Beach trip!

Day 73 Sat: We went to the beach all day and it was glorious. It was warm and sunny and just perfect. We went in the morning and then we went back in the afternoon. It's so nice to have a place to stay and a beach so close. Really perfect.

Day 74: Sunday, we went to church and took a walk to the pier. The boy jumped into another family picture and looked picture perfect and in ours, well...

That's as good as it got. 

Day 75 Monday: We headed to San Diego and toured the ships downtown. The kids loved it! Moonpie cried and cried when we left saying, "I want my pirate ship! Let me go back to my pirate ship!" I think he would've stayed all day. We ate at Anthony's, while we were there an older couple were watching us. He stopped us as we were leaving and told us it looked like we needed three more. :) They were nice and I am glad we could give them a show with their lunch. We also went to the tide pools and some of our group saw an octopus. Moonpie is terrified of anything slimy. He was fine until he fell and touched the moss at the pools and that was it for him. He was done with that racket. He basically sat on my lap and cried. 

Day 76 Tuesday: We went to the beach in the morning and shopping in the afternoon for all of the food stuffs required. We spent our day picking up shells and then walking them back to the water and throwing them in and then picking them up again. 

My barnacle. He likes the water as long as he has a hold of your hand.

Day 77 Wedneday Legoland!: I think the kids favorite part of Legoland might have been the aquarium. It was so much fun! We didn't get through the park very fast at all but the lines were short, which was good because Doodle barely made the required height and Moonpie did not. We had to ride each ride that Moonpie could ride three times, once with each child. We found that theme parks are not built for a family like ours. 5 people with three shorter than 48 in makes for a hard time. We did take the boy and Doodle on their first roller coasters. We got the boy on three times total two different coasters, but Doodle may be done for life. I hope not. I was kind of relieved Moonpie didn't make the height cut. One of the sweetest twin moments ever happened here at Legoland though. As a twin mom you hear about the "special bond" that twins have. I never felt like mine were more connected than any other sibling, but we rode on this big swinging pirate ship thing. It was a giant swing and it also spun around. It was one of the few rides we could all ride together. I had the twins on either side of me and Doodle said she was scared. I had my arm around her and told her I had her and that it would be OK. Moonpie reached across me, grabbed her little hand and said, "I got you Doodle, It's OK, I got you. Don't be scared." Melt my heart! Moonpie was also very upset to leave and declared loudly that he wanted to stay in Legoland FOREVER!

 We convinced her to touch a star fish. They are surprisingly rough. 

 Moonpie admired Emmett from afar.

 This one scared him to death.

 These jousting horses cracked me up. 

I love this picture because she was looking into the tank and that ray swam by and scared her out of her wits. It was so cute. 

Day 78 Thursday: We went to the beach in the morning, and then to some different tide pools in Carlsbad that afternoon. 

 To become one with the sand.

 New tide pool, same anxiety.

Pretty purple shells.

Day 79 Friday: Strawberry fields forever. Dad went fishing and saw whales and dolphins at the pier, he didn't catch anything but that was fun. We went to the strawberry fields and picked berries and got some chocolate to dip them in. We went to the beach and we got to go to dinner at a swanky place there on the shore. Hooray for a date night!

Day 80 Saturday: Last day at the beach. We spent the morning at the beach and our friends packed up to leave. We then drove out to Coronado so I could gawk at all of my dream homes (Can't pick just one!) and the lovely hotel. We had some delicious dessert nachos and then some gelato for good measure. The kids loved the bridge, more especially because it is blue and at the top they yelled "Good morning city!" to San Diego. Did you know it's 28 dollars to park at the Coronado hotel but a quarter for an hour down town? Now you do. With everyone gone we spread out in the house. We had chocolate covered strawberries and watched Dr. Who. Very relaxing end to a wonderful vacation. 

This picture may be my favorite of the whole trip.  <3

Day 81 Sunday: We got up, packed up, reviewed the checklist and sadly headed home. Moonpie burst into tears when he realized we were packing up his bed. That meant it was over. We wrote a song for the beach house. I find he does better with things when he has time to say goodbye. We cleaned everything up and headed out. It was such a wonderful vacation though. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and so did we. I want a beach house when I grow up. :)