California - ROAD TRIP

Well we did it. We drove to California again. I feel pretty lucky to have such great little travelers. I think of it as quality time, all of us combined in a car for two whole days with nothing but ourselves to keep us entertained. It's amazing how putting random things in easter eggs, or just one small cracker in one, over and over again can keeps kids extremely fascinated. We also catch up on needed sleep, learn new words, eat good snacks, and see fun places along the way.  One random place we came upon was a petting zoo... out in the middle of no where! Jack actually spotted the place. "Look! That sign says ZOO!" It was neat to see that Jack was reading words on signs now :)

It was a small petting zoo. No one was there actually. But it had a random chicken that would follow you everywhere, a zebra, a yak, an emu, an ostrich, and much more. We kinda chuckled and said it was even better than the Hogle Zoo because we got to go right up to the animals. 

Random chicken.. couldn't get the picture to orient right :P

I was nervous at first taking such a long trip with a 2 year old that just got potty trained a few months ago, but he did fantastic! No accidents or anything. What a trooper. And Tyler did great too (which the boys have now nicknamed him 'Tookie', -don't ask me why. haha ). He didn't like seeing us come to the back though, because as soon as he'd see us he wanted right out of the car seat! 

Once we were in California we got to go feed the seals, which has become something we can't pass up. It's so much fun! There are three seals and their personalities really shine through. It's a little place you wouldn't know about unless you knew it was there. And you can buy some fish to feed them for 50 cents a bag. We were all laughing and having such a great time. 

We also got to go to the beach, which was beautiful on the over-casty day. It looked as though you were walking on the clouds! Blake would get so nervous when the waves rolled in close to him, and Jack had a ball picking up sea shells and finding a sand dollar! Once we went out on the pier it was hard not to laugh.. Blake kept giggling to himself yelling down at the water, "You not going to get me NOW!"

It was pretty fun to watch all the surfers swim out, or jump off the pier waiting to catch the biggest waves. And Trent had fun taking cool pictures with our camera. He sure has an eye for photography! And cute little (BIG) Tye would get heavy as can be (all 24lbs of him) so the cute little guy got passed around and around! What a fun day.

Unfortunately our plans to go zip lining got cancelled due to a lot of rain, but we had fun playing at the local kids museum, going to see Santa, and just hanging out with my cute parents.

On the drive home we stayed overnight in Las Vegas at Circus Circus. That was a ton of fun. We played games, watched cool performers including a foot juggler and a net aerialist, we got smoothies, and the boys even both won stuffed animals from popping balloons with darts.

We were all definitely tired when we got home, but we all had a great time. Only downfall was that poor Tye was teething the whole time. That little poos has gotten 6 teeth in 1 1/2 months! Wow, what an overachiever! :)

Now on to our next adventure...