Spring Break 2014

For years before kids I used to spout off about how 5 and 8 would be the perfect ages for a road trip ...wait - what?! You mean now?! Yikes....well I guess I better then!

We took an entire week off and headed south.  We hit the theme parks pretty hard over the holidays - so we picked a dinosaur theme for this trip!  And we planned it with Auntie Grace!  We had so much fun!

Our first stop was Auntie Julianne's house! Yay!  We tried at Christmas, but we had a few cooties and didn't want to share them with our friends - so here's the kid table - full of messy fun!

So good to see you Jules!

Our next stop was the LA Natural History Museum - it was amazing!  Dinos at every turn - tons of fossils and fun!

...if I could just reach that long neck up there!!

...kind of like a jack-a-lope:

Lulu the coyote whisperer

Their best T-Rex poses

Gift Shop fun

We stayed with Auntie Grace's Aunt - who was a fifth grade teacher - she was absolutely amazing!  We felt so at home, and she was so easy going and thoughtful...such fun to expand family.  After a long but fun day at the museum we headed to the La Brea tarpits.  It was phenomenal - lots of hands on exhibits, a fossil laboratory viewing station, and an actual excavation observation deck!

Here we are at the entrance - the bubbling pool of filth

Roving science carts

Saber-toothed smile

Their best bird/vulture/flying fossil

Wooly Mammoth

Here's an exhibit where there was a vat of tar and the kids had to pull the pole out of the tar - helped them get a feel for how hard it would have been for the trapped animals - and boy was it difficult!

Here's a picture of the pit - the small red flag is a fossil

I think this is a sloth...and apparently he's quite huggable

After LA we headed home to see Great Grandma, Grandma and Grandpa

...for a little ring toss on the grandkids

Grandpa got a new TV!!! YAY - just like us...kind of - except his is HUGE and 3-D

We also had an early Easter Egg Hunt

In the theme of museums we hit some local spots - the Ruben H Fleet Science Center

Grandpa thought the kids needed to experience a tornado (must be his midwest roots)

..and we did all the usual fun things - like sewing and visiting the beach

Well...if I must say so it turns out I was right - it was fabulous....but it probably had more to do with the great family that accompanied us all along our trip!