Hello, Vacation

We've been talking about going on vacation for the longest time and just never scheduled time off work. We finally took time off and planned a quick trip on May 10th. I was wishy washy on where to stay, what to do, when to come home, etc. In the end, we booked a resort two days before we left, decided to stay Saturday night a day before we left (nothing like asking Emily if we can invade with only 72 hours notice) and bought tickets for Sea World in the resort room the night we arrived. So yes, the planning was not great. But that didn't keep us from having a good time. Forgetting the pack-n-play did, however, us from getting a good night's rest. The best part about the trip was that we didn't tell Clara. I picked her up from school and told her we had a surprise for her. She was hoping for a toy. I think the whole time she was a bit dumbfounded and kind of confused. She couldn't figure out if I was being serious when I told her we were going to Sea World and the beach and to see Aunt Emily when we got in the car after eating lunch. She figured it out eventually.

We got to Carlsbad later than planned, stopped and got dinner and food for breakfast and then drove to our resort, where we ate Panda Express for dinner on the floor in all our classiness.

Fortunately the resort itself more than made up for our lack of classiness. It was definitely a step (or ten?) up from our "normal" life and we enjoyed it. Jason's friend got us a good rate on our room, otherwise, we would not have been there. It was still more than I would usually pay, but very much worth it.The first night sans pack-n-play wasn't too bad. Clara slept peacefully in her very own big, comfy bed.

Hazel slept mostly peacefully on the floor. It was the one time in my life I wished my kids didn't fall asleep on their own because laying on the floor next to her for 30 minutes while waiting for Hazel to fall asleep was not my favorite part of the trip.

We made it through the night, although waking up at 6:30am on vacation almost doesn't qualify as "through the night" in my opinion.

Friday morning Jason went to check out the jobsite Emily is the project accountant for. It just so happened to be about 5 miles away and she figured he'd enjoy it. While he was out, I walked around with the girls and just enjoyed pretending like staying at high-end resorts is part of my normal life. If only. The grounds of the resort were simply beautiful. I loved it. Being somewhere like that is my kind of relaxing vacation.

If (hopefully when) we get to go back and stay at the La Costa, I am going to make time to enjoy these swings. They just have them randomly placed all around for anyone to sit in and enjoy. Meanwhile, I think I need one on my back porch.

We squeezed a quick nap in before Jason got back. When he did, we left for Sea World.

Once again, we found ourselves searching for a place to eat. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard. It was. We ended up eating at Sea World, which is what I had hoped to avoid. It was not great and was expensive and you know that annoys me. I got over it and we had a really great time at Sea World. Clara's favorite part was the shows. My favorite part was that I kept Hazel from getting burned and Jason's favorite part was being with family. Towards the end of the day, Clara and I went on Journey to Atlantis, the "big" ride there. It's been a while since I've been on a roller coaster like that and it kind of scared me. It kind of scared Clara too, but we had fun. The initial drop killed my stomach - it was almost more thrill than I could handle. I wanted to buy our picture so bad! I wish I wasn't so cheap, but out of principle I couldn't handle paying $15 for a 6x8. I just wish everyone could have seen Clara's face and her arm involuntarily thrown up in the air. 

We stayed until closing time, which was just right for all of us.

I love the San Diego temple. We attempted to squeeze a visit into our trip but realized driving by on the freeway would have to suffice.

We stopped for Italian food on our way back to the resort. Hazel and Clara were exhausted so we ended up getting our food to go half-way (1/4 of the way?) through our meal.