Family vaycay 2012

Over Christmas, we decided to go with some friends to Southern California for 9 days.  It was absolutely perfect and I'm so, so glad we got to go.  I have a ton of pictures from our trip (surprising, I know  ;)  haha), so I'm going to break the posts up into different days so it's not one huge, way too long post.  Ready?  Set.  Go!

We left Saturday, December 21st, at 2:45 AM.  I figured the kids would sleep at least until 7:00, so that would make the 11 1/2 hour trip a bit easier.  They didn't really sleep, but they were still so tired that they watched movies (yay for DVD players in vans!) quietly until 7:00ish.  We stopped in St. George for gas, potty breaks, and changed them into their clothes for the day.  Shane and I also decided to give them their "big" (i.e. most expensive) Christmas presents then, mostly for our own sanity.

Opening their presents...

See Kaden's face?  :)

Tablets!

 Each of the kids got their own tablet.  Shane had originally wanted to get one tablet that all the kids had to share, then he was around at the right moment when they were fighting over something and decided it would be best for them each to have their own.  He found the tablets for a steal on Black Friday, so it worked out really great.  Kaden spent the rest of the car ride glued to his tablet.  I don't think we heard a word out of him the rest of the time.  ;)

 Saturday was mostly just a driving day.  We met up with Danny and Steph at the rental home, then Steph and I went grocery shopping while the kids ran around to their hearts' content.  They all did great, which was a combination of the DVDs and new tablets.

Sunday morning we went on a brunch cruise.  It was by far my favorite thing we did the entire trip.  None of us had ever been on a brunch cruise, but it was awesome!  The kids were SO excited to go on a real boat.

Our table

There was an entire fondue table.  Lexi chowed down on scrambled eggs and waffles, then moved straight to the chocolate.

Ari was a MESS after her dessert.  haha

I took Kaden to the back of the boat when it first starting moving.

I asked Kaden if he was excited and he said, "YES!!" so I told him to turn and show me how excited he was.  This is the face I got:

Best. smile. EVER.

 I was dying laughing at his expression.  This is by far my new favorite pic of him.

I was making a beef fajita here.  All of the food was SO GOOD.

 I was eyeing the fajita table for a while before finally going over and asking the chef standing near it about peppers in the sauces.  He said that even the beef was cooked in a pepper sauce.  I told him how allergic I am to peppers and he actually went in the back and got some beef just for me (pre-sauce).  It was delicious!!

Steph pointing out something outside.

The kids loved it!

The boat slowed waaay down to go by the seals (sea lions? I don't know the difference).

Checking out the seals

There were a lot of them

Kaden was glued to Danny the entire trip.

Kaden loves sail boats.

See Ari's crying face?

 Ari was crying because she had been running around the boat before this picture, and I picked her up and made her hold still for two minutes for the picture.  She just wanted to run!

Shane said, "Let me try."

And then she started screaming.  hahahaha

Danny and Steph

We went under this bridge.

Steph and I

 There weren't many kids on board.  Besides ours, I think there were only two others.  Most of the two hour boat ride was spent running around every single level (outdoors...and there were three levels).  The captain saw Lexi waving at him from the second level and motioned us in.  We walked in and he said, "C'mon, get in here," with a huge smile.  Lexi, of course, ended up in the Captain's chair wearing his hat!

When it fell down, she didn't even try to move it.  Everyone laughed.

Captain Lexi

Ari got in on the action, too.

Kaden wouldn't get in the Captain's chair or wear the hat, but this chair was nearby.  ;)

Look at Ari's eyebrow in this!  HAHAHA

Captain Ari

Before we left, Lexi ran up and gave the Captain a big hug.  He LOVED it.

 The captain was SO nice!  As we were getting off the ship, he was standing there saying goodbye to everyone.  When he saw Lexi, he gave her a high-five as he said, "Bye Captain Lexi!"  She was in heaven.  And now she thinks she can drive a boat.

That was such a fun activity and I plan on doing it every time we visit Southern Cali.  There was so, so much food (Belgian waffles, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, eggs, an entire omelet station with your own personal omelet chef, fajitas, all sorts of seafood, and of course the dessert table with cakes and fondue).  The staff was amazing as well.  One of our two (or three?) waiters was a college-aged guy who was wrapped around Lexi's little finger.  He would come and ask us if we needed anything and every time Lexi would say, "I need more soda, please."  He would coo, "Of course you do, sweetheart.  I'll be right back."  

And one more Lexi story 'cause she's hilarious:  one of the many restrooms on board was down a level from the food (below the water), and when I took Lexi, the dessert table was front and center as we came back up the stairs.  Lexi turned to the closest person (who was a female crew member), threw her hands out to her sides and yelled, "CHOCOLATE!!!"  Before I had a chance to quiet Lexi down, the crew member threw her hands up and yelled, "YEAH!!!"  It was adorable.

After getting home, the kids all slept really well, and after dinner we had hot chocolate.

Kaden drinking.

It had special colorful marshmallows.

It was a really great start to our vacation!