vacation part one

We left last Thursday morning for southern California.  We had reservations at the Terranea Resort.  Once we arrived the bellman took us to our "Ocean View Suite."  It was a beautiful suite, but it had more of a "Pool View" with an "Ocean View" off in the distance.  Jason has stayed there before with Fox so he went down to the check in to ask about our view (we already paid for the "Ocean View").   They moved us into another room, but sadly the "Ocean View" was a little worse than the first room.  So, Jason went down to the desk again.  He came back and said, "I think we are going to like the next one."  He thought right.  It was a casita next to the golf course.  It had a shared outdoor fire place in the front, a large entryway, a full kitchen, laundry room, living room with a fireplace, beautiful bathroom with the largest soaking tub ever, a large king size room with two large patio sliding doors, a private covered back patio with furniture, grass and not only an "Ocean View," but it was ON the ocean!!  It was AMAZING!!!

 The resort pool.

 Two of my favorite people walking to the ocean to look for seashells. 

 Silly girls.

 The living room.

 

 The back of our casita.

 The front patio.

 Lexi loved doing cartwheels and playing "tag" in the grass.

 Perfect wine patio.  We listened to the waves crash while sipping wine and bundled up in blankets while Lexi snoozed.

 I enjoyed coffee on the patio each morning too.

 Military jets flying over the resort.

 Love CA's grass!

 We took advantage of the kitchen.  We made dinner and enjoyed it on our patio.

 Lexi went to bed about 7:30 every night and Jason and I enjoyed quiet time on the patio together.

On Friday we went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica.  Lexi was SO excited to look and find seashells at the beach.  She had two buckets, one for building sand castles and a large one for her seashell collection.  When we arrived at the beaches we realized they weren't really shell beaches.  So, Jason went into a souvenir shop and bought some seashells.  While they were searching for shells, I secretly buried them in the sand.  Lexi was thrilled when she found them...especially the starfish! 

 Party of Three's toes in the sand!  Notice Lexi's toes are curled?? She does this when she is happy or excited!!

 Our little "beach bum."

 LOOK!  A Starfish!!

 We had to buy sweats on the beach because it was so cold!

Cuties!

On Saturday we surprised Lexi by taking her to the San Diego Zoo.  We drove 2.5 hours to get there and Lexi did great in the car.  We loved looking at all the animals and on the way back to the resort we stopped at another beach in San Diego.  It was beautiful and quiet!  We all got in the water for a little bit and actually found some great shells!  We had a blast!!  We headed back to the resort for our last night and backed our bags to go "home."