Thanksgiving California Trip

Thanks again to my awesome sister Tracy, we were able to get away for Thanksgiving break to sunny California. My kids have been wanting to see Legoland for a long time now and so Aunt Tracy made it happen. We left Tuesday afternoon and drove to Vegas where we spent the night at my very good friend Julie's house. She was so kind to let us all crash there. The next day we drove the rest of the way to San Diego. We had a week long pass to Sea World, so we started out there.
The most important thing to see is the Shamoo show and we actually saw it twice. The older boys sat close to the front and got splashed on by the whales during the show. Luckily, I had thought ahead and made sure they all had ponchos with them. We also saw the Sea Lion and Dolphin shows. All of them were amazing and the boys loved them!

Sea World only has a few rides, the most thrilling being Atlantis. It gets you soaking wet, so again, I was glad I had the ponchos with us. The boys rode this several times.

When you get off that ride there is a huge tank full of sting rays. Very cool!

The penguins.

Sea turtles.

And lots of fish!
We had our Thanksgiving meal here at Sea World. It just wasn't the same as being home with all the family eating turkey and such.

The next day it was off to LEGOLAND! The weather was perfect, but since it was the day after Thanksgiving, it was pretty crowded.

This was one of the first things we saw, Lego Mount Rushmore. I had to take a photo since this is kind of a special place for our family.

The rides at Legoland are okay. Not too thrilling and certainly not as creative as Disneyland. But the cool thing at Legoland are all the things they have built out of Legos. This Christmas tree was huge!

We also met some very amazing characters build out of Legos. They have a whole area dedicated to Star Wars where everything was built out of Legos. It was amazing to look at and probably my favorite part of the whole park. Here we met Darth Vader.

Chewey and R2D2

Later we met Harry Potter and Hagrid.

And even Indiana Jones.

The next day we went to Sea World again to see everything we missed the first day. Then it was time for the long drive back home. It was a pretty quick trip with lots of driving, but I know it is a trip my kids will remember forever.

Halloween Party

My sister is awesome! She decided to throw a family Halloween party this year and make everyone in the family come dressed up. Her house was decorated so cute and she had plenty of activities and fun food for the kids. We had a ghost, a fireman, a cheerleader, Superman, Harry Potter, and a lame Dad who wouldn't dress up.
My mom's was the best! The green face paint totally threw Miles for a loop and he wouldn't even come near her for the first hour of the party. Eventually he warmed up to her though. My kids loved hanging out with all their cousins.

Steve and Brenda won the best costume contest. Totally hick, white trash people. They even had a bumpkin dog. Hilarious!
The two super heroes. (Isn't Tracy looking great!)
I also was pretty lazy when it came to finding a costume and so I dug out my old Taylorsville cheerleading uniforms. Sixteen years and four kids later, they still fit!!! I was so excited.
Our activities included Bingo, eating Halloween themed food, carving pumpkins and a balloon popping game. We also threw in a little Wii "Just Dance."

Great Party! Maybe we should make it a annual tradition?

Pumpkin Picking

A pumpkin patch appeared this year on the route we take to get to Grandma Miller's house. We decided to stop by a few days before Halloween to let everyone pick out their own pumpkin.

The results of the pumpkin carving will be seen later.