Oh yea, Disneyland

Ok, ok, I am repenting. Yes, we DID go to Disneyland while we were in Cali for those of you who have been inquiring. Sorry for the delay. I just thought I had done enough blogging already for the week so I'd take a nice break. :) We loved our time at Disneyland though! The kids had never been and they loved every minute of it from before the park opened until long after it had closed! Well, our youngest rebelled every time we had to buckle him back into the stroller, but other than that, we all had a blast! We met up w/ my dear friend from my first year of college and I finally got to meet her kids and catch up with her. They were so wonderful to spend the day with!
Upon entering the park we visited with Donald before making our way through the castle
and onto the Merry-go-Round. I couldn't find the Merry-go-Round on the list I had made of sights to see but I learned to throw that list out in a hurry and just let the kids lead the way!
They loved it! Then Dumbo, but only Enzo was willing to try that one so I stopped into the Mad Hatters shop w/ the other two in the mean time.
I think It's a Small World was one of the best rides because we could all ride it together and everyone could really enjoy it!
Even Massimo was star-struck and pointing to his favorites!
Enzo was also the only one brave enough to go on the roller coaster so the rest of us had a chance to meet Mickey and explore his place!
Enzo still talks about that roller coaster ride and wants to know when he can do something like that again!
That kid has a serious need for speed! Toontown was a fun stop!

It was time for a lunch break next so we took the kids to the Jedi training while we grabbed a bite! I WISH I had pictures of the kids' faces! They were enthralled with Darth Vader and Darth Mal and were sure we were doomed! Neither were willing to get up and fight them just yet, but they loved what they saw! Next we drove the bumper cars, even though our littlest was dying for his nap. We got him napping and the kids hit Astro Blaster w/ Dad and LOVED it! Then we had the great fortune of running into Mary Poppins and Bert!!! If any of you knew how much my children like that show...! They have all the songs memorized as well as the dances. Those were probably the best characters that Arianna could have seen, short of Mickey himself! We got to see them dance to their show tunes before it was on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Arianna was NOT happy about that one. She cried on the little drops and Massimo lost it when the cannons splashed him. Yup, you guessed it, Enzo LOVED it! I was tickled with how much they enjoyed the Tiki Room! What a trip! Arianna had to ask if the birds were real and everyone was jamming right along w/ them. Eventually we passed under the castle again and onto Peter Pan! Arianna loved Peter Pan so much she wanted to go on it right after she had gotten off, even though it was a 25 minute wait (that was the longest wait of the day, I think)! Yeah! Another ride she liked! We still had more to see though (yea, I didn't TOTALLY throw out my list of Must-see attractions).
We took a train ride around the park to rest weary legs and before we knew it the parade was coming our way!
The kids LOVED the street party!!
They all got to just let loose and dance in the street and sing along w/ the characters. Then after the celebration was all done confetti flew. Arianna's face lit up!! She was sure she had just been a part of the grandest celebration in all the world. And she was right. She had to gather confetti to bring a part of the celebration home with her.
We will definitely be back! We were so grateful to our wonderful friends that shared the day with us! It just wouldn't have been the same w/o them!
Arianna and Syd became fast friends, just like their mama's. After the parade we knew we had just a few more minutes before the park closed down so we took advantage of the short lines and hit Finding Nemo with just a 10 minute wait!! Awesome ride! The kids were begging for more rides but while inside the great submarine everything closed down. We had to make our way out. :( Back at the car the kids all got in their new character jammies and snuggled into their buckles for the ride back to Oceanside. Enzo was asleep before we even made it out of the parking stucture. He gave it his all from sun up to sun down! The other two followed soon after. Marco and I were held up by a flat tire, but that couldn't put a damper on a day of such fun and memories!

San Diego 'n' Sweets

One of the things I was most excited to do, after Disneyland, was to take my famiy to the tide pools. I always loved exploring the tide pools in Monterey Bay whenI studied there and I was sure the kids would be tickled with all the life in the intertidal zone. La Jolla has some great tide pools because of it's rocky shore line and Wednesday evening was the best daytime low tide that week, so off we went. The rocks were teeming with tiny crabs and larger horseshoe crabs, barnacles, limpits, chitons, sea anenomes, fish, mussels and more! Marco was just like a kid himself out there too, I LOVED it! I only took pictures when we first got there since my hands were wet and sandy shortly thereafter. Enzo collected some good shells, they all did some rock climbing and Massimo was enamored with the dog nearby! San Diego was fabulous! It is such a beautiful place! Once we finished our explorations we headed over to Old Towne for some good old Mexican food and those homemade tortillas (not as good as yours, though, mom). It was such an enjoyable day! Seaworld was tide pooling on a much grander scale!! I don't know that they learned a whole lot more, but they sure loved what they saw, felt and tasted! Dolphins were first on tap, followed by sea otters. They enjoyed seeing the dolphins so close up and watching them jump out of the water. They got a kick out of the sea otters because they would come knock on the glass w/ their ice blocks right by where the kids were standing; it was as if they wanted to say hi. Marco didn't think we needed to visit the tide pool exhibit since we had done that the night before but I still wanted to show the kids sea stars since the tide wasn't low enough to see any in La Jolla. Arianna wasn't sure she wanted to touch them at first; she has always been cautious. Then there was Enzo: he was ready to dissect one and find out all about it right then and there. I think he was planning to tuck one in his pocket and take it home w/ him! That was enough to convince Arianna that she would be OK petting one just a bit. The sea cucumber was fun too...and gross, I guess. We wanted to get a good seat in the soak zone for Shamu (well, I did) so we headed to Shamu's place next. That was certainly the best part of the day for the kids. Even though we sat in the first few rows we managed to stay dry much to my chagrin and everyone else's relief. The trainers had the audience call 'Shamu' to get the Killer Whales to come out and splash us all. The kids are still chanting 'Shamu, Shamu' more than a week later, even our littlest fish (though his sounds more like 'mamu, mamu')! By the time the show was over we were too hot and hungry to go on so we stopped for a bite to eat before making our way into the sun again. The kids were thrilled to have located a kids' zone in the middle of the park and they stopped in to bounce and climb and play there for a while. The Marine Biologist w/in me could only handle that for a little while before the urge to see more sea life kicked in, though. Besides, the sharks were getting hungry for some lunch! Or that was Enzo's fear, anyway. The shark exhibit is dark and that, combined w/ all that Enzo knows about sharks, was enough to almost keep him from entering with us. He was SO nervous! Good thing the first sharks we saw were the smaller ones, that put him at ease. Marco loved it here, who wouldn't?! He played it VERY cool, as you can see! Rays, eels, pirhanas, frogs, fish, and turtles followed. I don't know that I had seen Flamingos before, is that crazy??! So I was excited...for at least a minute. They were cool to see, but the boys were more interested in chasing the pigeons nearby and that was quite entertaining to me as well! The seal show was next up, very humorous and Marco's favorite part. The kids sat mesmerized so I think they liked it a lot too! Those animals can be trained to do some pretty amazing tricks! Again, we were in the soak zone. Again, we stayed DRY! That meant we were headed BACK to see Shamu. It was too hot to stay dry ALL day! This time we got WET! I was the only one that liked it.
Massimo cried, the other kids whined so Marco high-tailed it up the stairs w/ three kids in tow (he wasn't a fan of getting wet himself, so it worked out perfectly).
Still left to see: Penguins and the other Arctic animals. Arianna was enamored w/ the Belugas, Enzo liked the polar bear...kind of. It was a love-hate relationship; he was terrified of him and yet fascinated, as well. Marco and I got a kick out of the walrus. Weird creature! We had a wonderful day at Seaworld! Marco hopes we can ride more of the rides next time (one of our kids was too short and the other too frightened) but all-in-all we loved our time w/ the sea creatures!Since dessert ALWAYS has to follow dinner we thought it would be fun to switch it up a bit on vacation. So on Friday walked the long pier for some huge and tasty shakes BEFORE dinner! Ruby's did not disappoint.Enzo couldn't resist a cone. Arianna's eyes were blood shot from diving for coins w/ Daddy ad nauseum in the pool while the boys napped but that didn't stop her from enjoying a banana caramel shake any! THEN it was time for dinner so we hiked back to our condo and hopped in the car to find a yummy seafood joint. The Jolly Roger was what we settled on, a quaint little restaurant that overlooks the Oceanside harbor. Loved it! In fact, we went back w/ my sis when she was down on Saturday. Yummy! I can never get enough of seafood!

Beginning at the End-Oceanside '09

I can't get this all in on one post, or I will never post it if I do, so here is a taste of Cali. I am working backwards, but at least there are some pictures for ya mom! Enjoy, we sure did!Arianna arrived and got cozy...

Our surfer girl fell in love with the surf and the sand in a hurry!
Her cousins' bravery in the waves helped get her out there and she had fun getting tumbled by the waves but even more fun just playing w/ her bud! She was always ready for a refreshing dip in the pool after some time at the beach, but she was a great little beach bum
These two are like peas in a pod! So fun to watch!

She had her dad and herself burried up to their chins! Our biggest little beach boy took a few days to warm up to the idea of boogie boarding, but he finally gave it a whirl...
He got rocked so hard on one ride that a total stranger came over to laugh about it with me, but he had fun riding a few small waves!!It didn't take him much time at all to get really cozy with the sand, though, as you can see.
Most of all, he loved his time w/ his cuz!! Best buds, those two!
Our littlest beach bum was a bit frightened of the big powerful waves, but he fell in LOVE with the sand.
He rolled in it, danced on it, threw it, he even ate it!
These are some of his 'moves'! LOVE IT! I wish I had this on video, he was just dancing up a storm, he loves to groove!

He would often just lay down on the warm sand and we thought he'd fall right to sleep for a nap, so cozy.

It was cute to watch him make a little friend too.

Studly, here, made himself right at home with the waves of Oceanside.


Building...memories. We attempted many a sand castle but Mass wouldn't have it! He just HAD to crush each tower we put up. Too funny (except to Enzo, of course). We had fun trying to race him though!

Our week of paradise was over ALL too soon and before we could even get really tan we were back on the road. The master behind the wheel! This guy drove like a champ! I didn't touch the driver's seat once! I would have, but I think he realized it was easier to do the driving than the crowd control ;) I don't know how he kept his eyes open for 11 hours of driving on the way back, but he sure looks chipper!

These three were TROOPERS!! We played all sorts of Beach Boys music, read lots of books, colored fun pictures, played video games, watched DVDs, ate countless snacks, slept and enjoyed the scenery. Whenever the road got long we whiped out a travel gift for them to open to occupy their attention and time...and I came home with extras! They didn't get bored nearly as often as I feared! Kids can be really resourceful.

After driving cross-country our ride needed some TLC. We were thrilled to have the big guy home for one extra day of vacation even if it was a day of cleaning, laundry and organizing! Can't wait for the next one!!