Day 12, Tuesday, April 29

• Ruby threw a screaming fit about getting a bath, getting her hair pretties taken out, and getting her hair fixed.
  
• Shortly after that fit (in which we had soothed her with a bottle of milk), she threw up in the trailer and then needed a change of clothes.
  
• We went to Knotts Berry Farm
  
• There was hardly anybody there and we had pretty much zero wait time for rides.
  
• The kids LOVED the kiddy rides there. They have many more “thrill” rides for little kids than Disneyland has. The kiddy rides at Disneyland are slow & have stories behind them. At Knotts there were fast, spinny, and thrilling rides made for little guys like ours!
• Noah was slightly too short to ride some of the kiddy rides by himself, so Karry or I had to squeeze our legs into those rides and sit by him. :)
• Ruby threw up at Knotts Berry Farm (we think that it was the combination of the heat & her snotty nose). Poooor girl!!
• When the park closed (6 pm) we had dinner at the Knotts Berry Farm chicken restaurant (yum!!), and then mom and I looked at a couple of the little shops.

The boys & me, riding their favorite ride there, I think--these cars go straight & then speed up and spin around the corners. Noah was too short to go by himself and Karry thought it might be a bit of a squeeze for him to fit in there. I was the lucky one. :)

Karry did ride with Noah on the semi-truck ride (it was a little bigger :).

Here are Isaac & Kaleb on that ride.

Here we are at a Western stunt show. Noah loved it and kept giggling about all of the silly stunts! Yes, we got to sit in a covered wagon. :)

Karry w/Ruby at the stunt show.
The boys with Snoopy.
Sleeping Ruby got to cuddle with Grandma while Karry, my dad and I took the boys on the Log Ride. Fun, fun, fun! (Isaac and Kaleb weren't crazy about it though!).

Noah on a carousal.

This was a ride that went up and the dropped the kids down faster than it went up. They had to lift their hands for the lady to pull the bar up or to puet it down. Our boys LOVED this ride!!

This is Noah on the "great skate," another kiddie thrill ride. Noah loved this one! Isaac hated it. ;)

The hot air balloons, which we went on twice. Noah wondered why there wasn't any fire in them, and he said that this ride was better than Dunbo!

Karry w/Ruby and her lovely puke on the ground. Nice, huh? She's smiling though--at least she felt better after this!!

Disney Pictures from April 23 & 24

April 23, 2008

The boys with Mickey.

Me, holding Ruby while the boys played in the character's houses (Chip & Dale? Donald? Can't remember which one this was!)

Noah, my dad, Ruby, me, my mom & Kaleb all sitting by the fountain in Toon Town. Ruby was letting Grandpa feed her a bottle. Whew!

Karry & Isaac

Grandma with Noah

Our fun Mary Poppins encounter.

Kaleb and Noah at the Disneyland parade. I got these light up spinny toys at the Disney Store on clearance for $2.99, $3.99 and $4.99. The same sorts of things were selling for $15 at Disneyland!! Ours were slightly different than the ones there and pretty COOL looking! :) Kaleb go Nemo, Noah got Pirates of the Caribbean, and Isaac got Peter Pan.

Karry and Ruby on a ride. So many of the rides had the "no lap sitting" rule, so Ruby had to sit next to one of us. She's getting to be so big!!

Kaleb riding on a carousal.

Our family! Poor Ru is down in that stroller--should've picked her up for the photo! :)

The boys on the extra Dumbo figure that's set up for photos. :)

April 24, 2008

The boys at the Chip & Dale Breakfast.

Karry & Ruby

My parents

Kaleb and Noah. Noah's holding his little Buzz Lightyear "cell phone" that I picked up at Walmart before we left. I woke up the kids on the 24th and gave them the phones and said "I want you to call Chip & Dale and tell them we're on our way and we'll be having breakfast with them very soon." They were SO excited!! :)

I wanted to get a good photo of Ruby's dress before she ate & got food on it! Our friend Erin made this dress, and it is SO cute!!! It's got Ruby's name on the front, and it has little bloomers that say "Minnie" on the backside. So many people made comments about Ruby's beautiful dress!! (Thank you Erin!!).

The boys w/Pluto at the park.
Me & Ruby at the Pixar Play Parade.

Noah & Ruby in the stroller. I thought this was so cute!!

Someone took our picture for us! We were waiting for the parade, and right behind us was a waterfall and some water. It was a nice, cool spot!

Lightning McQueen in the parade :) The parades at CA Adventure were not nearly as busy and crazy as the ones at Disneyland. We really enjoyed this parade.

Isaac w/my parents @ the parade.

Our cute Noah!!

Kaleb loved the bubbles at the parade!!

Noah w/Ruby at the parade. It was a little chilly there, so I put some leggings on under her dress. :)

Day 11, Monday, April 28

• We went to Disneyland again.
• This would have been my parents' last day with us, but somebody they met gave them their leftover tickets.
• We tried to do our "early admission" this day, but we found out (when we were stuck in the parking garage at 8 am, with cars in front of, behind and beside us) that it only opens early on Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun. The park opened at 9 that day. YIKES!
• We rode the monorail into Disneyland while my parents pushed Ruby up to the front gate with the stroller.
• We shared 2 breakfast meals between 5 of us--we're getting good at eating cheap at Disney. :)
• We went on Finding Nemo early in the morning. When we got off the monorail, we thought the line was right there. We realized much later that we had cut in line.....Oooooooppps...We seriously don't do that on purpose!
• The kids got to meet all of the Pooh characters.
• The adults went on Space Mountain again.
• My mom and I learned about "cell phone jewelry" and I got a pink shiney mickey mouse head to attach to my pink cell phone. So cute. :)
• We saw the Billy Hill & The Hillbillies show. Karry and the kids ate lunch, my parents and I had ice cream for lunch. :)
• We rode on Pirates again and the boys all liked it. They weren't afraid this time, and neither was Ruby.
• We went to a Pirate Dinner show that night. The kids got to go up on the stage, Isaac and Noah were the brave ones!

Ruby finally warming up to Grandpa, giving him a high five!

Noah doing some rock climbing in line for Nemo. :)

Grandpa and Kaleb.

Karry and Ruby in the submarine.

Isaac LOVED the jungle cruise.

Tigger & the boys.

The Pooh Bear ride. It scooted forward maybe 10 feet after this and then stopped, the ride broke down. We didn't get a chance to go back and ride it, yet.

We caught Minnie (and Mickey) just as we were about to leave the park.

Kids on the stage at the pirate show. Our boys are in there somewhere!

Day 10, Sunday, April 27

• Our car's external thermometer got up to 103!!
  
• We went to Hollywood, saw the walk of fame and the Chinese Theater.
  
• We ate lunch at a Johnny Rockett's. The kids even got milkshakes, which they enjoyed!
  
• We saw lots of creepy looking aspiring actors in costumes (Mickey Mouse, Yoda, Super Woman, Batman) hoping tourists would take their picture and then tip them. It was hard to keep Isaac away, he loves characters. They were really creepy though!!
  
• We rode in an air conditioned mini-bus and went on a 2 hour tour of Hollywood homes.
  
• We saw teh homes of: Bob Barker, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis (who lives across the street from Demi, to see his girls), Courtney Cox (she's taught her daughter to stick her tounge out at tourists), William Shattner, Elton John (1 of his), Madonna (1 of hers), John Travolta (1 of his), Jennifer Anniston & Brad Pitt's first Hollywood home, the gate & hedges of where Tom Cruise lives.
  
• We saw the hotel where Janice Joplyn died, and we saw hotels and restaraunts that are owned by famouse people (Johnny Depp, Leonardo DeCaprio, Cameran Diaz).
  
• We drove down Rodeo (Ro Day O) Drive, where the stars shop. Then we drove down the next street up (Sunset Blvd?) where the "cheaper shopping" is (imagine all of the most expensive stores at our malls & that's what you'd find there!).
  
• Overall it was a fun tour of Hollywood and neat to see once, but I don't have a burning desire to go back there anytime within the next decade or two. :)
  
• We ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp.
  
• We saw a spider on our ceiling, Karry tried to smoosh it, but then it wasn't in the napkin he was using. The only place it could have fallen was on our bed, but we couldn't find it. LOVELY! My parents found mouse #2 in a trap. Ding dong, the mouse is dead, the mouse is dead, the mouse is dead! :)

The famous Hollywood sign. It used to say Hollywoodland and was an advertisement for a housing development. A mudslide caused the "land" part o fall down, and at one time an actress jumped from the "H" to her death. The sign was re-conditioned by the city at some point (60's? 70's?) and now has fences & motion detectors around it.

A view point we stopped at during our tour. You can tell by the following photos who was manning the camera this day. :) Not I!

I have the same size hands and feet as Meryl Streep, and same size hands (I didn't check feet) as Susan Sarandan. :)

The kids holding their hands up to Shirley Temple's (when she was a little girl). Shirley Temple is a cousin (3rd? something like that) of my Grandmother. Funny thing, Kaleb's pinky fingers bend in (they aren't straight) and Shirley Temple's do the same thing!

Had to catch the famous Mouse on the walk of fame!

Day 9, Saturday, April 26

• Cleaning day! We were avoiding Disney on the weekend!
  
• Karry started laundry while the kids played at the playground (next to the laundry room). I cleaned the trailer.
  
• Karry and my parents brought the kids to an In & Out Burger, I got our laundry and kept cleaning the trailer--scrubbing, organizing.
  
• When the boys came in with their shoes on (and were totally dirty from playing outside) and stood on the toilet lid to look in the mirror, I wondered why I'd spent so long hand-scrubbing the floor and bathroom. :)
  
• Isaac got a bloody nose from the heat. My parents had some Gatorade to give him to help. He got red Gatorade all around his mouth and it wouldn't wash off. Lovely!
  
• Ruby threw up from the heat, all over her carseat. We used my parents washer/dryer unit in their motorhome to clean it.
  
• We took a long nap!
  
• We went out to Tony Romas for dinner (we miss Tony Romas! Come back to Oregon, please!).
  
• We put the kids to bed and then played games with my parents in their motorhome (right by our trailer, and we had the baby monitor).
  
• My dad made a fake "mouse" out of a clump of dog hair he found on the ground outside (gross!), and tied it to fishing line (clear) to drag it around and he made it look like it was moving. He got mom and I!!

This was right outside our trailer door--Noah lounging in the grass. :)

Day 8, Friday, Aril 25

• Spent most of the day at California Adventure
  
• It was VERY hot!
  
• Saw the High School Musical 2 parade, and the Electrical Parade
  
• Brought all 3 boys on Soarin' Over California. Noah loved it the best, but hasn't been able to meet the height requirement since. We used the "baby swap" option on that ride, and he now calls that ride the "Baby Swap Ride" and asks to go on it.
  
• We saw an amazing Aladdin show, with live music, a flying carpet & a funny Genie--the kids are still quoting his lines.
  
• We saw Playhouse Disney, which the kids LOVED.
  
• We saw Crush (from Finding Nemo) and Karry asked him if turtles have hair. Crush asked "why, were you looking to borrow some?" and then commented on the sea moss on Karry's face. :)
  
• We went on a river ride, and Karry & my parents went on California Screamin'. The kids and I had ice cream while they went on that ride. :)
  
• We ate at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney, which I don't recomment to anyone. We got snobby service, kids meals were $10 (outrageous!!) and they don't have a changing table or any counter space to change a baby. Not kid friendly at all!
  
• We went to Disneyland and rode on Buzz Lightyear again. The boys love it!

The boys waiting for the High School Musical 2 parade. It was HOT out there! I made these shirts for them with simple red t-shirts from Walmart and white puffy paint.

Karry w/Ruby at the parade.

My parents, dad with Isaac's sunglasses on upside down. :)

The boys--right outside of the place we saw Crush.

A picture Isaac drew at the dinner table. Left top: Ursala's friends, below that, Flounder, below that on the left, Ursala, then Sebastian on her right. On the right, of course, Ariel. I love the sea shells. :)

The Electrical Parade. It was a pretty cool parade!!