Tour de California, part four and final

So after Legoland, we slept in a bit the next day before heading up to Pismo Beach. It turns out everyone in LA was heading that way it seemed, and traffic was bad all the way to Santa Barbara. Ugh. We didn't get there until 4pm. We met up with B & V and spent a little while on the beach. You can drive on parts of the beach there! The beach was really nice and I think we'll be back sometime. Then we headed to a crab restaurant for dinner to celebrate B & V's 5 year anniversay. (Yeah!)

You choose 3 kinds of seafood for your bucket. We had Opillio crab, Dungeness crab and Slipper lobster tails... Yummy!


LT like the crab & lobster tails at first (he's a privledged 3 year old), but then got into drawing.

It turned into quite a masterpiece! I believe those are cars 3 & 5 on the end...


We headed up to our hotel in San Luis Obispo and closed down the swimming pool. The next morning we hit SLO's big tourist attraction, the gum wall.

OK, that was really gross.

Then we headed up to Hearst Castle. LT did not want to go since there might be dragons at the castle. We assured him that it was really just a fancy house.
Don't you want to swim in this pool?

The house was a little much.

Afterwards, LT said that it was boring and he wished there were dragons.

We said goodbye to B & V and started up Highway 1 and got to see some elephant seals.


We ended up turning around because it was very foggy, getting dark, and Hwy 1 is two lane and very twisty next to the cost. We cut over to the 101 by Paso Robles instead, and made it home at 11PM. Exhausted.

LT keeps saying we need to take another vacation like it. We'll see...

Tour de California, part three

For day three of our Tour de California, we went to New York

Oh wait, that's made out of Legos. That's right, Legoland! Thank you Auntie C for the brilliant idea. We all loved Legoland. I would, for sure, be buying season passes if we lived close. Maybe we got lucky, though, with a not that busy day.

Who is real and who is made of Legos?


Can you tell they are cousins?


This pig statue where we ate lunch was a big favorite



Lucky LT got to ride with Auntie C!


At this point in the day, goofiness is starting to kick in


DT & Honest Abe


The whole Legoland was fun. We could have spent hours looking at the models. The boys especially enjoyed the water are (ok, LT did more that JT maybe), the playgroun and the Lego store, where they picked out bags of assorted legos. TT's favorite part was the famous paintings made out of legos and I liked the models. :D

LT was so tired afterwards, he fell asleep in the booth at In & Out after only a few bites of his cheeseburger!

Thanks Auntie C!

Tour de California, part two

Despite having got up at 5am the day before, we knew we had to be at Disney early, so once again we were up WAY early. We were all down having breakfast in the hotel by about 6:30. Disneyland opens at 8AM, you know, and you have to be there exactly then.

This turned out to be a good move as we were able to get quite a few rides in during the morning.

First up, LT, DT and I went on Astro Orbitor while TT was off figuring out the Fastpass system. The three of us riding this rie was a little nutty. LT sat in front, I sat in the back and held DT down on the seat in between us.

One thing about Disneyland is that most rides allow babies. Seriously.

See, here we are on the Dumbos...


So we did the Astro Orbiters, Dumbo, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (bit of a mistake, LT was terrified, but I couldn't figure out how to leave without riding once we were inside - TT reported DT tried to escape their car as well), LT & TT went on the carrousel, and Casey's Circus Train all within about an hour. Then we walked over to get Fastpasses - Autopia for TT & DT and Space Mountain for me. The way a Fastpass works is that you get a time to ride, so then we rode the railway all the way around to the Toontown, where...

We met Mickey! And LT wasn't even scared!


LT really enjoyed Toontown - here he is in Minnie's house



After Toontown, LT & TT rode Autopia (you drive a car or something like that) and had a good time and then they watched the Star Wars show while I did a quick trip on Space Mountain. LT wanted to ride the submarine, but the line was horrendous. We did the Jungle Cruise next and the Tarzan treehouse (formerly known as Swiss Family Robinson tree house). LT enjoyed the Tarzan treehouse until Indiana Jones had a mock battle with a badguy in the treehouse while we happened to be on there. Meanwhile, I got a leg cramp. By this time we were getting hungry, but decided to go on the Pooh ride first. When it was our turn, LT would not get on because the way it started off was to go into a tunnel. Who designed all their kid rides anyway? We convinced him to go on and at the end he declared it fun afterall. Then we had some lunch, ran back over to the other side to check on the submarine line. Still bad. TT asked the guy if the line ever dies down and he replied, "At 11:50 [PM]." So then we caught the parade, which was great. We didn't have a premium spot since you have to camp out for 1 hour+ for those, but we got a great view from up higher. Then we went on a search for our souvenir - I had promised LT a pencil.

The salesgal suggested we pose DT in the mound of stuffed animals. A little strange perhaps, but I felt it was only polite to do so...


Finally we went back to the hotel for a break around 4:30/5. No one napped, sadly. And then back again at about 7:30. Then we waited in line for the submarine ride because LT really wanted to ride it. It's now the "Nemo" submarine ride instead of the 20,000 leagues under the sea ride. By the time we got off (LT mostly liked it except for the part where the sub goes into a whale's mouth - that was scary), we had just enough time to grab some dinner before the fireworks show. Um, it turns out you have to camp out for like 2+ hours to get a spot for that. We had a mediocre viewing spot and decided to try to get closer and got caught up in 1 way traffic patrols. What? Then we ended up right in between to launching stations, which I thought was great, but LT thought was horrible. So we had to move again. At this point he fell asleep in the stroller (DT was sleeping on me in the wrap) and TT and I were able to enjoy the last few magical fireworks.

Phew! That was exhausting. Sorry for the long recap. I think it was necessarly to give an accurate view of our day. We won't be going to Disney again for a long while, I don't think.

Tour de California, part one

We realized we were in desperate need of a vacation a few weeks ago, and, well, plane tickets were expensive, so we decided on a road trip!

Last Wednesday we set out at 5:40 AM. We made good time with only two stops - the mandatory Starbucks stop and one rest stop - before making it to our first destination a little after 11am.

the The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown LA

LT's on top of the world! Okay, on top of the museum


Let me in the tar pit! Note, not actual mammoths trapped in the pits...


Dire Wolf Skulls


Mammoth skeleton


How do we compare to the Short Faced Bear?



This concluded the educational portion of the trip and then we were off to our hotel in Anaheim. Too bad this involved LA traffic and it took forever. Luckily, I had realized that it is possible to feed a bottle to an infant sitting rear facing behind you in their carseat. It is even possible to pump milk for said bottle while sitting in traffic (or going down the freeway - either way with a handy AC adapter in the car!).

Swim Lessons

I finally remembered to take out the camera at swim lessons.





Big news in DT land: He rolled over!

This momentous milestone was reached on Thursday, July 17 at approximately 9:15 in the morning. Unfortunately, no one witnessed the actual roll. DT was placed on his back in the Gymini, having a ball, and the rest of us were busily eating our breakfast. All of a sudden, TT noticed that something was different - DT was on his tummy! - and we all clapped and applauded. He has not repeated since. He does roll onto his side all the time now, but since his hand is in his mouth, it blocks the roll.

Swimming!

From this weekend at the park pool...




This was after only 1 swim lesson for LT. I can't believe how much more comfotable in the water he is already! Monday's swim lesson was great. One kid finished and the other was absent, so he had the teacher all to himself. He was even going underwater, not just blowing bubbles, but all the way under!

3 boys swimming


DT likes it, he really likes it!

4th of July weekend

We had friends visit for the 4th of July weekend. LT loved the extra attention!

We went down to Santa Cruz on Sunday.

They won prizes

Built a castle island with a big moat

Even Baby took a dip!


It's such a beautiful beach ... you can see TT packing up the sun canopy on the right.

5 Years Ago

Best Day Ever!

Good Fences

We got some new fences yesterday, yeah!

Before



And after!


You can see all the way back to the hot tub down the side yard.


I love how the gate came out! You'll remember the fence by the driveway from the vine removal post. The new fence is MUCH stronger and was needed urgently since Dakota, the Rhodesian Ridgeback who lives next door, is uses that area as her dog run.

And you know how I said I liked matching outfits ...


Courtesy of Tar-jay, $8 each. DT is sporting a 6-9 month outfit. This doesn't bode well for his 3-6 month clothes, of which he's barely worn most of them. He's just growing so fast!

Strike

LT is a natural at Wii Bowling.




And it's only fair to have a video of the little one. I love babytalk! Please pardon my rendition of "Working on the Railroad."



Last night, LT had his first swim lesson. It was the cutest. He did a "monkey walk" across the edge of the pool, he did "shark arms" (like a streamline) while he blew bubbles, he did some kicking... ok, that was about all. I imagine he'll be doing the same for the next few weeks. He was very excited about it and came home to show daddy his talents in the hot tub.