Goodbye 2008

Our family finished out this year with quite a bit of fun. After an enjoyable Christmas in San Jose (with my parents visiting), we headed down to southern California for a mini vacation. On Sunday we took a leisurely drive to Disneyland, stopping at San Miguel Mission, Solvang, and The Getty Center along the way. The stop at San Miguel was unplanned, but very valuable to us as we learned that a mission is a GREAT place to stop on a Hwy 101 roadtrip when the kids need some time to get out and stretch. Caleb enjoyed it so much that he asked to stop at "that old church" again on the way home. Solvang was nice to see (though we only drove through), and we really enjoyed the Getty Center for the brief time we were there. It's definitely a place we need to visit again when we have more time.

We spent Monday at Disneyland... along with everybody and his brother. It was extremely crowded, and therefore too difficult for us to do much. The lines were quite long and the streets were so jammed with people that it wasn't even fun to walk around and enjoy the sights. A bit disappointing for us, although the kids still had a good time. We took the monorail to Downtown Disney in the afternoon to get away from the masses. We ate an early dinner at Rainforest Cafe, and that worked out perfectly! The kids did great, the food was decent, and our friends Daniel, Mika, and Mia joined us mid-meal! It couldn't have worked out better. We crashed with exhaustion Monday evening and decided to spend Tuesday first at Downtown Disney and then relaxing and checking out the area. It was one of those trips where we felt like we didn't "accomplish" a ton, but one where we truly enjoyed being together as a family. That's what it should be about anyway, right?

Matt already posted some pictures on facebook, maybe someday I'll add more here. But it was a great way to end the year. Looking forward to 2009!