Finally the day the kids could hardly wait for had arrived. We left Saturday morning and drove to Vegas to spend the evening with Uncle Nathan and Benazir before continuing on to California. I snapped this cute picture of our sleeping princess on the way day.
We went with them to a local botanical garden that our Thanksgiving Point membership allowed us free entrance to. The kids loved all the Kyrgystan clothes that Benazir and Nay brought back for them.
They also loved uncle Nathan's boots, though the found them a little cumbersome to walk in and playing Nay's piano which used to be my old keyboard that moved to college with me and every house Derek and I lived in until I finally relented it to Nay.
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast at IHOP introducing our kids to the "funny face" for the first time and then were on our way to California.
We drove into Gayla's home in Los Angeles and met up with Mom. Gayla and her husband were so kind to unexpectedly pull together a wonderful lunch for us. Then, we took Mom and the kids to check out the Los Angeles temple visitor's center.
They had some really neat exhibits and this cute digital coloring station for kids to color temples and such.
Then, we drove the kids to our first hotel (a Hyatt-where we stay for free because of points) near Disneyland. We hit the pool and then called it a night. The next morning we got up, went to a near by Target to stock up on lunchables and snacks for Disneyland and then checked into the Paradise Pier Disney hotel. The hotel had this fun little room with little beach chairs and 24/7 running classic disney cartoons that the kids loved.
Goofy and his surf board greeted you in the lobby.
We spent a little time shopping Downtown Disney. The kids loved the Lego store. They had all kinds of legos you could play with, and this one race track set up. You could build a lego car, they would attach wheels and then you would race the other created lego cars. Camden loved that. Then, we checked out the Paradise Pier pool which had a super fun water slide all the kids could go down by themselves and they provided life jackets for all the kids which was nice. Derek and I made a reservation for the kids to eat at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney because we thought they would enjoy that, but by the time we walked back over there all but Carter were asleep. He enjoyed it.
That night we had a great view of world of color from our hotel window.
The boys were so cute all stretched out and snoozing in their bed the morning that we were finally going to hit the park that I had to snap a picture.
It was so fantastic to have Mom and George join us at Disneyland. However, just a few days before the trip Mom discovered that she had au ulcerated and bleeding polyp in her stomach which had rendered her quite anemic. She would get short of breath walking long distances or doing stairs. It meant that she hard to cruise Disneyland in a wheelchair which mostly ended up being a perk. In Disneyland, they let wheelchairs enter through the exit so we cut out lines on almost every ride. At California adventure, they more modernly adapted lines to be wheelchair friendly, so we had to be better about utilizing fast passes.
I made these shirts for the kids before we left because I was so panicked about losing someone. Especially since it has happened multiple times before at basketball games, the mall, etc.
Luckily, we never had to use the phone number part, but it was definitely helpful to have all the kids in the same bright colors. Because one twin would always run ahead and I could yell to the crowd, the one in bright green in mine and they would help me contain them.
Over all, we had soooo much fun at the park. The kids got to see so many fun characters. The first character they met was Captain Hook. Carter refused to stand with him for a picture and insisted that he was scary, but we caught him with Peter Pan another day, and Peter must have served as a good buffer because that day Carter wanted a picture.
They would run up to them with their autograph books, give hugs, and then pose for a picture.
We did a character breakfast at the hotel one morning which was kind of fun.
The kids loved Minnie. The boys gave her hugs and she smothered them with kisses.
At one point during the breakfast, Camden was throwing a fit about something and Dad was trying to wrestle him into calming down. Luckily, Minnie came to the rescue right then and gave him a kiss on the head which immediately seemed to change his behavior. I wish she could live with us year round!
Before we left for the trip, Camden had told Carolyn that he was most excited to see Elsa and give her a hug. His wish came true.
Liv was given this special Disney birthday pin that let everyone know she was celebrating a birthday, so all the characters and park workers were so great to always wish her a happy birthday. She ate that up. Even Lightning McQueen said, "Wow nice pin, happy birthday!" After which Liv declared, Mom that is the real Lightning McQueen."
In fact, she was convinced that all the characters were the real deal.
The best thing about Disneyland with kids this age. It's so magical. We waited in line for the princess faire and there are usually 3 princesses there, but often it's a grab bag surprise and you never know who you are going to get. We went there at the start of one of our days before the line was too long. That morning they announced that Snow White and friends would be there.
Liv was thrilled that one of them was her very favorite princess, Aurora. When we met with her I said Liv, tell Aurora who your favorite princess is and she said, "YOU!"
The third princess was Mulan (who I guess is actually quite rare to catch at Disneyland. She ended up being my favorite character interaction the kids had . I loved that she got right on the ground as soon as my kids entered and visited with them. The boys love Mulan because of all the sword action. She kept calling them her little warriors, and had them all stand in warrior pose with her.
When we got home, we printed all the pictures of the kids and put them in their autograph books. The kids love them. Camden even snuggled up with his during his nap one day.
We stayed until Disneyland closed one night to catch the light parade. We each had kids on our shoulders which was sweaty and exhausting, but the kids reaction to each character made it worth it. I had Camden on my shoulders, and as each character that came into view, I would feel him wildly bouncing as he waved and screamed "Hi Sully!!!!, Hi Ariel!!!, Hi Woody, Hi!!!!!". So adorable.
Liv was incredibly brave and wanted to go on every ride she was tall enough to ride that we deemed scary. The ice monster in Matterhorn did scare her, but then she still wanted to go again with me and the second time she would just stick her tongue out and spit at him each time he popped up. This idea was shared with her brothers, and it translated into the same behavior on Snow White when the evil queen would pop out. She had the classic first time on splash mountain face, but as soon as she got off, she grabbed her Dad's hand to go again.
She loved Soaring Over California and Racers. She insisted on taking me and Babi (much to our displeasure) on Tower of Terror. I made her watch them open the window and listen to people screaming and then dropping over and over. Yet, she still insisted she wanted to go. She wasn't scared at all waiting to get on. She did admit to me right before quietly, that she was actual a little scared. And after it was over, she seemed a bit traumatized.
That was the only ride she had no desire to repeat. She made Derek and George go on it after us, but she didn't want to go with them. However, talking to her now, she says she would go on it again.
Unfortunately, it was unseasonably hot. 100 degrees every day we were there! That was exhausting. We would go as long as we could, and then find a place to eat late lunch/early dinner in air conditioning which seemed to revive us and allow us to them hit the park some more. I fear Babbi and Papou will politely decline any vacation we invite them on in the future because we wore them out so much. The third day they lounged at the hotel and met up with us a little later. By them, even our amazingly energetic kids were running out of steam so we mostly caught air conditioned shows all day. Don't get me started on how sad I am that one of those shows was not Aladdin, especially since they are soon to be replacing it with some Frozen show (Come on! Frozen has been so overdone!)
We let each of the kids pick one thing from world of Disney as a souvenir. Liv picked a music jewelry box with a spinning and singing Aurora. The boys both wanted Pirate swords and for days after carried them around singing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me!" Although more accurately Carter actually says, "Ho, ho, Ho ho...a pirates life for me." Our first night at Paradise Pier Mom and George offered to watch the kids so Derek and I could have some time to ourselves. We just strolled downtown Disney kid free which was lovely and we came back with hats for each of the kids to help prevent sunburned faces. The boys both wore these Mike Legowski hats all over it was adorable. Liv picked out this princess hat from the Mad Hatter store.
Unfortunately, that very day she lost it somewhere. I stopped at the city hall to check lost and found knowing it was a long shot, and the disney worker was so sweet. He went and got me a brand new hat. Above and beyond! Not at all what I intended or expected.
Favorite rides: They all loved pirates, even though Camden always cried after the big drop at the beginning. The boys loved the Buzz Light Year ride and shooting the bad guys.
All three kids loved Toystory Mania.
And so many more. But, I've decided I would kind of like to not go to Disneyland again until the boys are big enough to go on most of the ride. I ended up getting left behind an awful lot with the twins and it was stressful and I would rather we just got to spend the whole days together instead of separated. One time when big people went on other ride, George and I climbed Tarzan's tree house with the boys.
Another time, I took the boys to play in this redwood like play zone.
So, we had fun despite their height deficits.
The only other wrench in the plan (and I hesitate to write about this because it was sooooo embarrassing) was that my stomach did not agree with all the gross food I had to eat. By the 3rd day of park food and snacks I had diarrhea bad. The worst case hit when Derek and Liv left to ride Star Tours. So it was me and the boys and my stomach was cramping so bad. I tried to sneak out what I thought might be a fart for relief (not a smart idea) and it ended up being a bad shart! I ran to the bathroom with both boys. Texted Derek of the emergency. Poor Derek and Liv had to leave the front of the line to come to my rescue. Derek sent Liv into the bathroom and she took the boys to him. Luckily, I had an abundance of baby wipes. I of course had an extra outfit for each of the kids packed along, but didn't think of packing a change of clothes for myself. My Mom luckily had not left the hotel yet, and brought me extra underwear, but the shorts (which of course were white) were slightly soiled despite trying to wipe them as clean as possible with basically all the baby wipes I had on hand. I wore them anyways because all my other pants were already packed into the car so far away, and I didn't have the energy to take everyone all the way out of the park to retrieve them.
After the third day at the park, we moved to another Hyatt in Newport Beach. Wowser! What a ritzy part of California, and beautiful.
The hotel was super nice and dog friendly. The kids loved running around on the grass with this Goldendoodle.
There was an outdoor ampitheatre where Liv directed a Sleepying Beauty play. I was Maleficent and she whispered each line word for word for me to say. We ordered take-out pizza and sat on the grass overlooking the bay with all the parked yachts.
Then, we let the kids swim in the pool and settled down for the night.
In the am, we packed a cooler and went to the Newport Beach state park to let the kids experience the ocean for the first time.
I was not at all prepared for how terrifying it would be to me as the parent of 3 pretty much non swimmers. Those waves would just come crashing in and always pulled the kids back out. I could never quite relax the whole time we were there. Nevertheless, the kids quite enjoyed it. Then, we hit the hotel pool one more time before headed back to Nathan and Benazir's for another night and then home.
Liv finished her soccer season with a bang. Sports at this age are so tough. If the games fall at a time when Liv is tired, she doesn't do well participating. Her soccer games were at 2:30 on Saturdays when it was always blazing hot, and boys are supposed to be napping and Liv is starting to run out of steam for the day and Monday at 5 pm and when she would always fall asleep on the way to the game and then we would wake her up and expect her to run full speed for an hour straight. Needless to say, she did not meet expectations very often. If we found her on a day when it wasn't too hot and she wasn't too tired she would go out on the field and give it her all and honestly play pretty well. She was aggressive and could score and run full speed for almost an hour straight. The last game of the season was one of these and half way through the second half she came off the field and said, "Mom, I'm getting tired I almost feel like I'm gonna throw up." And, I believe it with how hard she was running around that field. She played with her two cute friends in the neighborhood Hazel and Lilah and I loved watching the 3 interact on the field. After they scored they would give each other huge hugs. And often Hazel and Liv would run up the field together shoulder to shoulder Hazel with the ball and you could hear Liv shouting to her as they ran, "Hazel, Hazel pass it here!!!!" As if passing it to someone running right against her shoulders would help. HA! I hope I can watch these three play on soccer teams together for years to come.
