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Friday, August 24, 2012

Another Cali trip post?

Yes, another post about our trip- but don't worry, we're done with Disneyland.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

After 5 days of waking up early and walking all day, the kids got a break of sleeping in and wearing slippers. :)

We leisurely and dreadfully checked out of our Anaheim hotel- sad because our days at Disneyland were done. BUT, we also knew we still had half of our trip to still look forward to!

On our agenda for today was to eat a restaurant featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-in's and Dives: Paul's Coffee Shop.

We found it, and boy are we glad we did!

Garrett and Cade enjoyed biscuits and gravy

I had a loco moco and mom had the special Korean meat. Everything was soooooo delicious!

So one thing to note is that by this point in our trip, Kenny was VERY sleep deprived. She was antsy and cranky; it slowly started in Disneyland, and got worse and worse. Can't blame her, but it made shopping and waiting with her difficult. But, when she was crying or whining, she got all sorts of FREE things from people! In Disneyland she got pins and at this restaurant the sweet Asian lady gave her a little hamster toy.

We stopped off at IKEA! Oh boy, we had fun shopping and drooling. So many fun things for the home, but no room to bring it home.

The kids enjoying their $1 cone! I know...$1!!!

Sibling love. We'll have to keep this one for their teenage years

My cousin Thomas and his fiance, Thao, graciously invited us (or did we invite ourselves!?) to stay at their condo. So, a short 40 min drive north and we were in LA

We haven't seen Thomas for a year and a half, but that didn't stop the kids- they loved him!

Thomas took us swimming in their pool for a bit. Cade loved it!

Kenny not so much...

...and decided hiding under the towel would prevent us from making her go swimming! :)

We had dinner that night with Thomas and Thao and our bestie friend from Maui, April! They took us to a fun Italian restaurant with delicious food!

We spent the night catching up with everyone and rested for the long day ahead of us...

Thursday, July 26, 2012

LA --> SAN JOSE ROAD TRIP!

Our van was packed! Traveling with two kids isn't easy- car seats, strollers, snacks, extra clothes, entertainment... we had everything you could think of!

Garrett, Thomas, and I agreed to break the 6+ hour drive into segments and take turns driving, but they did it all! I bet it's because they didn't want to squish themselves in the back!

Cade's silly face at the start of the road trip

About an hour into our trip, we passed Six Flags- Garrett and Thomas ooohhed and awwwed at the roller coaster

Cade sat in the way back with me, while Kenny sat in the middle with Gammie. We had both our iPad and portable dvd player equipped with battery power to last!

Both kids were sooooooooo good. Kenny slept about half the drive. Cade amazingly played with this stinkin' yellow balloon and his toy semi truck for 90% of the time! He had fun just tying it on the truck and looking out the window at the vehicles passing us.

Mountains on the left side...

pastures on the right... this was our view for most of the trip

Lake and dam close to Gilroy, CA

Lunch at In N Out was a must!

About 10 minutes away from Gilroy outlets, Garrett must've been having "cabin fever"! He took Kenny's doll and started lip singing and dancing with it!

We made it from LA to Gilroy in a little over 6 hours. We stopped and shopped at the outlets for a couple hours, then drove up to San Jose (about 30 min north). We found a cute Japanese sushi place for dinner- again, Kenny was a bit fussy, but the waitress bribed her with candy!

Our goal was to be in San Jose so we could meet great grandma, great grandpa, Uncle Les and Aunty Jocelyn who were flying in that night: SUCCESS!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

California Trip: Part 5: Last day @ Disneyland...

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Disneyland Day 3 of 3

By our last day at Disneyland, we were pooped! It was our 5th day of walking around so all of our legs and feet were sore! We decided to let the kids sleep in a bit and agreed to start later and try to stay all day- no nap breaks!

We didn't have too many plans for the day. We agreed to start on the California side and do rides the kids liked, then half way through the day, make our way to the Disneyland side.

Cade was big enough to ride these bumper cars on the California Adventure side. Kenny was 1/4" too short so had to just watch from the outside. :(

We all rode the Zephyr- the kids practiced putting up their hands like a roller coaster!

We were actually surprised at how affordable food was inside the park. We ended up eating inside at various places because of the convenience and price. We found an Italian area on the California Adventure side and the kids had one of their favorites: spaghetti! Cute bowl huh! Plus Garrett's sweet tooth couldn't resist a brownie kabob! YUM!

Woody!

Duffy! Who? Mickey Mouses' stuffed teddy bear... not as famous, but still cute.

Another thing on our leisurely agenda was to watch the parades. We hadn't seen any yet, so opted to try and find good spots. First was the Pixar Play Parade!

Ha ha ha- on a side note- these are Gammie's legs- full of phiton dots because she was getting shin splints from all the walking! The kids think their bandaids and try to peel them off!

Back to the parade- it featured the Pixar movies and characters. It was HOT, so the floats all sprayed water as part of their attraction.

Jellyfish and pufferfish from Nemo

Heimlich from A Bug's Life- so creative and cute!

The dog from Toy Story

The kids were hot and tired at this point, but we ventured on! We rode Tow Mater again before one of them fell asleep.

There's a neat play area in the wilderness side of California Adventure. The kids had fun running around and stretching their legs

We decided to walk over the Disneyland side to catch another parade- it was already early evening and we spent longer on the Cali Adventure than we anticipated.

One thing that irritated us about the parades is that people can be quite inconsiderate. You really have to hold your spot and not budge. We were a little annoyed at people who were in the front and didn't sit down and those who squeezed and nudged their way into the smallest little gaps! AGH! Poor Cade and Kenny had their views blocked several times by adults who pushed their way in front of them!

Alright- back to happier things...

Garr and Cade riding the crazy cars one more time.

The rest of the night we walked around and enjoyed the ambiance and did a bit of shopping through the stores. Oh, and we got our traditional silhouette portraits of the kids!

Cade! (ok, not really- it's the Arcade sign)

Bye Disneyland! Wow, three days go by fast when you're having fun and making memories! Cade is already collecting coins around the house for his next trip!

Monday, August 20, 2012

California Trip: Part 4, Disneyland California Adventure!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Disneyland Day 2 of 3

We will try not to bore you with too many pics and info. For our second day, we decided to dedicate it to the California Adventure side. Garrett and I had visited it back in 2005 when it was relatively new. In June, they opened a new Cars Land area so it was PACKED! We used our RideMax to plan our day, but didn't feel as accomplished as Disneyland. We had to wait on rides significantly longer.

Started the morning on Luigi's Tires- nearly an hour wait. This ride is sorta like a HUGE air hockey table- you sit in these tires that float when the air is pushed through little pukas in the floor; in order to turn, you have to lean in the direction you want to go. Not sure if it was worth the wait. :(

To add to the ride, there were large beach balls you could throw

Cars Land looked just like the movie! Here's Sally's Cozy Cone Motel

Lightning McQueen!

Tow Mater

It was funny because there was someone in the cars controlling pre-recorded sayings or the car noises. We watched them scare a few people who were unsuspecting.

As you can tell in most of our pics, we have to just settle for 3 of the 4 of us smiling and looking at the camera. The large Ferris wheel in the back has two types of cages- one that moves along a oval loop and the other that just stays put. We opted for the one that stays put!

Garrett wasn't too keen on being so high up and looking out. Cade loved it!

Caught a pic with Gammie! Kendyll making her shaka!

Donald Duck- all of us smiling, but looking at the wrong camera.

A Bug's Life character

Back to Cars Land for Tow Mater's Junkyard Jamboree- the kid's FAVORITE ride on the California Adventure side.

You sit in the trailer and it spins you- but not round and round like the tea cups. It swings you and sorta swings you back because of the centripetal force

These videos of the kids on Tow Mater's ride are my favorite- their smiles are classic! They make me so happy that we went to Disneyland!

Stanley's statue- he's the "founder" of Radiator Spring (the town in Cars the movie)

Red the Fire Truck- yes, Cade is sleeping!

For the 2nd day, this stubborn little one didn't want to sleep during the designated nap time at the hotel! So, of course he feel asleep when we got back into the parks!