thirty-five candles

 Yes, that's right. This handsome man is now thirty-five years old! We celebrated yesterday with the Johnson crew in Peoria. He shares this special day with our niece so we got together for some fun. Kevin's mom got him a yummy cake and covered it with as many candles as Kevin is in years. Some lovingly refferred to it as a "raging inferno". Love you Kevin, Happy Birthday!

california 2012 | day five

Our last day was more about getting back to Arizona than anything else. After crossing the state line, we stopped for gas and ice cream, of course. We had a great family vacation and we are so happy that we got to get away from our busy lives for a few days. Now, back to reality!

california 2012 | day four

We started our day at the Legoland Sea Life Aquarium. The kids have wanted to go to the aquarium here at home for a while, so we jumped on the chance to take them to this one. There were so many sea creatures that we had not seen up close before. The kids even got to touch star fish (although Karter cared more about building a Lego sand castle).

 We rushed into Legoland as soon as we finished exploring the aquarium. The kids loved building cars with what seemed like an endless supply of Lego's and then racing them against each other. There were so many rides to choose from and they even got a driver's license after driving kid-sized cars. Thank you Legoland for a day full of fun!

california 2012 | day three

 Kimble really enjoyed Universal Studios last year, plus we had another day left on our passes, so we took a day to explore the park again. We started with Kimble's favorite ride (Jurassic Park), took a Studio tour, spent a lot of time at the Curious George ball house and pretended to ride on several cars/motorcycles. We also stopped to see a few shows- Animal Actors, Water World, Shrek, the Special Effects stage and Terminator 2: 3D. The kids were all worn out by the end of the day and slept most of the drive back down to Carlsbad.

california 2012 | day two

 Thursday morning we headed to Cabrillo National Monument. It had been four years since our last visit, we were excited to go back again. We arrived a little early so we stopped by the military cemetery. Then we checked out the light house and watched the boats in the harbor.

 Down to the Tide Pools to search for crabs and star fish. Although we did not find any fish, Kevin and Kimble were able to find a crab hidden in the rocks. Karter and Koltyn were happy just getting their feet wet (Kimble avoided the water the as much as possible). I only had flip flops on so Kevin got to keep up with the little ones, but he didn't seem to mind getting wet along with the kids.

 We wanted to stop at Griffith Park on our way up to Santa Clarita, our next hotel location. The kids wanted to ride the ponies again and we were happy to let them. It is totally worth the three dollars to see the smiles on their faces. Koltyn got to ride a pony this year too, all by himself!

 Next, the Travel Town Museum to see the trains. The kids were surprised by how big the old trains and their wheels were. We even got to go inside a few of them, which was pretty cool.

 Our last stop in Griffith Park was at the Observatory. Last year we spent lots of time outside the museum, this year we explored more of the inside - electricity and the planets, two exhibits we somehow missed on our last visit.