Summer Vacation

This past August we flew down to San Diego for our family vacation. The weather home wasn't giving us that summer feeling so we went and found where the sun has been shining all season long. And we needed to get away and have some fun.

One of the biggest perks about Steve traveling so much is that he earns a ton of reward points for airfare and hotel. Lucky for us we got to fly for free and stay at the Hilton beach resort for free! And because he was technically there for work we didn't have to pay for a rental car. What could of easily been a $2000 expense was exchanged for entries into a few of Southern California's funnest parks.

Upon arriving we quickly checked into our hotel and headed straight for the San Diego Zoo. The kids and I have never been before and I couldn't believe how enormous it was. All the things I heard about it being so great and amazing was all true.

We saw so many incredible animals. It was incredible how close we were to them. A few of our favorites...

And what zoo isn't complete without a petting zoo?

Somewhere in the jungle they had a place the kids could jump. I think this was their favorite part for which they could have been here all day.

We ended up spending a second day at the zoo since Steve had to work. The weather was perfect and towards the end of our day we took the tram that went from one end of the park to the other. I am terrified of heights and thinking that a bucket was going to hold me to safety wasn't sitting well with me but the kids wanted to do it SO bad. It was the longest 6 minutes of our entire vacation. So we did it again!

After a fun filled day we treated ourselves to swirly rainbow Icee's.

As part of our vacation we went to Legoland!

Ayla and Holden have been talking about going to Legoland since we told them a month ago. They were so excited and as soon as we got there the first thing they wanted to do was to go on rides. It was the first time Holden has been on a roller coaster and he LOVED it!

They loved every bit of it!

I know these parks have their rules on height regulations when it comes to the rides and a few of them also have an age minimum. Which I totally agree with. Now, we would never condone our kids to fib unless it made absolute perfect sense to. Say a certain horse ride that Holden really wanted to go on. He met the height requirement but not the age minimum of 4. Mind you the kid just turned 3 a few days prior. So, Steve told him that he needed to be 4 to go on the ride and the lady might ask him how old he was. And sure enough she did and as smart as Holden is he held up 4 tiny fingers! And look how happy he is...

Legoland is a pretty amazing place. All of the figures and creations were all made out of Legos. It's incredible that they could build these things out of a thousand little pieces. They had a miniland where they created replicas of cities such as New York, DC and Vegas all out of 20 million Legos. It was one of the most extraordinary things we've seen.

After spending 3 enjoyable days in San Diego we were ready for part II of our trip. The kids had no idea where we were headed but when we told them that we were going to the happiest place on earth they both cheered DISNEYLAND!