Day 20, Wednesday May 7

Today we decided to go to Sea World. Karry had never been there before, and I haven't been since I was a little kid. It was pretty awesome to see the shows, especially. Those animals (marine, and the pets we saw in the "Pets Rule" show) can do some pretty amazing stunts!!! Wow! We were wowed by the "Shark Encounter" exibhit (see the shark below--there was glass above us and on the sides of us, and sharks were swimming behind all of that glass!!). The kids loved the penguin exhibit (Kaleb, especially). Noah liked the huge Clydesdale horses they had in stalls there.

It was in the 60's today (and will be for the rest of our trip through California--buuummmmer!). We all wore pants and sweatshirts, but would take off the sweatshirts every now and then as the sun broke through the clouds. Despite the chilliness, Kaleb's face is burnt, my face (esp. my nose) is bright red, and Karry's head is hurting and red. Bummmer! We didn't think about sunscreen on such an overcast day!!

Kaleb peed his bed again this morning. What is the deal with that? He doesn't do that at home! It's a big deal when he does that--we have to wash the sleeping bag, and sheets, and his pillow too (how does he get it on the pillow??).

Today the trailer has been feeling like such tight quarters and multiple times today the kids said they just want to go home. This morning was stressful--with such a huge mass of laundry (sleeping bag, etc.), where do we put it, and how do we walk around it, etc? It was a little tricky. The living area of the trailer is a hallway. Ruby crawls there, the boys walk there or sit there and play. Just walking from the bedroom to the bathroom can be such an obstacle course with all of the kids and stuff sometimes. It feels like we brought too much stuff (wish it wasn't so crowded with stuff in here), and yet, we didn't bring enough of what we need. We stopped at an Old Navy today to pick up one more pair of pants for each of the kids & me. I packed for sunshine, not 60 degree days! ;)

We're looking forward to our theme park days being over. We got free tickets to go to Legoland one more day, so we're stopping in there for a few hours tomorrow on our way up north. After that, we'll be done with theme parks. While it's been fun, it's been so expensive. We've bee spending at least $30 everytime we have a meal at a park like that (and we usually share meals and drinks--I can't imagine what it would be like if we always bought our kids the "souvineer bucket" kids meal deals...). I can't wait to just be camping in the woods or at the beach and have a simple ham sandwich in the trailer!! :)

We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, driving about 5 hours towards Pismo Beach (after a bit at Legoland). Pray for sunshine! We want sunshine! Pray that no more kids pee their beds!! :)

Day 19, Tuesday May 6

On Day 19, we chose to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Not the San Diego Zoo--we could've gone to either (or both, had time allowed) with our Go San Diego passes, but we just went to the Wild Animal Park. We'd heard it was pretty cool, and it was. :)

It seemed like we were much closer to the animals than at the Oregon Zoo, which was nice. When we go to the zoo back home, it seems like we always walk past several exhibits where there are no animals (they are sleeping/hiding/whatever). Here, we always saw animals, and many times they were laying or standing out in such a way that we could get great photos.

We did a ton of walking--down a big hill, then back up another big hill. I raced the boys a lot (whenever there weren't other people on the pathway!) while Karry pushed the stroller. Isaac kept saying "come on Mommy, let's run!!"

Our Go San Diego passes gave us 1 ride on the carousal (fun!) and 1 trip on a tram that went around to different animal exhibits. That was pretty cool.

The zoo closed at 5 pm, and we wanted to do something else but really had no clue what to DO in this area. I called my mom, who's been here before, but she didn't have any brilliant ideas for us. :) We wanted to see the city, but not without a destination. We put "Hard Rock Cafe" into our GPS and off we went...We ate dinner and saw about 3 whole blocks of the city and we were content. :)

Day 18, May 5

Woo hoo, I'm caught up on blogs!! This morning (after Kaleb let us know that he'd wet his bed--thank goodness we put liners on the kids beds!!!), we got ready for Legoland. It was cold out today--60 something. We wore pants and brought sweatshirts & wore them most of the time.

Legoland was pretty fun. Nothing, of course, compares to the magic & attention to detail of Disney! The height restrictions for the rides were a little difficult for us--kids had to be 36" for most rides (that was ok, except Ruby couldn't ride those ones), and there had to be someone 48" or taller with each kid. That meant we had to do each ride 3 times so that each boy could ride it. We couldn't squeeze 2 boys with 1 parent, and I think there were only 2 rides our whole family could go on together. Bummer!! Nevertheless, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the rides, as well as the huge lego models everywhere.

Days 16 & 17, May 3 & 4

Saturday, May 3

• I went back to Downtown Disney for a few hours with Ruby. I got the chocolates I wanted. I just looked around at other shops. I got a few things at the Build a Bear (exclusive Disney items) for the boys for Christmas.
• Karry brought the boys to a car wash with him. He planned to vacuum it out too. They had a service for $29, and they washed, waxed, and vacuumed our car, and washed all surfaces inside. It looks SO incredibly nice and detailed, I was amazed at that cheap price! (Before we sold our mini-van, we had it detailed and it cost around $100, I think, and this $29 job looked just as great if not better!!). Are there any places like this back home??? :)
• Karry and the boys had McDonalds, I had clam chowder and a bagel in Downtown Disney, and Ruby ate chunks of bagel as well. :)
• I washed about 10 loads of laundry...No exaggeration, I'm serious. :)
• A lot of our clothes (Ruby's, especially) are staining. It might be the washing machines, it might be the fact that we're not doing laundry often enough. BUMMER! I put "stain stick" on the Walmart list.
• We cleaned up the trailer, got ready to leave the next morning, and Karry and I rented a movie from the campground office (which was no good at all, so I won't mention the name of it). We have a mini dvd player in the trailer and we can watch movies in our room when the kids go to bed. :) We have no TV though, so we're missing our shows. :(

Sunday, May 4

• I blogged some in the morning, trying to catch up!! Disney days were so long and crazy, and I didn't have time to blog much!
• We did 2 more loads of laundry....yes, we create a LOT of laundry!!
• We got the trailer ready to go. We drove for almost 2 hrs to San Diego!
• We like the San Diego KOA better than Orangeland, the last place we were at. The last place was nice, but it was kind of strange. There were people who had been living there 30 years (because it's cheap monthly rent) and they had old, orange and brown striped trailers with picket fences and yard decorations around them. It was odd...There were the Disney tourists with their obviously travle-able vehicles, and then the permanentely parked folks with decks built off of their trailers...Yeah...Strange! Now we're at a place with obvious campers--nice. :)
• We went to a Walmart in Chula Vista (where we're staying--just miles north of Mexico!!). That Walmart was CRAZY!!! It was crazy shopping with all four kids, in the first place--then the crowded Walmart made it even crazier. There were multiple folks who either didn't understand the words "excuse me" when I was trying to get by them, or they just didn't care (and I think this is the case, because many just looked at me and wouldn't budge). I had to be pushy to get through the crowds, which is incredibly uncomfortable for me. I left that store exhausted, and since it wasn't a Super Walmart, I still didn't have eveyrthing I needed. Blah!
• We found a Food 4 Less, crowded as well, but I went in alone this time and got everything I needed.
• Note: at so many places lately, we have had glares from black folks when they see us with Ruby. It's made me sad. I wish they'd just be nice and talk to us...In line at Food 4 Less, there was an African American family. I asked how old their baby was, she was 10 months (smaller than 8 month old Ruby!!). I told them that we had a 8 month old girl we had adopted. They asked if it was our first, I explained that we had 3 boys--1 we had also adopted. I mentioned that I liked their 7 year old's hair, the mom said "oh, I need to moisturize it." I asked "what do you use?" and she asked, with a smile, "did you adopt an African American baby?" and I said "yes," and then we had pleasant conversation after that. She wrote down some product suggestions for me to use on Ruby. I can't tell you how delighted I was to have that conversation with them!!! They were SO nice, and I was beginning to believe that all African Americans out there were opposed to our family raising a black baby, and I was wondering how Ruby would ever connect with people who look like her....That conversation gave me HOPE!
• The boys got to play outside in the rocks some, and I re-organized the kitchen cupboards.
• We had picked up a few movies at Walmart, and last night we watched the 5th Jannette Oke dvd in the Love Comes Softly series, "Love's Unending Legacy". I loved it...I like cheesy, sappy stuff like that... :)

Day 15, Friday, May 2

• I woke up the boys and told them it was our last day at Disneyland. Kaleb said "yeah! I'm going to tell Grandma and Grandp---oh, they're not here...." :(
• Being the first born that I am (hee, hee), I carefully planned out a schedule for us. I asked the boys what 2 rides they wanted to go on. I wrote down things like "9 am to 10:30 am, Fantasyland," and then the top 5 rides in that area, in priority order (oh yeah, after we all voted on the rides).
• The schedule went SO well! It went faster than we even hoped, and we were done with some of the afternoon things early on. We hadn't planned to head over to California Adventure, but we ended up having time to!
• We saw Crush at California Adventure, and Isaac asked him why turtles have spots. He never really answered the question, he just said "I do? Wow, you're making me kind of self conscious! How many do I have?"
• We rode Dumbo, Snow White, Peter Pan, Casey Jr., Roger Rabbit, Pirates, the Haunted Mansion (Isaac's new favorite ride, ever since we told him that his friends Maggie and Molly love that ride. :), the Rockets in Tomorrowland, and Buzz Lightyear.
• We rode the little raft over to the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island--a total MUST see for little boys. There were tons of caves to walk through, and lots of places to climb and explore. SO FUN!
• We had ice cream on Main Street. In all of the times I've been to Disneyland (my birthday this last Sept, 1 time with Karry before we had kids, and 9 times as a kid), I don't remember ever having ice cream at the parlor on Main Street, though I always wanted to. :) It's always busy. I was SOOOO impressed by how careful they were when I said I can't have nuts, though!! They checked the ice cream contents and the cone contents, and they prepared it all in a separate room. WOOOOWWW. I have never had any place care so much. It was yummy ice cream!!
• We got to see a bit of the fireworks and the crazy crowds there on a Friday night, but we didn't stop for long, we kept moving & watching. :)
• We brought the kids to the car & then I rode the tram back to downtown Disney. I went to the World of Disney to pick up a few things. Then I went to the chocolate shop (which is so great, and they prepare nut items separate from the non-nut items, which is so wonderful if you're allergic like me!), and they had closed, 3 minutes before I got there....I was sad. :(

Me with Isaac & Noah.

Karry with Kaleb & Ruby.

Our family on Snow White. You can barely see Ruby in between Karry and Kaleb.

Our very RED family with Minnie! Ruby's wearing her pretty Minnie dress again! Yes, seeing Minnie (before Ruby got anything on her dress) and snapping such a photo was on our list!! :)

Isaac and I on Roger Rabbit. Actually Ruby's in there too! :)

The boys w/the treasure on Tom Sawyer's Island!

Me w/my ice cream cone at the parlor on Main Street.

Karry with Ruby. She'd got quite a bit of spit up on her dress, and then something else while she was squirming when I was changing her diaper...Lovely...I had to change her clothes, and the change I had for her was pink. Her hair pretties were still red and white, and so was her bib. :)

The rockets that the boys had been eyeing. Faster than Dumbo and an ankle killer for adults because they tip out so much & you're at such a strange angle!

Day 14, Thursday May 1

• My parents left in the morning. They boys were sad as Grandpa and Grandma's big motorhome drove away. :(
• We hung out at the campsite for a while, I blogged a little. :)
• We drove to Santa Monica, which took us about 40 minutes.
• We parked on the pier, in a parking lot that was on rickety wood. It had a "6,000 pound" weight limit listed, and I remembered discussions earlier in the week with my dad about how much a suburban might weigh. I was a little freaked out. :)
• We walked to the end of of the pier. There were shops, musicians, and lots of tourists.
• We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we had lunch at the restaraunt at the end of the pier. I didn't realize until we sat down and looked at the menu that it was a Mexican restaurant (I don't usually choose Mexican, though it's totally yummy, because it makes me get sick).
• We split 2 kids' quesadillas between the boys & got french fries with those. I picked out the 1 item on the menu that didn't look like it would make me AS sick. :) It didn't have any red sauce--it was a seafood burrito with white sauce. Karry and I split that & it was very, very, very good!!
• Noah's flip flops (his first time wearing them) were painful and he was having a hard time walking. We stopped at one of the shops along the pier and picked up some little crocks for him, and some Santa Monica tees for the boys. :)
• We went down and played on the beach. There were SO many people laying out on the beach, tanning. People were staring at us! We noticed that there weren't any other kids there!!
• We jumped in the water as the tide came up--the water seemed rougher than along the Oregon coast.
• We sat down on the beach and let the boys run around and dig in the sand. Ruby had her first sand experience! She loved it and didn't try to eat it at first--that came later. :)
• We decided to leave by 3:30 pm in hopes of heading back to camp, doing some laundry, and changing clothes before leaving for Medieval Times at 6 pm (the show started at 7).
• Driving back to camp took TWO HOURS!!! Our youngest 3 and I got a pretty good nap while Karry drove through the crazy traffic. So glad we left early, we got back to camp at 5:30, ust in time to go to the bathroom, shake the sand off of ourselves and pack up a bottle for Ruby!!
• We went to Medieval Times, which the boys LOVED and said was better than the Pirate show. They do a GREAT job there! Only problem--they have no high chairs. Babies are lap babies there (unlike at the Pirate show, she got a high chair--though she was scared and fussy most of that night and in my lap anyways!!). Karry held her this time and had a hard time eating 1/2 a chicken with no silverware and a baby in his lap!! What a fun night though!!!
• Isaac says that at his birthday this year, he wants to be a king, with a crown and everything. I found a great, fun crown at the gift shop at this show. It's under our bed, with the other Christmas and Birthday gifts I've been picking up along the trip. :)

The boys on the pier.

Karry & the kiddos

Me & Ruby

Ruby loved sand!

Medieval Times--Karry & Ru

The flash was turned off--oops. This was the king and the princess.

Day 13, Wednesday, April 30

• This was my parents’ last day at Disneyland with us. We wanted to go on rides that we would not be able to go on without the extra help from them. :)
• First thing, we took the train from Main Street to Tomorrowland. I don’t remember ever riding that train before, and it’s pretty cool!!
• Karry and my parents brought the boys on Autopia. We pretty needed 1 adult per kid and Ruby couldn’t ride on that one. I took Ruby shopping with me. :) I went in the Star Trader shop and looked at Mickey Mouse Star Wars toys and got the boys some little Disney racer cars to put in their stockings (a Nemo car, a Sully car, and a Buzz car).
• We tried to get Noah on Soarin' Over California at California Adventure, again. He loves that ride (did I mention he calls it the "baby swap" ride?). The guy working at the ride wouldn't let Noah on...Huge bummer!!
• Since we were at CA Adventure, we went on Monsters Inc., again.
• We rode Buzz Lightyear at Disney, again (they boys love it).
• I think we also did Pinnochio again, and possibly Peter Pan.
• We were looking for "Hidden Mickeys" everywhere and we can tell you where a few are, if you care. :)
• We went on Pirates again.
• We sat down on Main Street to see the Prince Caspian pre-parade, which we were excited about. Karry read the story to the kids, and we're excited for the movie to come out. The Prince Caspian part of the parade was lame-o and not worth the 30 minutes of reserving the curbside with our bums! :)

Kaleb and Noah on the train. Noah's hair was spikey to try to get him on Soarin' Over California. It didn't work!!

I went into the Disneyland Emporium while we waited for the parade.
Karry brought the boys to the fire station for a bit.
The Prince Caspian pre-parade. Yup. This is pretty much it!