We have had some beautiful almost spring-like weather this past week. DH was finally able to take down the Christmas lights on Saturday and we let Baby K crawl around on the grass while we were out there. She had a GREAT time!! She really liked touching the snow that we have left in the yard and playing with the bark mulch in the flower beds.
Then Luke got tired of chasing after her so he brought out the snow sleds and put her in one and gave her a lightsaber. What a nice brother!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Enjoying the weather!
Checking out Dad
One night my husband was holding Baby K before bedtime. He put his finger in her mouth to see if she had anymore teeth coming in (she still only has the one) and while he was doing that she decided to check out dad's teeth as well.
Then a few days later she became fascinated with his ear...
Checking things out
Baby K has really been taking notice of things around her lately, more so than she ever has before. We were at my parents' house for dinner the day after we returned from our California trip and she really noticed Molly, my parents' dog, for the first time. She was trying to follow Molly around the house and whenever she stopped Baby K would try and crawl up to her to touch her. At one point Baby K reached out to touch Molly's tongue that was hanging out. Thankfully Molly is a good-natured dog.
Molly was also checking out Baby K and Baby K wasn't sure what to think when Molly was smelling her feet...
CA trip wrap-up
Unfortunately Baby K was sick on our drive to California and for the first couple of days that we were there. Every night I would start out by laying her down on some blankets on the floor once she fell asleep and then a few hours later she would wake up crying out, "Mama, mama". The first 2 nights she woke up with a horrible cough so I propped pillows up in my bed and slept with her on my chest the whole night so she could be inclined. Once she was finally over the horrible cough I would feed her in the middle of the night and then try and put her back down on the floor and she would immediately wake up and cry out with the most pitiful cry, "Mama, mama" and she would reach for me with both of her arms until I picked her up again. She got to the point where she would feel me trying to pull her off of me to lay her down and immediately she would cling to me harder - I started referring to her as my baby Koala. We were both very grateful to get back home to her bed!
In our hotel room in San Diego, the kids had to take turns sleeping on the floor. The first night Luke and Kitty took the bed and Blondie and M&M were on the floor. Luke had such a hard time sleeping that night for some reason. DH and I were watching some T.V. after the kids were asleep and Luke kept tossing and turning every minute or two. At one point DH had to pick him up and move him off of Kitty. Then when I got up with Baby K during the night he was still moving all around and twice I heard Kitty cry out, "Ow" because he had rolled on her or hit her. The next night was much better (and all of the nights they shared a bed in Anaheim) so I'm not sure what the problem was that one night.
The other problem we had was the night after our first day in Disneyland, my husband woke up in the middle of the night with horrible back pain. Normally I am the one with the back or neck pain so I was a little concerned - especially since I needed his help carrying the kids for the next two days at Disneyland. We think that he just overdid it on our first day and carried Kitty a little too much. So I was very grateful that I had brought the baby sling for me to use with Baby K and we put Kitty in the stroller whenever she got too tired to walk over the next few days. With the help of some ibuprofen DH was able to manage the pain the next day and I am grateful that my neck and back didn't act up with all of the baby carrying I had to do and having to sleep with her at night as well.
All in all we had a really fun time in California. I think it was the right number of days in Disneyland for us and we're really glad that we scheduled in a day where we didn't have to do anything. My husband was pleased with the whole trip and now maybe he will want to go on more. It's nice having the kids get a little older so they enjoy things more and can also help with the younger kids.
Here are some more pictures from our trip:
Like father, like daughter:
My favorite road sign:
Eating lunch at California Adventure:
This is how Baby K spent a lot of her time in line:
Enjoying the necklaces we were given at Disneyland:
Eating dinner in our hotel room:
Finishing off Dad's cup-o-noodle:
At first when I saw these mountains in the distance I thought my eyes were going weird on me. It turns out that they were just a series of mountains that had the same profile from a distance:
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
SeaWorld
Friday we spent the day at SeaWorld, San Diego. The day started out a little cool but then it warmed up nicely. We had a lot of fun watching the dolphin and whale shows. We sat in the soak zone at the whale show because the kids were hoping to get a little wet but we lucked out - Blondie was especially disappointed. Each time the whales splashed the audience and it missed us Blondie would say, "What?!? We didn't even get wet!!" I didn't think the whales did quite as good a job at splashing the audience as the dolphins did. :)
We were going to eat lunch in the park after the whale show but decided to go back out to the car to eat the sandwiches we had brought because the line was incredibly long. After Disneyland we weren't too keen on having to stand in anymore lines. 
After lunch we went to a pet show that featured dogs, cats, pigs and a few other animals doing tricks. After that we went on a few rides that the park has. DH and the three oldest kids went on a water ride and DH really enjoyed watching the expression on Blondie's face as they went careening down the waterfall! Then we went over to some kiddie rides so Kitty could ride some things as well.
Another fun part for the kids was touching the bat rays. They were in a big shallow pool and would come close to the surface and edge of the pool so you could touch them! Unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of them - partly because my camera battery was dying.
When we came out of the penguin exhibit we saw this trainer hand feeding these smaller penguins outside. She said that they hand feed them because the seagulls (see the right side of the picture) are very aggressive and like to steal the food from the penguins, so the trainer is there to protect the penguins from the seagulls. In another area they were selling food for people to give to some sea lions and the birds would fly right up and steal the fish right out of people's hands when they weren't paying attention.
By the end of the day it started to cool off again and it tried to rain on us. We stayed until the park closed and then on our way back to the hotel it POURED!
Pacific Beach
Thursday morning we checked out of our hotel in Anaheim, CA and drove down to San Diego. It was about an hour and a half drive and we stopped along the way to eat some sandwiches in the car. We had a few hours before we could check-in to our hotel and we toyed with the idea of going on a scenic drive along the coast. In the end we decided to find our hotel first and walk down to the beach. The hotel we were going to be staying at is located almost right on the beach. We just parked along the street and walked down to the water. 
The kids immediately wanted to take off their socks and shoes and play in the water. I took off Baby K's socks as well and she enjoyed sinking her feet into the sand and thought the water was a bit cold, but fun. At one point Kitty was running in the water and fell. Then not too long after that Blondie also fell in the water. They both had sweatshirts or jackets on because it was a cool day. Pretty soon all we heard was whining from the girls because they were wet and cold. It wasn't quite time to check-in to the hotel yet so we drove off to find a grocery store to buy some food at.
After that we checked in to the hotel and just hung out there the rest of the day - resting and cleaning up from the sand. When we made the decision to make this trip out to California we wanted to make sure that we didn't over-schedule ourselves so that we could take some down time if needed. There's nothing worse than trying to force the kids to do things every minute so that they end up not enjoying themselves.
We stayed in a really nice hotel, but it only had a shower so I had to get Blondie and Kitty in the shower to wash all of the sand off of them. The other problem with the hotel was that it only had one big room with 2 queen size beds so the kids had to take turns sleeping on the floor - which they didn't mind too much. We had a small fridge and microwave again so we could eat some meals there in the hotel. The hotel room also had a lot more walking space so it was nice to not have to worry about stepping on everyone and everything in the room.
Here was the view from our hotel room:
M&M and Blondie and I walked down to the beach from the hotel to watch the sun set:
Disneyland Day 3
Our third day at Disneyland we decided to start over at Disneyland then went to California Adventure for a few hours and then ended the day back at Disneyland (since it is open 2 hours longer in the evening). The day was nice once again and it seemed to be much busier than our previous 2 days. We started out the day by trying to go to the Jedi Training Academy for Luke. This is one thing that he had been talking about since he knew we were going to Disneyland. The problem with the Jedi Training is that you have to go and wait with a bunch of other kids and hope that the Jedi Master picks you as one of the lucky trainees. Luke was a little bit nervous and reserved when we got there and we had a hard time trying to get him to act like he really wanted to be picked. In the end, we were kind of in a bad spot and he didn't get picked. 
So we left the area and took the kids on a few rides, including the Tea Cup ride finally, and then headed back to the training area again to give it another try. We debated on whether or not to go back but decided that Luke would be disappointed in the end if we didn't try. 
Luckily this time we were able to get Luke a little more excited about the event and he took off his sweatshirt that was covering up his Star Wars T-shirt. This time he was picked! We were so excited for him. They took him over to get a cloak and a training lightsaber and then they went through some training exercises. The Jedi Master that was in charge was absolutely hilarious. There were a couple of smaller kids that weren't quite doing what they were supposed to be doing and the Jedi Master was just cracking jokes left and right. Originally DH was planning on taking M&M to some rides during the training but then he decided to stick around and watch and he's glad that he did. 
When they were getting towards the end of the training, all of a sudden some storm troopers came down into the training area and then the whole platform raised up to reveal Darth Vader and then Darth Maul joined them. Luke was a little bit concerned at first as to what was going on. They herded the kids over to one side and then got them into two lines to fight either Darth Vader or Darth Maul using the moves they had just learned. (We were glad that we didn't stick around to watch the previous session because it would have ruined the surprise for Luke.)
Luke got to face off with Darth Vader and overall had a lot of fun. He was a little nervous being in front of so many people but he couldn't stop talking about the experience for the rest of the trip!
After the Jedi Academy was over we got some lunch and then Luke and DH went off to do some rides while the girls and I went to get in line to see the Disney Princesses. I think this was the longest line we ended up waiting in the whole trip - about 40 minutes. The very first princess we got to see came up to Kitty and asked if she wanted to get a picture taken with her. Kitty turned to me and asked, "Mom, who is she?" It was Ariel from the Little Mermaid, but Kitty didn't recognize her because she was wearing a green dress and no flippers. After that we got pictures with Belle and Cinderella. 
After this we tried calling DH and Luke on the radio and there was no response. So we rode on the Alice in Wonderland ride and then tried calling again with no response. So we walked towards the entrance of the park and visited a few stores so the girls could pick out something to buy. Still no response from DH so we started walking back towards the main plaza of the park and found DH and Luke who had been trying to call us as well. It turns out that the secrecy channel had been changed on the walkie-talkie I had so there was no way we could contact each other - that is definitely one thing that we need to check before we split up next time. I think one of the kids had been playing with them that morning before we left the hotel and changed the settings.
Next we walked over to California Adventure and went on a couple of rides again over there and then ended the day back at Disneyland to repeat a few rides there as well.
Disneyland Day 2
On our second day we spent most of the day at Disney's California Adventure up until the park closed at 6 p.m. It was a much warmer day and we ended up renting a locker to store our sweatshirts and jackets in so we wouldn't have to carry them around with us. We started out by going to the Muppets 3-D movie and then the Monsters Inc. ride. Next we went over to the Hollywood Tower of Terror and since DH went on the one in Disney World and I couldn't because I was pregnant, he had me take the kids on this one. Blondie was tall enough to go on this so she decided to come with us while Kitty and Baby K stayed out with their dad. There was no line at all so they took us right in. I was a little concerned about the kids because I wasn't sure what to expect from the ride. Luke was acting especially nervous so I sat between him and Blondie. The kids were absolutely terrified during the ride. They rode up in down in the elevator with silent, open-mouths. Afterwards Blondie said it was a fun ride but M&M and particularly Luke didn't like it at all.
After the ride we met up with DH and the little ones at the Bug's Life part of the park and went on a bunch of fun rides over there. We also went to a 4-D show called "It's Tough Being a Bug" which had some scary parts for the kids - like spiders coming down from the ceiling, hornets "stinging" you in the back and bugs crawling on the seat. Next we ate lunch in the park and then we split up and I took the 3 little girls to a Playhouse Disney show while DH took M&M and Luke on California Screamin' and a couple of other rides.
Then we met up again and I went on California Screamin' with M&M and Luke while DH took the younger kids on the Carousel. That roller coaster is crazy! Instead of starting out with a slow climb up a big hill to get speed it uses some type of propulsion system to start the roller coaster out from a dead stop to 55 mph in 4 seconds! Luke loved the ride but M&M wasn't sure about going on it with me for her second ride. Next we went on the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride where you play a bunch of different carnival type games wearing 3-D glasses. Each person has a toy cannon that you shoot at targets and try to get the highest score. The kids really enjoyed this one and Baby K was allowed to go on it with us.
We did the carousel ride again with everyone and then headed over to some more rides and then sat down too wait for the Pixar Parade (the only parade going on in either park during our stay). After that the park closed and we headed over to Disneyland where we got some cotton candy and then went to find a place to sit for the Fantasmic! show. We were able to get pretty good seats - on the ground. 
The show is set up very differently than Disney World because at Disney World there is a whole amphitheater devoted just to the Fantasmic! show. At Disneyland it just takes place at the water front where Tom Sawyer's island is and the only seats are on the ground. Kitty ended up sitting on DH's lap to see the show and Blondie sat on our backpack - there were a couple of taller people in front of the kids. They really enjoyed the show and then afterwards we walked back to the hotel and DH and M&M went out to get pizza for dinner.
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