Family Vacation 2012

We usually head out to AZ every Spring Break in hope of catching some Spring Training and warm weather. This time, I wanted to kill two birds and venture out to California as well and take the boys to Legoland, SeaWorld and the Zoo while Kieran is still free! Yes, free! Any parent knows the joy of free travel prior to turning 2. Some benefits still resume until 3, just not flying. I also hadn't seen my BFF for awhile and wanted to visit with her as well, so we did just that. We flew out to AZ for a few days, then flew to San Diego for a 3 day weekend and finished our trip back in AZ before flying back home. Are you tired yet? I am just remembering it all.

Caleb loves visiting his Nana & Papa. He could hardly wait. Mommy and Daddy could hardly wait to get off the plane with Kieran! That boy does not do well in confined spaces....brutal. We had a relaxing few days with the family, enjoying some missed food like In n Out and real Mexican before heading off to a whirlwind weekend in San Diego. We first headed to the Zoo straight from the airport. We picked up our Go cards which got us admission to all the parks. We met up with my BFF Julie and her girls at the zoo for a bit, ran into an old friend while visiting the Panda's and headed out to check in at our hotel and grab dinner. Upon arrival at the hotel they were out of cribs. What? Okay, I am going to be calm, maybe the boys in a big bed together may work out. Fingers crossed, what else could I do but hope and pray. We grabbed some dinner by the beach and let the boys play for a bit. This was the only window of time we had to visit the sandy shore unfortunately. At bedtime, my nightmare came true. Kieran would not lay down for bed. Caleb was exhausted and was ready to sleep, but his little brother refused in the open bed. I prayed for peace and patience and a crib to magically appear at my door. No luck. I called the front desk almost 2 hours later begging for a crib. I was desperate. I was ready to buy one at this point. My prayer was answered not 5 minutes later, but Caleb decided it would be fun to jump on the bed in the meantime. Both crashed for the night and I did too, thankful that my weekend was not going to be hell at bedtime. Yes, hell.

I let Kieran nap Saturday before we headed off to Sea World. This poor kid was so tired, we just kept going and going, barely got any naps, would always fall asleep in car at end of day. The boys rode their first ride, Elmo's flying fish. They both loved it! We saw a Shamu show and enjoyed all of the different animals to see. Caleb loved to collect those souvenir pennies at every park. We had no problem with a .51 cent souvenir. Buy as many as you like! After Sea World we headed out to Julie's for dinner as I needed to see her as much as possible while in town! Miss that girl to pieces. Sunday was our grand finale at Legoland. This was every one's favorite. Caleb rode his first roller coasters and had a blast, but the poor guy was spent by 2pm. I didn't want to leave quite yet, plus Kieran fell asleep in his stroller for once so I wanted him to sleep. That didn't last long and so we went back to hotel to rest up before meeting some old college friends for dinner. Both boys crashed on way home....exhausting weekend! We headed back to AZ to finish our trip at Nana & Papa's.

We had a great trip. I wish we could have stayed longer to stretch out the rush from park to park each day, but time is money! Saying goodbye to family is always rough too, just yanks our hearts to get back closer to them sometime in the future.