The Claim Jumper

 After the beach, we headed over to a restaurant.  The food was yummy, but Luke had a minor explosion as we were leaving, so I was in the lobby for a while waiting.  They had this funny game there, and I had a pocket of quarters, so we had some fun.

 Emma is Caliente.  She is probably more than that, but that is as high as their very legitimate machine can register.

 Mr. Jack is Passionate.

 I am an unimpressive Clammy. 

 Ross was a few levels up from me at Mild.

Sara is hot stuff!

Carlsbad Beach

 We spent a whole day at the beach.  It was almost enough for me.  I love the beach!

 Our last camera died after we got sand on it at the beach in Northern California, so we decided to keep the camera in the car and just use the camera on our phone.   I kind of wish I hadn't.  Oh well.

 Luke getting his first touch of the ocean.

 There was a big group of old surfer guys there holding free lessons for high school kids who wanted to learn.  There was a news camera there and everything.  It was fun to watch them all.

 Our friends let us borrow this boogie board, and it was crazy fun!  I forgot to take off my sunglasses before trying it out, though, so I hope a crab somewhere is putting them to good use.

Jack got sand all over him.  ALL over.  He didn't seem to mind though.  I tried to keep his sandyness away from me by telling him he could keep a seagull if he caught one.  That was entertaining to say the least!

 Ross rocked that boogie board.  We actually learned a lot from listening to the surfing lessons going on.

I tried to get the kids to ride the boogie board as well.  Emma did it pretty well a couple of times, but they really just wanted to play in the sand in the shallow wave area.

 Miss Sara!

 OK, so for this trip I brought a GIANT tub of spf 50 sunscreen because Ross and I are as white as they come.  It worked great for both days at Lego Land and nobody had more than a little sun kissed look despite our long hours in the sun.  While packing up to leave for the beach, Ross could NOT find our sunscreen anywhere.  He swears he looked all over.  We headed to the car to see if it was in there, but to no avail.  I knew it was in the hotel room somewhere.  Ross went back up to find it while I loaded everyone up in the car.  He couldn't find it and thought it had been left at Lego Land somewhere, so he bought some crazy spray sunscreen from the lobby for a gazillion dollars.  It worked really well, as you can see...

When we got back from the beach, I picked up a towel on the floor, and there was our handy dandy white person friendly spf 50.  I KNEW I should have been the one to go look for it.  Ross wanted to cry.  Then maybe he did a little.  He was scorched, poor guy.  I kept the kids sprayed pretty well, and they didn't do the boogie board as much so they stayed protected pretty well.  My shoulders got pretty crispy, but my swim suit covers my entire back, so I was good.  Ross, however, did not fare as well.  In fact, we could have lowered those shorts a couple of inches to show the full extend of the burn if this wasn't a family friendly blog.  :)

The Sea Life Aquarium

 We spent the last part of our last day at Lego Land exploring the new Aquarium.  It was lots of fun, and air conditioned, so that was pretty much perfect.

 Emma thought these Lego crabs with sunscreen were pretty hilarious.

 Yes, but you can't win the lottery unless you buy a ticket, and you can't get eaten by a shark unless you enter their terrain.  Worst. Fact. EVER.  Sharks are terrifying.  That is all.

 Such a good baby.  I am so grateful for him.

 At the end of the tour was a fun Lego reef that kids could add to.

 There was a Mr. Potato Head and all his parts in with this octopus, and Emma thought that was hilarious.

 Giant Crab.  Sara was scared.  I was mostly hungry.

 We had to DRAG her away from this even though she clearly had a good reason to move on.  Silly girl.

Luke's Lego Land Experience

 This baby is so sweet and patient. He spent almost the entire trip in this car seat, and he was the most smiley and agreeable little soul.

 I just love this little guy. 

 We spent a lot of time like this-- waiting for Daddy and the big kids to go on rides while we hung out in the shade, him kicking his blanket off, and me reading on my Kindle.  It was wonderful.

Nothing about that statement was whiney or sarcastic.  I really loved the chance to just relax with my little guy and Rilla Blythe. (I finished up the Anne of Green Gables series while there.  I read through that once every few years because if I don't I feel like I am ignoring some good friends, and nobody likes that feeling.)