Back to OUR regular program

The kids have been on Fall Break for the last 2 weeks.

We had fun!

Today they went back to school.

Back to our regular routine.

After we dropped the kids off at school, Daisy and I had a quiet, Chick-fil-A, breakfast together.

I tried to take pictures of Daisy wearing a headband. She was not interested in the headband. Surprise surprise! (her hand is on its way to rip it off her head)

Daisy took a nap in a completely quiet house. She slept for 2 hours and 20 minutes. That is a GOOD nap!

I worked on my Mom's grandbaby blocks.

Daisy and I went to Target and Walmart and slowly wandered around the stores. There was no telling anyone not to touch something. There was no herding children out of people's way. There was no begging for me to buy someone something.

I gradually crossed things off my list and Daisy sat in her stroller happily eating/spilling cereal up and down every isle.

The kids went back to school today.

I will miss them!

I really will miss them! They're CUTE!!

Acation: the Finale

We were all sad to leave! We said goodbye to the condo, goodbye to the close parking garage that we got to use for one day and we said goodbye to the beach.

And then we made a stop at Seaport Village. Whenever we go on vacation, I like to get a Christmas ornament for the kids to commemorate our trip. We have mostly ornaments from CA! Anyway, Seaport Village has a christmas shop that always has the best ornaments. I found some fun ornaments and had them personalized with the kids names.

While I was at the Christmas store, DaddyO kept the boys and Daisy occupied. It took a little bit longer than I thought it would for the personalizations. Daisy got a little bit restless, so DaddyO gave her the car keys to play with. Can you guess what happened next.

Well, we went for a ride on the merry-go-round. This was Daisy's first time.

She smiled like that for the first few spins, but then she wanted to get down and was trying desperately to get off the horse and in to her Daddy's arms. Unfortunately the seatbelt prevented this from happening. Luckily there was no hysterical crying!

After the the fun horse rides, we were trying to figure out what to do for lunch. DaddyO started patting his pockets, trying to find the car key. No such luck. The story was, that the key had somehow gone from Daisy to Ashton to WHO KNOWS WHERE! DaddyO started to panic! He was having nightmares about having to get a hotel and wait for a new key to be shipped to us. I told him to stay calm and suggested we re-trace our steps. My first guess was to check in the toy store we had visited and where the kids had spent a few minutes playing with some of the toys. I walked in the store and asked the girl at the counter if anyone had turned in a key. She said "no." Then Bailey ran over to where they had been playing and sure enough THERE WAS THE KEY! Crisis Averted!!!

We had lunch with a view of the San Diego Harbor. I had the best meal of the whole trip. Turkey croissant, with avocado and cranberry-onion marmelaide. Oh my, it was delicious! I need to go back to CA just to get another one!!

Although we were sad to leave, we were looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and using toilets that we know who's been using them!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming! Thanks for putting up with the re-cap!

Acation Day 5

Only two more posts (including this one) and I will be done making you relive our vacation!
I think this was the best day of our whole trip!


Beach Day
Bright and early we drove down to the beach and walked to Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier.

The kids were in heaven with hot chocolate and pancakes for breakfast. The grown-ups had some pretty good food too!

Immediately after breakfast the kids and I went to the beach while DaddyO and Daisy stayed at the condo so the little Miss could get a real nap.

I sat in a little beach chair and just enjoyed watching them play. The weather was perfect! Not too hot. I was enjoying myself so much that I failed to realize that I was getting a very ridiculous sunburn on ONE SIDE of each of my legs. No pictures of this! Sorry!!

Ashton got some sand up his shorts and DID NOT like the feeling and we almost had to leave the beach. I explained that that is what happens when you are at the beach and he should probably just grin and bear it. He did!

We took a quick break for lunch then back out to enjoy the sun and surf.

Lily and Bailey spent most of their time in the ocean. Ashton was more content to play in the sand.

When I applied his sunscreen his shorts were not this low! Due to the plumber's shorts, he got a little bit of a sunburn on his bum! oopsa-daisy!

When we had had all our fun we went to the pool to get cleaned off. Then we decided to go feed the fish before it got dark. The condo complex has a pond filled with the biggest koi fish you have ever seen. There is a gumball machine that dispenses fish food and the kids LOVE to feed the fish.

We like to try to throw the food to the little ones so they can gain some weight and compete with the bigger fish.

For dinner, we went over to the harbor, for a little Joe's Crab Shack. We had such a great time! Our waittress was really good with the kids and talked them in to dancing to the "Cha Cha Slide" and "Disco Fever" with the other restaurant servers. Even Daisy did some dancing.  The kids worked up such an appetite that they ate their dinners with absolutely no assistance required. I. LOVE. THAT!

Tune in tomorrow for our final brief moments of Acation. :(

Acation Day 4

LegoLand

We were all very excited for today! This was our first time at LegoLand.
We started with a "warm-up" ride to get the kids ready for some of the bigger rides.

Ashton was the first to volunteer to go on one of the roller coasters. He and I got in line and after a few minutes he let me know that he needed to go to the bathroom. There were already people behind us and I didn't want to lose our place in line. I tried to see if Bailey wanted to switch places but Ashton said he would be fine. I worried the whole time that he would get scared and pee his pants. He did just fine and was even brave enough to put his hands up on the ride.

It is pretty amazing what they can make with legos!

Races!

Driving school. They even got their own driver's licenses!

There were only a couple of rides that we could take Daisy on so DaddyO and I took turns going on rides/hanging with this cute babe!

She was so good! She took a nap in her stroller, shared a bit of everybodies' lunch, drank the kids' drinks while they were on rides and enjoyed some people watching!

One last lego photo-op before LegoLand closed for the day. Then to Island's for dinner

What a fun day!!

It's Wednesday

On the first night of our vacation we went to a little italian restaurant called Dominic's. It is a cute little place that is about 1 minute from the condo. DaddyO and I decided to get a pizza for everyone to share. When the pizza arrived, and the slices were passed out, Lily was NOT happy!

She said "I don't like this pizza, it's gross!"

I said "It's good, Lil, give it a try."

She said (getting a bit upset) "I only like Domino's and Papa John's  pizza!"

I said "This pizza is so much better, just eat it!"

She replied (hysterically and in tears) "You don't even know my tastebuds MOM! I don't like this pizza!!"

OK then!

 Please visit Marianne's blog, Family American Style , for more hilarious honies!

Acation Day 3

First, I would like to tell you that almost ALL of the people who were sound asleep while I was typing yesterday's post, caused me to lose sleep later that night!
DaddyO - fell asleep at 7:30pm, then for some reason sleep-walked downstairs and fell asleep on the couch. I spent at least 20 minutes (that I could have been sleeping) trying unsuccessfully to wake him up to come to bed!
Lily - went to sleep over at her friends house. At 2am I get a call from her friend's Mom telling me that Lily wants to come home! The ringing phone woke up DaddyO and I sent him down the street to bring her home.
Ashton - slept all night and didn't bother any one!
Bailey - Not long after I had put Lily in her own bed and was trying to get back to sleep, Bailey came in to our room complaining of having a bad dream. He tried to get in to bed with us but I talked him in to sleeping on a blanket on the floor.
Daisy - this little Miss woke up 3 times last night requiring assistance to get back to sleep!

And that is what I get for having an evening of quiet peace on the couch!

Second, I will end the cliff hanger from Day 2 of our vacation. After the zoo and after we had lunch, Ashton had absolutely no more fevers! No more sickness at all from him or anyone else in the family! Yay!!!!!!!!!

Now, Day 3:

Originally we had only planned on going to the Zoo. But with the savings of getting the kids in for free, we decided to check out LegoLand and the Sea Life Aquarium. This deal was especially sweet because I got coupons to get the kids in for free at both of these places! Legoland was closed today so we visited the aquarium.

The kids had a blast checking out all the sea life! Bailey and Daisy even got to touch some starfish (the other two kiddos were not interested). The aquarium was not very big and we were finished there right around lunch time. DaddyO found us a great restaurant right on the ocean and we sat outside and had a fabulous lunch! The temp was perfect, the air was fresh, and the waves were very relaxing. The kids were even well behaved and only required minor coaxing to eat their lunch!

And then, FINALLY, we took the kids to the beach!

I don't know why I always forget how much fun the kids have at the beach. They could run and play in the sand ALL day. And it's FREE!

After the beach we took the kids to the pool/hot tub to warm up and rinse off all of the sand (in the pool showers)! We ended the day with DaddyO's stroganoff for dinner.

Next time on "Our Acation" (said in a Jeff Probst voice) - LegoLand

and be sure to check back later today for What Would Your Children Say Wednesday

OH! PS: this is my 100th post! I published my first post on 10/5/08. It has taken over a year to complete 100 posts!