Ocean Beach!

We love Ocean Beach San Diego.





We spent a lot of time on the beach, although it was a little colder than we are used to. When we got to SD we went to Belmont Park to ride the Giant Dipper roller coaster. Doug and I were going to each take a turn riding but the man taking tickets offered to have Zander stand with him while we rode, sweet!

Here's Zan helping rip the tickets, it was the only pic I could catch before the coaster took off. Zander loved the bumper cars, of course. And he rode the boats and the carousel.

While in SD we also visited the Legoland Aquarium. It was neat!

We mostly just lounged on the beach. Zander flew his kit - no work required! Just let out the string and the wind carried it. Zander, Doug and I also played a lot of Frisbee!


Zander was getting pretty good! Lots of playing in the waves and sand. We collected a lot of neat sea shells I'd like to put into some sort of art project eventually.


Doug's sister Dani and her family were visiting her inlaws in SD so we met up with them for dinner at Hodads! We love Hodads and they did too!







We enjoyed our vacation and can't wait to go back!



All pics can be seen here.

Fall Vacation

We went to the beach!
Doug and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain
Zander and my parents went to Universal Studios
And then we all went to Six Flags Magic Mountain together.
Then we went to Hollywood!

It was a blast! The highlights for Zander were the Waterwold Stunt Show and the Amazing Pets Show at Universal Studios. And he also loved riding THOMAS THE TRAIN, The Batman stunt show, meeting Batman, and the bumper cars at Magic Mountain.

I thoroughly enjoyed riding all the extreme rides at Magic Mountain. It's my favorite place to go!

Ocean Beach trip!

Beach boy:





Eating at Hodad's:



Sunset (Zander was sleepy after playing on the beach):




We stayed at the awesome Ocean Beach Hotel:




We got up really early to go to the beach the next day:

Zander and the Monster


I can't decide which picture I like the most. The first was overexposed and highly photoshopped, ;)


Checking out the tide pools - we could see fish and crabs!



Back to the beach:


The view from our room:



Out on the Ocean Beach Pier:


We loved Hodad's so much we went back the next day:




And this is hard to read, but it cracked me up!

STOP! HAMMER TIME!

We had the BEST time, we can't wait to go back to Ocean Beach!
View the entire set HERE!

Vacation photos!

in the "big wagon"

Knott's Berry Farm


Colby & Zander


That's me, Colby & Marty on the right. That ride was high! Doug took the picture ;-)

They have a really good restaurant and I like my b&w pics with the lighting.

Zander liked the bread and butter.

And milk in a cool Snoopy cup.

I'm being stealth here and getting pics of my mom, she hates getting her picture taken.

Disneyland

Watching the teacups. We got Zander one of those harness things because he loves to walk. He liked the backpack but was mad when I used the "leash" part. Can't blame him. I know those seem wrong but my kid bolts from me all the time. Thankfully it wasn't crowded so we let him walk, or he was carried. So the backpack lasted like 15 minutes.

Us on It's A Small World

Mickey, Jacey and Melissa

Muscle Boy in Toontown

Goofy!

Hugging Goofy

Us in Toontown

Zander & Jacey in "Mickey's House".

Us with Mickey!

My dad, Melissa, Jacey & Mick on the Jungle Cruise

Doug & Zan. Zander loved the baby elephent, rhinos, hippos, tigers and monkeys!

Mick got to 'drive' Indiana Jones

Doug & Zan on the Teacups

Zander posing with Nemo

Lindsey, Mike, Zander and Lisa watching fireworks. They had the best fireworks show I've ever seen, I'm not usually that impressed by fireworks. These were amazing!

It snowed on Main Street!

A happy boy after a day of fun!

day 2

Getting ready!

Me & Zan with Pluto! Zander calls him "Plu-dog!"

I don't know this guys name but I'm guessing he's a relative of Goofy

Us with Santa, I like this one. I have to buy it from the Disney photopass site.

Doug & Zan. Oh, it was REALLY COLD & WINDY on Wednesday.

My family minus Mike & Lindsey, I don't know where they were then.

Love this one! That's Sully, right? He had the longest arms!

Mickey & my Dad

us

Marty & Zan playing telephone.

Mickey

OMG my mom agreed to take a picture! Only if she stood behind my dad, she's crazy. :-)

Marty & Doug demonstating their "Hot Set"

Zander was teething really bad so he chewed on Donald Duck's beak.

Tow Mater! So excited to see him!

Lighting McQueen. These pics are kinda cropped weird because I was trying not to get the kids that wouldn't stop mobbing the cars in the pic, lol.

Mickey & Zander

Mickey & Me

Jacey thought Zan had a good thing going, so she chewed on her Minnie

Mike holding Zander, Marty

Our family & Lindsey's family minus her brother Kyle.

Me & Doug

Marty, Colby & Doug

Aha! A rare photo of my mother talking and laughing! With Marty

Lindsey & Mike


It's A Small World

I'm sure I'll get more pics from everyone elses cameras too. It was a good time. It was my entire family and my brother's wife Lindsey's family.

*Zander rode It's a Small World, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion(2x), Pirates of the Carribean, Peter Pan, Snow White, Pinnochio, Mr. Toads, Buzz Lightyear, and the Monster's Inc. ride. He did really well.
*We stayed at the park from open to close each day, 10 am to 8 pm. I took Zander to the nursing room and nursed him to sleep each day for naptime and then put him in the stroller. He napped only an hour the first day but he napped 2.5 hours on the second day!
*Going in the off season is awesome. We loved the Christmas decor. Zander loved the parade, which was also Christmas-y.
*There were no fireworks the second night because of the wind.
*I didn't ride any water rides because it was freezing but Doug and my sib's rode Splash and the Rapids ride. They were all soked afterwards, no thanks.
*The coaster at California Adventure is pretty cool but I don't think I'll ride the Farris Wheel again (the carts slide, it's freaky). Soaring Over California was really neat. Loved the Tower of Terror (we've done the one at Disneyworld, which is actually better, before).
*For some reason Wednedsay at Disneyland was way busier then Tuesday. But still, no way as busy as peak-season. A captain I work with went on Thanksgiving day and he said it was so packed. I'm glad we went when it wasn't packed, especially with the little ones.

The roller coasters at Knott's were pretty cool, we loved Ghostrider! And I loved the Xcellerator! Knott's was dead, we were only there for less than 3 hours and we did everything we want. It was free for me and Doug and my parents and Marty & Colby only paid $11 ea to get in. So it was worth it for just a few hours. I'd probably only go back if it was during Public Safety days and FREE. Some of their coasters were really cool though!

We had a very fun time - thanks Mom & Dad!!