California 2011

One great thing about being back in AZ, is that San Diego is A LOT closer! Since Rob's busiest week is Spring break, and one of the slowest weeks is during AIMS testing (a standardized test here in AZ) we took off in April for a few days. Halle has a couple years left before she has to stick around for it.

We left right after Rob got back from work on Wed. Dressed the kids in PJ's and set off. They watched a movie, and then fell asleep in the car for 1 1/2 hours or so. We got to our hotel about 10:30. We thought we would just carry them into bed, but they were too excited. Plus, our hotel had bunk beds for them, so they couldn't resist playing on them for a bit. They finally fell asleep a little after 11, pretty late for kids who usually go to be at 7:30 at the latest.

The next day we went to Disneyland. We rode a bus over from our hotel, and the kids thought that was pretty great. Halle said, "I can't believe we get to ride a bus! I haven't been on a bus in YEARS!" We thought we could have just done that, and it would have been enough, but we had already bought our tickets online, so we went ahead and went into the park.

The kids were pretty dang excited, especially when the trained pulled up here right after this picture. Roen is pretty obsessed with trains. He kept seeing the monorail and other trains go by and couldn't believe how awesome it was.

Luckily, Cam and Roen were both able to take some naps in the stroller. Cam loves him some naps. At times, he would be begging and diving to get into his spot in the stroller. It became his little comfort spot. Fine with us!

While Cam slept Annie waited for 40 minutes in the line for Dumbo. At least the kids thought it was worth it.

This photo is unedited! Just the natural glow of SoCal, or just two beautiful girls (not the Asian girl picking her nose in the background).


We weren't sure if our kids were going to make it until the fireworks at 9:30. But after doing the last rides they wanted, getting dinner, and stopping for ice cream on Main Street (Halle got chocolate--mental note, get that next time) it was 9 PM anyway, so we staked out a spot and watched the show. We started to leave near the end, caught the shuttle back to the hotel, and our kids finally fell asleep around 11 PM for the second night in a row.

They did really well with being so tired. It's good for parents to remember what you are putting them through for all this fun. We were being patient, but after watching a Mom blow up at her kid in the middle of tomorrow land for changing his mind about something, we made sure to be extra patient. 100 people stopped to watch her yell at her kid, and we ALL new we had those feelings somewhere inside of us, but we had new resolve to keep it in there. So when Roen woke up from a short nap wanting dots ice cream, and Halle wanted a mickey mouse shaped dilly bar, we tried to oblige. After asking Roen 10 times if he was sure he didn't want a mickey mouse bar like Halle, and then trying to find the dots guy, and then he changed his mind and wanted one like Halle's, we just sighed, and went back. Luckily, he did not freak out when it melted enough that it fell of the stick. He just ate what was left, and was fine with it.

The next day we drove to San Diego and went to the beach on Coronado Island. It was a beautiful day, and the sand there is so soft. The kids loved playing in the sand, and a little bit in the water, but it was pretty cold.

Cam couldn't believe we were letting him play in sand, mud, and water. This, I am sure, was his favorite outing of the trip.

On Saturday we decided kind of spur of the moment to do Sea World. It was a lot of fun, and the kids loved seeing the animals, although we were all getting a bit tired it all. Their favorite was the penguins (mine too when I was a kid, and still as an adult, but now it's because it's cool and dark in there).

We left for home straight from there, and got home about 10 PM. This time the kids were so wiped we carried them right to bed with no movement at all. We had a great time, and it was kind of nice to know our kids can do a schedule like this. We've had some nightmare experiences in the past when our kids are sleep deprived. They did really well (and so did we, quite frankly) and we had some great memories.

The only hard thing about living in AZ, is there are not a lot of easy to drive to places from here, so we may be seeing a lot of California...I don't really mind.

Click here to see some more pictures of the trip.