Happy New Years and Jansen's Birthday!

Last Full Day

On our second last day ( the next day was a travel day ), we savoured the beach again.

It was a bit colder and Mads was getting a cough. He was shivering on the beach.

We spent the rest of the day bundled up and at playgrounds where Bobs made friends with some local kids. He enjoys playing with different kids at each play place we go to.

After dinner at Fat Burger, (the one in Calgary is actually much better) we caught the sunset on Pacific Beach.

We snapped as many photos as we could in the short time we had before the sun disappeared.

And there the sun set on our vacation. It was a good trip. A lot of work with little kids as you can imagine. We might spend the next few years closer to home for vacations. We hope to return to California and head to Disneyland when the boys are a bit older.

Legoland - Boxing Day

I think we went to every train in San Diego area. On Boxing day (which they don't really have in the US), we went to an outlet mall in Carlsbad, 30 minutes north of San Diego at 7:00am. It is right near Legoland and it opened early. Perfect for our kids who wake at 5:30am. Legoland opened at 9:00am. Bobs rode on the train at the mall while I shopped.

They let us into the gates of Legoland at 9:00 after charging us $200 for tickets and $12 for parking. Mads was free as he is under 2. We had to wait in the entrance area as the full park wasn't open until 10:00.

Duplo Playland opened up and Mads was in heaven. The kids loved Legoland more than I could have imagined.

The park is huge and there was so much to explore.

Many of the rides were suitable for both kids. Bobs wasn't that interested in going on all the rides, but Mads went on a few with me.

Getting there early enabled us to get on many rides without much of a queue.

They had play blocks all over the park in different areas. Some of the rides didn't really go with the legoland theme, but most did.

Mads and Bobs loved loved loved this water splash area. There are instruments that spray water and play lovely tunes if you step on the circle in front of each instrument. We had to return to this location many times.

Bobs got his legoland driver's licence while he was there. Just barely.

Daddy and Bobs were naughty to mommy when they were in the Pirate ships. They sprayed water at me while I tried to take a photo.

Bobs has no clue about Star Wars, but there were a bunch of lego scenes from all the different movies. We did get him some pyjamas at Target that were lego/starwars.

There was a marching band that moved around in front of the white house.

We had lunch at a "sports bar" and Bobs ordered apple sauce, that never actually arrived to our table.

The boys enjoy goofing off together.

We took a little cruise around lego land's mini villes.

And of course we had to return to the musical water instruments a few more times.

We did not try all the rides. We had to plan our exit strategy well because the boys did not want to leave.

Finishing off the day with ice cream ensured a smooth transition home. They had such a fantastic time. I know they were young, but I hope Bobs will remember some of it.

Christmas Day

Happy Christmas! Santa left some toys and stickers for the boys in their stockings.

Mads slept with his new basketball. We also let them chose one gift each from Target. Bobs chose the carpeted Thomas tracks.

We went for a walk north along the boardwalk and saw that many places were open for Christmas day. After our chocolate croissants in the hotel room, we had breakfast out.

There are dolphins and surfers in the waves along the beach to watch.

We had a nice beach day that got busier later in the afternoon.

Bobs and Daddy ran along the beach while Mommy and Mads sat back and shovelled sand.

What is this that you are looking at, you may wonder? It is soap from the hotel room. After the beach, we had to have baths to wash off the sand. When neither parent was looking, Mads took a big bite out of the soap. All we heard was crying. The soap didn't come out of his bottom teeth for an hour or so. Yuck.

We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner in our hotel room and the kids had Kraft Dinner.

San Diego Day 3 - Balboa Park Christmas Eve

We went to a large park next to the Zoo called Balboa Park on Christmas Eve. The weather was beautiful and it was a nice surprise.

There were playgrounds, and a whole host of museums and old buildings from the 1930's. There are also artist studios on site.

We rode in a free trolley and Mads really liked that. We had to sing wheels on the bus quietly for him.

There were botanical gardens to look at. It was a dreamy place to be in December.

I think this photo below could have been our Christmas photo.

We had lunch at a cafe and watched people rent all kinds of bicycles from the shop next door.

There was an artists village that we roamed around. The kids loved the coloured cobblestone streets.

At the end, we watched and rode the carousel. It boomed Christmas carols.

We sat in a rocking sleigh on the carousel all together. It was quite scary, I kid you not! It rocked rapidly and made loud noises as though the wood was cracking under us.

I think we rode about 20 different trains in San Diego. This one was just outside of the Zoo. Bobs also got his face painted by a gypsy.