Whale Watching and Ruby's at the Pier

One day while on our trip, we decided to try something we'd never done before and go whale watching. It was a 2 hour boat ride that took us out onto the ocean to look for migrating whales. We lucked out on out trip seeing 3 different kinds of whales...a Minke whale, Gray whale, and a Fin Back Whale. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time...except maybe for Rachel who wasn't sure about the rocking motion of the boat.

Rachel was a little anxious about the whole boat experience, but it actually made the trip so much easier because all she wanted to do was be held. Otherwise...I'm sure she would have been wanting to be all over the boat! Zac and I took turns holding her and were actually able to enjoy the trip!

My mom and Ally hanging out on the boat!

Ben at the very front making sure he could see everything.

Lucas watched from the front the whole time as well.

Lucas and his cousin Paige


After whale watching, we drove to one of our favorite places to eat in Oceanside...Ruby's on the pier. It's a restaurant at the very end of the pier so you have to walk a ways to get there. We met up with all my other siblings and kids as not everyone was able to go whale watching. This picture is Cami, Ben, and Max. It was quite an exciting dinner with 10 kids and 11 adults!

Lucas and Paige

A huge pelican just hanging out where people like to catch fish off the pier. I'm sure he's hoping to catch some too!

Lucas and Cami posing with the pelicans. We later found out that one of the pelicans has sort of a mean streak, so luckily he didn't try anything with these two!

We all had a great day on the ocean and at the pier. The kids even saw dolphins swimming along the pier, so that made their day of animal watching quite eventful!

Easter Afternoon

Easter was a nice and relaxing day because we got to listen to Conference...or at least tried to listen with kids running around! After Conference, while waiting for more family to arrive for dinner, the most exciting thing happened that day for my kids is that they experienced their first earthquake. We felt it pretty strong where we were( it happended in Mexico, and we were probably about 60 miles or so from the epicenter), but luckily it wasn't strong enough to cause anything to fall from the walls or anyone to get hurt. We all did run outside though and I had Zac wake Rachel from her nap because it kind of kept going and you never know if it's going to get worse. Anyways, it was definately something my kids will remember...I think Ben was spooked the most saying it was his worst Easter ever! Luckily they all slept through the few aftershocks that I felt later in the night!

Here are pictures from the Easter Egg hunt outside with all the cousins. Luckily there were enough eggs for all the kids to find plenty....even the eggs with money!
Aunt Ally brought Easter bunnies for all the little girls. Rachel still likes to sleep with hers!

Easter Morning

This year we headed down to San Diego to spend Easter and Spring Break. We figured it would give the kids something fun to do while they were out of school. It's a good thing the Easter Bunny is kind of like Santa Claus and always knows where to find the kids! We actually had two Easter Egg hunts...one in the morning with just our kids, then later in the afternoon all of the cousins came over to my mom's and found all the eggs hidden outside. It's always fun to visit when we get to see all our family! Here are some pictures of Easter Morning:

Getting ready for the big hunt

A beaver webkinz for Ben in his basket

I think I have a picture of all my kids at this age holding up an egg, wondering what this whole tradition is about!

She realized there was candy in the eggs and started eating right away!
There were many new places for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs at Grandma's house!

Ben...still not too old to look for eggs!

Posing for the camera!

Lucas discovering Peeps in his basket

A nice close-up of Lucas' face after he had fallen on my mom's treadmill the day before...thus proving my point that kids shouldn't play on treadmills! Maybe he will listen to me now!