The Flying Grizwolds? We don't get out much...

Our Perfect Vacation House: We arrived in Los Angeles and drove to Carlsbad, where we had the best vacation rental home we could have hoped for, for our crew. It was a 3 bedroom home with a pool, and the pool even had a locking, motorized cover that also provided solar heat. We are always nervous about renting a place with a pool, since we still have one child who doesn’t swim well. This house was nice, great kitchen, enough sleeping, and as a bonus, we scored a closet full of toys that were perfect for our kids ages. There were even a few kid and adult bikes in the garage, sand toys, beach chairs, etc. We were 5 minutes from Legoland, 5 minute walk to the beach, 45 minutes to San Diego Zoo and an hour from Disneyland. Our Camp Counselor (John) had deemed this “not a Disney trip”, as he agreed that we needed to focus on the younger 2 kids this trip, and we were expecting Disneyland to be a bit daunting for us. We would do a day at Disney, but would not attempt to cover everything. Save that for another trip. We wanted to see legos and animals and beaches… and maybe a little Disney.

The Beach: The weather was perfect – a little chilly for swimming at the beach, but perfect for building sand castles and getting our toes in the ocean. The boys loved playing football on the beach too! We missed our sweet water loving dog here though. We built some cool sandcastles, which Ben took joy in wrecking, thus creating frustration among the other kids, such that one child broke off to try to distract Ben by building him special castles that he was allowed to wreck! He wasn’t born yesterday though, so eventually, he got to our big stuff… it’s all good though. At the end of the day, that great tide would have gotten it anyway, and Ben has all of us wrapped around his tiny finger, so not too much fuss about it.
The San Diego Zoo: Mommy was bummed that the Polar Bear Exhibit is under construction until later in March, but the other animals and the facility were amazing. Unfortunately, the luster of the Panda exhibit was lost with our impatient four, as the line was long, and it was lunch time, and they were cranky. They just didn’t get how special these animals are. Parents enjoyed them though, and then we deemed it was time to give the munchkins a break to feed their little cranky bodies. Ben said his favorite animal was the Gorilla. Maggie’s was the Zebra (because it is most like a horse – go figure). Anthony liked the monkeys, and Alexander loved the giraffes. A good time was had by all.
We attempted a scenic drive at the end of our zoo day to wait out some rush hour traffic, but whining from the back seat as we crossed the Coronado bridge caused Daddy to do an about face and head for the beach house. The troops were a little in trouble, and they knew it, so everyone fell asleep on the drive.
Disneyland: We were actually pleasantly surprised at how manageable Disneyland was with 4 kids. We never attempted to do everything but we were able to make it through the highlights and hit everyone’s favorites at least one more time. The highlight of Disneyland for the younger 2 kids was definitely the Jedi Training show, where all 4 kids were selected from the audience to come on stage for the show (with a little creative marketing, we finally figured out how to get picked on our 3rd try – arrive early, which is not in our nature, and make signs to be noticed). The look on their faces when Darth Vader entered the stage was priceless, and they are practicing the new light saber moves from home often (might be dangerous?)
The favorite of the older kids was Space Mountain. It was very cool, and mommy liked it because, for a roller coaster, it wasn’t to crazy – it was dark, but no loop-di-loops, and no too big drops. Indianna Jones was another favorite of these 2, but the line was a little long, even with the fast pass, and it was a rough ride. I want to kiss the person who invented that Fast Pass system – really makes the best of your time. We are not big fans of waiting in line – I guess the kids get their patience from us. It was a good full day. We could have spent a week there, but we left feeling a little taste of Disney, enough to make us want to come back, but not too much to cause crankiness to set in. Everyone had a good time, and we all left the park in great spirits. What more could we ask for?
After Disney, we went straight to the airport, where we caught a late flight home. Everyone was duly exhausted and slept the entire flight, and all was right with the world. We clicked our heels three times and said “there is no place like home”… and we were here… with our puppy… and our cat that hides from us most of the time… and our beds… and neato toys… and laundry and all that other stuff. It was nice to be home.
Our trip was a nice escape that we will remember always, and as usual, we crammed about as much as one can into 7 days.
Happy Monday now… it is back to the real world. Baseball game tonight, and on and on!