Time of My Life

I am still recovering from having the time of my life on vacation in Southern California.

I have so much to tell you, but for the sake of your eyes and my fingers, I will try to keep this as short and sweet as possible.

After going to preschool on a Friday a few weeks back, my Grandma and Granddad drove my parents and me to the airport. We got on an airplane and the next thing I knew, I woke up as we were descending into San Diego.

We had dinner with our cousin Brian (aka B$) his wife, Jen and their little baby, Hayden (7 weeks). I got to crash in a real hotel bed for the first time (not just a pull-out) and woke up ready for the excitement of the day...

See what I'm pointing at in the picture below? Yup. That's a cruise ship. I lived on it for 5 days!

Our room (thank goodness we upgraded to a suite) came equipped with life vests. Is this how you are supposed to wear them?

I missed the big send off as we left port in San Diego. I was tired after the emergency drill:

After my nap, my parents and I were ready for our fun day(s) at sea. Our friends: Andrea, Richard and Lucas joined us on our cruise.

Here are some picture of having fun on the ship (both in the kids club and with the parents):

Our first port was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and boy did we have a good time... especially me on the beach! My favorite thing was rolling around in the sand (after we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, of course):

One of the cool things about the beach was the view of our ship (the not so cool thing about the beach were all the beach vendors... my mom got tired of shaking her head 'no' constantly).

The day after Cabo was cold and windy. They even shut the top decks of the ship do to the high winds... and we were all questioning if we picked up more shipmates in Cabo -- the ship seemed extra full. The following day we docked in Ensenada. We didn't take many pictures and of the pics we took this is the best one -- a giant Mexico flag:

I had so much fun I was exhausted the next morning when we had to disembark. I woke up enough to give my new buddy, Lucas, a proper Logan goodbye:

On to the next leg of our trip: Murrieta, California (where more of our family lives). After setting up shop at our cousin Jodi, her husband Dave and their daughter, Maddy's house... I went sledding! Maddy's daycare spent $5,000 to have someone make them snow (apparently kids in Southern California don't see snow much at all).

After a quick outfit change, we were off to the beach. Moonlight Beach in Encinitas -- a great beach for kids, should any of my readers be headed to SoCal.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with Maddy and her neighbor, Noah, who has a really cool Jeep.

Oh... and then there was some small party for the SUPER BOWL. Jodi and Dave always throw the best Super Bowl parties... my parents have made it an annual trek except when, yes, I had Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease that made us delay our trip last year.

Boy am I glad we made it for this year's game. Basically, the entire family in SoCal are Steeler fans -- so you can only guess how crazy it was with the Steelers not only in it, but just barely pulling it out in the end. But that wasn't the best part. I spent just about all my time in the JUMP HOUSE:

The day after the Super Bowl was my most favorite day --- LEGOLAND!! There were so many rides I could go on... including my first roller coaster ride.

Here's Maddy and her mom on a boat. It was one of the few rides Maddy could join me on.

Here's mom and me on a water ride. With a baby in mommy's tummy, there weren't many rides she could go on with me.

One of the big highlights was being able to drive on my own for the first time. Yep, I drove and I got a drivers license on top of that.

Another cool aspect of Legoland was "Miniland." I got to visit Las Vegas, Washington D.C. and see the skyscrapers of New York City all in matter of minutes.

After Legoland came our visit to California Adventure. We picked CA (this is a long post, my fingers are getting too tired to type it all out) because the rides at Disneyland are too big for me right now.

I didn't get to go on many rides at CA, but the big score was seeing my favorite guys -- Lightning McQueen and Mater!!!!!!! I even gave Lightning McQueen a big hug. These guys are so cool.

The two other really cool things about CA where getting to see some of my other favorite friends. I got to watch Disney Playhouse Live where some of the cartoons that I watch in the morning were live on stage.

I got to watch the most AWESOME parade ever... Disney's Pixar Parade with Lightning McQueen, Toy Story, Bugs Life, the Incredables... and it all ended with my buddy, Mater! After the parade my Daddy had to catch a flight home as he had to work the next day. My Mom and I stayed for two more nights at the condo resort where my Grandma and Graddad were staying.

Unfortunetly, an icky nose that I got about half way through the cruise took a turn and made my tummy very unhappy. I wasn't keeping food down much at all (if I even ate anything)... but it didn't stop me from having a great time our last night at a BBQ at my Great Aunt and Uncle's house.

From left to right (in the picture below) cousins with kids: Becca, Jen, Mom, Me, Jodi, Maddy, Jenn, Hayden

Well, I think that sums up my time in Southern California (and Mexico). It's just too bad we weren't able to take the sun home with us... as I finsh up this post it is SNOWING! I want to go back to SoCal and wear shorts and t-shirts. Can we? Please?

-- Logan