Santa Cruz

We had our annual summer vacation in Santa Cruz again this year, and we headed up with the Del Vecchio family.  This year we stayed in a sustainable, green home just outside of Santa Cruz.  It was a great house, and the kids loved to see the deer that would come right up to the window each morning!  We did day trips to San Francisco and Monterey, and of course hit up the Santa Cruz Board walk. We also headed to Roaring Camp.  I love our trips to Santa Cruz.  They are such great family vacations!

Museum Fun

We found a GREAT kids museum in Pasadena called Kidspace.  I've been trying to find a good kids museum since we had so much fun at the Phoenix museum last Fall.  The museum is located near the Rose Bowl, and there's a park/playground just outside of the museum.  Admission was only $10 per person, making this a very affordable day trip.  We brought swim clothes for the kiddos, which were put to good use in the various water features around the museum.  The kids really loved the dark room where they learned about insects and arachnids, and the Bug Diner where they pretended to serve cartoon bugs gross plates of bug food was a HUGE hit.  We spent the day with the Bird family and Christine and Aspen Natori.  We didn't get a chance to spend much time in the garden area or the creek, so we can't wait to go back again in the future!

Rock wall!

There was a climbing area that was made to look like a winding and twisting set of branches.  Our little monkeys loved climbing on this!

Shooting water guns at drums to make "music"

Luke wanted to take off his swim shirt so he could be "just like Ian."  Too cute!

Excavation area, where the kids could use small brushes to look for "dinosaur bones" and hone their paleontologist skills.



Luke loved the trike area!



Our Gymnast

We were so excited to watch Luke in his first gymnastics recital.  He was the youngest and smallest one in the bunch, but he did a great job :)  Grandma and Grandpa Stow and Grandma and Grandpa Clark were there, and since it was a Saturday event, Auntie Tiffany was able to join us.

The boys with Grandpa Stow.  Luke is such a little ham!

Luke was so excited to earn his very first trophy!

Mommy Day!

Jody and I took the boys out of school and spent the day at Disneyland as a surprise!  It was a warm and crowded day, but we got there just after the park opened, and we were able to hit up a bunch of rides.  What a fun Mommy day!!!

In line and so excited for Star Tours!

In line for Toy Story

We took this picture in Disney Jr. Live