California Adventure

On Wednesday, we headed back to Anaheim to go to California Adventure (it's right across from Disneyland). It wasn't nearly as crowded as it was on Monday which was great for us because we got to walk right onto almost every single ride.

Emma and Jackson got a break from waiting for all the "big kids" to go on their rides. There was a whole area just for the little kids to play. There were slides, climbing walls, rope ladders and all sorts of fun things for them to do. Emma and Jackson had a good time racing each other down the slides.

There was also another area by the bigger rides for the kiddies to play as well. Emma and Daddy went "surfing" while they waited for everyone to go on the rides. We had to literally pull the kids out of here when we left.

Next on the list of things to do was face painting. We took both Emma and Levi over to have their faces done up. Emma really wanted a big dinosaur but we talked her into the princess look. Amazingly, she held still pretty good. She didn't really like the paint right around her eyes but she was really excited to be wearing "makeup".

The before and after pictures.








My favorite ride was the new Toy Story ride. They gave you 3-D glasses and a lazer gun...need I say more??? You got to ride around in a car and shoot at different scenes with Toy Story characters in them. I really liked it because I got the highest score out of all our group and I was holding Lucas in my lap the entire time!! The trick is to just keep pulling the trigger and not really aim, you'll hit something eventually....

We also took Emma to see the Playhouse Disney live action show. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy were all in it along with the Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Winnie the Pooh, Darby, Tigger and Roo. It may not sound like a lot of fun for all you adults out there but Emma loved it. She sang and danced through the whole thing.

Lucas is amazing! His two favorite views this week have been the inside of his eyelids and the inside of the stroller. He has had a couple of rough times but for the most part he has been great!! Levi was Lucas' buddy every night on the way home from wherever we were. He would sit right next to Lucas' car seat and hold his hand the whole way home. I hope they will always be good buddies.

A day to relax....

After getting home from Disneyland at 11 pm the night before, we decided to take a day and just relax. We all woke up late and had a big breakfast together (thank you Stacey). Then Grandpa Oz had to get his Costco fix for the week. A couple hundred dollars later, almost everyone headed down to the beach. Lucas and I stayed up at the condo because our friends Kat and Charles were coming for dinner. Plus it was a little cold and I didn't want to have him out in it for the third night in a row. The kids had a blast playing on the beach. Emma told us that her favorite thing today was building a sand castle with her cousins. Grandpa Oz even joined in the fun and took a turn flying Milo's new kite.


It was so nice to have a day where we got to just hang out and not really have an agenda. Tomorrow, we are headed back to Disneyland (well actually California Adventures) so we will be on the go all day again. Isn't that what a family vacation is all about?

Disneyland!!!!

On Monday, we headed off to Disneyland. We had hoped that we might avoid some of the crowds by going the day before Veteran's Day but apparently there were quite a few other people who thought the same thing. The lines weren't too bad. They had started to decorate for the Christmas season so there were a few things here and there with winter things on them. Emma was so excited to see a real castle. Of course, Disney knows what they are doing and there is a princess shop right behind the castle now. We got pretty lucky and made it out of the shop with only 2 items (it did cost about $35 for those 2 things but it could have been much worse, trust me).


After a few rides, we headed over to the Princess Fantasy Faire. We got there just in time for the Royal Coronation Ceremony. Emma was in heaven when Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White came out on stage and started to dance. She was even more thrilled when they came into the audience and danced with all the little girls. Emma got to dance by Sleeping Beauty. We also stayed for storytime with Cinderella. It was cute because we had been up in the gift shop (of course) when it started so we had to sit on the ground towards the back for the story. By the end of the story, Emma had made her move towards the front and was almost sitting in Cinderella's lap.

I really wanted Emma to meet the princesses, so we stood in line for almost an hour to see them. Michael and Lucas went and sat on a bench to wait for us where Michael apparently got hit on a few times (he told them all that I had died in a tragic accident). I have to say that even though it was a pretty long line that it was totally worth it. We saw Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Mulan. Each princess took as much time with the girls as they wanted which is why the line was so long. Needless to say, we had to drag Emma away from there kicking and screaming.

After bribing Emma with all sorts of things, we went to Mickey's Toontown where Emma got to ride on her first roller coaster with Daddy. She loved it!! I think that if She was tall enough, she would go on the Tower of Terror too. We also got to see Minnie Mouse (Minnie had to leave as soon as we got in line) and we got to explore Mickey Mouse's house (our camera started acting up so we didn't get any pictures with Mickey but don't worry because we'll be back).



Once again, Lucas was a trooper through all of this. I have to say that he is an AWESOME baby!! He got a little sick of being in his car seat after a while but for the most part, he was all smiles. He's such a cute kid!! Of course with parents like his, how could he not be.

Sea World

Get ready for ALOT of posts the next few days because we are on our family vacation in Southern California (wait a minute....isn't that where we live???) All of Michael's family came in from all over. Pete and Stacey flew down from Oregon with their four boys (Milo, Max, Levi and Jackson), Grandpa Oz came from Salt Lake and Matt flew in from Chicago. Today was our Sea World day. So let me ask you...if you are going to be outside all day and it's overcast, rainy and in the 60's what is the first thing you would do?? Why get wet of course!! As soon as we got there, we all went on Journey to Atlantis. It's like a big log ride with a giant splash at the end. We were all pretty soaked by the end of it. Emma and Lucas were a little too small for the ride so they got to hang out at the aquarium at the entrance for the ride.






Next we went to the kiddie playground to let the younger ones get a chance to play. Emma loved the ride that spun around and around even though I was sure she would hate it. She later told Daddy that it was her favorite thing at Sea World.







After that, we headed over the the Shamu show. Since it was cold, we didn't want to get all wet (I don't know what the hesitation was since we were already wet) so we sat pretty high up. The whales were awesome. It was so much fun to watch the kids faces and how they lit up when they first saw the whales come out. Emma's face lit right up and she had a HUGE grin. I think those trainers must be pretty brave to jump into a tank full of orcas. They were rather large and in charge!!
















Then we headed over to the dolphin habitat just as they were starting feeding time. The kids all loved feeding the dolphins their raw, slimy fish. The boys were brave enough to even pet the dolphins on their noses but Emma was worried that they would bite her fingers.








Perhaps the other big highlight for Emma was when we went back to the play area and we got to see a bunch of Sesame Street characters. Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird and Zoe were all there. Emma was in HEAVEN!!! I thought for sure that Jackson would be stoked to see Elmo since we bought him an Elmo doll but I guess that meeting a cartoon character in real life is a little scary when you're only two because Jackson freaked out and didn't want anything to do with Elmo.

Just so no one thinks Lucas was left out of the loop on all this, he was either eating or asleep at most of our stops. The poor guy was freezing by the end of the day.









So you may ask, what does a little three year old girl do at the end of an exciting day like this one? Fall asleep on the way home...

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"Mommy, come help!!"

I know, I know, three posts in one day is kind of odd, but I have to add this one too. The other day I was upstairs getting the kids clothes for them when I heard Emma say, "Mommy, come help!!" I came downstairs to find Emma trying to change Lucas' diaper. Luckily I had just changed him so it was a dry diaper. She had it completely off and was in the process of wiping his bum. She was so proud of herself. I was just glad that nothing leaked. :-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone!! Emma was Cinderella this year (her favorite princess) and Lucas was our Doctor Boy. I couldn't get Emma to look at the camera but she was adorable.

Mixed-up Halloween Dinner

For our Young Women's activity on the 29th, we had a mixed-up Halloween dinner. The menus were CRAZY!! For instance, on the menu it said Dracula's Blood but what you really got served was salsa. There were 12 different items including silverware. The girls had to number each item 1-12 to place their "order" but had no idea what they were ordering. So for the first course, one of them got tacos (crunchy brains), a fork (devils pitchfork) and cotton candy (spiders webs). The food came out according to how they numbered their menus. The girls had a lot of fun with it. We decorated the room with a few Halloween decorations (spider webs, a bubbling cauldron and black flowers) and gave them witches hats to wear. While we were getting everything ready, I gave the girls some crepe paper and told them to wrap themselves up like mummies. It was really cute and they both told me later that it was the best Halloween party they had been to. Now that is a compliment from a teenager if I have ever heard one!!