Just sometimes...Lincoln likes to over-react to situations. This is no exception. Every Wednesday, Lincoln gets to help by taking the garbage cans in. I think he really was stuck, but the next 3 times he "fell" were less funny.
CALIFORNIA SURPRISE!!!
Dean was "between jobs" for a week. We had the luxury to plan a vacation around the week when he did not have to take "vacation" from the old job or the new job. So we took off to California. I had the boys go on a treasure hunt to find different activities they could do in the car to learn that we were going on a vacation and where we were going. We left the following day. That 18 hours that they knew about the trip seemed like an eternity as I was asked at least every 5 minutes. "When is it going to be tomorrow? Will it ever get here?"
After all the work to find activities for the car, I really just needed these dvd players. They watched HOURS of Cat in the Hat. And anything else brought tears to their eyes. Disney movies really are too scary for these boys.
We made it to Las Vegas on Sunday night! And were we ever happy to be out of the van. This activity ended when Thomas fell off the bed.
Then back in the van to California. This McDonalds in Barstow was disgusting, but it was just what we needed!
We made it to San Diego! Two years ago we were in San Diego and found this Legos store. A year later, Lincoln heard some older boys at church talk about Legoland in California. He was sure he'd been there. So we took him back to his "legoland". They even flew their jets around the store.
We ate at an outdoor foodcourt. The boy were far more interested in chasing pigeons around people's food than eating any of their own.
Our first full day was at the zoo. I will assure you it was a full day. We went on a bus tour and saw more animals than necessary. We had the most fun watching the monkeys play tag.
Lincoln proclaimed this animal as his favorite...Each to their own kid!
Oliver said hello to a gorilla
Even some places to play hide and seek.
We rented this quaint house next to Balboa park. Every morning and evening the boys' only wanted to watch Mater's Tall Tails. Dean obliged.
There was even a park half a block from the house.
Day 2 was Sea World! We never told the boys where we were going. We had Lincoln read the signs as we got to the gate. The best part was we didn't have to answer Lincoln's thousands of questions about what was ahead. And there were no expectations from the boys.
Crowds were pretty small, so we could take our time at most places seeing most exhibits. We let them just play on these bounce house things when we first got there.
We got to pet some fish and sharks at the entrance. After a day of watching exotic whales, hundreds of penguins and sharks, Lincoln only wanted to say good bye to his best friend "fishy fish".
The rides where tricky with 2 adults and 3 kids when they required adults to ride with the kids. We just borrowed a few people in line.
The boys liked the Killer Whale show
The pet show was less entertaining, but it was a break from walking
And would you know it, an exhibit of penguins outside in San Diego, so close to their natural habitat.
There were plenty inside too
But the best part of the penguin exhibit was the hundreds of stuffed penguins for your buying pleasure, or in our case, for your cuddling pleasure.
Both Oliver and Lincoln said their favorite show was the Dolphin show
After Sea World, we were so close to the beach, we just had to go see it. It was a chili evening, but Oliver wasn't afraid to check out the water!
We picked up some pizza and played tag at the park
Day 3 was no exception to adventure! The boys were clearly exhausted from the previous 2 days of go, go go. Both Lincoln and Thomas had meltdowns for the history books within the first hour of Legoland, but once we got over those, we had another amazing day at a theme park!
The new Ninjago ride and exhibit was everyone's favorite
While the boys rode a roller coaster, Thomas built quite the line of green legos
This is a piece of Thomas' tantrum. He wouldn't let anyone near him.
There were some very impressive Lego structures!
As I mentioned, the boys had no expectations on this trip so we certainly exceeded them! Who would have guessed that we could pack so much into a trip with a 1, 3 and 5 year old.
On our way out of town, I had envisioned a nice morning at the beach building sand castles. Well, the storm met us at the beach. The boys were troopers and turned over a couple buckets of sand with me.
Dean and Oliver did some serious seagull chasing. Oliver even ran down into the water. A wave knocked him over and he ended the most wet.
Lincoln never left the pile of sand by the boardwalk, but he did a fair amount of digging there.
We headed back to Vegas on Friday night after the beach. Dean found a place with a pool and we got some swimming in that night and the next morning. Then we went to the race track and watched some sports cars be sporty, sat in some Lamborghini's Porsche's etc. and called it a trip!
6 more hours of Cat in the Hat and stops for food, gas and wiggles and we were home...
Back to life, and reality.
I got to go with Lincoln on his first field trip. We went to the Planetarium and I had these six kids under my wing.
Walking over this "freeway" bridge is as normal as drinking water around our house. Only this time Thomas opted out of the stroller for the first time. He couldn't get enough the view.
On President's Day we went up to Layton. We went for a short hike with Holly's family and Jodi's. Hobbs Pond was always the "haunted/scary" down in the Hollow by my house growing up. They have since put in a trail, and there was nothing scary about that place now!
We also had a great visit with GGPa...well the kids really liked the ipad!
Grandma and Oliver really like puzzles. We met my parent's at their house after we had a fun day in Layton, and they had a fun day at Chemo in Salt Lake.
Lincoln worked for months to earn enough money for this Lego set. He was so proud when it came in the mail, and when he got to stay up late to put it together with me to be ready in time for show and tell the next day.
We took advantage of the free zoo day!
Walking home from school one day, we passed a pretty good rollover.
Why else did God create Olives if it wasn't to play with at dinner time?
Dean had some work to get done on the house, so I used the excuse to get out and see my Grandma. She'll be 90 in a couple of months, but she never seems to get older! She's still got her stacking skills!
Sadie Duncan had her 3rd birthday party at the church. These boys danced the night away and Oliver won the musical chairs game...you can bet he had a jealous older brother!
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