Tuesday Virtual Vacation

Inspired by dogsburger.

I decided to join in on the escape!

First Swing

DT had his first swing today! He liked it!


LT wanted to get in the swing, too. He really had a great time, even though he looked a little big. He was saying, "No daddy, don't push me too high! Mommy you look small from high up." Funny guy.



They even went on the teeter totter.


From 3 years and 7 months ago...

ZooZooZoo

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?

Grandma and her favorite animal! No, not LT!



DT likes it, too!


Peacock? (They had these up for all different animals, so fun!)


Riding the Grizzly!


In case anyone was interested, the new barriers were all up for the tigers/lions since the tiger, um, incident from Christmas. Also new barriers at the polar bears.

Strawberries!

Some commenters were wondering where all the strawberries went... we ate them! All of them! Some were used in recipes. Most were just eaten straight.

Here is one recipe we followed:


And the most delicious result!


One other recipe we made:


Rather decadent, but oh so delicious!

Strawberry Pickin'

Well I've gone back to work. That will explain the lack of posts.

We did have some lovely visitors last week - Grandma & Grandpa! Grandma is still here giving DT & LT lots of love and attention.

We did manage to get in one fun day outing while Grandpa was here. We went strawberry picking down by Santa Cruz along Highway 1, overlooking the ocean. It was beautiful!

Running to get started


TT shows off a perfect specimen


Grandpa proves to be an excellent picker


Tasting the goods (this was allowed)


DT & I pose with the fruits of TT's labor


This berry farm also sold tea, coffee, lemonade, pastries, a most delicious loganberry truffle, and lots more in their farm store. They have a famous "honor til" where you just pay yourself for what you bought. It was very nice. I see return trips in our future! Kiwi U-Pick starts in Decemeber!

Vacation Video

LT Swimming on the first day


The last day - he got more fearless everyday!




Even DT was learning new things on this trip.

We're back

In case anyone noticed we were gone, we were on vacation!

We went to Puerto Vallarta and had a great family trip. Here is a teaser picture until tomorrow when I have time to upload some video...



Can you believe it? I did it! I finished their outfits while DT could still fit in it! Just in time for the trip.

Mom-mobile

Well, I gave in and got a mom car. Sort of. A sporty mom car. A mini-minivan. I think they call it a crossover? It does have 3rd row seating, so we will be able to get 6 in. I will have to rearrange the carseats, though, for that. Probably put LT in the back row behind DT. Plenty big, though, for everyday and just the 4 of us.

I don't know if it's just because my old car was 8 years old and economy, but wow! This car feels so luxurious!

My favorite feature is built-in bluetooth. Perfect because, you know, here in CA we have to be hands free cell phone while driving now.


LT got a new carseat, too.

DT seems to enjoy the ride!


And here's DT enjoying LT's heart pillow landing on his tummy yesterday...

Visitors

Possibly LT's most favorite person in the whole wide world came to visit ... cousin JT! They were a bit crazy. :D

Dueling airports


A sprinkler ball series.

One boy

Second Boy

Three Boys


This was followed by some relaxing in the hot tub. LT never stops swimming now.


And the little one got to enjoy the exersaucer for the first time.


The first weekend we were here we went to a birthday party and one of the other moms asked how often they saw each other (LT & JT). When we said just a few times a year, she couldn't believe it because they seemed so close! After that birthday party, we had a preview of LT's birthday party back at our house. I think BLTSr took some video on the other camera, so I'll have to download that...

100 Days

Happy 100 days DTT!

100 days has gone by so fast and yet, it seems like you have always been with us. I love watching you laugh and smile at your brother's antics. You also love it when Mommy gives you kisses or pumps your legs. You like to grab toys now and put them in your mouth - if your hand isn't already in there! You smile and laugh easily. We love you!

I took DT in for his picture to celebrate. Do you know which 100 day old baby is which?




***

An aside:

Mel wins the blog contest! You all may have been thrown by the sword. I don't think Indiana Jones has a sword necessarily, but he does have a dagger sometimes. LT said he needed a rope to play Indiana Jones, so I asked him if a ribbon would do, and it did. LT hasn't seen the movie, so what he knows is based off what he hears at daycare. It's amazing that he knows the tune and words to the Spiderman and Ironman themesongs and the tune to Indiana Jones themesong, all without hearing the actual songs!

Who is this character?

Here's a bit of a blog contest. Guess who LT is protraying in this "show"! First commenter with the correct answer wins something! (Not sure what yet. :D)

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.