Orange County

When we left San Diego, we headed up Pacific Coast Highway 1 to Orange County:

 

It was beautiful but it was crowded. We drove through Laguna Beach on to Newport Beach where we stayed:

 

 

Thank goodness my parents rented villas outside of the city so it wasn't crowded where we were:

 

 

My parents joined the Marriott Vacation Club so honestly I didn't know what to expect since we had never traveled with them before but the property was beautiful. It was built up on a cliff over looking the ocean, in fact here was the view from our porch:

 

 

It was a pretty big property so they had 3 pools, tons of fire pits, grills, a play ground, sand pits, a putting green, etc.:

 

 

 

It was definitely cooler there so a few mornings we let the kids enjoy the property & play outside before we would head to the pool because the water was too cool:

 

 

They even had a movie theater & an indoor kids club where we could take the kids to play for free:

 

 

Don't worry, they also spent plenty of time in the water:

 

 

By 4:00 though I thought it was freezing & would only get in the water if it was the hot tub! I usually try to be the "fun mom" who jumps in & does hand stands, but it was too cold for me:

 

 

As you can see, the kids liked the hot tub, too!

 

The nights were definitely cooler, but we still enjoyed hanging out at the resort. One night they had a magic show, which the kids loved! My sister & I bought groceries so we cooked dinner most nights & stayed in. That is so much easier than trying to go out to eat every meal with that many people. The kids loved eating al fresco. Daniel's aunt even stopped by for dinner one evening & surprised the kids with cupcakes:

 

 

 

Our last night there might have been my favorite because we went out to the fire pit & made s'mores:

 

 

It was the perfect way to end our trip!