California Vacation Part 1, The Beach

 Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Temps at the beach 100! at Disneyland 104! Holy Heatwave.

We went on a fun little family vacation in October to California, specifically Disneyland, but we wanted a beach day somewhere in the week. As it turns out California decided to have an unseasonable warm week the week we visited. It got up to 104 degrees on Wednesday! I guess it's a good thing I only packed 2 pairs of long pants for each person, we really didn't need those. Or the 2 jackets per person. But I did bring sunscreen, lots of sunscreen.

Anyway, Wednesday turned out to be a perfect beach day. At the suggestion of Grandma and Grandpa Van Horn {who are still sulking because it wasn't their turn to be the Grandparent chaperones ;)}we went to Huntington Beach and it was A.MAZ.ING!

It was Grandpa Phil and Grandma Tina's turn to chaperone this family's vacation - lucky.

Perfect sand with lots of sea shells for the girls to discover. We got there pretty early in the day so it was still pretty chilly, hence the jackets, but we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. The girls loved watching the surfers out on the waves, that was fun.

Drama and Pooh Bear started building a sandcastle with dad but spent most of the time playing in the ocean.

The Boss loved playing in the giant sandbox and eventually had fun playing in the waves.

She was moving sand from one end of the beach to the other - with a plastic spoon.

Bea was the most hesitant about the "big water." She was fascinated by the ocean and the waves and loved marching in the wet sand but wanted me to pick her up if a big wave came close. After a little while she braved all but the biggest waves while clinging to my hand and laughing. When we left she turned and waved good bye to the "big water" several times.

It was a fantastic day! Perfect beach. Perfect weather. Perfect Sand. And playing in the ocean!

The sand didn't taste perfect though, but she had to try.

A Bahamian Cruise

September 27 to  October 1, 2010

Or what I like to call the vacation where we battle Tropical Storm Nicole. It may have been "short lived" and "no big deal for Florida", but when this is your first "adults only" vacation in years (Thank you Grandma Tina for watching the crew while Mark and I were gone) well, you take it kinda personally.

Mark planned a cruise to the Bahamas for our 14th anniversary. (I know - he's a keeper.) We were both excited to get away for a couple of days and didn't let a little thing like a tropical storm get in the way of a relaxing, much needed, vacation.

Our first stop was in Key West, Florida, on Tuesday. The storm hadn't gotten that far yet so it was a beautiful day. We rented scooters and motored around the island and accomplished a little shopping. We hit the beach and in retrospect we probably should have spent more time there because it was the only beach time we saw.

Next we sailed to Nassau, Bahama where we enjoyed a little souvenir shopping while trying to avoid the sudden downpours. We had scheduled a snorkeling excursion but it was canceled.

We were supposed to hit one other island but due to the weather our ship stayed in Nassau an extra day. We re-scheduled our snorkeling excursion and were determined to do something other than nap and eat all day (the cookies were

A - maz - ing).

This photo was taken on the way to our doom snorkeling adventure.

In our zeal to "do something" on our vacation we failed to realize just how completely horrible, nauseating. . . Well it just was not a good idea to try snorkeling in 3 foot waves. The water was too murky to see anything and the waves would crash over your head and inundate your snorkel thingy with salt water. Yuck.

Despite our losing battle with a tropical storm, we actually had a really great vacation. Because we were stuck on the ship a lot, we could take a morning nap AND an afternoon nap. It was fabulous.

Mark has promised that the next vacation will be beachy, sunny, and the snorkeling will be non-terrifying.

Sign me up!

Taking the Stay Close to Home Vacation Up a Notch

March 12&13, 2010
When we decided to stay close to home this year for our vacation I still wanted it to be a really fun vacation for the girls. So I kicked into manic mode and I made up special staycation packets for everyone. In their packets were: 1. Stacation dollars (Redeemable, through mom and dad, at any souvenir shop.) They may look a little familiar if you have ever used Disney Dollars ;), so thanks to Disney for the great idea! 2. Tickets to ride on the "Van Horn Van Lines" (do all kids love tickets as much as mine do?) 3. Lanyards with special "pins" for trading.

4. A Travel Journal to document all the fun things they did on vacation

5. An itinerary, activity pages and gum

It's hard to tell what is my favorite thing, the tickets were pretty cool. I had fun making my own money ;) but I think the "pins" were a stroke of brilliance.

I didn't want to have real pins because the Boss and anything sharp is not a good combo. So, I found some Curious George stamps at the dollar spot in Target. Cut off the rubber stamp with a bread knife and hot glued the foam to a plastic barrette.The pins clipped onto the lanyards and the girls could trade with each other or earn new ones from me if they were especially good or helpful.

Drama and Pooh Bear loved everything. They made sure the tickets got collected, checked everything off their itineraries as we did things, loved the “pins” and had fun spending their money. Pooh Bear even wore her lanyard to school the next week! I think they had just as much fun as they would have going far away.

Staycation, Part III

Saturday, March 13, 2010
(sorry i've been mia, i've been reading fablehaven and doing other things of lesser importance, such as taking care of sick kids)


Saturday, we headed to the Discovery Children's Museum. If you have never been there, it is totally worth the trip. The girls could have played there for hours.

The Boss didn't really want to ride the pretend horse (see the zoo post for her aversion to animals live or fake).

(Drama and Pooh Bear acting in a play they wrote and produced).

We left for lunch and The Boss was so tired she fell asleep, slept through lunch, but woke up just before we left the restaurant and was not a happy camper. Nuclear, is the word that comes to mind.

When we got home Saturday evening, I, for one, was exhausted. I don't think I have ever been that tired after a vacation. It might have had something to do with The Boss not sleeping very well in a strange room/bed and might (probably not) have something to do with the amount of caffeine consumed at the Gymnastic meet (nah.)

Staycation, Part 2

When we last saw the Van Horn Family they were at the Zoo. . .
 
After the zoo we checked into the Little America, raced to our room and changed into swimsuits. The Boss needed a nap so I volunteered to stay with her in the room and I didn't send my camera with Mark, so there are no pictures. But I assure you that the girls had a blast.

We cleaned up and went to dinner in the Little America restaurant. Then we hopped on TRAX and headed up to the University of Utah. There was a gymnastics meet between the U, Southern Utah University, Pennsylvania, and Oregon.

We got there a little early for the face painting and balloon animals. (Don't let anyone know that Pooh Bear wanted a "Y" painted on her face and was truly upset when we told her it was not a good idea. Shhh.)

It was fun for Drama and Pooh Bear to see the gymnasts doing the things that they have practiced (well a higher version of what the girls learn) and the U won the meet, so that was extra exciting. The Boss had a great time eating popcorn, drinking caffeinated beverages, cheering with the crowd and running up and down our row.

Staycation 2010, Part 1

This year we are not going on a big lavish vacation, so we decided that we should take a fun "stay"cation in Salt Lake City. We had a lot of fun acting like tourists; we were from out of town after all. (There are way too many pictures for just one blog post so I am going to break it into several posts to spare your computer's video card from having a heart attack.)

Friday: (Drama and Pooh Bear missed school for this vacation) 

First stop was Grandma and Grandpa Van Horn's House. Aria was having her own personalized vacation with doting grandparents. Apparently she went to the Home and Garden show with them and helped pick out new carpet? She has her own set of standards, drool absorbancy being top on the list.

By now it was lunch time so we headed to Hires, yum.

Next we headed to the Hogle Zoo. I have great memories of the Hogle Zoo, sadly they have quit giving rides on the elephants (can you say lawsuit?). That sad fact aside, we loved watching the baby elephant and her mommy, the giraffes, gorillas, monkeys, etc, etc, etc. Ask Drama to show you her pictures, but only if you have an hour.

The Boss didn't like being so close to the animals real, fake, statue. No. Thank. You.

This is as close as she would get to the rino statue.

If you go to Hogle Zoo you have to get this picutre.