Sep. 21, 2009 - Last Day in San Diego....Sea Life Aquarium

Tuesday, Jay and I took our kids plus Jocelyn to the Sea Life Aquarium.  It is right in front of Lego Land (side note: If you want to go to Lego Land and are a homeschooler then go to the Lego Land site and check out the special pricing for homeschool days it is a great bargin.  We want to possibly go in March.)  The Aquarium was nice and it was a good end to our trip and Ocean Study.  The kids had a lot of fun and it wore Jay and I out!

The kids could stick their heads up viewing holes to see the fish up close.

The Gang

There were lots of Lego statues like this through out.

Part of this castle was permenatly put together then you could play and add to the rest.

Trying to touch the starfish

Jay and I taking a break!

Holding hermit crabs

When we were done at the Aquarium Jay and I dropped all the kids back off at Jutem's and we went out for awhile.   We went to our favorite spot in Carlsbad.  There is a fish and chips restaurant that over looks the ocean.  We ate fish and chips and then sat on a bench and just listened to the quiet of the ocean.  It was wonderful!!!

That is the restaurant in the background and one of the many benches lined up to sit on and watch the ocean.

Say Cheese!

My hubby!

Me

The beautiful ocean view!

We had an awesome family vacation and made it home safe and sound.  We are already talking about where we would like to go next year.  Hmmmm......

Sep. 20, 2009 - On To San Diego

Saturday morning we got up had breakfast, packed up and headed down to San Diego.  We stayed with Jay's sister and her family for the next 4 days.  On Saturday we just relaxed  and went to a local park.  We needed to recover from our 5 days of walking around!

Then Sunday morning we all got up and were going to go to church.  Natasha woke up at 6:30am like normal.  I snuggled with her and she went back to sleep.  She ended up sleeping till 10:30am (I stayed with her while the others all went to church)  She has never slept like that.  She wasn't sick at all I think she was just catching up on all the naps she missed this past week!  When everyone got home we packed some lunches and headed to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids loved it!  They had been to the beach as babies and toddlers but didn't really remember so this was like a first for all them except Anastaisa.  The funny part was after having done our ocean unit study my kids were the only ones on the beach so excited about the seaweed and seeing it in real life.  It was really cute!

They really wanted to take some home so we compromised and I took pictures of it instead.

Tasha and Bryson enjoying the beach from the pack-n-play

Tasha loved walking in the sand.

Fun in the Sun!

Daddy and Tasha

Mommy and Tasha

Jocelyn

Chance and Jocelyn

Building sand castles

Wanting to be a mermaid like her big sissy

Sep. 18, 2009 - 5 Fun Filled Days at Disneyland

Monday started our first of five days at Disneyland.  It was a great vacation for all of us and only a couple of minor melt downs.  The park opened at 10:00am each day and closed at 8:00 this was perfect for us because the kids were settled down and in bed by 9:00 each night so no late nights.  Each morning we at breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to DisneyLand/California Adventure.  We packed our lunch each day and this helped so much!!!  We saved a lot of money this way.  Also we had told the kids for their souvenirs they could collect flat pennies.  (They love these)  We bought one book to hold them all and then when they came across the machines at different places they could each get one.

We spent all day Monday at Disneyland mainly going on the different rides.  It was great because there were hardly any lines.  I have a lot of pics to share but I am also missing a lot!!  We brought the laptop with us and I downloaded pics from my memory card and on one of the days I must have copied over pics.  I am so upset and trying not to think about what pictures got copied over!! Tuesday was spent all day at California Adventure with Jay's cousins, Wednesday we made the rounds to Tinkerbell, The Princesses, Jedi Training, and Mickey and Minnie then of course more rides.  Thursday we were back over in CA. Adventure taking it easy.  We watched the Aladin play and let the kids play in the splash pad at the Bug's life area.  By Friday we were tired!!  We went back and fourth between the two parks.  The best time was lunch at Goofy's kitchen!  The characters were awesome.  Our reservations were for 12:30 and they closed at 2:00 and then reopen for dinner.  Well this was perfect timing because there was hardly anyone in there and the characters spent a lot of time at our table with the kids.  Chip even sat at the table and wrote out a conversation with us.  We stayed late that night to watch Fantasmic and the fireworks show.  They were incredible! 

I put together a slide show of some pictures highlighting our trip:

Sep. 13, 2009 - And We're Off...... Part One

What a wonderfully, awesome family vacation we had!!!  We finally got on the road around 2:30pm Sunday (Sept. 13th) afternoon.  Jay went to church but the rest of us did not make it.  When he got home everything was ready to be loaded.  I really should have taken a picture of the suburban.  The very back was packed to the top and we even used a kanga pouch on top.

The kids were very excited to get in the car and open their backpacks.  I let them open bag one right away.

It is hard to see but the paper bags were labeled with a 1 on them.

They were so excited to each get their own QT card (QT is similar to a 7-11 basically a gas station store)

So we stopped at the Qt and the kids each go to pick a slushie drink a pack of gum and another treat of their choice.  We were sugared up and ready to go!   

We had to make one more stop on the way out of town.  We stopped at my sister's house.  She and her family lives about an hour away.  When she was over last weekend I didn't get any pictures of her and I together with our bellies.  We have been pregnant several times together and always get at least one picture.  I didn't know if we would see one another before she has her baby so I wanted to get a picture.

Here we are!  Brandy is due mid October

Then we were finally off again.  I let them open up bag # 2.    This was their coloring book and crayons and pencils.  They were very excited about all the disney character coloring pages.

This kept them busy for about an hour and then most of them fell asleep.  When they started waking up we skipped bag # 3 and I had them open bag #4.  It was going to be dark soon and I wanted them to be able to see them.  This had their activity books.

Too Cute!

After a pit stop I had bag three it had a movie for them to watch.  We let them open up bag five at the same time.  It had Disney Pez dispensers and a couple other treats.  They watched the movie and all fell asleep till we got to the hotel which was around 10:00pm.  We got in, got settled and tried to sleep before our first big day at Disneyland.

Sep. 10, 2009 - Getting Ready For Our Family Vacation

SHHHH.... What I am getting ready to share with you is a secret for my kids...until Sunday anyways.  I have been putting together a few little treats for our road trip.  It is 6-7hrs. one way.  We are all so excited.  The kids each have thier own large back pack that they will bring with in the car.  I told them that on Saturday they could pick a couple of things to go in them but then I get the backpacks Saturday night and they don't get them back until we are in the car Sunday afternoon.  I did this last year for our plane ride to South Dakota and they loved it.

Here is what I came up with so far....trying to be creative and frugal.  Each gift will get wrapped and numbered.  They get to open one each hour-two hours. 

The first treat is they each get their own $5.00 gift card to QT (Quick Trip).  Jay had told them on our way out of town we could stop and they could each get a slushy drink.   The kids love gift cards and I thought this would add to the fun so they can get their drink and also pick out a pack of gum and another treat as well.

School supplies are still on sale here and even getting marked down more.  So I picked up a box of crayons (.20cents each) and a pack of colored pencils (.50cents each) 4 durable 3 prong folders and made their own Disney coloring/activity books.  I found tic-tac-toe sheets, make the square, a map of the US for spotting different license plates and lot and lots of Disney character coloring pages all for free.  I just had to print them out.

I also found these great activity books for $1.00 each and got Anastasia a Sudoku book .

Then of course we have the parent sanity box...I mean DVD player in our suburban so they can watch some movies as well. 

Ok now the one thing they do know about is their autograph books.  When we went to Disneyland last time Anastasia was 7 and Joshua just turned 2.  So we bought Anastasia an autograph book and it was very cute with the princesses and had a place to put pictures.  I know it cost anywhere from $10-15.  Well now we would have to times that by 4.  So we made our own and they turned out really cute.  I cut 12x12 carstock into 8.5x6.  They each picked a favorite character and we found colored clip art on line and printed it out to put on the front cover.  I laminated the front and back cover and we bound them (Our church has a binding machine).  I still had laminating paper.  So I only spent $8.00 total on cardstock and then probably another $8.00 on stickers.  Each night back in the hotel they can decorate thier pages with stickers from who signed their books and we will print out the pictures when we get back home.

Not the best picture but this is all 4 books

Here is one opened

I have Tinkerbell and princess stickers as well but the girls have already run off with them.  I have to get them back! 

I will do another post later tonight or tomorrow about food that we are bringing along to keep costs down.  As far as food goes even if money wasn't an issue (LOL) we couldn't handle eating out all the time.  I think we would get sick.  If any of you have suggestions besides sandwiches and read this before we leave please let me know.