Imperial Beach, San Diego

It was another fabulous spring break vacation. This year we traveled to San Diego, California for a fun filled family vacation on the Pacific Ocean. Highlights from the vacation included Lego Land, San Diego Zoo, and staying at a condo directly on Imperial Beach.




The San Diego Zoo is so awesome and definitely lives up to the hype of being one of the best zoos in the United States. It was fun to stroll along and see all kinds of animals up close. Adam was especially excited to see all the tour buses and Colin and Justin were excellent map navigators.








Lego Land was about an hour trip up the interstate in Carlsbad, CA. It is a cool amusement park filled with various sized lego creations and themed rides. Justin loved the slides and ropes in the Adventure Cove while Colin patiently waited in lines for 5-10 minutes to experience the rides.










The BEST part of the vacation, though, was definitely our condo on the ocean! It was so AWESOME! The boys were still on MN time so each morning we all woke up at 5:00a.m. and enjoyed a leisure morning of cereal in our own kitchen. Once it got light enough outside we headed out to the beach! I couldn't have scripted it better--Adam chased the birds, Justin collected shells, and Colin took on the waves. It was so cute! We even saw dolphins in the distance and a sea lion swam right up next to us on the rocks. It was also fun to watch the birds "dive bomb" into the ocean to catch fish. I just loved that there were 2 bedrooms so that once the boys went to bed, Jason and I could enjoy the ocean sounds by ourselves.








The condo complex also had a heated pool and hot tub so we got some swimming in as well. The walk along the pier to get ice cream and playing at the condo park were also fun things we did at various times in our trip. Yay, San Diego!






To view all our trip photos click here.

MN Zoo

This past week we met up with our good friends, The Johnsons. Kristin also has 3 little ones about the same ages as our boys so we love getting together for play dates. With the Winter weather the MN Zoo was a perfect place to visit as they have the aquarium, indoor Tropics Trail, and other fun exhibits.

Timberwolves Game

Last weekend, Jason took Colin and Justin to see the MN Timberwolves take on the Golden State Warriors. It was a very close exciting game, similar to last years game, except this year the T-wolves missed the last second shot and lost by one point. The boys had a great time, and Colin even made an appearance on the giant video score board displaying his rendition of Gangnam style dance during a timeout :)

Children's Museum/Carnival//MOA

This past week Adam, Justin, and I met up with Peggy and Wyatt at the Children's museum for a playdate. Wyatt and Justin are only a few months apart in age and love to get together and play. Dora and Diego are the newest theme at the museum and meeting up on a Wednesday meant a lot less people. The boys had a lot of fun and we got some great pictures.








February also means the big school carnival at Valentine Hills Elementary. It is a fun evening of organized chaos. Lots of games, food, and fun.






Jason and I decided to take the day off from work as Colin was home from school for President's Day. It was Elliott Family Day O' Fun at the Mall of America to celebrate this patriotic holiday. We started out at the Sealife Aquarium and then headed outdoors to check out the Ice Castles. Adam was amazingly content to be pushed around in his stroller and the older two had a fun time at MOA.

Valentine's Day Love

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! The holiday landed during the week so we did a low key red themed meal this year. It was comfort foods with tomato soup, heart shaped grilled cheese, fancy strawberry yogurt, and red velvet cupcakes. The best part is that Jason had it all ready when I got home from work with a vase of flowers and cards on the table.

Tubing!

Oh, how we love those tubing hills at Elm Creek Park! This was Justin's first year of having his own tube, and he loved the feel of the snow blast him in the face as he sped down the hills. Adam spent some quality time being pulled around on a tube and eating crackers in the warming house. Colin, Karl, and Damon chose to navigate the slopes on their own for a while, and we still got lots of runs chaining up as a long group. Awesome Fun!

Colin's b-ball season

Colin had the opportunity to play in a 1st/2nd grade basketball league this year. Jason even helped coach the team. It was AWESOME! This was the first introduction to basketball for many of the boys on the team so we didn't know quite what to expect on the day of the first game. Let's just say there was tremendous improvement from the start to the finish of the season. The hoops are lowered to 8 ft height and many of the rules of b-ball are quite lax at this level. It was so fun to watch 7 and 8 year old boys hustle and play some legitimate basketball. Colin was great and is quite the lil hoopster!