March Madness

Our drive back home was a lesson in weather. In the 750 miles that we covered today, we encountered incredible swings in weather conditions.

We left Oceanside around 7:00am (PT), where it was 50 degrees and the sun was shining over the Pacific Ocean. As we crossed the California mountains and El Cajon Pass, we saw a dusting of snow on the ground and the temperature dropped to 37 degrees. Then we left the mountain and crossed the desert of Arizona and it was sunny again and 62 degrees. Just past Tucson as we entered New Mexico, the weather changed again and it started to pour rain. Then the rain changed to snow. Then back to rain. Finally, as we were about 100 miles from home, we witnessed a huge dust storm, with dust so thick, you couldn’t see more than 100 yds in front of you. Now the Franklin Mountains are in sight, it is 6:30pm (MT). We just crossed into Texas. It is 55 degrees outside and super windy. The dust storms are still raging outside. On the positive side, we had a great tailwind for most of New Mexico!

Now we are listening to cries from J-man coming from the backseat - “I want to stay in a hotel tonight!” and “I don’t want to go home!” We quieted them by telling him we ran out of money and have to go home.

All in all, it was a great trip. It was good to escape for a while. But nothing beats coming home. :)

We hope you enjoyed the journey with us. Until next time…take care!!!!

California Sunshine

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Yesterday was the day of Tri-Guy’s race and the day started out with rain. It didn’t look good. But the kids and I wanted to be there to cheer him on, so we headed out complete with umbrellas and rain jackets. When we walked outside, however, we saw a wonderful sight. The clouds were breaking up and the rain had stopped. Thanks to all of you for the sun dance and thanks to God for providing us with an incredible bonus day. The day ended up beautiful. It was sunny for 70% of the race and we all ended up with a little sun in the end.

While Tri-Guy swam 1.2 miles in 55 degree water (brrrr), then rode 56 miles on his bike and ended with a 13.1 mile run, the kids and I headed to Denny’s with Ilissa. For the last half of the race, we waited by the course while the kids played at the ocean. A few times I looked over and Supergirl and J-man were literally rolling around in the sand. What a novelty for them both!

Tri-Guy finished the race strong and hungry. We ate at McDonalds for what seems like the 100th time this week. Between hotdogs and McDonalds, I think we have succeeded in clogging our arteries. It is going to take many weeks of cleansing to feel normal again!

We ended the day with a dinner out with friends at a Mexican restaurant called “Las Olas” – which is funny to us because we call our neighbors “The Holas”. Guess you had to be there…

The kids both passed out during dinner, surprising both the wait staff and our friends. It was only 8pm too!

We couldn’t have asked for a better day for our last day of vacation.

I'm Freaking Out

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Since today was the last day before Tri-Guy’s race, he needed a rest day. So the kids and I headed off to explore alone.

First we stopped by the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA. It is a beautiful place were there are thousands of flowers in rainbow colors. J-man wasn’t so thrilled with the fields because he had to walk. “My tummy hurts…” was the background for a really beautiful sight. The kids did have fun collecting stamps throughout the park. Once they were done, they were able to mine for jewels. This was a BIG hit for both of them. In fact, all of the complaining about the walking turned into shouts of “Wow, this place is cool!” and “Can we come back here tomorrow?”

After the Flower Fields, we headed back to Legoland. The park was nearly empty. We didn’t have to waiting longer than 5-10 minutes for any ride. We had a blast! The kids rode every ride in the park that they wanted to ride. Supergirl even rode the Dragon roller coaster 4 times in a row! J-man did educate me while we were waiting for a ride. He said, “I’m not scared. I’m just freaking out.” I can’t make this stuff up! I asked, “What does freaking out mean?” He replied, “It means you are not scared.” Who knew?

We ended up staying in the park for over 4 hours. It really was fun to be able to do whatever we wanted and have no lines.

After Legoland, we stopped by the outlets that were right next to the Flower Fields. I certainly wish I had more time, but alas, we ran out after only one store.

We met back up with Tri-Guy and tried to find dinner. We gave up when we looked in the back seat and both kids were sound asleep. J-man never woke up. He is snoring in bed as I type.

The rain came in for a little while tonight. We are still hoping the skies will clear for Tri-Guy’s race tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed.

Wegowand

Today after a sleepy morning, we headed south to Legoland (also known as "Wegowand" in 3-year-old talk.) The weather was sunny, but still continued to be cool.

J-man learned a new phrase today - "I'm scared!" Yes, I think he finally found his voice. The only problem? He used it on pretty-much every ride. I guess he thought he would be proactive and eliminate any issues in advance. Still, J-man and Supergirl had fun in the park. Supergirl continued her bravery streak and rode all of the rollercoasters. J-man loved driving the cars - on a course with NO fixed track! Supergirl also drove a car, but on a bigger course. Triguy had told her that he would be watching her to see how she did. She took the challenge to heart and her knowledge of driving laws on the course was impressive.

There was one glitch at Legoland - not only did J-man have to revisit the frightening toilets ride, but there was an added scary component - the dreaded automatic hand dryer. "It's too hot! It's too hot!" J-man cried when he tried to use it. For now, he is sticking to the safety of hotel bathrooms.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon checking in for Triguy's triathlon. The kids were able to spend a few minutes on the beach as well. After that, we met up with some old friends from Annapolis for dinner. The kids were tuckered out and both were asleep before we paid the bill. They slept through the car ride home and are now passed out on the bed beside me.

If you know any sun-dances, please help us out. They are calling for 53 degrees and rain on Saturday for Triguy's race. Yuck!

Restrooms, Star Wars, and Horses with No Legs

Day 3..Today is our last day in Disneyland. We thought it would be good to have no plan and just ride whatever we wanted to ride. We started off the morning with a discussion from Jack regarding Jerry-horse. For those of you that don't know, J-man has an imaginary horse named Jerry. (Don't ask 'cause we don't know why.) For the last two days, we had sporadic reports that Jerry-horse was in the park and he didn't like the Space Mountain ride. This morning, J-man thought he should push the stroller from the hotel to the park instead of riding in it, because Jerry horse had no legs and needed to use the stroller. When asked how Jerry-horse lost his legs, J-man replied, "The bad men cut off his legs." "But I glued them back on," he continued, "Now Jerry-horse is all better." What a relief!!!

Once we entered Disneyland, we went straight for the Peter Pan ride. That was a hit with the whole family. Then we headed off to what has to be the scariest ride of all for J-man. In fact, J-man has been trying to avoid the ride at all costs. It's name, you ask? The dreaded restroom and it's ride - the auto-flushing toilet. yes, it is hard to convince a 3 year old that a toilet that suddenly flushes without warning is safe. Only with a lot of talking and guarantees of non-auto-flushing, was I able to convince J-man to ride this ride. I know Disneyland is trying to be all high-tech and everything, but you would think a park that caters to kids, could add one preschool manual flushing toilet to the restrooms.

The rest of the day we spent riding old and new rides. Once again, our daredevil, Supergirl, surprised us all with her love of the Big Thunder Mountain railroad. She rode it two times in a row. (Her little brother stopped at one time - I guess a runaway train hurtling down the track at fast speeds could seem a little scary to someone who is three!) She also went back and rode the Matterhorn twice more. I am still amazed at this new brave side that she has discovered. But then again, she told me that she thought the Snow White ride was pretty scary. Well, she is only 7.

Towards the afternoon, we figured out that the only ride we hadn't ridden in Disneyland was Star Tours - a flight simulation ride based on Star Wars. Now if there is one thing J-man and Supergirl love, it is Star Wars. But, I was a little hesitant to ride the ride, because I remembered a not-so-pleasant experience with the ride back in college. Surely, I thought, after giving birth to two children, any previous issues with the ride would have disappeared by now. Um...nope! I was feeling good until about the last minute of the ride. That was the point I turned a shade of green that matched my shirt. The kids thought it was hilarious that mommy was sick after a ride. So much for teaching them empathy! I don't think I will ever live it down (but I still won't ever ride that ride again!)

The day ended late. We left and came back into the park to watch the fireworks show. It was cold and we were all bundled up. J-man and I decided we would hold our spot for the fireworks while Supergirl and Tri-guy went and rode some rides. Within about 5 minutes, J-man was curled up in a ball under several blankets and coats, fast asleep. He didn't wake up for the fireworks, the ride in the stroller home, or the tucking into bed. I wish I could sleep like that.

Now it is late and once again - the whole family is sound asleep. I am headed off to join them. I am sad to see Disneyland end.

Watch Your Children

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Day 2 In Disneyland...This morning we decided to tone it down a little and hit Fantasyland with rides like Dumbo, Pinnochio, Snow White, and Mr Toad's Wild Ride. This slower pace was a big hit with both Supergirl and J-Man. While riding the Teacups with J-man, the cast member was giving the rundown on keeping our arms and legs inside the teacup, she also added "Watch Your Children." J-man picked up on that and I had to hear "Momma, watch your children!" for the rest of the ride. Do you think J-man was trying to make a point from yesterday? We'll never know.

After a tame hour in Fantasyland, we tried our luck with Indiana Jones (remember, J-man was too little to ride this one.) Since J-man was sitting out, Tri-guy and Supergirl headed off onto the ride. I stayed with J-man and kept my fingers crossed. Happily enough, Supergirl came skipping out of the ride and told me that it was incredible and she wanted to ride it again with me. Wow! Okay, so Supergirl and I headed onto the ride. As we were walking, I started asking her about the ride. "What was it like?" I asked. "It was so awesome!" was the reply. "What was in there?" I asked. "Well...I am not really sure," she replied. "I had my eyes closed the whole time...but the movement was really fun." Hmmm... So we headed to the ride. On the ride, Supergirl still kept her hands over her eyes, but she told me she peeked a little this time. I couldn't say a word - at least she was riding it!

We headed out of Disneyland and into California Adventure for the rest of the day. We went to check out the new ride - Monsters Incorporated. J-man loved it. Supergirl said it was worth the 45 minute wait.

Next door to Monsters Incorporated was the Muppet 3-D theatre. J-man spent the time trying to reach out and touch the 3-D characters during the movie.

We had some time before our scheduled Princesses Lunch, so we decided to explore the backlot in CA Adventure. We ran into several characters, including Pluto, Mulan, Stitch, and JoJo. We also stumbled upon a mouth-opening show. It was an interactive talk with Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo.) Crush was on a screen talking to the audience. The amazing part was that Crush was actually interacting with the audience. He was repeating names and ad-libing with the audience. We have no idea how they did it - Disney Magic.

Soon it was time to head over to the Princess lunch. By this time, J-man was on edge. It was 1:30pm and it seemed like a breakdown was right around the corner. I had no idea how this lunch would go. J-man had still not warmed up to the characters.

The first princess approached the table. It was Snow White. J-man was cordial, but didn't want any photos taken with her. Next was Jasmine. She broke the ice and Jack was starting to smile and wanted to be in photos. Then came Ariel. J-man now had a gold paper crown on his head and was cheesing in the photos with her. Finally Belle and Sleeping Beauty were the last to arrive. J-man had now declared himself Prince of all of the Princesses and was flirting with them. His day only got better when a hotdog shaped like an octopus was delivered to his table. Good food and beautiful women...what more does a man need?

(I don't think I need to describe how giddy Supergirl was during all of this. She was just so excited to hang out with the princesses. She had a smile from ear to ear.)

We left the lunch with everyone refreshed. J-man headed out for the rest of the day wearing his gold paper crown. He had now fully embraced his Prince status.

We rode more rides in the park. I knew we had done well, when J-man threw a fit because he was too small to ride one of the rollercoasters. I guess yesterday didn't completely traumatize him.

Supergirl continued to surprise us with her willingness to try new rides. She rode the flying swings and a small rollercoaster. She wants to go back and ride Space Mountain again tomorrow and claims it is her favorite ride. What a change from last year!

The last ride of the day was a simulation ride that had you flying over California. It was amazing. Your legs dangled as you watched the screen that had you flying over the Golden Gate bridge, orange fields, oceans, etc, and ending with fireworks over Disneyland. They even had different smells for each scene, like oranges in the orange grove. We loved this ride so much we rode it twice in a row.

So I think this day was much better than yesterday, in terms of fright management. We have decided that staying flexible is the best way to deal with the chaos of the park. We find more cool stuff when we stumble upon it.

We will see what we discover tomorrow. For now, it is time for everyone to go to bed.

It's A Miracle!

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Today was our first day in Disneyland. We started out the day with a character breakfast at Goofy's kitchen at 7am. We thought it would be good to be able to get some character meet-and-greets out of the way before we hit the park. We entered breakfast and found ourselves surrounded by a shameful amount of food. It turns out that it is a brunch buffet and they had everything on the menu from eggs benedict to salmon to peanut butter pizza. Life was good...until the characters came out. Now, J-man was hesitant last time to even look at the characters, but we thought that a year might help him. Well, it did for a little bit. He gave Goofy a big hug and let him sign his book. But then Donald Duck appeared and J-man headed for the back of his chair to hide from Donald. I guess the fear is still there. We had a family discussion about how the characters are just people dressing up for Halloween. (How's that for spoiling the magic!) But that still didn't convince him.

Thankfully, Alice in Wonderland was there. He liked her a lot. We didn't like her as much because she started telling Supergirl (remember she is missing her two front teeth) many stories about how she (Alice) received $20 for one of her teeth and how Supergirl needs to ask the Tooth Fairy for more money or evey toys. Then Alice told the kids about the Candy Fairy that comes the day after Halloween. Alice said if the kids put all of their Halloween candy in a pillowcase under the bed after Halloween, that the Candy Fairy would come and leave a toy. Alice was trouble!

So you would think that we would have figured out that although J-man is a year older, that he is still only three. Uh - no...

When we entered Disneyland, we rode the Orbitor ride - kinda like Dumbo, but in rockets and higher. I thought J-man was screaming, but then I realized he was saying "Go, Daddy! Woo-Hoo!" Great! This was a far cry from last year when all J-man did was put his head down on someones leg and close his eyes for the rides. And Supergirl rode in a rocket all to herself. A big step for her. Things were looking up.

Next was Buzz Lightyear. Again, another hit. Everyone was happy.

So what do you think would be the next logical thing to ride...cars...Dumbo...Small World??? No, we decided Space Mountain would be the perfect thing. I wonder where my Parenting 101 book went. The good news...Katie loved Space Mountain and I was shocked. The bad news...the three year old was not so happy when the ride was over. He got off and said "I never want to ride that again!" Now before we go any further, I want to say that no permanent emotional damage was done to any child today. But, I did learn that roller coasters in the dark are not J-man's favorite thing.

Okay, so maybe that ride was a little too much for J-man. So what ride would be great to calm his nerves...teacups...the carousel...the train... Nope, we headed to the Matterhorn. (For those of you that don't know, the Matterhorn is another rollercoaster - a bobsled type ride having just one long, curvy descent - oh and a snow monster.) J-man was a trooper and even said that he liked the ride.

But I knew we had overdone it when we headed next to Small World and J-man didn't want to go on the ride. He was very hesitant until about halfway through the ride when he realized there were no hills, fast curves, or darkness.

After several comments from J-man regarding our hotel and wanting to return there, we realizing our poor judgement and decided to slow down the pace and ride some tamer rides. We drove cars. Then we took a pitstop for lunch where J-man passed out for a good hour. He awoke starving and ate a whole apple - core and all - before we looked down to stop him.

Now, I haven't mentioned Supergirl much, but it has to be said she is now a speed demon. She loved all of the rides, including Space Mountain, Matterhorn, and the Haunted Mansion. And she even wants to try Indiana Jones (don't worry, J-man is too short to ride it). We are so proud of her for trying the rides she was terrified of last year.

One last story, we were watching the Tiki Room show (a show with a bunch of animatronic birds) and at the end there was a thunderstorm and it looked like it was raining outside. As the show ended, J-man commented, "It was a miracle!!! The birds made it rain!!!"

The day ended with a fun Block-Party Pixar parade, filled with fun characters from Toy Story, the Incredibles, and A Bug's Life.

We ended the day early, having decided to rest up for tomorrow. As I type, all of the family is passed out beside me. More tomorrow...

Time Goes By

3:00pm - We are driving across the mountains into San Diego County and suddenly things go from warm and 60 to snow-covered and 37. The mountains have about 6 inches of snow. It is beautiful. And it seems like all of San Diego has headed to the hills to touch the snow. We see car after car pulled over on the side of the road so people can play in the snow. We see people shoveling snow and putting it onto the top of their cars and then packing it down using sleds. We can only guess that they are trying to bring some home - crazy! We saw a car with a snowman on the hood and a truck with a snowman in the back. We must be in California.

3:15pm - All of the sudden we go from smooth sailing across the mountains to a slow, slow crawl. It takes us about 20 minutes to go one mile. We are thinking it must be a horrible accident, but we find out over an hour later that it is only a merge from two lanes to one due to construction work. Ugh! And then we hit another merge. After two hours of moving at a snail's pace, we finally get passed the construction. By that time, the snowman in the back of the truck has lost his nose and eyes and looks more like an icicle.

5:00pm - We arrive in San Diego and still have enough time for shopping at Road Runner Sports and REI. :)

8:00pm - We finally arrive at our hotel - the CandyCane Inn - how cute. It is straight to bed for everyone.

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

8:00am - It just started raining. J-man, who has only seen rain one day since October, is fascinated by the raindrops on his window. He says they are racing each other. And in the end, they "connect".

8:10am - Wait...is that?...yes, it's SNOWING! We can't believe it. It is coming down hard - almost white-out conditions. And we are in New Mexico! Crazy!

8:22am - It's still snowing. It's 33 degrees out. The snow is now sticking to the desert. A cactus with snow looks strange! Katie is saying she wants to go outside and make a snowman. Too bad she is wearing flip-flops!

8:30am - "How long have we been in the car?", says Katie

8:48am - "Why can't we live in NM? Then our trip to Disneyland would be a little quicker.", says Katie

9:37am - "Are we going to Disneyland? Why's it taking a long time?" asks Jack for the 20th time

10:00am - The snow has stopped, but the ground is still covered as far as the eye can see. Wow!

11:30am - Lunch is over and the kids have earned back one movie. Ahhh...silence!

12:00am - No sign of snow - just sun and wildflowers. Incredible.

Only 5 more hours to go!

On The Road Again...

5:27am - I am pulled out of my happy dreamy place by a strange sound - clip clop clip clop...what in the world??? Then the door opens and I see it is just Supergirl...in flip flops...dressed and ready to go. Well, I can't complain, it's 1 1/2 hours later than our wakeup last year!

6:51am - We are finally ready to go. Tri-guy thinks our car looks like something from The Beverly Hillbillies. He should know by now that when you travel by car, the car is your suitcase. And according to the rules of packing, the amount of stuff you bring directly corresponds to the size of your suitcase!

7:01am - The kids are doing well, considering they lost the use of all electronic devices on the trip. Yes, due to some misbehavior earlier in the week, they both lost dvds, gameboys, leappads, etc for the trip. What was I thinking????

7:48am - The first comments "I'm bored" are drifting through the car. But right after, Supergirl found her camera. I am betting she will fill the camera with crazy pics before the car trip is done. (I'll post the pics later). Only 11 hours to go...

Stay Tuned..The Trip Starts Sunday

Hi everyone and welcome back to our blog! We will blog the trip to California starting Sunda, 3/12 through our return Monday, 3/20. We wish you all were coming with us - we miss you! We will be writing soon...