Halloween At The Beach

After our first couple of days of fun, it was finally time for the kids to don their costumes!  This was a much anticipated event, since we bought their costumes almost 6 weeks earlier, and the girls were just dying to get them on!  

Claire was Snow White this year, and I think she looked absolutely adorable!  Claire thought so, too... :)

Sophie was Ariel, in mermaid form.  Again, the costume suited her.  This girl is just too cute!

Our little princesses.

Johnny was our little Lightening McQueen.  He totally dug the fact that he had a cape, so I could only get a picture of him running away.  Running makes the cape cooler, after all!

The city of Carlsbad was having a Halloween festival in their downtown area, and it included trick-or-treating, so we headed there.  It was so fun!  And it was totally what you would expect from a little beach town in California.  I totally loved it!  So did Grandma Candy.  It was totally her thing.

Claire was even able to get in some craft time.  

Because she's so stinkin' cute, Sophie's costume got a lot of attention.  There was this woman at a beauty salon that was also dressed up as a mermaid.  She grabbed Sophie by the hand and dragged her toward the back of the salon to where her friends were drinking so she could get a picture with Sophie.  Yeah, I know.  Creepy.  I was right behind her the whole time, thinking "What is this crazy woman doing running away with my little girl?!"  But, Sophie loved the attention, and it made for a funny (albeit a little disconcerting) story. :)

After our trick-or-treaters were done trick-or-treating, we headed to the farmer's market in search of something delicious to take back to the hotel.  Grandma Candy found just the thing...kettle corn!  Then, at Grandma Candy's insistence, we went to the beach before calling it a day.  She didn't have to do much to persuade us.  It was our last evening, and we hadn't made it to the ocean thus far.  I am so glad we went!  It was the highlight of the trip for me.

The tide was low, but the waves were nice and full.  The sun was setting and the beach was beautiful!  The kids and Danny immediately ran toward the water, playing and kicking as they went.  We even saw dolphins in the water!  There were pelicans flying low and diving into the water.  It was incredible.

And then the real games began.  The timeless game of running away from the tide!  I've rarely seen our kids so completely happy.

Or Grandma Candy, for that matter! :)

I've decided the ocean is a magical place.  The kids were in a magical place, playing and laughing and just being kids.  They've needed that so much lately.  My Mom was right in the mess of them, playing just like my Mom does.  And Danny?  He was my biggest kid of all.  The pictures only communicate a portion of the feeling that was there.  This evening will definitely be one of my more treasured memories.

We were able to stay and watch the sun set into the water.  The perfect end to a perfect weekend.  

After shaking the sand out of everything, we got back in the car and headed to the resort.  Once there, Grandma Candy ordered some pizza for dinner and we begrudgingly starting packing for everyone's departure early the next morning.  It was hard to say goodbye.  Especially since this was such a unique time to have Grandma Candy all to ourselves.  She loved the chance to get to know our kids away from their cousins and the chaos that usually ensues at our family functions.  We're so grateful that she got the chance to come to our neck of the woods, and we're grateful that she hooked us up with such awesome accommodations!  

What a fabulous Halloween weekend!

Just Another Day In Paradise

My Mom had a business trip the weekend before Halloween in Carlsbad, Ca.  Carlsbad is a cool little beach town located about a half hour away from San Diego.  And luckily for us, that's only a few hours away!  And to sweeten the deal, my Mom was working for a posh resort that offered to put us up in a 2 bed-2 bath villa.  How could we pass that up?

We couldn't!  We loaded the kids up on Wednesday evening and headed for our mini-vacation.  It was an uneventful drive, and we were so pleased with the resort!  The room was beautiful, the kids were so excited, and Danny and I could relax with some much-missed Food Network.  And then Grandma Candy got back from her dinner appointment and the kids were all that much more excited!  After we caught up and visited for a bit, we tucked the kids into bed and called it a night.  

I was so glad we had come.  The kids and I have been going stir-crazy at the house lately, and they desperately needed some time to play and I needed a change of venue.  We all got up on Thursday morning and opened the curtains to our balcony door, and that was when I realized we had an ocean view!  

What an incredible way to start the morning!  We fed the kids and then headed out to explore the resort.  On our way up the night before, we passed the family pool complete with mini water park for the kids.  We decided to walk by and check it out.  And while we were out, we discovered the playground.  The resort had officially won me over!  We let the kids enjoy the sunshine for a while...

And then it was time to hit the pool!  Gotta love Southern California in late October.

We had a blast at the pool, and swam until Sophie was literally begging to go back to the room.  Afterwards, it was nap time for all.  Glorious naptime!  Grandma had to work on Thursday, so it was mostly a quiet day after naps.  We enjoyed some dinner in the room and took full advantage of the cable while enjoying a beautiful sunset over the Pacific.  A perfect vacation day.

Friday started our vacation with Grandma Candy, since she was all finished with her work obligations.  Not that we minded those obligations, since it was her connections with the resort that landed us free tickets to...LEGOLAND!  The Grand Pacific Palisades Resort (where we were staying) was literally within walking distance of Legoland.  We didn't walk though. :)  We happily drove (and then unhappily paid for parking), and decided to start our day of fun at the Legoland Aquarium.

The aquarium was so much fun!  There were fish there that I had never seen before, and I've visited a fair amount of aquariums in my day.  There were places the kids could play with legos, go down slides, touch starfish, and view the fish tanks from underneath.  It was awesome.

Once we were done with the fishes, we headed into Legoland.  The kids were so tired at this point, but they were troopers!  We enjoyed a boat ride and saw a lot of really cool lego creations before Daddy, Grandma Candy, and the girls enjoyed a ride or two.  Well, the girls endured them.  Our little princesses aren't much for thrills yet. :)  Danny, on the other hand, is all about thrills.  He found a ride where he was strapped in a seat that was connected to a huge mechanical arm.  This arm them proceeded to whip him all over the place!  Up side down, all around, upside down while being twirled all around.  It literally makes me nauseous writing about it.  But Danny loved it.  He eventually admitted to pretending he was in the cockpit of a jet, doing barrel rolls.  I love that man. :)  Even though the kids were exhausted, Claire did go on a horse ride all by herself, and Sophie did the big slides with her Daddy.  We have awesome kids!

We ended up taking three exhausted kids and one completely worn out pregnant mommy back to the hotel for dinner.  And just in time for the big game!  BYU was playing TCU, possibly the biggest game of the season, and Danny was going to be able to actually watch it!  He was stoked.  Though not so much by the time the game was over.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.  He drowned his sorrows with me in the hot tub after the game.  The chromatherapy lights helped.  But only a little...

And Saturday was our day to celebrate Halloween.  And that deserves it's own post...