Time Flies When You're a Working Mamma

My poor little blog has had a spot on the back burner for a few months, so one of my goals over this Christmas break is to do a little catching up. Are you ready to see a ton of pictures? We just got back from vacation and I have a lot to share : )

We took off for California the Tuesday before Christmas (that was also our last day of school, so it was a bit chaotic for me to try to be ready). We drove halfway to Mesquite and spent the night there. The next day we drove the rest of the way to Carlsbad. They had had a lot of rain and we were very lucky to have the storm clear up just in time for our arrival. We headed straight to the beach. It was low tide and we were able to find all kinds of cool things in the tide pools. These starfish were amazing.

There were tons of these little hermit crabs too.

With the sunset and the clouds, it couldn't have been more beautiful.

There was a photographer there from one of the local papers. He was doing a story about the rainstorms and took some pictures of us enjoying the evening.

That night we had dinner at the Old Town Cafe in San Diego's Old Town. We met my long-time roomie Stefani and her family there. Delicious. Afterward, she and I went to Chocolat for some crepes and scrumptious Nutella and cream gelato. Mmmmmm. More, please?

The next day was Legoland. It was fun, but I think we would have enjoyed it much more if it hadn't been so crowded. It was Christmas break and everyone was coming out of the woodwork after all of the rain. The rides at Legoland aren't very conducive to getting people in and out quickly. Anyway, we rode a couple of different plane rides:

The girls rode the horses:

And we pulled ourselves up a tower with ropes. H3 was not wanting to go all the way up though!

And check out this creepy elf that we saw on our way out of the park:

The apple fries were delicious. If you ever go, you've got to try them! We also enjoyed the mini-cities built of Legos. We bought several mini-figures in the gift shops. They're fun because you don't know what's in the package until you open it. I got a little skier and a gladiator.

The next day we went to a Japanese import mall that I wanted to go to (pretty much a waste of time, except the girls got a few cute things there). Then we spent the afternoon on the beach playing in the sand and the waves. It was a nice, relaxing day.

The hotel we stayed in was fabulous. We loved it. Each night at 8:00 they put out fresh chocolate chip cookies and milk. It was especially convenient on Christmas Eve. We went and got some and extras for Santa and his elves. In the morning they were mostly gone and Santa had filled our stockings!

After we checked out our stockings and slept in, we headed out to the Wild Animal Preserve. The first portion was a lot like a zoo, except prettier and with only African animals. These little guys were my favorite:

And these little guys were pretty cute too:

The kids enjoyed the petting zoo:

The second portion of the park was a tram ride through a wildlife preserve.

As it usually goes on vacations, especially during the winter, we had a sick kid. H1 had a cold and a fever, so he was not a very willing vacationer. We had to pretty much drag him everywhere, but it worked out ok. Luckily, it was a laid-back, relaxing kind of vacation. We had a lot of fun, but also a lot of rest.

That night we went one last time to the tide pools. A few more fun little sea creatures. A cute little starfish and a sea snail:

I had to get this picture online because we didn't have our camera when we found a guy just like this. It was a sea slug that easily weighed a couple of pounds. Totally cool!

The morning that we left, we stopped by La Jolla cove to see the seal beach. It is such a beautiful area. I love the way the waves splash against the cliffs. There were groups of pelicans flying right past us as we walked along the cliffs. Super cool.

Now we are back home and I need a vacation from the vacation (and from my children, who will not stop fighting!) More to come later once I locate my camera with pics from October and Halloween.