Maria's 30th Birthday

Lots of things have happened since the last time we made a blog post. But there is something I want to get posted right away - and that was the events of my 30th birthday. Andrew went to a lot of work to make this all happen. I can't imagine what he must have been running around doing! But let us start at the beginning.

This year I turned 30. My birthday was set to fall on the weekend of a conference I was helping organize for my self-help group, Recovery International. I was bummed that I would be "working" on the day I turned 30, so Drew offered me a wonderful birthday present to compensate. He had the week of my birthday off of work (we had originally thought we might travel for my birthday, and Drew took the time off much earlier in the year), and offered for me to have that week "off" from my mom duties and have all of the days free to do whatever I wanted. It was great! I was thinking it was such a wonderful gift and felt really lucky. I went out and had my nails done, I spent some time doing watercolor painting, took naps, read books, even went cosmetics shopping. I was a happy camper. Little did I know that there was even more to come!

The first day of the conference arrived (Friday, 10/9, my birthday), and I was unavailable most of the day. We went out with the kids for breakfast in the morning, but for the most part I was busy with the conference. We finished the conference at 9:30pm. I stayed and cleaned up, then got home around 10pm. I opened up the door, and all of a sudden, "Surprise!" Andrew had gathered around 15 of our friends/family for a late party at our house. I felt so special that this group was willing to come over so late to spend my birthday with me. We hung out until around 1am, then everyone had to take off, and I had to get to bed for Day 2 of the conference the next morning.

The next day at the conference was really stressful. We were locked out of our building for almost and hour at the beginning of the day because of a scheduling mistake, and by the end of the day, I was really frazzled. We finished up on time, tho. I stayed to clean up and left at 5pm. I was in a rush to get home, because we were going to dinner with Laura and Jake and their daughters that evening. But when I got home, I was so stressed out from the conference, I didn't feel like eating out. I asked Andrew if we could just order some pizza in. Drew said he had been promising the kids burritos and nachos all day. So then I asked if he could just drive through Adalberto's down the street and bring it home to eat. He told me that we should try to go out cuz that always makes me feel better and I could have a margarita. I wasn't immediately convinced. Then he suggested we order a pitcher of magaritas, and I decided that sounded good. I put on my flip-flops and was ready to go. Drew said, "are you sure you don't want to wear some different shoes?" And my response was, "no." Then he said, "are you sure you don't want to put on some makeup? That always makes you feel better." And I said, "do I really look that bad? No." So off we went.

We got to one of our favorite restaurants, Celia's. We parked in the front. There were a lot of cars in the lot, but I didn't pay much attention to that. We walked in the front door, and Drew pointed out that it was decorated for Halloween. I took a picture of the kids next to a ghoul. The host asked us how many. I said, "eight. four kids." And they took us to be seated. We walked in this roundabout way to get to the back, and I was thinking, "well, that's a stupid way to walk to the back," but didn't give it any notice. I figured maybe there were people in the way with their chairs and stuff covering the most direct route. Then we began to turn the corner. I noticed some balloons, and I thought, "those people are having a party, I wish I could go to their party." Then all of a sudden, at what seemed to be the same exact time, I noticed my parents sitting in the center of the room, and heard this huge, "SURPRISE!!!" It was UNBELIEVEABLE. I looked across the room at this HUGE crowd - of my friends and family. It wasn't like just one "surprise!" It was like a hundered "surprise's!" - one for each person I looked at and saw another face of someone I loved. It was soooo cool.

There was a Disney theme going on, with an amazing castle cake. And some really cool personalized menus my friend Tim designed. Drew told me later that there were 94 people there! Isn't that amazing? It felt like "This is Your Life," seeing all of these faces representing all of the facets of my life. Andrew covered all the bases - our family (that doesn't have to travel by plane, anyway), and friends both old and new. It was the most humbling feeling, and I felt like the luckiest person that day.

We ate dinner, had lots of margaritas (and girl scout cookie shots thanks to Tony), and watched a video Andrew prepared using 30 Disney song snippets for my 30 years. It was quite a feeling. Disbelief and awe, joy and thankfulness.

Thank you so much to everyone who came, both in person and in spirit. I was spending some time reading the cards that people brought (or sent in the mail) today, and was so touched and thankful. Our outside-Cali crew of family even sent a card together that they ALL signed (even tho they are in various States across the country). That was really cool. I'll never EVER forget this birthday. Turning 30 was awesome!

Here I am with the cool Disney Castle Cake!

Here I am the night before, at my pre-surprise, surprise party!

Our New York Trip

Thursday june 18
AKA Day 1 – Arrival day

We left the house early in the morning with Vavu for the airport. It was surprisingly crowded for being Sacramento. We left on time from Sac, but were delayed in Denver on the tarmac as we tried to depart for New York. We were supposed to be getting in early to New York, as the plane left ahead of schedule. But once we pushed away from the gate and got in line to take off, the pilot told us that we’d have to wait about 30 minutes before we could hit the runway.

We got into New York about 25 mins later than expected. But no big deal. We went and claimed our checked bag, then headed out to catch a cab to our hotel. The guy directing the cabs was totally yelling at the drivers, telling them to pull forward or to go this way or that. He seemed to have a stress problem.

The cab was cool. It had a little tv we could watch, with a GPS display on the side so we could see where we were at any given moment. Maria tried to use our camera to take pictures, but it was pretty messed up from being dropped at Angie’s wedding. Maria picked up the camera and the battery compartment opened and all the batteries fell out. One of them got lost in the cab and we never did find it.

We checked into the hotel, and it was really nice in the lobby. Our room was tiny! We’d never seen such a small hotel room before. There wasn’t even a dresser to put our clothes in. There wasn’t a closet either. We ended up leaving our clothes in the suitcases and dressing out of them.

We decided that we wanted to go see Times Square and eat dinner there. We asked the concierge for a recommendation. He directed made us a reservation at a steakhouse called Gallager’s. It was really close to Times Square. We took a cab to get there. We learned that it was harder than one would think to get a cab. Most of the cabs had passengers already. We tried a number of different corners/spots on the street to hail a cab, many with no success. Once we got a cab, we also learned how expensive it can be to take cabs everywhere you want to go.

Gallager’s offers a New York Strip steak that is dry aged for 21 days in-house. Of course, we had to try that. So Andrew ordered that steak and Maria got a smaller one. It was a nice meal.

After dinner we decided to walk down Broadway and see what was happening. We stopped at a pharmacy and bought some black gorilla tape to seal shut the battery compartment on the camera. It worked really well. We didn’t have problems with the camera again after that.

We saw the ball that drops on New Year’s Eve – that was exciting! It was lit up – and the year 2009 was lit up too. We saw the spot where you can buy tickets for Broadway shows at half-off, TKTS. We saw MTV studios and went in the MTV store below. There was an M&M store, but we weren’t really interested in that, since we have one in Las Vegas. There was a Hershey’s store that was pretty cool, tho. Maria liked the banks in the shape of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup bottles. They were huge! It was funny. It was really neat to see all of the billboards, too. So many lit up and a few of them in “HD.” The Coca-Cola billboard was really neat – it was in multiple sections, some of them in the shape of the Coca-Cola wave shape. We also saw the news tickers and ABC Studios. Another cool sight was the NYPD. There were a few NYPD police cars and vans in the area. There were also some dudes with big ol machine gun things, and tourists kept trying to take pictures with them. Of course, they wouldn’t oblige them. I don’t know why people would try to do that.

We decided to take the subway so we could go see the Empire State Building, and go up to the top to see the lights of New York at night. We only needed to take the subway one exit, and we were pretty disheartened that we went through the trouble of getting on, then when we got off and back up to street level, we could look back and see the point where we came from. D’oh! It was more trouble than if we would’ve just walked. But it was okay, because it was good practice to try riding the subway when it wasn’t busy and we needed to get our MetroCard anyway.

We walked to the Empire State Building, but when we got there, they had just closed the observation deck, due to inclement weather. The weather had reduced the visibility on the top to zero, so there wasn’t much point in going up. So, back we went to the subway to get ourselves back to the hotel (more than one exit away this time).

We were worn out by the time we got back to the hotel, and Maria was starting to get the sickness that the boys had when we left home. She had chills alternating with feverish sweats. It wasn’t too good. Our room was right by the elevator, so we could hear that as we tried to sleep. There were also lots of honking horns down on the street. We were glad that we were up on the 26th floor! Imagine the noise down on the 4th or 5th levels!

The best part of Day 1 was: seeing Times Square.
The worst part of Day 1 was: Maria getting sick.
The weather on Day 1 was: really nice. A bit muggy.
What we learned on Day 1 was: Cabs get expensive after a while.

Welcome to LaGuardia Airport!

Times Square!

Friday june 19

AKA Day 2 - Cruise

Even though it was predicted to rain all day every day of our trip to NY, we were lucky on Day 2. We woke up and there was no rain. In fact, there was sun. So we decided to go ahead and take the Circle Line Boat Cruise today, while the weather was good. No fun being out on a 2 hour boat tour in the rain!

We walked down the street, headed for the subway. We stopped at a little café on the way and had the #2 for breakfast (that would be a ham and cheese croissant). We intended to board the subway at the Grand Central terminal. But when we talked to the information desk, they suggested we take the bus, as it would get us closer to our destination. And that sounded good to us. So we headed for the bus. The bus dropped us off just one block away from Pier 83, where we would board the boat.

We redeemed our City Pass voucher for the City Pass book of tickets at the Circle Line ticket desk, and used our first ticket for admission to the 2-hour semi-circle tour of Manhattan. Our boat would board in about a half-hour, so we decided to get some Dippin’ Dots while we waited. The guy had just left the stand, so we decided to wait for him to come back. We were informed he’d be back to open the stand in a few (maybe 5) minutes. Maria got in the boarding line for the boat while Drew waited the “5 minutes” for the Dippin’ Dots booth to open. Well, a five-minute-wait it was not. It was more like a 25 minute wait. But Drew didn’t give up. He wanted those Dippin’ Dots!

Once on board, we chose a seat near the edge, so we’d be able to take some good pictures! And we were able to! We had a really good view of the Statue of Liberty when we got there. The tour took us under the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. We saw “the projects”, some of New Jersey, the Chelsea piers, the United Nations, Wall Street, and the site of the World Trade Centers, “Ground Zero.” You can’t really see Ground Zero very well from the water, but you can see where they are working to build the Freedom Tower. The cranes stand out enough for you to see the site. The narrator of the cruise expressed his dismay that 8 years have passed and yet barely any work has been done on the Freedom Tower.

A few more sites we were able to see from the boat were Trump International Tower, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building.

After the cruise, as we walked back to catch the bus, we saw a sign that read, “no honking $350 fine.” This sign ended up being the butt of many jokes during our stay in NY, as there were many areas with these signs, but very few areas where people observed them – especially cabs.

We decided to stop back in Times Square to try our hand at getting ½ price Broadway tickets at the TKTS booth. We arrived just as they were getting ready to open. We hopped in line, but when the available shows and prices were posted, there were none that piqued our interest. So we decided to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Met was large, just like the guide book said. But at the rate we tour museums (speedy), we were able to see everything we wanted in one shot. We saw most of the permanent collection that was open that day, and also one special exhibit – Model as Muse. One nice moment we had there was stopping for lunch and the soup of the day was chicken noodle. Perfect for Maria – as she was getting more sick.

After we were done, we went outside to get on the Subway. It was going to be a bit of a hike, so we took up one of the guys on bike-rickshaws on their offer for a ride. It was pretty exciting – nothing between us and that scary traffic but a little seat. But like the cab drivers, the bike drivers are pretty skilled. We were actually pretty safe. We were ASTONISHED when we got onto the subway this time. It was rush hour and the subway was PACKED with people. It was like sardines in a can. You couldn’t even move in from the door area to get deeper into the subway car, as it was packed with people. It was almost laughable. We just looked at each other and smiled as people pushed by.

We decided to take the subway to Little Italy to try some good NY Pizza. The first restaurant we saw when we got there had dudes singing inside. That was pretty cool. We made our way down Mulberry Street to see what else was around. There were lots of Italian restaurants, but not a lot of pizza places. In fact, some of the restaurants seemed insulted if you wanted pizza. We ended up getting a single slice at a place called “Snackys.” The guy who recommended it called it “Snarkeys.” There were a lot of Italian people in Little Italy – it was cool to hear all of their accents. After we were done eating, we walked a little bit through Chinatown, and ended up at the next Subway stop. We took the subway back to our hotel and were done for the day. Maria’s fever was in full swing, so that was about it.

The best part of Day 2 was: riding the rickshaw bike thingie, seeing the sites from the cruise.

The worst part of Day 2 was: having a hard time finding pizza in Little Italy.

The weather on Day 2 was: alternating sunny and overcast. Still humid.

What we learned on Day 2 was: you probably can’t get tickets at half off to see Wicked or anything super-good at the last minute.

View of the Statue of Liberty from the Cruise

Maria and the Brooklyn Bridge

Drew on the Cruise

Maria at the Met with a Jackson Pollock

Drew at the Met with Hercules

Little Italy

Pizza in Little Italy

Saturday June 20

AKA Day 3 – Look at us go!

When we woke up on Day 3, we took a peek at the Weather Channel, and saw a HUGE storm headed our way on the Doppler radar. It was due in during the afternoon. And it was supposed to be raining for the remainder of our trip. So we decided to head straight away to the Empire State Building so we could go up and view the city before the rain began.

Lucky for us, we beat the crowd. There were a lot of lines to wait in – but they were mostly empty. There was the ticket line, the security line, the elevator line. But we pretty well breezed through. Our ticket from the CityPass booklet included the audio tour, so that was handy once we got up to the observation deck. You just face a certain direction, and push the button that corresponds to the number you see on deck, and a narrator describes to you what you’re looking at. That was fun. And just in time! As soon as we left, it was beginning to rain. And the line was really long.

We decided to head to the Carnegie Deli for lunch. Again, we beat the crowd. Lucky! We got a table straight away. The sandwiches there were HUGE. It was nuts. But it was tasty, too. Also, it was way more bacon than one person should eat. The people sitting next to us were from San Francisco. So that was cool. And the people down the table from them were getting married next week. After we were done, when we went outside, the line for coming in was an entire block long!

We were proud at how good we were getting at using the public transportation. Between our handy-dandy subway and bus maps, we could get ourselves just about anywhere we wanted to go. So we decided to go see Rockefeller Center. Maria really wanted to see the spot where you always see people ice skating in the movies during Christmastime in New York. It’s really cool because in the summer, they cover the area with patio dining and you can just sit down there by the fountain. One cool store we stopped at in the area was Nintendo World. They had a cute little Nintendo museum collection there. The displays featured the NintendoDS systems used by celebrities in the Nintendo television commercials. They displayed the DS systems used by Hilary Duff, Liv Tyler and America Ferrera. There was also an old-school GameBoy system on display that was damaged in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. It was damaged when a barracks was bombed – but it still worked! All the plastic was burnt, charred and bubbly, but it was still running Tetris on it!

After leaving Rockefeller Center, we headed down Fifth Avenue, walking by all of the famous expensive shopping there. We were on our way to FAO Schwartz, to check out the most famous toy store in the world! It was raining pretty hard by the time we got to FAO Schwartz, but we were greeted at the door by a friendly toy soldier. The store was really cool. There was a big Lego section up front. There were life-sized models built out of Legos there. We saw a Lego Batman, Lego Chewbacca, Lego Harry Potter characters, and more. There was a whole Harry Potter section upstairs, featuring movie paraphernalia and lots of HP gear. You could buy ties and scarves in the different house uniform colors. There was a section called “Flourish and Blotts”, and they even sold sorting hats! It was pretty cool.

Some more areas of interest in the store was the Ugly Dolls section, where there was a giant Ugly Doll named Ox walking around, a puzzle and games section (Drew’s favorite), and the larger-than-life piano from the movie “Big.”

After we had our fill of toy shopping, we hit the streets in search of an authentic NY hot dog from an authentic street vendor. There were plenty to choose from. They were everywhere we went. So we stopped by one and Drew picked up his NY hot dog. Unfortunately, it turned out to be painfully similar to a California hot dog. Guess we picked the wrong vendor. PLUS – Drew went to add mustard to his dog, and even tho the mustard was in a yellow container, it was Dijon. That’s yuck for him. Ack!

After all that touring, we were worn out. We made quite a run at it, and wanted to get back to the room to recuperate for the evening. We grabbed a Starbucks and relaxed for a few hours before it was time to go to the Gotham Comedy Club and see Gary Gulman. We arrived at Gotham with plenty of time to spare. We hung out in the bar while we waited for our show. They do 4 shows a night there! Those comics must get worn out. The opening acts were great, but Gary was a little off his game. He was really funny on the show Last Comic Standing when he was a contestant a while back. But he seemed bitter and un-funny that evening. Oh well, at least we enjoyed ourselves. We got really great seats. And it was nice to go to a NY comedy club. It was surprisingly small. Not much bigger than the Sacramento venues. For some reason, it seemed like they would need larger clubs. But guess not! After the show, it was time to head back. It was raining and Maria wasn’t in the mood for taking the subway at midnight and walking in the rain to get to it, so we hopped in a cab and called it a night.

The best thing about Day 3 was: how much stuff we got to see and do.

The worst thing about Day 3 was: puking when we got back to the hotel.

The weather on Day 3 was: cloudy in the AM, MAJOR stormage in the PM.

What we learned on Day 3 was: Gary Gulman isn’t very funny these days.

On the 86th Floor of the Empire State Building

Carnegie Deli

Drew in front of Radio City Music Hall

Maria at Rockefeller Center

The GameBoy that wouldn't quit

Lego Chewbacca

HP Section at FAO Schwartz

Sitting on Random Lawn Chairs in Times Square. Fun!

Gotham Comedy Club - good seats!

Sunday June 21

AKA Day 4 – Wearing Out

Day 4 didn’t go so great for us. We spent the whole day in the hotel room. Maria was really sick by this point. We had grand plans to go out that morning, but we never made it. We were planning to go see the diner from the show Seinfeld where Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer are always seen eating together (Tom’s Restaurant). The Diner is on the west side, and we were really looking forward to it. But alas, the flu stopped us from going.

Also on the agenda for today was the American Natural History Museum. This is the museum with all of the dinosaur skeletons on display. Drew was never very excited about going to that one, but Maria had really been looking forward to it. Again, it was a no-go. Maria slept all day long. Poor Drew sat around bored watching movies.

We decided we needed to get up and try to get ourselves to Broadway, because we had tickets that night to see Chicago at the Amsterdam Theatre. So we ate in the little café downstairs (chicken noodle soup), and took off. We picked up our tickets in a snap and were in line to go inside in no time. We thought we were there really early, but we were off by an hour, and were actually there exactly on time. Which turned out to be good, because Maria didn’t really feel like waiting that long before the show started.

We made it through the first couple of songs, but had to give up and leave before intermission. Flu and theatre don’t mix well. Oh well. At least we made a go of it. Back to the room we went. And we wouldn’t leave again until it was time to head out for the airport the next day.

The best part of Day 4 was: sleeping.

The worst part of Day 4 was: having to leave Chicago early.

The weather on Day 4 was: a blur.

What we learned on Day 4 was: you can only keep going so long while you’re sick and then you get really super-sick.

Monday June 22, 2009

AKA Day 5 - Time to fly home

Today was the last day in New York. On the schedule was the Museum of Modern Art. But that just wouldn’t come to pass this time. We ended up staying in the room so Maria could sleep and muster up the energy to fly home. After 4 days of the flu and trying to keep going anyway, it had just about wiped her out completely. We were just hoping for an uneventful trip home at this point. It wasn’t fun thinking about the two flights and 10 hours of travel we had ahead of us, but we weren’t about to change our plans to go home. So off we went to the airport.

We got the latest possible checkout time from the room, and got straight in a cab for La Guardia. We were quite blessed that the traffic was nil and the lines were equally empty. We were very thankful for that. We headed home on a journey that would involve 7-up and crackers, sleeping on the floor at the terminal, and prayer. But we made it home. Maria would be sick for another week after we got back. But even with all of the illness, we really enjoyed our trip. We would like to go back and see more of that amazing city!

The best part of day 5 was: when we finally made it home.

The worst part of day 5 was: feeling nauseated at the airport and during the flights.

The weather on Day 5 was: I was delirious. I don’t know. I think there was rain.

What we learned on Day 5 was: even if your worst nightmare is getting sick and having to fly across the country anyway, you can do it and you’ll live.

Day 6: Legoland

We drove down to Carlsbad this morning to try Legoland for the first time. We’ve heard good things about it, and knew that it’s geared for kids around Aiden and Jeremy’s ages. We were excited to see what they had to offer!

They didn’t disappoint! Even just driving in was cool. There was a family made out of Legos parking their car in the parking lot. So much stuff made of Legos! Cool!

While we were waiting In line, one of the families from Aiden’s preschool came up to us to say hi! His friend Katie was here at Legoland for the day too, with her parents and sister! It was great! We hung out for part of the morning together, and saw each other throughout the day.

Entering Legoland

Aiden and Katie

We headed in the general direction of the Sky Trolley, as that’s a popular ride that has long wait times generally. And we were in the park at open, so we figured it was a good time to hit it, before the line got long. We stopped at a few attractions on the way. One really cool ride we stopped at was the kid’s driving school. They had little cars for the kids to drive – that weren’t on tracks! Even Jeremy was allowed to operate one. It was really cute watching them try to negotiate that track, in total control of their vehicles. It was super cute and a crack up.

We made it to the sky trolley and it was cool, cuz we could see the whole park from up there. The kids wanted to ride in one car together alone, but they weren’t old enough to do that. They were totally bummed that they had to ride with Mom and Dad! They’re getting so big now! That’s one of the things they’ve begun doing on this trip – they wanna ride the rides in a car together, while Mom and Dad ride in a car together. We used to ride one kid with Mom the other kid with Dad…but they’re too cool for that now. Hehehehe

Jeremy driving all by himself (scary)!

The Sky Trolley

Next, we headed over to the “sky patrol”, which consisted of different rescue helicopters – police, fire, coast guard, etc. The kids liked that, because they could control whether the copters went up or down, turned right or left. They like rides they can control themselves like that. We also went on the free-floating boats, which the kids were able to drive themselves. Legoland seems like one of the only places we’ve been that features boats and cars that aren’t just stuck on a track. You can actually drive them around. The kids weren’t very good at driving the boats, so we had to help out with that. But it was still neat to be free-floating in the water!

Sky Patrol



Everything made out of Legos!

Jeremy driving a boat (even more scary)!

After the boats, we headed over to “Pirate Shores.” Legoland is really well themed. The pirate area was one of our favorites. It involved lots of water! Our first experience with the water there was the “Splash Battle,” where you are in a little pirate ship with a water cannon. You can aim and shoot your water cannon at other ships as well as innocent bystanders. You also pass under a few water features on the way, so you’re sure to get wet! But it was only a drop in the bucket (pun intended) compared to what was to come! Next up, the “Swabbies Deck.”

The Swabbies Deck is designed for the younger guests to enjoy some water play. There are some really big water features in this area as well, but they might be a bit intimidating for the younger crowd. The Swabbies Deck has pop-up water jets, fountains, and water cannons for the kids to get soaked in. You really need a swimsuit, towel, and change of clothes for this area. It’s basically like a small waterpark. The kids put on their swimtrunks, and they were ready to go! It took them a minute to build up some courage, but they got right in there after a minute or so. It was fun to watch them run and play. And we saw Aiden’s friend from school and her family again there, so the kids were able to all play together. There’s something to be said for having a friendly face around when you’re somewhere new. After the kids were too cold to continue (a small breeze picked up, and combined with the cool water temperature, they were beginning to shiver), we toweled off, changed, and headed to the Garden Restaurant for lunch.

The Swabbies Deck

After lunch, we made one last stop in Pirate Shores before moving on, and that was for the kids to get a tattoo at “Buccaneers Booty.” Jeremy wanted a blue snake, but the snake he chose was HUGE and wouldn’t fit on his tiny arm. So he settled for a dragon. He was very pleased with the outcome. He wore that dragon proudly. In true Spiderman fashion, Aiden chose a spider tattoo which he requested be airbrushed in red and blue. He knew EXACTLY what he wanted. He got his on his bicep. That was pretty cute. Castle Hill was our next themed area destination. It’s a medieval themed area, with castles, knights, and princesses. The kids really enjoyed one of the main attractions there – “The Hideaways.” This attraction is a multi-level play structure with tons of stuff. It’s huge. There were rope ladders and lots of slides. The boys could’ve spent a whole afternoon there, but we had to limit our stay – as there were so many other things to see and do! If we lived in Carlsbad, we’d totally get season passes to Legoland and take the kids to do all this fun stuff all the time! I wish WE had a Legoland up here! We’d be there tons. But we had to make our way over to LEGO Show Place, to catch the Bob the Builder 4D show – we were meeting our friends there.

Jeremy with his dragon tattoo

Aiden checking out his spider tattoo

Bob was out front greeting the kids. We got a cute pic, then played with some Legos in the Imagination Zone while we waited for the theater to open. Aiden used some letter legos to spell words on a Lego easel. Jeremy used a crane to pretend to scoop up Legos using the levers. Once the theater opened, we grabbed our glasses and got some seats. The kids are getting so spoiled with all this 3D stuff lately. Pretty soon, they’re not going to want to see a movie if it’s not in 3D. Bob the Builder was in “4D”, since it had tactile special effects, like water splashing at you, “snow” floating down from above, and smoke. It was cute enough. Fun for the kids. But Mommy and Daddy were really itching to go see Miniland USA, so we went there next.

Meeting Bob the Builder

Watching the Movie

Miniland USA consists of Lego model replicas of different cities in the United States. We saw Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. There were a couple more we didn’t even get to. They were so amazing – and detailed! Currently, the inauguration of President Obama is seen taking place on the steps of the Capitol building. In New York, there was a real working subway running below the city! In Las Vegas, we could see all of the casinos from our anniversary trip. They built the Luxor, the Venetian, Paris, Treasure Island (complete with battling pirate ships), the MGM Grand, Excalibur and more! It was so cool to look at. We could’ve spent a lot of time there, just checking out all of the little things going on. But alas, the park would be closing soon, and we wanted to get in a few more rides. So we headed over to the “Land of Adventure.”

Washington, D.C.

New York City

The Land of Adventure is an Egyptian themed area. Its main attraction, the Lost Kingdom Adventure was temporarily closed due to technical difficulties, so we rode the Bettle Bounce while we waited for it to reopen. Aiden was really into the Bettle Bounce, because it goes up and drops you down. Aiden’s such an adventurer these days. Jeremy was on the fence about going on the ride, but decided in the end he’d pass. Lucky for us, once we left Bettle Bounce, the Lost Kingdom Adventure was back open. It was the perfect ride to end our trip with. It’s one of those shooting adventures, where you ride along in a little car with your laser gun and shoot at various targets. The kids like that, and it’s fun for us, too!

After the ride was over, we still had a few minutes left before the park closed. So we went inside the “Pharaoh’s Revenge.” This is a caged-in play area where you can shoot thousands of foam balls at targets and each other. It has two levels, an area up top where you load up and fire cannons, and an area below, where you collect the foam balls and send them up through tubes to the top level. Also you get shot down there. The kids could’ve done that forever. They were racing around, gathering up balls and shooting them. It was quite fun to watch. By the time we were done there, we went back outside and the entrances to all the rides were closed. The park was closed. Boo! We could’ve definitely spent two days there. It was a great day, but we had to head out, because we had a special surprise destination for Aiden before we returned back to Anaheim.

Pharaoh's Revenge (aka Jeremy's Revenge)

Aiden's Revenge

Darth Vader and R2D2 in Lego on the way out of the park

We left Carlsbad and drove a bit further south, down to San Diego. Aiden’s best friend from last year in Preschool moved down there last summer. He was so bummed when she moved. And was so excited when we told him we were going to meet up with her for dinner! We met up with Trenna and her family at the Wave House right on the beach in Belmont Park. They live right there – so close to Sea World, it’s nuts! We had a great meal, sitting outside with a perfect view of the sunset on the water. The Wave House is a pretty cool place, because it has these wave generators where the surfers practice. The kids got a kick out of watching them surf and wipe out. But so did we! The kids had so much fun playing together. They were playing ring around the rosie, and climbing around under the table and hanging on the fence looking out at the ocean. We made a quick stop back at their house before we headed back up to our hotel. It was nice to see them again. All in all, it was a wonderful day. There was a bit of a sunburn by the end – that San Diego sun can be brutal! We missed one spot on Jeremy’s earlobe, and it was seriously burned – all scaly and everything. Yuck! The kids were sooo tired. They slept pretty much the whole drive back. We had a really great day.

Beautiful San Diego

The best part of day 6 was: the fact that Legoland rocked, seeing our friends from back home and hanging out with them in the park, Aiden seeing Trenna after almost a year.

The worst part of day 6 was: the sunburns, not getting to see all of Legoland

The weather on day 6 was: soo nice. It felt so cool and breezy, but the sun was shining. Just right.

What we learned on day 6 was: Even SPF70 might meet its match in San Diego. Legoland is AWESOME, and you could totally spend two days there.

Day 5: Not So Early Entry

We had a big plan for today. Early entry. Stay in park til 1. Go back to hotel. Take naps. Come back in early evening. Stay til close. There was one snag…no early entry today. We got up bright and early this morning to head to the park for early entry. We even left the hotel early to get a quick drive-thru breakfast, so as not to waste time eating in the park when we could be riding rides! We planned to munch on our breakfast while we waited to be admitted – cuz we were gonna be early, even for early entry. We got our breakfast and headed to our new favorite parking area – the Lion King Lot. When we got there the gates were closed. Okay, so maybe that’s an overflow lot that’s not open first thing in the morning. We’ll just head to the Mickey and Friends parking structure – the main lot. That one was curiously closed as well. Turns out we were there for an early entry day that didn’t exist. Drew called the help number while we were waiting for the parking lot to open and they informed us that we can redeem our early entry day on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, but not today, cuz it’s Wednesday. D’oh!

Needless to say, we got a great parking spot. We were among the first few cars to enter. So that part was nice. What wasn’t nice was waking up early for nothing and getting to the park 2 hours too early. Oh well. We had time to do some shopping before opening. Then we went right onto Space Mountain first thing when they dropped the ropes to the main areas of the park.

This was Aiden’s first time on Space Mountain. He hasn’t been tall enough in the past. But he sure was excited to ride it today! Maria took him on first, and Drew got the “baby swap” pass, which allowed him to take a turn immediately after Maria. Aiden was really excited – he threw his hands up into the air as soon as he lowered his lap bar! He left them up for the whole first half of the ride. Quite brave! He was clenched onto that lap bar pretty tight by the end, though. But he said “it was really good!” and went on again with Drew.

Aiden Boarding Space Mountain

Jeremy Riding a Virtual Rollercoaster While Aiden was on Space Mountain

We tried the Jedi Training Academy after that. We tried two times today for Aiden to be chosen to participate in the show. He really wanted to go up and fight with the Jedi as a Padawan. It’s pretty cool cuz they get the little Jedi robes and a light saber. And they fight Darth Vader and Darth Maul. But unfortunately for all of us, Aiden wasn’t chosen at either show. He was sooooo upset. He was right in the front both times, jumping up and down, waving and yelling, but he just never got a turn. He was crying both times. But he tried really hard to get over it and we told him we’ll try again before we leave.

Aiden Volunteering for Jedi Training

After a quick jump on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, we headed over to New Orleans Square for lunch with the Monicks at Blue Bayou. It’s that restaurant with the lanterns you can see when you ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. It was kinda weird eating there today, tho – as Pirates was closed for refurbishment, and there were no boats floating by. The food was good, though – and the boys got cool Buzz Lightyear drinks with light-up toys on them.

Space Ranger Spin

Blue Bayou

After lunch, we headed for Toontown, where we met Mickey in his house. Then we went over to try Gadget’s Go Coaster. This was Jeremy’s first roller coaster. He told us he would, “go…wooo hooo,” on the ride. Maria and Aiden rode in the front. Jeremy and Drew rode in the second car. Jeremy did well on the ride, but decided he didn’t like it. He said it was too fast. We kinda guessed that would happen. He’s not quite into that yet.

Meeting Mickey

Jeremy's First Rollercoaster Ride

We spent some more time in Toontown, playing around in the kid areas. There’s lots of stuff to climb on and run around, as well as things to explore. The kids burned off some energy while Maria and Drew grabbed a seat on a bench for a bit. After a quick snack, we headed off to it’s a small world, Jeremy’s pick for our next ride. Aiden informed Maria that she was taking pictures of things we already had photos of, and Jeremy sang for a good portion of the ride.

Playing in Toontown

Riding the Carousel

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Our last main event of the day was the, “Celebrate! A Street Party,” parade. The current theme at Disneyland is “celebrate.” They are offering free admission on your birthday, and special buttons for people celebrating occasions like marriage, graduation, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. The parade is all about celebrating – everything. It involves dancing and crowd interaction. Aiden got to dance with one of the performers. And he and Jeremy enjoyed the streamers and confetti that flew through the air at the end. By the end of the parade, we had been in the parks from open to nearly close. We were ready to head home. It’s hard to remember the last time we were so tired at only 7:30pm!

Parade Photos!

The best part of day 5 was: How much Aiden loved the rollercoasters, and how much Jeremy loved the super tame rides. They were both really enjoying themselves.
The worst part of day 5 was: Aiden being overlooked to become a Padawan (it was hard to see him so upset). Also, being there early for nothing kinda sucked.
The weather on day 5 was: great, as usual. A slight chill when the breeze picked up, but great overall.
What we learned on day 5 was: early entry is on days beginning with “T” and “S” only.
Quote of the day: At the wishing well – “What did you wish for, Aiden? Did you wish that you could ride the rides?” Aiden: “I wished that I could marry Belle.”