Summer Vacation: Southern CA

Our family vacation to Southern CA started off slow when LT woke up and couldn't open his eye. We had to take a trip to Urgent Care first and then to the pharamacy to get loaded up with antibiotics. He had pink eye. Luckily we had time to get 24 hours of treatment in before our big visit to Disneyland! We did have to skip our planned stop at the Tar Pit museum.

Disneyland Day One!
Someone is excited!

Or maybe not ... I promise he was smiling right after this picture.

The lucky duck even got to ride one rollercoaster thanks to a generous ride operater who measured him tall. LT wouldn't go on this one, but DT would have loved to ride all day IF he was tall enough.

The whole gang in toontown. I made all the kids shirts. We crashed LT's BFF's family trip to DL. I don't think they minded too much!

Fireworks

In front of the castle the next day ...

LT did like some rides, including Dumbo

and the Teacups

His favorite was BY FAR the Jungle Cruise. We rode it SIX times. We've been playing Jungle Cruise ever since. He has memorized most of the jokes.
Now some silly faces!



The gang was excited to see Brother Bear

The third day of Disneyland - DT loved the carousel, no surprise!

Tom Sawyer's island was fun, too!


Oh, Brother Bear again! Probably because LT's favorite spot in CA Adventure was the Redwood Forest playground.

The next day we drove up to Morro Bay. Since we missed it on the way down, we had to stop at the George C. Page Museum at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in LA. It was fabulous.







LA traffic was not so fabulous and we didn't get to Morro Bay until late! We stayed at a small inn (8 room maybe?) that was just beautiful. We had dinner in their restaurant at 9PM - so late for the boys! But they were lovely and multiple people complimented us on their behavior. Phew!
The next day we explored the town of Morro Bay. We took a boat ride that dropped us off on the sand spit for a while and that was super fun. The boys reminded me of "the Diggingest Dog" story. I think you'll be able to tell why.










Then it was off home. We had such a great time! I think we parents were surprised at how much fun we had. It was really great to be with friends at Disney. I even got to ride Space Mountain 3 times! Yeah!

Grandma's Visit Recap

Oh dear, I am falling behind here. Grandma has been gone for a week already and I haven't put up any more pictures. In the meantime, I turned 33, there was Father's Day, we had a Supper Club, friends visiting from out of town, a "Club DT" dance party, Happy Hollow and more ... no wonder there is no time!

Let's see, after picking Grandma up from the airport, we whisked her over to FairyLand in Oakland. It was interesting, for sure. It was a lot like the older version of Happy Hollow.
Can you spot LT?

And then they both went up in the Ferris wheel. Quite a surprise!


The next day we hung around home and went to the library and then Happy Hollow...
Isn't this a nice shot of the boys and Gma?





Thursday & Friday, we drove to Reedley and had a really nice visit.
The boys LOVED walking the dogs.
LT and Bella

DT and Bella

LT and Billy

Just yesterday, DT saw a dog that looked like Bella and thought it was her!

LT & Auntie J also put on a Fairy Show (I think?) and the Reedley band shell


Saturday, Gma was nice enough to take the boys to a birthday party and then stay with them overnight while we went down to Monterey. Everyone joined us Sunday and we visited the aquarium.

Can you spot our family?


On the last day, DT, Gma and I went strawberry picking and out to lunch in Santa Cruz. And then to a not small fabric store.

DT practiced taking pictures!


We were sad to see Grandma go. On the way to dinner tonight, DT said, "Miss, Grandma." I think they would like her to visit all the time!

3 Stooges

Grandma/Mom came and visited and has gone. Now I need to pick out the best picture to sum it up. In the meantime, we have these...

the Martha Washington


the Cousin It

Good night

We're trying something new tonight ...


We'll see how long it lasts! Maybe the whole night, maybe not.

DC

I have fallen behind on my updates! Not last weekend, but the one before that, DT and I headed cross country to celebrate Jenn's graduation and surprise Mom for her 60th birthday. It was lots of fun. I actually didn't take that many pictures since there were so many cameras there already.

One big hit was the Air & Space Musuem out by Dulles airport. DT loved this! I must admit, I did too. It was very cool. I think that's where I took all my pictures.

Me & my Cuz

With the Grandparents! Yeah!

This is awesome!

Even better when I'm showing something to my cousin!

I never realized how hard it was to get a child and a space shuttle into one picture

Ring-a-ling

Playground

It's been very exciting around our house the last couple of weeks. More specifically, it's been very exciting in the backyard!

Starting out...

Now there's a house!

And a climbing wall, and a slide!

Can't keep the kids at bay any longer

Whoa! That slide is fast!

Breaking in the wall

Loving the slide! And is that someone else trying the climbing wall!?!?

Sure is, and he can do it, too!

Now we have swings!

This car swing is great to have your brother push you in

And all finished!


I'm so happy we decided to get a playset. I have a feeling the boys are going to be spending a lot of time out there this summer! DT gets sad if he doesn't have time to go out to his "playground" before bed. TT usually takes pity on him and lets him get a slide or two in.

Knights of the Backyard

Friday, LT has "Castle Day" in Kindergarten. The boys need knights' tunics, basically a rectangle of fabric with a hole for the head. I had an idea of adding a little extra. I scrounged up some scraps, with the main part left from DT's card table playhouse, and I think they came our very cute. Of course, I had to make one for DT, too. There was one measuring mishap, but luckily I had a second stash of gray felt from LT's panda costume (Halloween #3).

Our Knights had to make due with a lightsaber. I was sure we had some foam swords somewhere, but perhaps we left them at Auntie C's.



LT was enamoured with his outfit and wore it for quite some time while playing in the backyard. DT, not so much. He just wanted the picture and then off with it!

Mother's Day

TT & the boys took me out for a very nice brunch for Mother's Day. I must say TT did a nice job finding one that was free for 5 and under instead of under 5. After our breakfast, we planned to walk over to the art musuem for a special day of music & crafts, only it was pouring rain. So we killed some time on some groovy chairs in the hotel lobby and soon enough it was a beautiful day. I really wanted some pictures of me and the boys. We tried. It's like herding cattle. I imagine, anyways.






Eventually, TT moved on to a more cooperative subject.


Happy belated Mother's Day!

Sandy Boys

We went down to the beach last weekend ... along with everyone else. I wanted to get a picture of the boys in these nice outfits Grandma & Grandpa T got them in Hawaii. This is the best we managed. Okay, we didn't try all that hard. Too busy enjoying the beautiful day.