Ventura Trip - Part 2

After our day at Disneyland we were all exhausted! The kids slept until 9:30am the next day! We had made lots of plans to go out sight seeing and having more fun, but poor little Miss Bree came down with the stomach flu. I guess her timing was perfect because we were able to go to Disneyland and get that out of the way. :) So, while I took care of Bree, Justin took the boys swimming and went on walks around the harbor. 

By the end of the second "sickie" day Bree was finally ready to come out of the house. We took a walk to where the boys were at the beach. There's a great play area off the beach that has a pirate ship with a zip line for the kids. The boys loved it! 

Picking flowers on our walk to the beach.

Gunner had riding the zip line down! He was so excited to show me how to do it and for once in his life, he really wanted me to take his picture riding the zip! Go Gunner!

Here comes Caleb!

Swinging at the park. Caleb still digs the baby swings. :)

25 toes in the sand. Love sand between my toes!

The next day we headed to Santa Barbara zoo. It's a small zoo but we were able to see the animals really close-up. Plus the weather was perfect! 

Love this picture of Justin and Bree. Don't love that the huge vulture in the background was sizing up my daughter!

To prove I was there. :)

Always love the flamingos!

GQ boys. 

Back ends:

This lion was too good for us! He wouldn't turn around!

See any resemblance? 

For the last part of our day we went back to Ventura and ate some yummy pizza then rented a bike that fit our entire family. We rode around the beach and watched the people. (One of our favorite things to do!)

Too bad we didn't get helmets that actually fit our kids. Oh well

Bree & Gunner giving kisses!

On our bike ride we passed these two guys. The guy in front had a boom box and was impersonating Elvis Presley. I dont know if the guy in back was supposed to be with "Elvis" or not but we thought it was hilarious. Anything to make a quick buck I guess!

That's the end for now. Next up is the strawberry farms. My favorite part of the trip! Til then, peace out! 

Disneyland!

On Monday we headed to L.A to experience Disneyland with the kids. It was lots of fun but pure insanity at times. The crowds were insane and it was H-O-T! The kids didn't seem to mind it too much and still had a blast! 

One of our first rides of the day. Dumbo! Caleb loved this!

My handsome boys!

I love the colors of the tea cups outside Alice & Wonderland. So bright and happy. 

Pure joy on this boy's face!

Bree is telling me where to go...I think she's pointing to Fantasyland where all the Princesses live. 

On the way there we met this guy. Love Caleb's face!

This stage is so cute for all the kids to go dance on the floor. They teach the kids a dance and how to curtsey like a lady and bow like a gentleman. So cute! Bree loved it when the princesses came out. 

Bree's learning the dance moves:

Ah, she caught me taking her picture!

Apparently Bree & her baby were performing for everyone in the crowd. Love how she's out there dancing her heart out in front of everyone!

Our next stop was Small World. The look on Bree's face is priceless. We'd been on a couple of rides that were dark and had crazy black lights with florescent colors along with really loud music. Those seemed to scare Bree. Poor girl! So she was unsure about going under another tunnel with loud music! Fortunately Small World was pretty safe! 

Gunner & Caleb's favorite ride of the day! Buzz Lightyear!

Waiting for the fireworks to start! Oh the excitement!

Bree was fading fast. She barely made it through the fireworks!

Caleb's unsure of these loud bombs! 

As soon as I put Bree in her stroller and started walking, she was a goner. All 3 kids were asleep within minutes of getting in the car. We loved our day at Disneyland! 

The end!

Ventura Trip - Part 1

For one of our summer vacations we were able to get away to beautiful Ventura, CA. It was great to get out of the 110 degree heat for a week! We were able to do lots of fun things. We went to the Ventura Harbor, Regan Presidential Library, Disneyland, the beach & (my personal favorite) the Strawberry farms. 

I took way too many pictures so I made some collages to show some of the fun things we did. Here's Ventura harbor:

As we kept walking along the harbor, it ended at the Channel Islands National Park where there were several replicas of sea life creatures and even an aquarium with fish & other marine life. There was a little cave for the kids to crawl. My kids had fun finding different fish. They even had a baby shark in there. Yikes!

Next we went on to the Ronald Regan Presidential Library. Let's be honest, I'm very proud of my country and I'm so grateful to be an American but I wasn't super excited to go here. Justin looked like a kid in a candy store. He was totally excited! My attitude completely changed when we stepped inside. There was a tour of Air Force One, an Oval Office tour & a White House doll house replica of the entire White House. There were several pieces of memorbilia from President Regan in the oval office which was really neat to see.

They wouldn't let me take pictures of the inside of AirForce One (legal reasons, blah blah blah) but it was really cool to set foot inside there. One cool bit of info on President Regan was that he always had chocolate cake on board AirForce One incase it was anyone's birthday. I thought that was pretty cute.

These next few pictures are my favorites. There was a doll house replica of the White House and a replica of every room in the White House during the time of Regan's presidential service. Gunner's face cracks me up. I guess we'd been here too long and he was getting bored. :)

The oval office. The chairs and couches are the size of your thumb. You can see the Christmas lights at the bottom of the room to put it in perspective. Pretty cool!

I dont remember what room this was but I loved the chandelier! This is the ultimate doll house! 

The dining hall:

I think this was the Blue Room:

The Diplomatic Reception Room:

Last picture of the day. This is a piece of the Berlin Wall. Pretty neat piece of history. I have to admit, this was the coolest library I've ever been! 

More to come later...