Category Archives: california

Road Trip Part 5 – A Birthday and An Aquarium

Our time in California was winding down, and Enzo happened to be turning 5 in a week, so my mom had asked if there was a special cake that he would like so she could make him one. As it so happens, he wanted a butterfly cake in an array of colors. I’m not sure where the butterfly idea came from… maybe because we’ve talked a bit about plants and hoping that the monarchs will make a return to our yard. Either way, my mom truly delivered.

For his 5^th birthday, Enzo had really only one request. He wanted his own Alexa for his bedroom. Done. The excitement on his face was priceless, as was the moment when he turned to his sister and whispered to her, “Phoebe, we have our very own Alexa for our bedroom!”

My mom and step-dad had the excellent idea of buying him his own first camera too, which he was very excited about and has been using on a regular basis. The hardest part has been convincing him not to delete all of his pictures!! I need to sneak his camera and download the ones he has saved to my computer.

On our final day, we went to Birch Aquarium and it didn’t disappoint! Not too big, not too small and it had a really good variety as well!

The jellies never disappoint, and they had so many here. They really are so fascinating to watch and it was fun to watch Enzo take pictures of everything with his camera as well.

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Road Trip Part 4 – Beach, Please.

See what I did there? Yeah, yeah, not original in the slightest, but it’s been a long week and it’s cold and rainy, so it’s the perfect day to relive some fun at the beach!

First, though, we spent Friday after our Disney fun just relaxing. The kids played and then we took them to the swimming pool to really wear them out. Phoebe was very excited to don her fancy gloves and play with her new tea set.

We went to Coronado Beach on a Saturday and surprisingly enough it wasn’t even that busy and the weather was gorgeous! The water was a tad chilly, but we were so excited to dip our feet in and soak up the warm rays from the sun.

They’re not even a little excited. Ha!

I love how he just carried that shovel around. You never know when you might need to dig a hole, right? Enzo didn’t necessarily enjoy how cold the water was, but Phoebe couldn’t care less.

Yeah, we all enjoyed the nice weather and change of scenery just a bit. There were also a ton of tiny clams everywhere! It was really kind of bizarre, but neat. I’ve never seen so many and it was a little odd to watch their very squishy, gelatinous… selves try and hold on to the sand as the waves came and do whatever it is they were trying to do. Clearly I know nothing about clams.

We’ve been listening to ocean waves as bedtime background noise and it really is so relaxing. I can see why people would choose to live close to it. I have a feeling the kids would say the same. Alas, back to reality and time to pull out my sweatshirt for the high of 48 degrees and even more rain tomorrow. 😉

Road Trip Part 3 – Disneyland!

Not surprisingly, one thing we were all looking forward to on our trip was Disneyland. It’s the happiest place on earth, right? It’s been years since I’ve been there, Josh had never been and we figured both kids were old enough to enjoy it, so the 4 of us and my mom headed off to Disneyland bright and early on a Thursday morning. One thing we knew we wanted to do was spend a full day there, but we didn’t necessarily want to drive back to my mom’s the same day, so we got a room at a hotel a couple blocks away. Best idea ever. We were even able to check in that morning, drop our stuff off and walk over to Disneyland.

Enzo wasn’t keen on getting his photo taken so early in the morning, but I can’t really blame him. Even during an on “off-season” day there were still lots of people and lots of things to see. We kind of just picked a direction and went for it.

Josh and I started the day off going on Big Thunder Mountain. Phoebe was too short and Enzo decided it was too scary, so my Mom stood by with them while we got one ride out of our system and then focused on a little sight-seeing and heading toward Toon Town.

We were briefly distracted by the short line to Small World, so we figured it would be a really nice and easy first ride for the kiddos. So… Phoebe loved it. It wasn’t too fast and she loved looking at everything. Enzo thought it was boring. The rest of us feel like we lost 5 years of our lives in the ride that never freaking ends. Just when you think you can’t take it anymore and are willing to throw yourself from the boat… it keeps going. My only consolation is that it made Phoebe very happy.

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Road Trip Part 2.5 – Smelly Sea Lions

Is it any surprise that the kids were really excited about seeing the beach? It was one of the things they wanted to do right away, so the day after we arrived in California we had an easy, lazy day that included seeing at least one beach and the sea lions (as one does).

The kids were okay with not actually going swimming that day and they had fun just getting their feet in the sand and finally in the water. Enzo was more cautious partially because it was cold, but Phoebe doesn’t really care how cold water is.

The kids started to get braver and ventured slightly further out and would giggle and run when the waves came in, however, the tide was also coming in which is something the kids know nothing about. Enzo was taken off guard and ended up on his face with a (thankfully gentle) wave washing up over him. He was not impressed. I had extra clothes in the van, so we got him changed and then we went to see the sea lions.

Oh, the sea lions. Never have I smelled anything so awful in my life. It was hard not to gag and we only lasted a few minutes up close and personal with them.

Oh you smelly, smelly things.

We ended the day with lunch and a Target run because… always Target. It was also important to get the kids to bed at a decent time because the next day was Disney Day!!

Tune in…

Road Trip Part 2 – California

We got up bright and early to leave Colorado Springs to head towards California, but first we had a stop in Winslow, Arizona to spend the night and get to see family I haven’t seen in far too many years. Alas… somehow we didn’t get any photos, so you’ll have to imagine it. We got a picture of lunch, though…

So glad we had AC for the desert portion of our drive. We definitely aren’t used to 100 degree temperatures coming out of a cool winter and we would have been miserable. However, for the most part, we were quite comfortable.

At around the Route 95 point in California, however, the smiles ended and Phoebe became carsick and extremely unhappy and vocal about all of the dips in the road. She cried, she kicked, she yelled, and then finally she passed out. We will never drive on that road again. She asks almost every time we get in the car if there are going to be dips.

Eventually, the kids had to go pee again and we figured we would check out Joshua Tree National Park for a bit. Alas, we really only checked out the bathrooms because a pass was more than we wanted to spend considering we only had so much time in the area.

The kids were tired and a little cranky, so they stayed in the car while I got out here and there to explore and look at flowers and use the little Sony a bit more. There were so many pretty plants and after living in a very different climate for so long, it was nice to see new things.