spontaneous vacation

eric has been flying to san diego for work for a few months now (just part time, he still has to do his job here) and so we went out for two weeks over 4th of july because we miss him so. it was super fun, but also exhausting, and it is so great to be home.

legoland was kind of cool, at least the amazing things that they build out of legos, but i think we were all a little too old for the rides. the most exciting thing to calvin and jack was the gift shop.

jack, erin, annie, clayton

del mar beach was great, the water was warm, and this was probably the nicest day we had while we were in socal. (that little guy was a neighbor who only had big teenage brothers and was excited to have some younger kids to play with. his family comes out and stays in a condo for six weeks every summer, talk about fun!)

at the wild animal park, this baby bird was trying to learn how to fly, but got tired and landed right in the middle of the sidewalk. his mommy kept bringing him food, but we were afraid he would get stepped on if we left him, so we babysat him until the security guard came.

getting to see the animals in a more natural setting was fun. i especially loved the baby elephants, there were at least three tiny guys (relatively speaking)

sea world was amazing! i wouldn't let the kids sit in the soak zone, though, because the temp was only in the low sixties. there was a lot of cool educational stuff too, besides the shows.

jack

we did the beach again, because i was too tired to go back to another park. so we missed the zoo, but we have a great zoo here, so we didn't feel too bad.

calvin, jack r., jack e.

on the way up to norcal, we stopped off in valencia and saw Eric's Uncle Bob and Aunt Anne, their son John and his wife Ginger, and their two boys, Jack and Justin. our Jack and their Jack are only a few months apart in age, so they have a lot of fun together.

annette, moi

in Hollister, we stayed at our good friends the Anderson's who were out in Utah (thanks again, Caroline!) it was so nice to have a home base and to be able to do laundry! it was also great because they live right next door to the Dickson's, who are also awesome!

kayla, erin, corey

Annette and Loren fed us and let our kids sleep over every night! Erin had so much fun catching up with Kayla, and Calvin and Jack couldn't get enough of playing with Corey and Bradley!

calvin, erin, tyler, caleb, jack, sam, annie

on saturday we drove up to Eric's parent's place to spend as much time as possible with Grandpa. Dean's family came down from seattle, so we got to hang out with some cousins!

annie, mercedes, reef

we went back down to hollister for more fun with more friends, here we are at the beach in santa cruz with the Sowards! the kids were a little shocked to find the water a bit colder than in san diego county, though!

calvin, beau, jack

tuesday night is family night at the santa cruz boardwalk, which means all rides are $1, so we went and hung out there, it was a lot of fun, i can't believe we never went there when we lived there. well, yes i can, we had 4 tiny kids, so that would have been torture. we stayed way longer than we should have (i got a parking ticket) but it's just so hard to say goodbye. i'm sad that i didn't get any pictures of Brandon and Tiff's new little guy Cruz, he's adorable.

we miss you guys a ton! it was so fun to see you all!