Carlsbad, Day 1

Today was the start of Fall Break. It's feeling like fall at our house. It's cool and crisp in the mornings. We welcome the change in seasons and love Fall. But, we decided to hold on to summer for another week and head to California with our friends.

We rented a sweet beach house for the week in Carlsbad. If we did this trip alone, it would be too expensive for us. Splitting it with friends is the only way we could afford such a nice house. We left this morning, and Noah asked within 5 minutes if we were there yet.

We always stop a little over half way in Indio, California. We found a great park years ago and love to stop there to stretch our legs.




Growing up in Phoenix, there are palm trees every where. I had one in every yard I've ever owned. Emily saw one and said, "look, it's a Hawaii tree!" Guess she's not as familiar with palm trees.


I love these fake rocks that the kids can climb up on. Or, my big kid...





The kids have the ultimate set up in the car. I'm the stewardess.


Here's the windmills in Palm Springs. That usually means we are close, but Carlsbad is between L.A. and San Diego. We still had several hours to go.


We finally got the house a little over 7 hours later. This is the view from the hot tub...on the roof!


We unloaded the car quickly and made a mad dash for the beach to see the sunset.




The kids were stoked to get to the beach. There was a pizza place a mile down, so we took the scenic route via the beach.


It took Ben a whole 10 seconds to get wet.



Last year at the beach, Noah barely got his feet wet. This year, he was already all up in the sand.


Em was happy to get her feet wet too.

And do some dancing and cartwheels.


The pizza at this place was soooo good. The kids liked eating on the patio.



We ended the night with a quick dip in the hot tub.


Our friends just got here and now we are all exhausted and ready for a good nights rest.

Beach day tomorrow!