logistically easier when you factor in car rentals, car seats, etc.  There was a total of eleven of us who went: Joey, me, the kids, Katy, Bryan, Jameson, Ella, and my parents.  It was a big group but we managed to fit into two minivans for our adventure.
   I normally don't really blog about our trip out there or back.  Unfortunately, we had a pretty eventful trip on the way out there that I felt was worth mentioning.
   It has barely snowed at all this winter.  As luck would have it, Friday, the day we were planning on leaving, a big snow storm was predicted.  Joey and I debated driving down to Albuquerque Thursday night.  He checked the forecast and ultimately decided to leave Friday morning.  When we woke up Friday morning to leave, it was a winter wonderland.  There was a lot of snow on the ground.  From what we could read, the further south you traveled the better the roads were.  We decided to still head out.
   We were barely able to get out of our neighborhood in our van.  It does well in the snow, but it is not four wheel drive.  We got on the road and the roads were clear once we headed south.  I thought it would be smooth sailing.  When we were south of Walsenburg things got really bad.  It was snowing very hard and the interstate was covered in snow.  The plows were behind us so we were moving very slowly.  Eventually, we came to a standstill.  We sat in the same spot for about three hours.  Luckily, the kids could get out of their carseats and they did really well despite being at a standstill for almost three hours.  FINALLY, we got moving again.  The roads were much better and we made our way south.  Until we got to Trinidad.  Raton Pass had been closed for about four hours and it was still not open.  So, we had to sit on the side of the road again for about an hour waiting until it re-opened.  FINALLY, it was open and we were on our way.  It was very crazy because once we got to New Mexico, it was blue skies and not a drop of snow!
   We had originally planned on staying in Flagstaff that night.  Since we got incredibly delayed, we only made it to Gallup, New Mexico and didn't get to our hotel until after 10:00 P.M.  Everyone was exhausted that night!  We woke up bright and early the next morning and made our way to San Diego. We had planned on getting their around 2:00 P.M., but because of our delays the day before we didn't get there until around 6:00 P.M.
  It was a very eventful and adventurous trip.  I think it made us all appreciate sunny California that much more!

Our backyard Friday morning

This is what the interstate looked like.  Notice there was only one lane to drive on.  

Snowy interstate

Finally, in sunny California!

Graceyn's Birthday

     Our little firecracker recently turned 3 years old.   She is definitely one spirited child.  My sister commented the other day that she thinks out of all five kids, she has the biggest personality and I couldn't agree more.  She is such a caring and loving girl.  She adds so much to our family.  I can't imagine life without our little Gracie.  It definitely would be a lot more boring!

    Gracie loves books more than anything else I would say.  She is constantly grabbing books from our bookshelves and reading them to herself.  She also loves to have me read to her, and then she always insists on "reading" them herself.  

    Gracie seems to like many of the same things her big sister does.  She loves playing with dolls and pretend play.  She also loves to draw pictures.  We have a drawer in our family room with all sorts of drawing supplies, and she is constantly in that drawer creating.  Every time she makes a picture, it is always either for her gram or cousins Owen and Blaine.  

    Gracie is also as smart as whip.  I often wish she wasn't quite so smart.  She can be very stubborn at times and it is quite a challenge to get her to do something she does not want to do.  There is no way you are going to out smart her.  She is incredibly verbal so she has already mastered arguing.  I am thinking she will make a terrific lawyer one day.  

     Gracie is such a sweet and affectionate girl.  She makes me laugh on a daily basis with her silly antics and the things she says.  She loves to give me kisses and melts my heart with her sweet words.  She has such a big personality that I am really struggling describing her for this post.  She is such an amazing child.  Even though she can drive me crazy at times, I love her so much and so very thankful for her.  

   Her birthday is always a little challenging since it falls so close to spring break.  Joey and I have also decided that we won't do big friends parties until grade school.  We keep it simple and family only until then.  We went to the zoo as a family the weekend before her birthday and she really enjoyed that.  She has been wanting to go to the zoo.  On her actual birthday, we went to Chuck E Cheese with my sister and Jameson. That night, I made homemade pizza and the family came over for cake, ice cream and presents.  I think it was the perfect celebration for such a wonderful little girl!

   

Look who is 3 years old!

My brother took her to Target to pic out a present.  She picked out a Doc McStuffins toy and an Ariel toy.  They are both her current favorites.  

  Gracie's one request for her birthday was an Ariel cake.  She talked about this cake for at least a month before her birthday.  She kept asking, "Mom are you going to make me a an Ariel cake for my happy birthday?"  I showed her a picture of the Ariel cake I made for two of Ashlyn's birthdays.  She said she wanted that exact cake.  Easy enough for me since I have already made that cake twice before.

Everyone watching the cake making process

Gracie's Papa was in town on her actual birthday, so he took her to pick out a present and then to breakfast.  One spoiled girl we have!

Riding the carousel at Chuck E Cheese

Train time

Bless her heart, she wanted to play Skee Ball so badly, but she really struggled getting a ball up that ramp.  Most of the times it just rolled right back down.  

Time for Chuck E 

The many faces of Graceyn

Her Ariel cake.  I was kind of in a hurry when I made it, and I wasn't too happy with it, but she loved it which is all that matters I guess.  

Present time!

Blowing out the candles like a champ

The party guests

She loved her cake

Sisters who love each other (sometimes)

Donuts with Dad

    Joey recently got to go to a very special event at school with Dawson.  He got to attend donuts with Dad.  They sent home special invitations and Dawson was so excited for this event.  He talked about it for days.  They got to eat donuts and then they got to present the books they made for the dads.  Here is Dawson's book.  

Dawson and his dad