Santa Barbara, Part 2

I want to be honest about our trip to Santa Barbara-it was fun, but also very exhausting and on occasion I questioned whether it was "worth it".

At one point in the trip Gracie was hysterical, I mean it took two of us to get her buckled into the car seat. She screamed at the top of her lungs and kicked her feet for 20 minutes straight as we drove to dinner, "I don't WANT to eat dinner, I want to go BACK!!" I was getting so mad because I was starving (I try not to let myself get hungry-cause it's not pretty) and I was certain we weren't going to make it to the restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant and she finally calmed down. It was hands down the worst outing we've had with the kids. Jay was banging loudly on the table over and over again. He was screaming for us to let him have the straws or cup or chopsticks or wassabi whatever newest thing looked like fun. Ashlyn was throwing all of her food on the floor and then getting mad cause there wasn't any food in front of her. We were all walking on eggshells with Gracie praying she wouldn't fall into hysterics again. This was one of several tantrums she had while we were gone. During those times Matt and I both wondered if the trip was worth it and if we ever wanted to take them anywhere again.

Was it worth it........

One of many things my friend Chrissy at Life with Greyson and Parker has taught me is to go back through pictures of the day to find the happiness.

And when I look back at the pictures it was certainly there. For the kids and for me. On the third day we went to the Ty Warner Sea Center. It's a small aquarium out on the Stearns Wharf, we could easily walk from our hotel.

Gracie on the wharf

 I love this.

I love this one too. Because she was so excited to show him what was in this tunnel. And even though it was nothing exciting to him he was saying "ooh" and "ahh" just for her.

I was SO proud of Gracie. For anyone who doesn't know-Gracie is very afraid of animals. All of them. Cats, dogs, baby chicks, she''s just afraid. But she was not afraid of the touch pools at all. She was picking up every sea star in the tank.

Gage liked the octopus

 See, she wasn't into touching this guy

This was my favorite, little baby sharks waiting to make an appearance

They had an area to put on a puppet show. Gage put on a great show and Gracie loved peeking out from behind the curtain.

She was careful to use the "Two Finger Touch Rule" after she got busted for picking the sea stars up out of the water

 Touching a shark

 Scared of baby chicks but not sharks........

This next pictures show one of the best parts of the day. The aquarium is out on the wharf so they have a wet deck where they show kids how specimens are collected from the ocean.

 Pulling up the basket to see if he collected anything.....

 Can you tell he got something?

 He was so happy to catch this guy

 Here's Gracie.....and her raggedy, stinky, pink turned gray giraffe blanket.

We normally don't let her take the blanket out. But we were on vacation and she was over-tired. We often had to give in to things we normally wouldn't so she didn't ruin everyone's good time. And even though that blanket drives me crazy, it is part of what makes this picture precious to me. Because one day she'll lose the blanket, I just hope she doesn't lose that look of wonder.

Thanks to Matt for my camera to capture these precious moments and for Chrissy for teaching me how easy it is to find them.

Love.