California!!!

Our family needed a vacation really bad.  It has been a long year; 2 moves, a new job, a new baby, a hospitalization, therapy, midnights and busyness.  The kids, especially Callie, have been asking to go to an ocean since last year.  We knew we wanted to go to California but we did not know how we were going to afford it.  Well the Lord hooked us up.  Right about the time I had researched hotels and given up on the idea of a vacation in Cali, a great friend of the family texted Dave and asked if we wanted to stay in their house in Torrance, CA while they were on vacation.  YES Please!!!  A free place to stay just two miles from the ocean!!  We had a blast.  The kids loved the ocean.  We did tons of fun activities and ate at some fun places for dinner.  One of the biggest bonuses we had were the dog and the turtle that came with the house we were staying at.  If we would have never left the house our kids would have loved the vacation, just for that.  Besides going to the beach (which was the favorite activity), we went to Griffith Park and road on ponies, a very old merry-go-round, and took a fun train ride.  We flew kites, went to a splash pad, ate at a fancy resort, went out for ice-cream, and played with toys and animals at the house we were staying at.  It was perfect.  Here are some fun memories from our trip;

This is Callie, soaking wet from getting knocked over by a wave when we were just talking a "walk" on the beach.

Us getting eaten by a shark.  This was at the end of a pier where the kids got to  touch some fun sea life in an aquarium.

Eating dinner at The Kettle. 

Dada and Kylah cheesing it up!

Shopping with dad at Walgreens.  She wishes she could eat Cocoa Puffs for  breakfast.

Eating at the fun Resort that looked over the ocean on a huge cliff.  We got to see a pod of dolphins swim by while we were eating.  That was a huge highlight.

Kylah and Mama

I love these kids.  We were waiting for the valet to bring our car to us.  

Daisy the dog and Franklin the turtle.  Callie and Kessler's best friends for the week.

Kylah's favorite activity at the beach was eating the sand.  She couldn't get enough of it.

The giant hole we dug.

Kessler the shark (if you look real close you can see his shark body made out of sand).

Callie the mermaid.

Mama and her precious mermaid.

Riding Ponies at Griffith Park.  They literally buckled the kids onto the horse, hit the horse in the bottom and then the horse took off around the stable.  The kids loved it!!!!

My little stud riding the pony.

Even Kylah got to ride a horse.  Hers was attached to a wheel thing and dad got to hold her.

Our train ride through the park.  Also a lot of fun for the kids!

The super fast, super old merry-go-round.  Another big hit at Griffith Park.  The best part about this place was that we walked away having only spent $15 for all of those rides.  I highly recommend Griffith Park if you are ever in the L.A. area with children.

Fun in the wagon at our house

We drove home in the middle of the night.  The kids were so cute sacked out in the car.
What a fun trip it was!!