christmas vacation part 1

Since we were away for Thanksgiving and had nowhere to go for Christmas, we knew we had to do more than just stay home the whole 2 weeks.

Back when we went on our cruise in April/May, we booked through priceline and still had a free hotel night to use before the end of the year. We chose to go to Monterey on Christmas night, stay over, and go to the aquarium the next day. We knew that leaving the afternoon of Christmas would be wise, as we would all have cabin fever by then.

Christmas morning was just how I like it. I secretly want to still get up at 5 - I have that little kid excitement inside of me. We heard the kids whispering in the hallway outside our room at 6:15 so we got up since Sadie was still asleep. Our little Christmas miracle was that Sadie slept in until 7:45! So we got to enjoy presents with the 3 older ones. There is nothing quite like Christmas morning. I want to keep an image of Tyler's excited face in my mind forever...

By noon we all needed to get out. We surprised the kids with our plans and headed out. Instead of stopping in Monterey, we decided to drive for a bit on Hwy 1. Not many little people in the car were thrilled with that decision, but it was gorgeous. Someday we will drive more of it, perhaps when the littles are no longer little.

The hotel wasn't super great, THREE of our kids snored loudly, and I think 6 people just doesn't work for 1 hotel room anymore. We needed to get dinner that night (Christmas) and seeing that most places were closed we headed to Denny's. It was strange and s-l-o-w, not so yummy, we felt a little out of place, and we finally just had to laugh. We didn't sleep much that night. The next day we got to the aquarium early and after 3 hours we had seen absolutely everything. Spencer said the kids are like me - we keep moving constantly through museums and the like. :) That being said, this aquarium is amazing.

Fun/crazy little getaway.