spring break 2018

This year for spring break, we decided to go on a trip.  Normally, we stay home, spring clean 1/2 the day, and then do something fun the other half of the day.  This year though, we were itching to do something bigger, and fun, at a new place.

Ben and I decided to plan a trip to San Diego.  Best decision ever!  We had so much fun.  I am so glad we decided to make this trip.

We left Tuesday morning, and drove ALL day.  I had been pretty sick the past few days, and as we drove, I was feeling worse by the hour.  The kids did fantastic in the car.  It was so great to have them all old enough to not have to worry about bottles, diapers and inconsolable babies crying.  It was a long drive, and they did so well.  It made me realize that bigger trips are becoming more and more doable.  That is a great feeling.

We got to the hotel pretty late, so we just crashed.  I was feeling terrible, like really, really terrible.

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to LEGOLAND.  I ended up dropping Ben and the kids off at LEGOLAND, and I went to the instacare that was conveniently across the street.  I was extremely sad to miss seeing the younger boys experience LEGOLAND.  It was something that Luke had been looking forward to so much, that he was sleeping with the LEGOLAND magazine under his pillow each night.  I wanted to badly to experience that with him, but I was very sick, and I knew that if I was going to be able to play with my family and have energy to keep up the rest of the week, I had to get some meds.  It's a good thing I did too.  I ended up testing positive for Influenza B.  Along with that I had a terrible sinus infection, bronchitis, and an ear infection.  Yes, I was very sick.  The doctor was awesome, and he knew that I was on a trip with my family, so he seriously hooked me up with the most powerful medications he could give me while keeping me conscious. haha!

This was my cocktail for the week.

 

After my doctor appointment, I went to the Costco next door and grabbed a pizza and snacks for my family, and then I picked them up from LEGOLAND.  Luke absolutely loved it, and told me that he wants to live there.  The other kids had a great time too.  It was really busy, because it was Spring Break in California, so 1/2 a day was plenty of time for my family to get a good look around, do a ride, and then be ready to move on to the next adventure. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken.  Actually, LOTS of pictures were taken, but none with any of my family members in them.  haha!  Mary and Sam took pictures of the scenery.  Oh well, at least they had a good time.

Everyone at pizza, and I took my meds on our way to the zoo.  By the time we got to the zoo, I was already perking up, and the kids were fed and ready for the next outing.
The San Diego Zoo was awesome!  We took a tour of the zoo on a bus first, so we could see everything.  The zoo is huge, so we wanted to get an idea of what they had, before we walked ourselves to death trying to get to everything.  The bus had seats on top, and the kids thought it was so cool to ride up on top.

After the bus ride, we went around and saw all of the kids favorite animals.  Molly has been wanting to see giraffes for a really long time.  It is her favorite animal.  She was so excited to finally see them!!  She talked to them, waved to them, and was so sad when it was time to go.  It was adorable!

Sam got to see all of the reptiles his heart desired, William got to see the tiger and the lion, Luke got to see the elephants, Mary was happy to see all of it, and I got to see the hippo!  I love hippos!  I think it ended up being one of Ben's favorites too.  We see so many more animals too.  It was such a great zoo.  We stayed all the way until closing time.  The weather was perfect too.  Not too hot, and not too cold. 

After the zoo, we headed back to the hotel.  The kids swam, and munched on some junk food that is a hotel must have, :), I took a serious dose of cough syrup with a narcotic in it, and we all had a fun time hanging out at the hotel.  It ended up being such a fun day.  The kids did really well too.  They walked and walked and walked.  Molly and Luke were rockstars and worked their little legs all day long.  It was so fun to hang out with my crew all day and have fun together.

The next morning we got up, ate, Ben and I worked out a little, (Yup, I made it to the gym after 5 days off from being so sick), and then we headed off to Knotts Berry Farm.  The drive was really long, and there was traffic, which was a bummer.  We had planned to spend the whole day there.  My family loves rollercoasters, and the place is huge, so we figured we could easily make a day of it.

The place was PACKED!  It seemed like everyone in California was there.  There were lines for everything, and the lines were ridiculously long.  We decided to divide and conquer.  Ben took Mary and Sam to the bigger rides, and I took the three little ones to the kid area.  We both ended up spending the next 90 minutes waiting in line for one ride.  It was terrible.  I waited in line for 45 minutes just to get the kids pretzels with cheese and a drink.  We waited in line for bathrooms.  We waited in lines for tickets.  We waited, and waited and waited.  The one ride I took the three kids on, they absolutely loved!  Molly and Luke laughed and laughed and laughed.  William liked it too, but he was ready for a bigger ride.  Mary and Sam did one ride as well.  After the rides, we met back up as a family, and decided to leave.  It would be another 2 hours waiting to do another ride, and the place was chaotic, loud, crazy and frustrating.  We were so bummed to have used up the 2nd day of our pass, driven so far and waited so long, but it just wasn't worth it.  It was discouraging, but we made the best of it.  We went back to the hotel and the kids had a great time swimming, watching shows, and we just hung out.  We were all exhausted anyway.

The next day we headed to Coronado Island to the beach.  It was amazing!  The Island, the beach, the views, the adorable houses, the cute shops, the whole thing.  It was the coolest beach town and beach I have ever been to.

We bought boogie boards, bought chicken and snacks, and parked ourselves on the beach.  The kids played and played and played.  Mary, Sam and William boogie boarded non stop.  Luke played in the water and dug around in the sand, and Molly did a little of everything.  It was perfect weather, and I just laid there on the beach, soaking in the sun, and loving it.  It was everyone's favorite part of the trip.  We stayed until dusk, then we shopped a little at the fun shops, let the kids collect sea shells, got ice cream, and called it a day.  We were all so sad to leave.  In fact, we loved it so much, that instead of heading home the next day, we decided to stay one more day, just so we could go back to that beach again.

It was that awesome.  We had a blast again the second day on Coronado Island as well.  The kids got fried crisp though, and this time, we were ready to go when the time came.



The seagulls there were crazy!  Molly was eating a bag of carrot sticks, and she walked just a few feet away.  A bird walked right up, grabbed the bag of carrots and tried to take off.  It ended up dropping the carrots all over the sand.
This infuriated Molly, and she just started bawling.  She was so upset!  hahaha!!  She could not understand why a seagull would take her food.  She ended up yelling at and chasing any bird that came near us after that.
Unfortunately, about 30 minutes later, another bird grabbed our bag of rolls and got away with it.  Argh!

The morning of our second beach day, I was still groggy from my meds, and I was walking in the hotel room to get something.  I walked right into the corner of a suitcase, and it split between my two toes.  I heard the snap of my pinky toe.  It dropped me to the floor for a while.  It KILLED!!  Go me.  I am pretty graceful on narcotics apparently. I was on a roll this trip.  Geesh!  Luckily, the pain was kept under control, due to my meds that I was on from already being sick.  It has been a week, and it still throbs most of the day, but hey, we still made it to the beach, and still had a great time....purple toe and all.

When they would catch a wave, they would just laugh and laugh and laugh.  It was so fun to see.

Luke gets cold really easily, and he hates it.  He got cold at the beach, so he dug a hole, got in, and buried himself with sand.  He sat like that for a really long time.  He said it was how he could stay warm.  :)

We headed back home the next morning.  It was a full day of driving, but again, the kids did great!  We got home exhausted, a little disoriented, but happy, content, and closer as a family.  It would say it was a best family trip to date. 
I hope there are many more to come.

while mom and dad are away....grandma and the kids will play

Ben surprised me with a fun little weekend get-away a few weekends ago.  He arranged for my mom to come stay with the kids for a couple days, so we could go skiing at Deer Valley, and have a fun weekend together.  Yeah, he's pretty awesome.

Ben and I ate dinner at a yummy steak house in Park City, walked around main street in Park City, looked at some art galleries, and had a fun evening with just the two of us.  It was so great to relax and be with my main man.  The next day we got up and went skiing at Deer Valley.  I haven't been skiing in a few years, so I felt a little rusty, but it was a lot of fun!  The resort is incredibly nice.  It is definitely a destination resort, with all of the cool perks.  It was fun to watch Ben in his element.  He slowed down in order to stay with me, but it was still very apparent that he is an incredibly talented skier.  It was fun to be out in the mountains having fun together.  We ate an amazing lunch in one of the lodges, and probably had the best carrot cake I have ever had in my life.  In fact, we ended up ordering another one...it was that good!  We skied the rest of the afternoon, and then headed home.
I feel bad that I again dropped the ball with pictures.  I just don't think about it when we are having fun.  I need to be better at that.

While we were away, the kids had a great time with my mom!
They made some fun Easter pancakes for Breakfast, where Mary whipped out her artistic skills.

They also spent the day at the aquarium.  When we got home, the kids could not stop talking about it.  They had so much fun!

It was a great weekend for all of us!  I love it when we can all step back and do something fun and out of the ordinary, even if its just a couple days.  It's what memories are made of.

seattle

A few weeks ago, My mom, Kelsey, Mary and I had our first ever girls trip!!  It was so much fun it was ridiculous!

My mom, Mary and I flew to Seattle, where Kelsey picked us up at the airport.  She had the cutest little basket in her car set up for us.  It had treats, chocolates and matching bracelets in it for each of us.  How cool is that!

We grabbed lunch and drove straight to Leavenworth.  It was a good 2.5 hour drive, but TOTALLY worth it.  I have never seen such a magical town in my life.  It was unbelievable!  I felt like I was inside a snow globe.  To top it off, it was lightly snowing the whole time we were there.  Everything has a Swiss feel to it, and EVERYTHING has lights.  It felt like a whole different world!  The shops are adorable, the town is adorable, and everything is magical.  We had a blast there.

We drove back to our Hotel after that, and ate ourselves silly and crashed.  The hotel was awesome too!  The theme of the hotel was pineapple, and the décor was so cute, bright, and fun.  The blankets on the beds were the best I have ever felt.  We all snuggled into the beds and vowed to never get out.  We fell asleep watching Hallmark Christmas movies and eating chocolate.

The next morning we ate at this cute little breakfast café; in down town Seattle.  It was old, quaint, and perfect. It was so freaking good!  Best crepes ever!!

 

nutella hot chocolate, with a cute little leaf design in the cream

After breakfast, we headed to the Space Needle.  It was so cool to be able to look at Seattle from being up above it all.  It was absolutely freezing, but totally worth it. It is gorgeous City.

 

 

 

After the space needle, we headed to my Pikes Street Market.  I immediately fell in love with this place too.  WOW!  Best fruit, calamari, flowers, market, EVER!  It was so much fun.  We even visited the gum wall.  So gross, but cool at the same time.

Home of the best cheese curds and tomato soup ever!!!

 

Pikes Market was so fun.  We shopped, ate, watched the dudes throw fish, put gum on the gum wall, and ate the best fruit we have ever had.  It was so cool.

After the market, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the Nutcracker.

The Nutcracker was put on by a Professional Ballet Company, right in downtown Seattle.  I have never, ever, seen anything like it.  The costumes, the set, the live orchestra, the beyond talented dancers.  It was unreal.  Truly unreal.  We all had our jaws on the floor the whole time.  It was so cool!!!

My mom surprised us with bracelets too!  They were the same brand that Kelsey got for us!  How cool is that! 

We crashed that night after the nutcracker.

The next morning, we rode bikes to breakfast.  It was so fun!  It finally stopped raining, so it was perfect.  Riding Pineapple bikes through Seattle to breakfast...doesn't get much better than that.  Except for a little incident, where my mom fell.  :(

A big reason we did this trip, was to celebrate Mary's 13th Birthday.  Yup, she will officially be a teenager next week!
She was so much fun on this trip.  I love her fun-loving personality.  She kept us laughing and on our toes the whole trip. I am so glad I have such a great kid to share trips and experiences like this with. 

In the elevator

After Breakfast, we headed to the airport, and made our way home.

It was definitely a trip none of us will forget.  It was special and fun and magical in so many ways.  I am hoping that it will be the first of many Belnap girls trips to come.
Happy Birthday Mary girl!