to cali or bust

We returned from our vacation a little over a week ago. My intentions were to process all of pictures before uploading them; but, that would mean you would be waiting till Christmas, so I figured I would just put the pictures up in flickr and give a little recap, as it was a pretty big deal, what with SP 2.0's first plane adventuring taking place. So hey, Christmas in July!

We made our annual trek to Carlsbad, California and it was a ton of fun. Getting there was a bit trying since we were sent home the Friday night we tried to depart (clearly, the airline and airport was unaware that we had some seals to see); but, the airlines fixed us up right and proper for travel on the following Saturday. Note to self (or really, Papa), do not book flights for late afternoons/evenings during thunderstorm season.

The first thing on the schedule after our arrival to the Land of Sun, was an afternoon birthday tea to celebrate a special someone turning five, I don't have to tell you how I feel about birthdays. It was great (for those interested in the requested "photo shoot" you can find those shots in flickr).
The following day included dinner, hibachi style, at Benihana. This might be one of my favorite shots from the whole trip and it's not particularly stellar, technically speaking; but, it's kind of hilarious.

There was beach play (I didn't go, this shots were taken by Papa), I stayed in the air conditioned dwelling...it was very nice.

We went to Legoland, which, while crazy, seemed particularly calm when comparing it to the slimmest possibility of going to Disneyland. But the kids (the ones who needed a ticket to get in anyway) really had fun. The babies, I am pretty sure they thought it was kind of hot; but, yay (!) bright colors!

We had a lot of fun there (I really like this shot of the three of them...it's very Breakfast Club-y).

A lot of fun.

And, as you can imagine, there were a lot of Legos there.

We were also able to see old friends (or rather, meet them in SP2.0's case).

We filled our bellies with ice cream.

And then we returned home (some of us so happy that vehicular hugs were in order).

It was a good trip.

There is a computer-crash-worthy equivalent number of photos in flickr for your perusal, should you, you know, be interested in that sort of thing.