A real, true vacation - who would've thought it from us?!?! part 1

I have decided that when we make our millions we are going to buy a house on Mission Beach in San Diego. We'll go and spend a couple weeks there every January/February. We'll have our beach cruisers and body boards and have a grand old time! I LOVED San Diego. If it weren't for the pesky CA homeschooling laws, I might be tempted to move there.

We rented some bikes and rode along the promenade next to the ocean, played in the sand and surf, and after lunch went to the swimming area in the bay. There were hardly any other people there, and the water was both calmer and warmer. After slathering more sunscreen on the kids (I’d learned my lesson) and putting on life jackets (sometimes paranoia is a good thing) I sat on the grass, flying a kite in the shade of a palm tree. Stephen took the kids into the water, and they love, love, loved it! So did he – that was our favorite day of our trip! Elise tried to catch the little minnows, Mason swam with Stephen to a buoy and Sammy finally touched the sand!

That's the ocean behind my cute family. It was so pretty!


Sammy wouldn't put his feet on the sand...


This is the bay. Beautiful, isn't it? Like that hat? I broke down and went all touristy - my Oregon fairness couldn't handle the California sun.


Elise and her minnows. She never did catch one. :o)


My palm trees...aah...

We stayed with my cousin and his wife, in their cute house that was super close to everything! We had a great time there, and hope to go back to visit them again. Sammy loved Flynn's motorcycle, even if it was a bit loud. My cousin has some crazy stories about SEAL training, and I really admire him for making it through! I have a new respect for the navy!

Vacation, part 2

SEAWORLD: I LOVE this place. The shows were so much fun, and the aquariums were great. It wasn’t too big, and even when it was crowded it wasn’t too bad. Cirque de la Mer was my favorite show – we went twice to it, 3 times to Shamu (once was the night show), 2 times to the dolphins (again, one was the night show), 2 times to the sea lion & otter show (the night show was hilarious! – they did spoofs on all the other shows), and once to the pet show. Tips: go first thing in the morning, leave during the afternoon, and go again in the evening. And two days is a great amount of time to go – then you aren’t too rushed to take your time. Oh yeah, don’t forget sunscreen. Lots and lots of sunscreen. The sun is hot and it really beats down on you as you sit in the stadiums. Don’t forget under the eyes and your knees. :o) Trust me on this one.


The whole SeaWorld day 1 clan!Elise, Dad, Mom, Lisa, Lori, Mason, Grandma & Grandpa.

This is part of the Cirque de la Mer set. Those little spotted guys are amazing!

I gave the kids $1 for every hour we drove in the car that they were good (I only had to pull this the second day of driving - they were angels the first 10-hour day!). Elise bought this little necklace and the Shamu stuffed animal with her money. :o)

REUNION: What a fun group of people I have in my family! We stayed at my Aunt Lisa’s (aka Aunt Cookie) house for the Bellon family reunion, and had a blast! The food was incredible, company fantastic, and mountains gorgeous! Elise made friends with lots of little (3^rd) cousins, and I got to meet some really cool people. The kids told me that their favorite part of the trip was swimming in Aunt Cookie’s pool – two times. They were like little fish (in their life jackets, of course – we haven’t had swim lessons for awhile)!

Hamburgers

I can tell that BBQ season is back: over an 8 day period I had a hamburger for dinner 6 times. Well, I guess once I chose a hot dog to break things up. :o)

Things are progressing well for the house sale - the appraiser came on Monday, he was a really nice guy - letting Mason help measure the walls and such. He couldn't tell me what the appraisal would come back at, but he did say that we should have listed it at $265,000 instead of $249,900. Oh well...we're happy with the family that is buying it, and we're still coming out ahead. We close on Tuesday!!!!!

And then on Friday we're heading to...DisneyLand! Woohoo! Stephen has never been, and we're going to spend 3 days there. Elise is so excited to meet a princess. It ought to be very fun, and very tiring, but we won't try to do too much, so we should be okay.