Too Much of a Good Thing

What a week! We had a great vacation, but we are SO glad to be home again. Here is a little rundown of our trip.

WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES!

DAY 1

We left Monday and went to Monterey with Jon's mom and sisters. The monarch butterflies migrate there every year so we went to see them. It was pretty cool to see, though it was pretty late in the season and there weren't as many as there were a couple weeks before.

Next we headed to the tide pools at the beach. We had fun and saw lots of sea creatures and then headed over to the more sandy beach to fly our kite.It was a little too windy though and our kite broke, but we got some beautiful pictures.

We decided to head to our hotel and go swimming, but the rain cancelled those plans. Jon's family left and we went in search of some dinner. We decided on Bubba Gumps, one of our favorites.
This is the bucket of trash (lobster and shrimp) that Jon gets every time.

We splurged and got dessert...Alabama Mudd Pie in an impossibly skinny glass. Sooo good! Matthew couldn't get enough.
This was our hotel in Monterey. Isn't it so cute and quaint? I totally loved it. Our room had a separate bedroom with a twin bed. Emma was in love.
DAY 2

We spent Tuesday driving to San Diego. It ended up taking about 9 hours. It was a long day. The end.
Okay, it wasn't horrible. The kids did pretty good for the first part, and we found a Chuck E Cheese along the way (Thank you GPS) so the kids were able to get some of their wiggles out. Matthew was done after that though and had a good little screamfest. But we made it, and even went swimming after we checked into our hotel.

What a cool kid
DAY 3

We got up and went to Sea World. We had been a little worried about the weather because it rained Monday and Tuesday, but the sun broke through for the 3 days we were in San Diego. It was perfect mid 70's weather the whole time. We got to Sea World at 10 and ended up staying until 4. The kids each got a nap in but we were exhausted by the end of the day.

Waiting for the dolphin show to start

They had an Elmoland at Sea World, which was really fun. Emma wanted to run through the water but didn't want to do it alone. I kept telling her it was okay and that she wouldn't get wet. She finally let me carry her through it, and we ended up getting wet...really wet. Oops.This little play area was so cool. Really, we could have spent the whole day here.

This was also in Elmoland. Emma and Jon both really wanted to go on it, but Emma was too small and Jon didn't want to go alone.

He finally went and did it anyway

There were also a few little rides in Elmoland that we went on a couple times.

We finally dragged ourselves out of Elmoland, ate an overpriced lunch to get a cheap plastic Shamu lunch pail, and then went to see the killer whales.

By the time the Shamu show started, Emma was SO tired she ended up sleeping through the whole thing. That was kind of a bummer since that was what she had been looking forward to for weeks. Oh well. The whales were impressive, the show itself was pretty cheesy.

Next up were a couple aquariums and the bat rays.

By then we were all done and headed back to the hotel.

DAY 4

We were all up early on Thursday so we decided to walk through Old Town before heading to Sea World. We got there a little too early and everything was closed, so we didn't stay long.

Back at Sea World, we watched a 4D Elmo movie which was kind of cool. It's 3D but then you also feel the rain, the ocean waves, etc. They have sprayers on the back of all the seats that shoot water at you. Emma was really surprised.
By this point we were all done with walking around, so we saw another aquarium and the sharks and did one more round at the Elmoland.

Emma was SO excited to meet Elmo and Abby but then she wouldn't smile.

That night we went to a cute little pizza place for dinner.

Emma was tired and grumpy and just wanted to go home.

Jon and Emma were swimming in the shower so Matthew got his bath in the sink. He had a blast.

DAY 5

Emma woke up sick. I think it was a combination of the heat and not drinking enough water. She stayed awake long enough to eat a couple bites of food and drink some juice and then she was out for a couple more hours.

We were all so tired we could have slept all day, but we had to check out of the hotel and head up to L.A.

On our way out of town we decided to check out the children's museum in San Diego. It was a huge disappointment. We have been to several children's museums and loved them, but this was the most expensive and most boring one I have ever been to. We kept going through it, hoping that there would be something good, but it never came.

Emma did have fun painting this car

And they had a little toddler room that we played in for a few minutes.

Then we were on the road again. After 2 1/2 hours and lots of tears from both kids we got to LA and stopped at this park. We were meeting up with a friend of Jon's and had to wait for him to get off work.

We had a good visit with Jon's friend and his wife and appreciated their offer to let us crash at their apartment.

DAY 6

Saturday morning we went to the Santa Monica Pier. Emma and Jon played and explored while I stayed in the car with a napping Matthew.

Our last stop was meeting up with a friend of mine from high school. We had lunch and had fun reminiscing and catching up.

The trip home was pretty uneventful. We made it in a little over 6 hours and only had to stop once. The kids did so well and were so happy to be home.

All in all it was a good trip and it was great to have some family time. Now we just need a little vacation from our vacation and 3 solid days of sleeping. :)