GREETINGS from the warm and snow-less state of California! After Christmas, Aaron and I spent an entire week under the sun with his Mom, siblings (Sara, Katie, Rachel, and Trent), Katie's boy (Josh), his aunt and uncle (Tom and Cindy), and his uncle with two of his children (Rick, Mary, and Danny). We spent two days on the beach in San Diego, one day in Disneyland, and two days in Oceanside relaxing, eating, and whale watching. If you were counting, the other two days of our week vacation were spent traveling! The first day on the beach was spent at a park in San Diego.
We caught some beautiful views of the ocean and some lazy sea lions and played "500" with a Frisbee. This was entertaining because two of the players were pregnant (Sara and myself). After letting everyone know that we would not be accepting cheap shots to the belly, Sara and I held our own and both won one game. The weather that day was beautiful, we couldn't even wear a light jacket because it was so warm. In the evening we opened gifts from "Mrs. Clause." The gifts were matching pj's for everyone! We took pictures 'cuz we all looked so darn cute, but I'll try to post those pictures later.
The morning of the second day was "Christmas" for the Dahlin family. We opened gifts in the morning and spent the afternoon at the beach playing in the water and on the sand. Many of us also watched surfers practice on an artificial wave
and ate chocolate-covered frozen bananas! Mmmmmm! On the beach Aaron found seaweed that looked alien-like. In this picture he is dancing with seaweed.
Day three was spent in Disneyland. See the post below for that day.
Day four was spent in recovery move. All of us were so tired from a LONG day at Disneyland that we just sleep, ate, and watched movies all day.
On day five we called the front desk to find out were the harbor was, and the lady's reply was "look out your window." Oops! Sure enough, 100 yards from our window was the harbor. We decided to go on a three hour whale watching excursion that afternoon. Even though we did not see one single whale, we found two different breeds of dolphins in large "schools." Since I don't remember the bred names we will just call them, "small dolphins" and "large, grayish white dolphins." Here is a picture of the larger dolphins. We had a blast out on the ocean. It was a beautiful and relaxing ride.
All-in-all it was a fabulous week in California! I enjoyed spending time with Aaron's family and getting to know them a little better. Thanks everyone for the Christmas gifts and thanks to Pat for taking us on this trip! It was wonderful.
As you all know, Aaron and I celebrated Christmas in California with Aaron's family. For both of our families, it is a tradition to open pajamas on Christmas Eve. Aaron's mom, or Mrs. Clause, does matching pj's which makes for fabulous pictures. I just received these pictures from Aaron's older sister yesterday--thanks Sara!
We caught some beautiful views of the ocean and some lazy sea lions and played "500" with a Frisbee. This was entertaining because two of the players were pregnant (Sara and myself). After letting everyone know that we would not be accepting cheap shots to the belly, Sara and I held our own and both won one game. The weather that day was beautiful, we couldn't even wear a light jacket because it was so warm. In the evening we opened gifts from "Mrs. Clause." The gifts were matching pj's for everyone! We took pictures 'cuz we all looked so darn cute, but I'll try to post those pictures later.
and ate chocolate-covered frozen bananas! Mmmmmm! On the beach Aaron found seaweed that looked alien-like. In this picture he is dancing with seaweed.
On day five we called the front desk to find out were the harbor was, and the lady's reply was "look out your window." Oops! Sure enough, 100 yards from our window was the harbor. We decided to go on a three hour whale watching excursion that afternoon. Even though we did not see one single whale, we found two different breeds of dolphins in large "schools." Since I don't remember the bred names we will just call them, "small dolphins" and "large, grayish white dolphins." Here is a picture of the larger dolphins. We had a blast out on the ocean. It was a beautiful and relaxing ride.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone had a blast to kick off the new year. However, I doubt anyone had as much fun as Aaron and I! We spent New Year's Day in Disneyland! Aaron's Mom treated us, along with all of her children, to a week in California. We had a fun filled week, which I will cover in another post. In this post I'll tell you all about Disneyland. We woke up at 5a.m., left our rooms at 6a.m. to drive from San Diego, arrived at the park at 8a.m., and played hard ALL DAY LONG!!! We left the park at about 10:30pm after about 14 hours of being on our feet! I know that doesn't seem like much, but try being 6 months pregnant, it is a little more difficult! I couldn't ride any of the rollar coasters, so I made Aaron ride Space Mountain and Indian Jones while I waited. Luckily most of the rides in Disneyland are for kids so I was able to fill my day with rides like Pirates of the Carribean, Nemo's Submarine ride, 
and the Haunted Mansion. I did, however, ride two rides that pregnant woman are cautioned not to ride. I dared Star Tours and the Thunder Mountain rollar coaster. Star Tours was very mild, but Thunder Mountain was the rockiest rollar coaster I'd ever been on! Oops! All is well though, and it was a fun adventure. The day's events also included a Fantasmic water/light show and fireworks to celebrate the New Year. 
Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause were also there. Aaron and I waited in line to catch a picture with them! There were also several parades but we thought that this would be a good time to eat and catch the short lines while everyone else enjoyed the parades! It was fun to be able to spent time with Aaron's family. We all went to Star Tours and the wild ride Autotopia together. This is a picture Aaron took of the rest of us waiting in line at Star Tours.
My favorite part of the day was just being able to spent time with Aaron and enjoying a beautiful day in California (while it was snowing back home). Aaron and I were surprised at the "magic" of Disneyland. The staff and the atmosphere were wonderful. Thanks Pat for the tickets! We had a great time!
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