Sunday, March 23, 2008

Misty, Misty, Bo-bisty





I traveled all the way to Cleveland... 4 1/2 hours on a plane with a ten-month old and freezing temperatures... why you might ask? Because my best friend Misty lives there and that's what friends do :)

Misty and I were roommates in college and now she lives in Cleveland so her husband can attend Case Western for graduate school. A while ago I was missing her so I bought a non-stop ticket to Cleveland! It was Ernie's Spring Break so we had a great time. We relaxed, watched movies, chatted about life, went out to eat, straightened Misty's super curly hair with my flat iron, shopped a little (mostly at CVS :) and just hung out. It was a great vacation for me :) They had had a huge snow storm just days before we landed so there was snow everywhere and huge snow banks on the sides of the roads. I haven't seen this much snow in a long time! It didn't snow while we were there but it was still cold, the temperature was in the 30's the day we left! I get the Las Vegas weather report on my phone and one day it said the high temperature was 80 degrees :) Quite the contrast. While we were there Grayson didn't want to take his regular naps but I had a good laugh seeing Abby "play" with him. She mostly would politely ask me to get the baby so he didn't ruin her stuff :) She's such a well behaved little girl I was really amazed!

Our little family was really spread out during this week too! Leah was in Blythe, Grayson and I were in Cleveland and Davis and Dad were here in Las Vegas! I don't think we've ever been this far apart!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Happy Birthday Davis!!

Davis turned 3 on March 8th and we took a spontaneous trip to Disneyland!!! My children haven't been to Disneyland before so I thought it was the perfect time to go. Jeff normally doesn't like to do things at the last minute, and he doesn't like to take long trips in the car with the kids, so when I told him I think we should take the kids to Disneyland he said "It's such a long drive!" but I planned everything and he was a trooper and didn't complain :) I think he might have even smiled a few times while we were gone ;)

We drove down Friday night and the kids slept the whole time, which was great. The only complication this gave us was when we got to the hotel the kids had a hard time falling asleep again. Davis even woke up around 3am and said "Let's go, it's time to go to Disneyland." But then we told him we have to wait until the sun wakes up and he went back to sleep :) Grayson kinda had a hard night too because he's so used to sleeping in his crib but we managed :) In the morning we had plenty of time before the park opened so we went to get some fast food for breakfast. Davis and Leah had a little scuffle under the table and Leah came away with a HUGE bite mark on the left side of her back! Davis immediately said he was sorry but she cried for a long time and said she didn't want to got to Disneyland, she wanted to go home! This was really our only mishap.

Once we got to Disneyland everything was great. Davis was so excited to see Buzz Lightyear for his birthday that we went to that ride first. It has the FastPass option so we tried that and it worked out great! The some of the lines were long so we had to do a little line-waiting teamwork to keep the kids entertained. there was an hour wait for Finding Nemo so Grayson and I waited in line while the kids and Jeff rode the Buzz Lightyear ride and then the Jedi Training Show kept their attention until it was time to get on. Davis loved that show because the kids got to fight Darth Vader and Darth Mal, the bad guys!! I asked him later if he would fight Darth Vader or if he'd be scared and he said he'd fight him. I think we watched that show 3 times the kids loved it so much :)






Fortunately our kids weren't a big fan of the rides so we didn't have to wait in too many lines. I think everyone's favorite was Pirates of the Caribean. That's one of the few rides we were able to take Grayson on and he liked it okay. There are a few dips the boat makes and Grayson let out a loud shriek on the last one. It was pretty funny :) When Davis was sleeping Leah and I went on the Tea Cups and she liked it as long as we weren't spinning fast, or at all :) She just liked the idea of a Tea Cup you can play in :) After we rode the Roger Rabbit ride Leah make sure that I knew she did NOT want to ride that again and she hid her face during Buzz Lightyear. She's so quirky :)

My kids loved seeing the characters too. The first character we saw was Minnie mouse. She was in Toontown and there was a line formed to meet her. Davis didn't notice, when he saw her he ran up and hugged her legs! There was pure joy on his face! I called him back and he was disappointed because he wanted to "play" with her. Ahhh, he's so sweet. We also stood in line to meet Mickey but Davis was disappointed again because he wanted to "play with him". He was just so cute! He was also excited to meet Buzz Lightyear but when we saw him Davis had just fallen asleep in the stroller! I was impressed with Leah though; she wasn't scared and happily gave the characters a hug :)



The next day we went to the California Adventure and it was great too!! There was an Aladdin and Jasmine show that's a Broadway caliber musical and it was totally worth the wait! Leah loved it and the genie was so funny!! We saw Woody, Mickey again, and rode the bumper cars in the Bug's Life section. My kids also loved the Grizzly Park, or whatever it was called. There were rope ladders and bridges and caves. It was pretty cool. And there was a small stream, very small, but that didn't stop my kids from getting very wet :) At one point Davis was putting his head on the ground trying to get his hair wet! Luckily it was at the end of the day so we just walked back to the van and hit the road.





Did I mention the weather was perfect the whole time!?!

The drive home was a little longer since we made a detour and met my parents in Needles, CA. They wanted Leah to come spend the week with them so they could get to know her better :) She was so excited to go she just gave us hugs and kisses and climbed in their car, no tears!

This was definitely the most "successful" family vacation we've ever had since everyone had fun and nobody had a melt-down :) My overall analysis is this: my children don't really care for the rides so I could probably get away with just taking them to the park :) We're simple folk.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Davis, Davis, Davis

Today was the comic relief portion of my crazy life :) This morning Davis went to the dentist to have a cavity filled and the medicine they gave him made him sooooo loopy! I couldn't stop laughing at his quirkiness! He was very unstable but insisted on walking out to the van and was stumbling the whole time. I kept trying to hold his had or his arm to make sure he didn't fall but that just made him mad. Every time I would touch him he would stop, yell at me, and take a few steps back to "re-do" the part where I helped him. I did have to stop him so a car across from us could back out. While we were waiting Davis said "we're going to get smushed" :) I really couldn't stop laughing then! When we got home he wanted to eat the applesauce the dentist had given him but it was hard for him to sit up without slowly leaning to one side then the other. Good times.