Swimming with the Jourdans

 Today we were able to cross off our first outing from the bucket list! We headed up to Vinny & Sophie's to try out their outdoor pool. 

The kids all had a blast!

This little girl is a fish that has no fear of swimming under water and venturing off to areas that are a little too deep for her. Thank goodness the lifeguard had a close eye on this water bug ;)

 Landon was the first to venture down the slide by himself.

Shelley and I took the others down once, and they too were quickly hooked!

They were brave enough to climb up and head down all on their own after that :)

Summer Bucket List

We have finally settled down from our vacation and have put together our summer bucket list :)

It is much shorter than what we've had in the past, but after our busy last 9 days we have all decided to have more relaxed summer.

Time to get our pen out so we can start checking off the list!

Back Home

All good things must come to an end, and today our vacation did just that. 

So goodbye beautiful California, we can't wait to see you again!

We changed it up on the ride home. This time I took the "L's" and Steve took the "M's"

He got lucky and ended up with a sleepy crew.

 Lainey got a little antsy, but luckily for me I had frozen on hand to keep her entertained :)

And as soon as it was over, I enjoyed a nice quite rest of the flight.

And then the real job began, unloading ALL of this! Thankfully I was able to do a few loads during the week at my Uncles house so the unpacking wasn't as bad as it looks :)

We had such an amazing time, with a few minor kid scuffles every now and then, but we already are talking about our next vacation!

Thank you Grandma and PaPa!

My parents sent us with a sealed envelope for the the kids, with strict instructions not to open it til we arrived in California. Inside contained notes for each kid along with some spending money. 

So this is for you grandma & Papa, this is what the kiddos got :)

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo was where the action was at today!

(can you spot the not so happy child)

We took the advice of many and rode the bus to see where everything was before we ventured out on our own!

Checking out ALL the animals...

We were lucky enough to see the baby giraffe that was born only 5 days ago!

This cheetah had been living with a family since it was a cub. As it got older it started destroying the family's home, so they asked the zoo if they could take it. The zoo agreed and here it is today. However when they separated it from the family dog, both the cheetah and dog refused to eat and became sad because they missed each other. So the dog has now come to live with the cheetah at the zoo and both are doing well again! 

Having fun with the sea lion!

I'm sure we didn't see it all, but the kids were beat so after 6hrs we headed back to Uncle Jimbos house.

Legoland

Today we ventured off to Lego land

Mackenzie and Lainey had to stop and check out the Lego girls.

Next we headed over to our first ride of the day...

The Lego Technic coaster.

The first round was Steve, Mackenzie and Michael. As we passed by it again on our way out the door they managed to convince Landon to join them and he LOVED it!

Next we headed over to the Beetle Bounce.

The Lost Kingdom Adventure had us helping Indian Jones out :)

(Click the link and enjoy the ride)

My pictures just don't do the miniature Lego towns justice, but it was so neat to see them all made from Lego's!

The boys, and Steve, especially LOVED the miniature Star-wars scenes

Driving school was next on our list.

 The Dragon was the only other "Big" roller coaster at the park. 3 times they rode this one!

And Lainey got to ride the horse while the big kids were on the coaster :)

We ran into Laval on our way out of the park.

As usual the day wouldn't be complete with out a stop at the store.