day trippin: part one

after too many weeks of too much work, we decided a family day trip was in order. brian sat the kids down friday night and had them vote on which trip they wanted to take. he presented their two options complete with google image searched pictures.

trip 1: palm springs. a self-guided tour of the cabazon dinosaurs followed by picnicking, swimming, and lounging in desert hot springs. (i cast my vote here!)

trip 2: long beach. the aquarium of the pacific, self-guided tour of the queen mary, and the beach. (i was unanimously outvoted!)

the aquarium is a very cool place and we hadn't been since miley was a baby. brian and miley loved the hands-on exhibits, touching everything from sea anemones and shrimp to leopord sharks and giant sting rays. mommy, mia, and levi preferred to enjoy the wildlife from the other side of the glass. i blame this entirely on tiffanie and john (my evil siblings) who knowing my fear of touching fish, threw frozen peas all around me while snorkeling in hawaii.

just outside the aquarium is an awesome view of the queen mary and long beach harbor. i insisted on one more picture of the monkeys before giving them permission to go tackle their father. that is when i put the camera down and joined the dog pile. so there are no pictures of the rest of our adventures from that day.

we (kind of) snuck onto the queeen mary and let the kids take turns navigating our way around the ships vast decks. made our way back to the car, headed south on PCH, and ended up at the huntington beach pier just in time to watch the sun slowly sink into the ocean that we'd spent all day admiring.