SoCal Vacation: Orange County

We spent a whole week visiting the Tans in Tustin. We enjoyed sunny hot weather, went swimming every day, went on some outings, and stayed up late every night talking and giggling. I was exhausted all week from the excitement and lack of sleep, but had so much fun with my cousins! We all came back with very nice tans as well. Here's a recap of our week:

Pool time:

Hooray for a swimming pool in the backyard! This was pretty much our default activity every day. Colin seemed to enjoy swimming here much more than the gym pool at home (maybe because the water was warmer?) and by the end of the week he was fearless in the water. His favorite thing to do was stand on the step in the hot tub and run around in circles.  

Pretend City:

My favorite place, we never visit SoCal without stopping here. It was only Colin's second visit and as soon as we got inside, he took off and played nonstop for almost two hours. 

Irvine Spectrum:

Not your typical outdoor mall. They also have a carousel, train ride, and ferris wheel, as well as a shaded play structure for toddlers. It was a fun place to walk around (the frozen treats helped)!

So excited to find a store named after me!

LA Forum:

Mommy and Daddy had a date night and went to the Mumford and Sons concert! Thanks to Goo-Ma, Ma-ma and Yeh-yeh for babysitting!

Long Beach Aquarium:

Since we got family passes at our last visit, we just had to come back one more time. We spent lots of time at the touch pools, and of course had to feed the lorikeets. Colin was fascinated by all of the fish tanks. There were multiple summer camps visiting at the same time, as I observed, "it's so field trippy here."

Huntington Beach:

We had a blast building sand castles and chasing the waves! 

UCLA:

On our last night, we headed to West LA for dinner at Mommy's favorite California Chicken Cafe. We had some time to kill before starting our night drive home, so we ended up at the UCLA campus, hoping to buy some Bruin gear. Turns out the bookstore was closed already, so we ended up just running around campus. For whatever reason, Colin and I were really enjoying hamming it up for the camera, so lots of pictures were taken. It was a great way to end our vacation!