Disneyland Part II

Second installment in the Disneyland story 2009.

As mentioned previously, our friends the Preston family met us at Disneyland. We had not seen them in over two years, so it was really fun being able to catch up at the happiest place on Earth! (apparently). (Note Luke sneaking into their family pic!)

Madison, their oldest daughter is about 4-5 months older than the boys but at the moment she is much taller than even Adam! She is a very sweet quiet girl. She and the boys got along really well and had a great time together over the two days. I even managed to get some great pics of them together. The Prestons also have a set of twins who are two years old-Jacob and Emily. The little twins really liked the Small World ride. Both Madison and the boys were not so sure about the 3D Bugs adventure. In fact at different parts of the show, the boys and Madison took off their 3D glasses. Adam was not game to go on the roller coasters with me this time around (last year at age 4 both Luke and Adam rode Space Mountain and the Runaway Railroad ride; this year they were more aware and not having any part of it!) Adam did go with me on the Indiana Jones ride and absolutely loved it. In fact he jumped out of the car and yelled to everyone at the end- That was Awesome! Yeah! And punched his hands in the air. It was very amusing for people waiting in line to see a five year old, who was barely tall enough to ride, so enthusiastic. I am sure as the years progress, Adam will be my roller coaster adventure partner. And probably by that time, I will be too old to want to go on the roller coasters!

Disneyland Part I

Okay, so here is my first installment of our recent trip to Disneyland. We stayed at the Fairfield Marriott which is right outside the main gate of Disneyland. Best place I have stayed to date in my journeys to Disneyland. Noting the close proximity to Disneyland and also that there is a McDonalds in front of the hotel, a Pizza Hut/snack bar inside the hotel , leads me to my four star recommendation. I am also a little particular about how clean the rooms are and what the bathrooms are like- once again passed the test.

So our first day, we hit McDonalds for breakfast. While there, I placed a call to my Australian friends, the Preston family, who had flown in from Brisbane Australia the day before and were staying at another hotel further away. They had flown nonstop 13 hours with 4 adults and three kids, a six year and two year old twins. They had told me the evening before that they were heading to bed at about 5pm, so I am thinking that my call at 7:30 am would be appropriate given that we were to meet at the Disneyland gates at 8am. Come to find out, everyone was still asleep and we rescheduled the meetup for 10am(and who could blame them for being a little tired!). So that left myself and the boys free for a couple of hours to enjoy some rides together. I decided to hit Finding Nemo first as it can be a lengthy wait later in the day. This picture of Luke and Adam are of us waiting in that line. It was overcast and very cool (lucky I brought jackets even though it was June!) but the wait was only about 30 minutes. Luke was scared and would not look out the window for the first few minutes. After Nemo, we headed off to drive the cars. I was not sure if I would be able to get us all in one car but it turned out great. The boys took turns driving and loved it!! I was in charge of the gas pedal. Then we headed back to the main gate to meet up with the Prestons. More on our time with them in my next Disneyland installment

Luke + Pictures

Is like oil and water. They just do not seem to mix well together. For some reason Luke finds it difficult to look natural in pictures. That is just him. So when I do get a great smile out of him and he looks great in a picture, of course it is in front of a sign advertising for Margaritas! Sometimes you just can't win in life. But he does look great in this picture. We were eating dinner at Chili's in Valencia on our way to meet our Australian friends at Disneyland. Of course the boys were very excited and just had to have some pictures taken at the restaurant. I think they ordered corn dogs, with apple slices and root beer. The picture of Adam (who by the way is very photogenic and almost never takes a bad picture) is us waiting in line to get into Disneyland. He took along some drinks from breakfast just in case he got hungry between McDonalds and Disneyland(note, this was all of a five minute walk, but it always pays to be prepared just in case you get hungry or thirsty!!) Also note Luke in the bottom of the pic doing one of his normal picture poses.

Parents With Daughters, You Have Been Notified!

Kodak Moment Captured

The boys love to pretend that they are superheros. This picture is the result of them "getting into costume" and pretending to be various superheros. Luke is Batman and Adam is The Incredible Hulk. After posing for this picture, they then proceeded to engage in a superhero wrestling match. Luke being at an obvious disadvantage decided to switch superheros and become the Incredible Hulk as well. This switch then enabled the boys to pound on each other at will. Pretty much any excuse to punch and wrestle with your twin brother will do. I just sometimes wish that I could confine those "wrestling, kicking, punching" moments to appropriate venues. Unfortunately those tendencies tend to come out at church, school and public areas. We are working on that but I really think it is a boy thing in talking to other parents. I feel successful when the boys limit their wrestling moves to one another and don't try it out on anyone else not related to them! We will see how that goes anyways.

Little Red School House 2008/09

This is Adam and Luke's school picture for the 2008/09 year at Little Red School House. Both boys absolutely love going to preschool, albeit for different reasons. Adam is all about recess and Luke is all about what happens in the classroom. Adam also loves popcorn day, ice-cream day, baking day.... I think the picture is clear in what those days have in common. Luke is currently working hard on trying to complete ten book reports by July. He is doing fairly well on reading and writing. Adam can also write his name. Both boys love to practice writing, so I have bought numerous little notebooks for them this year. Both Adam and Luke are VERY excited about going to kindergarten. They ask daily when they will be going to big school.

I asked Adam the other day if it would be okay for him to stay my sweet little boy. He told me no that he needed to grow big and strong like the Incredible Hulk. So I guess that means I can't make him stay little and cute forever. Oh well, I tried.