Miller Family Vacate 2011

We spent a week in Ventura, California in a cozy little resort. We woke up the first morning there on Easter, surrounded by hidden Easter eggs! As tradition, the kids found their hidden Easter baskets then started in on the egg hunt. Owen loved it so much, Nick kept re-hiding the eggs from Owen's basket, just so he could have more fun finding them in random places throughout our rooms. Owen kept saying things like, "this is the best day ever!" and "this is the funnest day I ever had!" I told him to just wait, Disneyland is coming up!

Then we got ready to head to church on that Easter Sunday. Nick took this picture of Teslyn (and many more) because he thought it was so cute. She loved sitting on this little bench and "getting ready" with mommy every morning we were there. Which meant she just made a mess of all my stuff. But cute, nonetheless.

It rained once that week and just happened to be Easter morning on our way out to sacrament meeting, so this was the best I could get of a family picture on Easter.

After church I wanted some pictures of the kids together.

I tried a few times.

At least Owen cooperated!

We stayed right by a harbor with a marina full of boats. We found this neat visitor center with a living tide pool in it. Teslyn loved checking out the fish.

Owen was happy to have his picture taken by this "pirate" ship.

Peaceful evening view from the deck after the kids were in bed.

Monday we headed out to explore Carpinteria State Beach. We heard it had the best tide pools.

It was a really fun beach to explore. And there goes Owen!

And Teslyn!

She loved the sand more than anything, and started grabbing handfuls as soon as her feet hit the beach.

We made lots of discoveries and collected some cool shells.

Owen loves it!

Straight from there we headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo. It was perfect and small. There was a children's play area that was pretty cool also. Here is Owen in the middle of a little "maze" next to a statue with a plaque that says "Owen's Maze."

Two cuties on a turtle.

Giraffe's are always a favorite.

We were right in time to see these big gorilla guys being fed.

And Owen is pretty much one of them!

Checking out the penguins.

And big smelly elephants.

Another beautiful sunset that night.

We spent another morning at a beach there in Ventura.

We brought our sand castle building gear with us this time.

Owen and Nick spent most of the time playing their "stick game." They would find a big stick and throw it into the ocean as far as they could, then watch for it to wash ashore, then do it again. Owen loved it. Of course the water was super cold so none of us were really interested in going for a swim.

We were content playing in the sand. Teslyn liked to have her feet buried.

She also has a thing with pretty much all animals, especially the birds. Here she is trying to chase a bird. She says "quack, quack" to them. I was glad I kept recording after the bird flew away, because she walked up to me to say "hi." Super cute.

Nick ventured out to explore some tide pools in these rocks.

Then I did, and found some funky looking crabs.

And this sea star surrounded by mussels.

We spent one day at DISNEYLAND!! A first for Owen and Teslyn. Owen is 4 1/2 and Teslyn is 18 months.

We had to live it up. Owen asked for cotton candy, so we got him cotton candy.

The first ride was the rocket one. We loved how Teslyn could go on just about every ride that Owen could. She thoroughly enjoyed it. She loved the rides just as much, if not more than him. I was very impressed.

Here she is in Toontown while Owen went on a roller coaster without her.

Teslyn can say "ride" and will point at them and demand that we take her on each and every one that we passed. Can you tell they loved it?

The carousel was a favorite of both. Of course Tes loved riding the horse.

Even the tea cups, which surprised me.

We made it on a good day, there wasn't much of a wait on most rides, and even went on the carousel, tea cups, and Pirates of the Caribbean twice. Nick counted, and we went on a total of 22 rides. Not too bad! We had been talking about the Indiana Jones ride for a while because it is a favorite of ours, so when we found out that Owen wasn't quite tall enough, he was so broken-hearted. He cried. He loves playing Lego Indiana Jones on xbox with Nick and was so looking forward to the ride. Of course we had to promise to bring him back when he's big enough. Teslyn took a quick nap in her stroller that afternoon, and both kids were ready to crash by 8 pm so that's when we headed out. I was sad to miss the parade and fireworks they were setting up for. My kids would have loved it.

The next day we headed to a nearby park at a beach. There was a way cool zip line we had fun riding.

Teslyn loved touching and smelling the plants and flowers. Such a cute little girly!

we spent most afternoons after nap time at the resort pool.

Teslyn is so brave and loves to jump in the water.

On our last day in CA, we decided to head back to Carpinteria because it had the best beach to explore.

Tes was a lot more interested in the water this time. I had to keep both eyes on her when she got brave enough to wander out into the waves. She loved to look at the "bubbles" in the water.

We love the ocean, and can't wait to get back there!

That night we went out for ice cream after dinner. Right outside of the place there was a little carousel. Of course the kids had to ride it. Owen was rocking out to the music, and you can hear Teslyn saying "weeeeee!" and "a neigh!" Which is what she calls a horse. And they still thought it was fun after the big fun rides at Disneyland! So silly. I love these kids.