The Grass Family Chronicles

Okay, I wanted to do some detailed vacation posting, but I've got other things to tell you about, so I'm just going to do a highlights version. Legoland was awesome, of course. The boys loved seeing all the Lego creations, from Darth Vader and Thomas the Tank Engine, to elephants and boats. They really loved the miniture cities. They had Washington DC, complete with the Obama inaguration, the Las Vegas Strip, New York City, etc. We spent a long time there. Then there were the rides. Lots of fun, and more so because Grandpa was there to help out!




The next day was Disneyland. We met Paul, Peggy and Zachary there (he was only six weeks old!). Zachary even got to go on his first ride, It's a Small World.

It was so evident that the boys are older, as they were more into the rides. The Buzz Lightyear ride was the overwhelming favorite yet again. We did that one over, and over, and over. Jakey was obsessed with it! Then we actually saw Buzz Lightyear outside the ride. Wow. He's still talking about it.

Another highlight for Jakey was meeting Minnie Mouse. He loves Minnie. She is hands-down his favorite Disney character. He kept talking about going to Minnie Mouse's house, so finally I left everyone else to take him there. Luckily, she just came out to take pictures when we got there! When it was his turn, he ran right up to her and hugged her. And hugged her. And kept hugging her until I finally had to pry him loose! He almost cried when we left. Miss Minnie was quite charmed by him!

We convinced the boys to try different rides, like the Teacups, but mostly we stayed by the Buzz Lightyear ride. Maybe next time we'll venture out a bit more!


On our final day, we spend our time with everyone at the beach. Michael and Becky flew down for the weekend as well, so we had lots of fun! The boys really enjoyed burying Uncle Michael and playing in the water.

Posted in: on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at at 3:03 PM 0 comments  

I am still planning on chronicling the rest of our recent vacation, but I wanted to post this while the memory of Caleb's tooth loss is still fresh. There's a lost tooth journal for his class and he is supposed to draw a picture and tell the story of how he lost his tooth. Here it is:



It is very hard for me not to correct his phonetic writing, but they say that's the best way for kids to learn how to write, so I bite my tongue. He wrote: "I was wiggling my tooth and it came out. The tooth fairy brought me a Naboo fighter and 2 dollars." The picture is Caleb looking at his tooth in the bathroom. You can see that he drew the hallway and his room with his bed.

Posted in: on Monday, May 18, 2009 at at 6:13 PM 3 comments  

This morning, Caleb woke up and his tooth came out. Just like that. He looks so cute without it! Finally! He has another one back there now, by the way.

Posted in: on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at at 11:49 AM 0 comments  

On Wednesday morning, Grandpa, the boys and I headed off to the Sea Life Aquarium. Okay, this was the best kid-friendly aquarium we've ever been to! It should be, as it is part of Legoland. What was great was how low everything was; it was all at their eye level!

They had all these "bubbles" the kids could crawl under to see in the middle of the aquariums.



There was a fun 10 question quiz for the boys to do; the questions were scattered around the aquarium. We had to find them then figure out the answers to the questions. Caleb and Andy were really into that.



There was a little tide pool area where the kids could touch starfish and anemones. Jakey really liked putting his hands into the water!



There is so much beautiful sea life there; they really know what kids are interested in. We all loved the seahorses, and Jakey's favorite was the blood shrimp.

Posted in: on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at at 8:51 PM 2 comments  

I've decided to break up the blog entries for our trip into distinct categories, from beginning to end. So, the beginning is the plane ride, but I don't have pictures. The kids have become amazing travelers. Ipods and Game Boys have a huge part to do with that, I think. :) It was smooth sailing and we got our huge rental Suburban and went to the hotel. It was a fancy one, The Omni San Diego. Turns out, we really like fancy hotels. Imagine that! We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but the time we were there was spent looking out the window or swimming. We were on the 16th floor and had a view of Petco Park, the train yard, the ocean, and the swimming pool. The kids loved it!

Posted in: on at at 8:51 PM 0 comments  

We haven't been to OMSI for a long time, and since they have $2 Sundays once a month, we decided to take a field trip out there. There were LOTS of people there, but we had a great time. We took Mindy with us as well; Mindy is our babysitter that is living with us for the summer. She loves OMSI, too!



The boys loved all the ball exhibits; you all know how much Jakey loves balls! He was in heaven!



There were bottle rockets, ball mazes, and all sorts of other fun things.




My favorite part, however, is the Gravitram (mistakenly known as the Gravitron). I remember watching all those little metal balls when I was little, and it was fun to watch our kids carry on the tradition. They didn't want to leave!

Posted in: on at at 8:10 PM 1 comments