I just looked at this post on my blog and decided it should really be titled the never ending post because I didn't think I'd ever get to the end of it. The title also fits because I didn't think I'd ever finish it.
We got to our hotel late Tuesday night and went straight to bed. We really liked our hotel. We got a 2 room suite. The kids' room had bunk beds and the boys loved that. The rooms were completed separated which Doug and I loved. And both rooms stayed pretty dark in the morning. It was great :)The next day we spent at the hotel playing in the water park. It was a lot smaller than we had expected, but perfect for our kids. Thursday we did one ride at Disneyland and the rest was spent at California Adventure. Friday we spend the entire day at Disneyland. The boys loved the rides. Jordan seemed to like Splash Mountain the best but he says he liked every ride the best. (I don't have a picture of them going down splash mountain because Kenzie chose that moment to run around a corner and I had to chase her. So I missed it...) Jackson liked the tea cups and the Pinocchio whale ride (I don't know what it's called) the best. The only ride he didn't like was splash mountain. Kenzie liked the slow rides. We took her on the Tea Cups twice and she wasn't very happy about it. We stayed and watched most of the firework show, until Coleman started crying. Jordan and Kenzie were so tired that they both fell asleep in the stroller as soon as we started walking and slept through Jack's souvenir shopping until we got back to the hotel.
The Water Park
Kenzie loved this little pool. It was only 1 ft deep so it was perfect for her. She loved jumping in to me. Anytime I would get out she would say "Come in pool?" How could I resist that? She also liked going over to where it said 1FT and saying the number and letters. It took her awhile before she could get them all correct. She also loved just standing in the water and walking around.
Jackson liked the 1ft pool too. I bought the boys these water wings for the trip. They were excited about them.
Jordan with his water wings.
Doug and Jack going down the water slide.
Kenzie decided she wanted to go down the water slide too. Once she started going down though, she wished she hadn't.
Luckily daddy came to her rescue. But just as he was about to grab her she was pushed down the slide by the water. Doug saved her at the bottom and she never went down the slide again.
Jordan loved the slide.
Jordan loved walking around the sprinklers and jumping over them. It's a good thing he wore his water wings while he did it. Who knows what could have happened... He also loved covering the hole with his foot, making the water shoot up extra high when he removed his foot. Doug said he did that for at least a half hour.
Jack finally became brave enough to put his whole head under water. Every time he came out of the water, he would walk over to our towels and wipe his eyes off.
Back at the hotel...
The kids loved watching the Disney Channel in the mornings before heading out.
They especially loved watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
California Adventure
The first few pictures are from Disneyland before we headed to California Adventure for the rest of the day. This one's from the Jungle Cruise.
This was at Tarzan's Tree house (or something like that...) .
Kenzie, Doug, Jordan, and Jackson.
last one at Disneyland
Now on to the real California Adventure pictures...
Going against my normal rules, we let Kenzie have her binky anytime she wanted when she was in the stroller. I was hoping it would help her to take a nap and it did. She slept only a half hour the first day and 20 minutes the next, but that was better than nothing. Plus it made her happy to have it. When she wanted to ride she'd say "binky, blankie, lay down."
This was their first ride. Doug and the boys are in the red one.
There were 2 little splash parks that Kenzie played in while the boys did the rides. She didn't really touch the water much but liked walking around.
Jack loved this lady bug ride. He seems to really love spinning rides. Just like me.
Bumper Cars
Kenzie snacking.
Jordan and Doug
Aren't they so cute? They're watching their big brother riding in the bumper cars.
This was at one of the splash parks.
I was a little nervous about letting my boys ride this ride, especially when they sat by themselves on a bench with Doug behind them. It seemed like it would be too easy for them to fall out. But, thankfully, they survived :)
They got to ride this ride twice in a row. I think they liked it a lot too.
We had a much needed ice cream break. It was so hot that day. It was supposed to be in the upper 90s I think. I never checked to see what the temperature really was though.
The next several pictures are from the Up place. The kids all got little booklets with things they could do to get the same scouting award that the kid was going for in the movie. There were a lot of things to do.
Kenzie and I opted not to walk across this rope bridge. It didn't seem too easy to walk across and I was worried I would fall over with Coleman in my carrier and squish him.
Jordan wasn't afraid of squishing any babies.
They're looking for Kevin's footprint.
Kenzie loved this slide.
There was an award ceremony that we happened to be right when we were leaving. We tried to leave without going, but a worker told us about it in front of our kids and Jack said he wanted to go. So we did. The boys seems to like it okay. It was kind of long though.
Saying
This was at the end of our day there. Kenzie was ready to be done.
But still mostly happy and so cute.
Downtown Disney
We at at a pizza place at Downtown Disney after California Adventure. We also walked around it that night.
Doug wanted me to take a picture of him and the kids in front of the big tire... I think this was in Downtown Disney, but it may have been in California Adventure.
When we first came in we saw a train going by. Jordan said he wanted to ride it so we did. What we didn't know until we were getting on, was that it went all the way around the park and most people just get off at other places. We had left our stroller near the entrance of the train. We debated if we should just get off or ride it around so we could get our stroller. We ended up getting off in Fantasy Land and were going to go back to get it later. But luckily for us, Doug's brother picked it up for us so we didn't have to go all the way back to the entrance :)
I got this carrier a week before we left. I wanted one that I would be able to comfortably wear for long periods of time while we were vacationing and that Coleman would be comfortable wearing. I chose the Beco Gemini, which was a little more expensive than I had wanted to spend, but it had all the features I wanted and I love it. It was really comfortable to wear. And so easy to take off and on. Coleman sleeps really well in it.
Avery and Jackson
Doug took the kids to Mickey's house during one of Coleman's many feedings. The boys were excited to see Mickey.
Kenzie wouldn't stand by him. So Doug lucked out and got to have his picture taken with Mickey too. I was surprised that Jordan was fine with being that close to him.
In Toontown the boys rode a roller coaster 2 times each, which meant Kenzie, Coleman, and I had to wait around for them to stand in line and ride it 4 times total. Luckily there was Chip 'n Dale's Treehouse close by. Kenzie made Jack go in it with her over and over again. She just loved coming down the stairs at the exit of the tree house. When Jack was riding the roller coaster she had Jordan come with her.
This is the roller coaster. It was another favorite ride for both of them.
During the last half of our waiting time we went to Goofy's Playhouse which had this slide and tunnels and a house and other things for the kids to play on. Kenzie loved it here.
This is inside Goofy's Playhouse.
I made Jack take a picture in the jack-o-lantern.
Then he requested that I take a picture of him sitting on top of it.
While visiting Goofy's playhouse we saw Goofy walk by and Jack wanted to take a picture with him. It was shortly after we had gone into the play area so it was a little hard to convince Kenzie to come with us, but I did it. I didn't force her to take a picture with him though.
Back at the hotel.
We found out that Saturday mornings don't have good shows on for little kids on the Disney Channel. The kids were disappointed they couldn't watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I think Doug might have put Yo Gabba Gabba on for them from the computer for them to watch while we packed up. We watched that show for the first time in San Diego and the kids loved it. Now if you sing "there's a party in my tummy." All of them will often say "so yummy, so yummy" like they do on the show.
Kenzie was tired after only getting about 9 hours of sleep the night before and not having very good naps that last 2 days. You'll see in the next post how that lack of sleep affects her happiness.
Jack likes to sit in the shade. He's a true Washingtonian :)
Kenzie loved playing in water filled buckets and was often requesting them to be refilled.
Tyler and Jason buried Landon in the sand. Then Tyler stuck a bucket over his head and told Jackson (who hadn't seen them burying Landon) to go get the bucket for him. He went and got it. He didn't notice Landon until Landon said "boo!" He was pretty shocked to see a head there. They asked several of the other cousins to do it too. We have a video of Jack's response, but I have to figure out how to edit it to make it shorter before I can post it, if I decided I want to...
Jordan wanted Doug to make him into a snake.
Avery, Kenzie. Jack, Jordan. I love seeing all their different dancing styles.
