Santa Cruz -Labor Day Weekend 2011

First off, is it really September of 2011???? Holy Moly this year has flown by and I haven't even blogged the half of it with you all! We've been busier than ever I think and I'm not sure how it happened, but we're rolling with it! We've been here over a year now and settling in very well. One of my favorite things about living here is that my wonderful in laws are only a half day drive away so they are able to do weekend trips! We hadn't seen them since July so they made the trek up Friday evening and Saturday morning we headed out to Santa Cruz! That makes 3 times I've been down there this year! Hip Hip Hooray for me! I was itching to take a family trip there after seeing the boardwalk while down there for Wharf to Wharf. The drive wasn't too bad, Letty is definitely getting better at traveling as she grows up on us.

She saw the roller coaster - "Look, look! Train!" I love the hand on her hip! Just like Mom :)

 Noah was pretty excited he found a newspaper article from the Honolulu Advertiser about the corndogs! Poor guy misses Hawaii as much as we do.

 After a bit of convincing (Hey, the bazookas were loud!) Noah agreed to shoot bazookas with Dad! He was quite timid at first but had a great time!

Then we headed out to start the rides Noah had picked out. First, the Fright Walk.... the man looked me right in the eye and said "It is STRONGLY recommended that children under 13 don't do this... Um, sorry Noah let's jet, what's next??

Oh, you wanna go on the roller coaster??? Awesome, Grammie will take you on this one.... Just kidding, an inch too short. :( 

Soooo, we headed to the Haunted Mansion ride, it was your run of the mill haunted ride but at least it was something, here we are!

 He finally said all he really wanted was a caramel apple! That was easy enough! The boy and his apple :)

 We headed to meet the rest of the family on the pier and we were in for another surprise- otters and sea lion and pelicans, Oh My!

 Scarlett was telling the pelicans to be quiet, Hahaha!

The Farntastic Four in Santa Cruz

On our way to the car we saw this.... click on the picture and enlarge it if you can. It was crazy! We looked online and apparently these birds have been following schools of anchovies around. I would have been incredibly freaked out if I had been on one of those boats out there!