Last week we had the opportunity to take our little family on vacation to southern California!!! I have been DYING to go on vacation ever since last summer so this was a welcome little treat. I was a little nervous about doing it with kids, but it turned out to be fun. Sure, they had their moments and there were a few tantrums, but for the most part it was fun.
I was most nervous about the drive down there. I tried to plan some fun things for the car. I let her use my neck pillow, which she loved. I also got a little cooler full of snacks that was just for her. I put things (string cheese, grapes, apple slices, cereal, crackers, juice boxes, nuts, raisins, and fruit snacks) in snack-size ziplocks and she could get something out of her "treat bucket" whenever she wanted. She thought it was pretty cool to have her own treat bucket.
We also borrowed a portable DVD player from Matt's mom and brought all her favorite shows. She thought it was pretty neat to watch them in the car. Also, I went to the dollar store and got a few cheap toys and wrapped them up and when we got out of the car to get gas or whatever, she would come back to find a little present on her seat. That gave her something to do for the next segment of the drive. And she found ways to entertain herself back there as well!
I looked back there and saw that she had put crackers in her toes and I was dying laughing. She was pretty proud of herself. Of course they didn't sleep a wink the ENTIRE way there, and Emmy was asking question after question after question. About 30 seconds after we got to the hotel, she crashed on the couch.
It was definately an interesting experience having everyone in the same room. Every night before bed Emmy would say, "I don't want Zach to cry in the night and wake me up!" Which of course he did cry in the night and wake us all up. I don't know how kids can share rooms with babies!
She kept asking the whole way there if we were to the beach yet. So that was the first thing on the agenda. When we got there Emmy was running and jumping and rolling around in the sand. It was hilarious! She was so happy to finally be at the beach!
She had fun filling up her bucket with sand.
Zach tolerated getting slathered in sunscreen.
Emmy did not like the water though. She was scared of the waves and said it was too cold.
She did LOVE the pool at the hotel though. She would have stayed there the entire week if we would have let her. She swam around on that little froggy floatie for HOURS and would cry when it was time to do something else. She would jump around and want us to chase after her in the pool and tickle her. I've never seen her more happy than she was in that swimming pool. Every day she would wake up and say, "Can we go swimming today, Mommy?"
Zach (mostly) tolerated being lugged around everywhere.
He liked playing around on the beach towel. (For a little while anyway.) This was a rare moment when he was having fun at the beach! I just think he looks so cute in this picture!
Mostly we just went to the pool and the beach. We went to Legoland, on a hike, and sea kayaking as well (which I will post about later). By the last day though, Emmy had just about enough of the beach and just wanted to sit in the stroller with her towel on.
The weather was perfect! High 70s most of the week. It felt sooo good!
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