California Adventures Day 10--the long road home

Long drive home today, but not as long as our initial trek last Friday!  We were on the road for eight hours, leaving Tahoe at 8:30, Pacific time, arriving at our house in Boise at 6:15, mountain time.  I think that's a pretty good record.  We made only two or three potty stops, including lunch.  Nobody threw a fit in the car, had any accidents or any other atrocities!  We were so glad to be home.

The weather was beautiful when we left the condo.  Sunny and warm.  When we arrived in Boise, we were greeted with 100 degree heat and a thunder storm.  We could see the storm on the horizon, the closer we got to home.  It was raining when we were on I-84, about ten minutes out.  When we finally reached our house, it was hotter than hot inside!  UGH!!!  Sunday night was a hot, steamy night.  Monday was much better once the air had traveled throughout the whole house.

California Adventures Days 8-9--quiet in Tahoe

Friday was a nice change of pace.  We didn't have a defined schedule and were able to rise and shine whenever we chose.  Julia took a three hour nap and I managed a whole hour of midday zzz's!  Matt took the boys into town to explore and inquire about renting a boat--kind of spendy!  Marty and Kayoko are due in this evening, late.

Saturday has been a very quiet day. Nobody coming or going, just whatever you want to do. It's nice to not have a plan for a change. After lunch we ventured out to the Tallac museum and saw some neat old buildings. That was the peak of our excitement today. The next big thrill is having ribs for dinner, with homemade ice cream for dessert!

California Adventures Day 7--on the road again

Today, we traveled from Arcadia to Tahoe, to meet up with the rest of Matt's family. It is an all day drive, but we had some spectacular scenery along the way. We came up the east side, catching the backside of Yosemite about halfway to our destination. The peaks were just spectacular and for a while they were behind some foothills, making the peaks look like a hologram, according to James.

California Adventures Day 6--4th of July!

Today after picking up the kids, we trekked over to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and museum, where Reagan's Air Force One is housed. Marty and Kayoko went as well. Our kids had such a good time with their Rhees cousins. They watched Back to the Future 2 and ate pizza. Julia fell in love with Buck (our doggy cousin). In the morning, Kayoko took good care of our kids and even packed snacks for them to take to the library! What a fantastic auntie! The library and museum had a lot of interesting things, but the most exciting thing for the kids was the airplane inside. Since it was our country's birthday, there were lots of fun activities for the kids, as well as live music. They got their faces painted and played hard. Pom leaving the museum, we drove towards Malibu to see where Charlie Harper lives (if you don't watch Two and a Half Men, you wouldn't understand). On the edge of Malibu, we found a parking spot with beach access, so we played in the sand some more before going back to Marty's house for dinner. Somewhere along the eay, James proclaims from the bakc, that he wants to "experiment with different liquids." When we arrived at Marty's, James emerged with a water bottle half full of s ome yellow liquid. Obviously, we knew right away that James had peed into his empty water bottle. Ugh!!! After disposing of our hazardous waste, James got to go for a ride in Marty's sporty BMW Z4, with the top down! What a thrill that was! Matt brilliantly decided to send his brother a package from Omaha Steaks, so we had the best hot dogs and hamburgers. After dinner, we played outside before watching the fireworks show. We had extra glow sticks we got at the Mailow concert the previous evening, do the kids had great fun playing with those. Marty's house is in close proximity to the Rose Bowl, where Pasadena's fireworks display is held. Across the street form their house is the primo spot for fireworks watching, so we pulled up a blanket and watched the spectacular display from the city of Pasadena.

California Adventures--Day 5--BARRY!!!!!!

Fairly relaxing day today, no pressing engagements until evening hours. We lounged in our hotel room for a couple of morning hours while the kids watched Spongebob and daddy took a nap. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant near our hotel. Te food was early quite good. The kids were not impressed. I remember being a kid and going to a Chinese restaurant. I always had what my grandpa called a "tube" steak (hot dog). They survived and ate at least some of what was in front of them. Matt and I enjoyed in. After lunch, we went for a swim in the hotel pool. That was so much fun for everyone! Julia even went in and enjoyed every second of it! We were the only hotel guests in the pool today. How nice to have the pool to ourselves! After dring off and getting sufficiently cleaned up, we went to Marty and Kayoko's house to drop off the kids. Marty had been working and got home just after we arrived. Of course, this merits mention because he drives an amazing BMW sports car. He was gracious enough eo take James around the block in it with the top down!! That was a very happy boy! After dropping the kids off, Matt and I headed over to the Hollywood Bowl to see Barry Manilow! How exciting! I had never been to the bowl before. It was just spectacular! What an amazing piece of history and to be able to see it and Barry Manilow was incredible!!! I was so excited, I think I had a goofy grin on my face the whole evening! It was a great show with the LA Philharmonic as well. What a spectacular night!!!

California Adventures Day 4--Disneyland!!!

Disneyland, the stuff kids dreams are made of, for sure. We started our day at 5:30. We were he first ones in the breakfast room this morning. Everything was fresh and hot. It was too early for the kids to eat much, none of them seemed hungry this morning. We hit the road by 6:30 am-- took the 210 to the 57 all the way to Anaheim. All things considered, traffic was not too bad. It took us right around 45 minutes to get to Anaheim. Once there, we went into the ginormous parking structure and parked on the Mickey level, row 10H. We took the tram to the park and we were off and running! We rented a heavy duty stroller and checked into a locker to store a few things for the day. What a good idea that was! We checked out Main Street USA and then went straight to the Princess castle. We immediately had a princess sighting with Ariel, aka the Little Mermaid. Julia was a bit awe struck I think. She wasn't sure what to think of her. Ariel was very nice (they train them well at Disneyland!). She talked to Julia and even the prince and pirate Julia was with (Jacob would be the pirate). We rode Dumbo, which Julia absolutely adored, Peter Pan's flight and Mr. Toad's wild ride (neither Julia nor myself liked this one). From there we walked on to Tomorrowland. The boys went through Star Tours while mommy and Julia had a snack and went potty. When the boys finished, we through Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters ride/game. That was really fun, especially for the boys. I think there were too many flashing lights and loud sounds for Julia. Fantasyland was next. It's a Small World is and always has been amazing. Everyone adds that ride. Mickey's Toon Town was next. That was fun. Everything looks like you are in a cartoon. We got to meet Goofy and Minnie Mouse. Julia loved the cartoon cars on the street. She especially liked meeting Minnie. Our lunch stop was in Frontierland--Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue. Very, very good ribs and BBQ fare. We stayed in the frontier and got fast passes for Thunder Mountain Railroad. When we returned to ride it, it was temporarily closed. We rode the ship Columbia and got fast passes for Splash Mountain as well. We did the Haunted Mansion in Frontierland, the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Enchanted Tiki Room in Adventureland. Those were all outstanding rides. Pirates was so awesome! Once James got over the initial fear factor of the unexpected, he loved it. The first part was a little scary, as there was a small portion of complete pitch black darkness that ended with the first drop of the ride. Both exhilarating and frightening at the same time--it was awesome! We took a snack break and split up for an hour or so. The boys went back to Frontierland to ride the railroad and Spash Mountain, while mommy and Julia went to the Princess Fantasy Faire. We waited in line for around 30 minutes to meet three real live princesses. We didn't know who it would be until we got there. I was hoping for Cinderella, as that is Julia's favorite. Cinderella wasn't there, but we did get to meet Princess Tiana, Belle, and Jasmine (Julia's other fave). Julia was so cute. Tiana and Belle were first, ending with Jasmine. Julia wasn't completely sure what to think of the first two, she just kind of stood there, frozen. When we came to Jasmine, though, Julia ran right to her and smiled. It was very sweet. I don't know if she'll remember any of it next week, but we have some nice pictures to show her later. We also went though Sleeping Beauty's castle before meeting up with the boys again. It was then time to find a parade spot. The parade . . . What an amazing spectacle that was! Al of our favorite characters right there in front of us! Post parade, we took the tour train around the park and mommy and James made an attempt to ride Space Mountan. Unfortunately, it was temporarily closed and we were unable to get on it. Dad took the younger two back to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Jacob decided at the lst minute (after they had already boarded their space ship) that he would not, under any circumstances, ride it without his mommy. Aargh!!!! Apparently, they had to shut the whole ride down for a few minutes, so Jacob could get off. Post ride disasters, we attempted to find a suitable place to watch the Fantasmic show. What an amazing display of Disney ingenuity!!! That was a truly awesome show! Immediately following the show we took in the fireworks spectacular. Also really good, but nothing compared to Fantsmic! It was neary midnight when. Returned to the hotel to go to bed. When we pulled into the parking lot, all three monkeys were completely asleep. That is a sight you never see in our car and might I add, a very welcome sight as well.

California Adventures Day 3--Newport Beach