Spring Break 2013

This year for Spring break we went to southern California.  We normally stay home during spring break, so this was a very exciting and big event for our family!

It was a fabulous trip including; seeing aunts & uncles, swimming, surfing, relaxing, playing in the sand, gorgeous views,

 time at the beach, warm weather, yummy food.  

All the kids had a good week, and came home tired, sandy and a little sunburned.  There are tons of pictures in this post, but I didn't want to leave any pictures out of the blog.  This blog is my journal, family history and scrapbooking- so it's picture overload!

We left SLC after school on Friday and drove part way to Las Vegas and stayed in a motel that night.  Lizzie did horrible on the drive there and didn't sleep at all!  I thought she would take a nap on the way, but she just yelled and cried.
Saturday we continued to CA and headed straight to the beach.  We played there and then went and bought all our groceries and checked in at the Newport Coast Villas around 3:00. 
These villas are super nice, it's a two bedroom place, with a big kitchen, dining room,  washer/dryer and a balcony with ocean views. I love having a kitchen so we can make meals, and relax.  

Sunday was Easter, we went to church with Jennifer and Chandler.  They brought tons of eggs over and the kids did an easter egg hunt.  We barbequed tri tip for dinner, went on a walk to the beach and had a nice evening with them. 

We had so much fun at the beach! The kids loved looking for shells, exploring in the sand looking for sea creatures, and making sand castles etc...  Lizzie was in heaven and she was a hot, sandy mess every day.  She got sand in her hair, mouth, ears and more.

Monday we went to huntington beach and met up with Jennifer and uncle Derek.  Taylor and Danny surfed, while the rest of the kids boogie boarded and buried themselves in the sand.

Every night after being at the beach we would come back to our place and go swimming and sit in the hot tub.  Lizzie loved the hot tub, and was fearless around the water.

Monday night after the beach, Derek came to our place and we had dinner, and hot tubbed with him. It was great to see him as well as Jenn and Chandler. We miss all of them and wish they lived closer to us. 
Newport was so beautiful and we had a wonderful time!
Tuesday we headed up to Santa Barbara to stay with Katie & Adam.  We stopped at the wharf that day.  It was a gorgeous day in SB, perfect for fresh crab for lunch. Taylor wanted to try crab, so we did and he liked it. 

After lunch we went to the aquarium on the wharf. The kids loved seeing all the sea animals, and touching star fish etc..They spent some of their hard earned money in the gift shop buying random toys etc..
 After that we got yummy ice cream cones.

Elizabeth thought being on vacation was awesome, she didn't take a nap at all.  She was usually happy most of the day and then around 5:00 would get so grumpy, mean and tired!  She loved being outside so much -especially at the beach.

The rest of our time in Santa Barbara was spent at the beach.  Danny and Taylor surfed a lot, we boogie boarded, went on walks, played in the sand, looked for crabs, went tide pooling and more. The beach really entertained our kids for hours.  We would eat breakfast before we left, pack a lunch in the cooler and stay at the beach all day. 

Everyone loved heading back to Katie's apt. in the late afternoon to sit in the hot tub and go swimming.  We had delcicious, amazing Mexican food every night we were in SB, it tasted so good.

Santa Barbara is such a beautiful place! Danny really misses living by the ocean, we need to take beach trips more often.

Taylor did really good at surfing, he got cold in the icy water, but would keep going out.  Danny helped him learn how to stand up and he loved it!
We had so much fun spending time with Adam & Katie. They were so nice to let us stay in their apartment.  We really appreciated it!



The last night in SB we got ice cream at "Thrifty's"- it's a childhood memory of Danny and Katie.  It was delcious and the perferct way to end our trip. 
Lizzie did so much better on the drive home. She napped, read her books, watched a movie, drew, and sang to us.  I was relieved, because I was afraid she would cry all the way home for 12 hours!

Now back to cold, rainy weather in SLC.
All we want is summer!