Our California Vacation, whew!

Here we go, a picture journey of our wild and exhausting vacation to Pleasanton, Ca. We went to see Shaun's sister Dana and nephew JJ, for his baptism. First, we went to the Monteray bay aquarium. It was a great place, with tons of fun exhibits. It was terribly hard with Ethan. About an hour into it, he got overloaded with all the people, noise, everything, and went through a series of meltdowns, sprawled out on the floor infront of everyone. It was rough. I wish we could have slowed down to read the signs by the tanks and such, but taking a toddler to places like this is a lot of work.
Nevertheless, here is my huge helper, our nephew JJ, pushing the boys.
Don't they look so excited:)

The tanks were huge and amazing to see!

This is the penguin area, where Dana was helping Ethan see one through the cool bubble window.

Fun, toddler area for Ethan. He loved it!

Grandpa and JJ

Our attempt at a family pic. I love my shirt!

After some meltdowns, I tried to calm down Ethan by plopping him in his stroller with a rice krispy treat, and to enjoy the show of fish.

Handsome JJ

This room was AWESOME! It was very dark, and no flash was allowed. I pushed my camera's ISO all the way to 1600, to get a decent shot, but its still blurry. (Too slow of shutter speed) Yet, the lighting you see in the picture is exactly how it was. It was my favorite.

Impromptu generation shot, with Shaun, his dad, and Ethan:)

Dana and Dad, trying to figure out where the heck we are.

Elevators were full, so Shaun took matters into his own hands!

Kevin let Dana take him around and help him see the seahorses. For a bit, he didn't cry, it was great! Poor guy has separation anxiety.
This room was so fun. A heavy gush of water would come spilling out on the other side of the window. Ethan was in heaven, and feeling better in these pics:)

After the aquarium, we did some window shopping by the beach. Love the california atmosphere.
The day of the baptism, tender daddy moment:) The lighting was perfect for pictures and I was going crazy practicing metering, manual shooting, and more.

Our little troopers, in a car packed with snacks, drinks, toys...
Yea for a great family picture!

Dana, Russ, and JJ

My darling, hilarious, loving father and best bud:)

Shaun baptized JJ, and it was great for Ethan to see a real baptism. Sadly, he was on his worst behaviour, incredibly tired, being a brat for the rest of the baptism. I guess vacations can really be hard on little ones, when they don't get their regular quiet times and good meals. Shaun was involved with the baptism, and I was carrying Kevin (since he won't let anyone hold him) and wrangling Ethan for the whole hour. I was pretty tired after that, but we put the kids down, got a sitter, and had a great meal at Black Angus.

Sunday, we surprised (called ahead, and made Nikki ecstatic) our old neighbors and dear friends with a visit. They lived a little north of where Dana and JJ are. Nikki used to babysit Ethan, and he played with her daughter Jovi. Lots of fun. I'll post more pics of that next time. All in all, it was nice to get out of town and do a vacation, but the traveling was so very hard on the kids. I don't know when we will attempt to travel in the car again with them for long periods, but I'm sure we will someday.