Best Birthday Ever - Family Vacation 2009

Last night we got back from a wonderful family vacation...oh sorry, it included kids so it was actually a trip. But still, it was wonderful.

Last Wednesday we got ready, packed up the car, and made the 5 hour drive over to our hotel in CA which was right across the street from Disneyland (totally the way to go). The kids were angels on the drive and seriously, not a single one cried or even whinned the entire way there. It even took them several hours before they asked for a snack - don't know what got into them but we loved it. After we arrived we got dinner, swam at the pool, and just hung out. Then Thursday we were up bright and early and headed off for two days of Disneyland fun.

We/the kids were a lot more adventurous this year and we were able to do a lot more stuff. And yes, we only got Brynn's attitude once the whole time.


I'm a big fan of the character meals. Not only is it pretty good food but I love the time with the characters that we don't have to stand in hours worth of lines to see. Thursday for lunch we hit Goofy's Kitchen and then Friday for lunch we did Breakfast with Minnie. Friday was also my birthday so I got a special song and cupcake :)

While we did and saw a lot more, our top favorite rides stayed the same with Dumbo coming in as #1. Brynn also still loved the carousel and teacups. But Tyler couldn't get enough of all the "choo choo" trains everywhere and even loved the roller coaster and rocket ride.

We had a lot of good quality time with the characters - it was so neat that it wasn't just 'snap the picture and move on'. They really spent time with us and tried to talk to our kids - if only Brynn would have talked back...

Dylan seemed to get a lot of attention...and what did he want to do? Grab all of their noses :) And they let him!

On our trip last year each of the kids got to pick out a special toy to remember their first trip to Disneyland. Brynn picked a stuffed Minnie and Tyler picked a stuffed Mickey. They both have loved their stuffed animals ever since. Then for Halloween they were Mickey and Minnie and Dylan was their Pluto.

So we had to get Dylan the matching stuffed Pluto to remember his first trip to Disneyland. He loves it - he loves to chew on its nose and ears. But mostly I loved how excited the kids were to help pick it out for him and they didn't even ask to get something for themselves.

It was a great few days with our little family and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend and celebrate my birthday!!! Thanks Disneyland for letting me in free on my special day!

Then Saturday we took it easy in the morning and headed down to San Diego where we met up in the afternoon with Travis and his kids and Grandma Eccles. That evening we took the kids to the beach where they were in heaven!

I don't know what got into them but they ran (fully clothed) right out into the ocean, plopped their little wet bodies in the sand and went to town playing and building sand castles. Then Uncle Trav threw us a mean bonfire for dinner where we roasted hot dogs and smores.

My only regret from this trip is that we didn't spend more time at the beach because the kids were so happy and content. Last year all Brynn wanted to do was build a sand castle and put a flag on it...only we had forgotten to get a flag...and I've been hearing about how we forgot the flag for the past year. So before we left for this trip we spent time making and decorating flags to put on our sand castles. And they were very excited to be able to put them on.

Sunday we headed off to the San Diego Wildlife Animal Park.

It was a nice change from a regular zoo. Brynn got to feed a bird and was actually OK with it until it decided to land on her (but I can't blame her for that). She also got to pet a deer and a baby hippo. Tyler loved the "train ride" through 'Africa' - and it wasn't so much seeing the animals, it was just being on the "train".

Monday we hit up Sea World! The day started out a little rough when the first show we went to was the dolphin show and a big old fat whale parked its booty right in front of me and the kids and decided to pound wave after horrific-salty-stanky-wave over our heads and the kids LOST IT. We were literally soaked to the bone for hours after that, and then dried with a layer of salt over our hair and skin. I realize that we sat in the 'soak zone' but I should have not listened to the crowd, but instead listened to the good mommy voice in my head that told me to move before the show started. Lesson learned.



We also enjoyed our time at the hotels. And our kids love hot tubs - One night, while Brynn was relaxing in one, she looked over at us and very seriously asked if we could get one at our new house we were moving too.

Tuesday before we headed back we took a walk around the beautiful San Diego Temple.

And then we had to leave. It had to come to an end.
I don't believe there is such a thing as too much fun...but do you think we wore them out to the point of total exhaustion??!? They were such troopers.

By the time most trips end I'm usually ready for them to be done and get back to normal life. However, I was sad to see this time together end and could have kept going (had we had enough clean clothes to see us through). I'm not sure what made it different this time - maybe it was knowing that in a few weeks we would be losing our valued daddy time as he starts his new job that will have a rough first year, maybe it was seeing the kids get so excited and love and appreciate what they were having the opportunity to see and do, maybe it was avoiding all the real world stuff I had to come back to do and accomplish with our big changes ahead...whatever it was, I will always remember and cherish this trip. As cheesy as it used to sound, it may have cost us a little, but really...it was priceless.