California Part II

On Saturday the 26th, we woke up and drove to Carlsbad, CA (to be close to the San Diego Zoo and Legoland). This was an extra-special day because it was also Jackson's 8th birthday.

What better birthday present than....the OCEAN!!!!!!!!!

Jacks loved the waves. I thought he might be scared of the undertow, but he just kept going in deeper and deeper. We had thought we were just going to walk in the sand for a bit and come back later to get in the water...but you can see, that's not quite what happened!

He had a lot of fun digging in the sand and making sandcastles, too.

And somehow, he really thought he was going to catch a seagull. This is about as close as he got.

Daddy did some deep thinking at the beach.

Jackson told Cody not to be afraid of the water because he could always just jump over the waves. Here's Cody testing that theory.

But mainly, both Luke and Cody preferred to stay further back from the water and ponder the waves from a safe distance. They were much more willing to pose for picture when they knew the water wasn't going to sneak up and get them. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. "Roots to grow...wings to fly!"

Both younger boys were able to be more brave about the water when holding hands with Mommy or Daddy. :)

That night, we let our Birthday Boy pick the dinner destination. He chose Outback, and we had a sneaking suspicion that his entire reasoning rested on dessert. ;)

Jacks said it was a little strange to have his birthday away from home, but he loved the beach so much that I think it was worth it.

Coming Soon....San Diego Zoo!

California Part I

Last week, we took our first family vacation (entirely planned, paid for, and attended by just the 5 of us)! We have been looking forward to it for months and months, and we were so excited when the big day finally arrived.

The boys couldn't wait to get on the plane.

When we got to Los Angeles, we drove around for awhile so Luke could get a nap in the car. We drove down Rodeo Drive and ended up in Beverly Hills where we found this beautiful little park.

(With only my zoom lens with me, I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole sign in the shot...so apparently we were visiting Beverl Hills. LOL)

We found an amazing tree that has clearly been there for years and years, and it has initials and little love notes carved into its trunk.

Anthony decided to carve our initials in, too, in celebration of our 10th anniversary.

Happy Anniversary to us!

I love these pictures of Super Luke.

And not only because they remind me of this one, from 2 years ago:

That night for dinner, we went to Universal City and ate at Hard Rock Cafe. Not many pictures from there since everyone was exhausted and we didn't do much besides eat and leave, but Anthony got a cute shot of me and Luke.

On Thursday morning, bright and early, we headed over to Disneyland.

First we rode the Finding Nemo submarine ride, and then Jackson and I hit Space Mountain (per his request, although he wasn't a fan after riding...he said it was too jerky).

We also went on Haunted Mansion (which freaked Luke right out, no surprise), Pirates of the Carribbean (Luke didn't like the skeletons), and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (Luke screamed the whole time). Clearly, Luke did not enjoy the rides where he was in the dark (moving fast, with scary things coming at him LOL).

Luke said, "No more scary rides....or else!"

So we stuck with low-key rides that afternoon, like the Carousel, Casey Jr.'s Circus Train, and It's a Small World.

I had had a fantasy of us all getting Mickey-ear hats with our names embroidered on them, but the boys had no interest whatsoever. So somewhere during the day, I picked up a pair of ears for myself, and Cody dubbed me, "Minnie Mom." :)

That night we stayed for the fireworks show. It got a little bit chilly after dark, so it was a good thing we had our sweatshirts with us. Hard to tell whether the boys liked the fireworks or their little glow-in-the-dark Mickey spinners better...what do you think?

On Day 2, we headed straight for Dumbo as soon as the park opened so we could avoid a big line (people were waiting for 45 minutes the day before).

We then headed over to Thunder Mountain, which was my favorite as a kid. Jackson adored it and wanted to go right back on again (the line was only 5 minutes). Cody was nervous, but agreed to try it, and he loved it, too!

A side note about Cody, here: I was quite anxious, leading up to our trip, about how Cody would do on the Disney rides. He still has some balance and equilibrium issues (he really doesn't like things that spin), and he freaked out on a simple ride at the State Fair back in October. So we were prepared for him to steer clear of any rides that looked fast, bumpy, jerky, or "spinny." Well, that kid sure surprised the heck out of us! His favorite ride there was Haunted Mansion, even though it terrified him, but he LOVED Thunder Mountain and a little Go-Coaster ride he got on with Jackson in ToonTown. Courage in spades, I'm telling you.

The boys blew up some TNT in ToonTown.

And Cody drove Goofy's car.

We were lucky enough to bump into Mickey walking down Main Street.

Before we went to Disneyland, Luke had only a vague idea who Mickey Mouse was. But with all everything there being about Mickey, Luke quickly became obsessed. I think his favorite thing about Disneyland was visiting Mickey's House, where he got to see Mickey at the end...and give him a hug (he told me he also kissed his arm LOL). Awww. ♥

The boys posed in front of Cinderella's castle, which is....pinker than I remember. ;)

We had a wonderful time at Disneyland...I really don't think we could have asked for it to go any better. The weather was perfect, our hotel was close enough that we could walk right across the street for naps, we got to go on every ride we wanted to and waited in only a few long lines. The boys can't wait to go back!

To Be Continued...