CALI LOVE

At the end of July, we spent a week in California - easily one of my favorite places to visit with the littles. This year, the mr.'s youngest sister tagged along with us as an extra pair of helping hands. Since it was her first time to the beloved state, it was that much more exciting for her to experience Cali in all its beauty. Add to that the fact that we got to hang out with my parents for the most of our vacation and you have some great memories. Here is a breakdown of our trip:

MONDAY: DAY ONE

made the drive to just SE of LA in 6 hrs - kids were great

unloaded everything into our friend's RV - a 2 night pitstop

ate lunch before changing into beach attire

drove out to Newport to visit Balboa Island

hit up Balboa Candy for infamous salt water taffy

rode the ferris wheel at Balboa Fun Zone - the littles' first time

had dinner back at the RV before an early bedtime

TUESDAY: DAY TWO quick breakfast before driving out to Long Beach purchased a membership at Aquarium of the Pacific - worth the $$ for our big family touched jellies and sharks, watched otters and sea lions play enjoyed a picnic lunch next to the lighthouse at Long Beach Harbor walked around the harbor - such awesome boats and buildings took the Pacific Coast Highway back to our friends' house played at a nearby park before going to In'N'Out for dinner
WEDNESDAY: DAY THREE left our friends in Whittier and met up with my parents at a condo in Anaheim scarfed down a quick lunch before driving to Little Corona Del Mar hiked down a cliff to a little beach - hidden, but quite popular played in the water for a while before checking out nearby tide pools found hermit crabs, urchins, anemones, and a striped shore crab enjoyed a delicious dinner at the condo before the kids' bed time trip to Downtown Disney by the mr.'s sister and myself for ice cream
THURSDAY: DAY FOUR ate a scrumptious breakfast before going to Bolsa Chica met up with one of my mom's friends for a day at the beach kids learned to boogie board while mom created sand sculpture had a picnic lunch with the most beautiful view of the ocean realized all too late that the adults forgot sunscreen - BIG mistake returned to the condo in the afternoon and cried like babies because of our burns dinner before a relatively early bed time

FRIDAY: DAY FIVE

devoured breakfast while trying to come up with plan B to save our sunburnt skin

ditched another beach day in favor of Discovery Cube - a science museum for kids

played at the museum for a couple hours with lunch in-between

headed back to the condo to kill a few hours before dinner

boys swam at the pool with Mimi & mr.'s sister while I started packing

drove out to Fullerton for dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory with family friends

went to bed early as moral was starting to dwindle...

SATURDAY: DAY SIX

parted with my parents after breakfast and clean up

 drove to Long Beach for second aquarium trip

blocked from parking garage because of Special Olympics

decided on last minute trip to Manhattan Beach

walked the pier and visited the free aquarium

waved goodbye to the ocean - always heartbreaking for me

ate lunch at In'N'Out before making the 6 hr drive home

grabbed pizza from Barro's before collapsing from exhaustion

Another great California vacay in the books!