Day 13 - the grand finale - DISNEYLAND

All good things must come to an end and my dad left this morning (the 14th), yesterday was his last day and what I thought was going to be the funnest of them all, we went to Disneyland. So lets start with the good, we had a delicious breakfast at Jinky's, Eric and I don't eat out for breakfast very often but we thought it would be nice for my dads final day and it was delicious. Then we headed to the happiest place on earth for which I hoped would be the happiest day of the trip, not quite so, my dad did not like Disneyland, apparently he doesn't like rides, crowds or lines so lets just say Disneyland wasn't his cup of tea. I was pretty devastated after we got into the park and my dad told me after about 20 mins that he just did not like it, I think I was mostly sad as it was his last day and all I wanted was for his last day to be great and maybe I was extra sad as I knew he was going home. Anyway, enough of depressing we had fun with the girls, we rode plenty of rides (oh yeah! as cruel as it seems we were at Disneyland and we were there to stay, like it or lump it, we liked it my dad lumped it!), Sara didn't enjoy the long lines very much either, the submarines were the longest wait (between 45-60 mins) pretty much everything else was 5-10mins and she loved the rides once we were on. Even though Disneyland was not for my dad he wasn't really miserable, he just walked around pushing the stroller and we did manage to get him on the submarines and roger rabbit, I think he enjoyed being with the girls too.

Jinky's, yummy, yummy, yummy and check out Kate's pancake, did they secretly know we were going to Disneyland?

I just couldn't resist, it seemed to be the hat that fit for the day!! My dad did leave saying he'd had a lovely trip, is planning on coming again in another couple of years, but next time we'll just leave out Disneyland!!

We loved the Buzz Lightyear ride, we must have gone on it 3 times. Eric was determined to get a fabulous score (over 100K) but declared it impossible until we looked on the Internet after we got home and found out some hidden high scoring targets, oh well, we'll just have to go back!! And check out this older couple, it was so cute to me to see older couples there just having fun, no grand kids necessary, Eric and I are going to be like this when we get old.

It was a hot! 90º at least, I took everyone a hat but Sara only wanted daddy's and unfortunately for daddy, Sara's didn't fit him.

The submarines, my dad went on this and said he liked it he just wasn't going to stand in the line again. Kate and Eric on Its a Small World Christmas, how can you not just love Disneyland? it makes me just happy thinking about it!!

Day 11 & 12

Day 11 was Sunday and so another day of rest for my dad, no rest for the wicked as far as I was concerned, my church meetings began at 9am and it was also the big day of our Primary Program that went quite well I think. Eric made a delicious pancake breakfast on the new griddle I got him, it was meant to be a Christmas present but it went on sale and I just couldn't wait, he makes delicious pancakes and usually has to stand over the stove for ages, this should cut down that time considerably. And a totally new thing, Kate asked for ketchup with her pancakes yesterday, I have no idea why, its definitely not a British thing.

So back to our adventures, today day 12, we laid a little low and let Sara get in a good nap and then headed to Balboa Park in the PM to feed the ducks and walk around the little lake. All in all a fun outing and not too harassed before our grand finale day tomorrow!! And for my dads friend Ken who has been checking in on my dads adventures through the blog, my dad must have said about 50 times today "its a gorgeous day" and it was , it was about 80ºF, hope your enjoying the wonderful British Weather!! Enjoy the pics.

Sara kept forgetting to feed the ducks, she thought the bread looked quite yummy.


Ooops, to late!!

After our stroll around the lake the girls were just running around in the grass, Sara was having a blast pushing around the little toy stroller until Kate said she had to go potty and we had to leave, Sara was so upset to leave, I would even use the word distraught, I felt so bad.

A new playground is on its way, yippee!! I love Balboa park, I am going to arrange a regular play date time to meet when it is open.

And one of our favourite places to eat, well, its at least a place where we can sit with the girls and actually enjoy our food, and my dad thinks its the best burger by far, we are still aways off fine dining with our precious little ones.

Day 10 - Underwood Farms

Today we headed out to Underwood Family Farms. I really love the area out there, its peaceful and quite pretty. The sun was warm and we spent a fun couple of hours checking out the animals, Kate's friend Keaton came along and they had so much fun playing and running around. The goats have a really fun enclosure, its actually two enclosures connected by these wooden ramps, its pretty cool to see the goats walking along them.

There is this wooden train that all the kids just love to run around on and climb about.

They all did a pony ride, maybe a year ago we went with Luke and Darby who both did a pony ride, Kate got onto a pony, freaked out and had to get off so they gave me her tickets back and so we got to use them today and she really enjoyed it, even Sara did O.K.

As you go in you can buy these bags of carrots to feed to the animals for $1 a bag, we got each kid a bag and they then put them down these plastic tubes which go into the animals enclosures. Keaton I think ate most of his carrots, his philosophy was 1 for the animals, 1 for me!!

Then we went to Grecco's NY pizza for a late lunch and each had a slice of pizza as big as our heads.

Oh and if you can, remember Julie in your prayers, she wasn't feeling too hot today and still showed up for the primary practice, she is supposed to head out to Utah tomorrow and I swear she always seems to get sick whenever she has planned something fun. Julie is one of the most driven and energetic people I know (she has finished 2 tri-athalons) and yet suffers from some debilitating migraines, I am kind of a lazy slob and healthy as an ox, it just doesn't seem fair.

Day 9 - The Zoo

Today was a fun day, we headed to the mall this morning for a little play time and then after Sara's nap we went to the zoo. Kate and Sara's cousin Haylee came along which made the trip a little more fun as the girls both love Haylee. Highlight of our trip - the gorillas are finally back, they have been gone from the LA zoo for 5 years but their new habitat is finally finished and it is beautiful and so fun to finally see. Notice the fence though, Brooke made this point to me and I concur, the horizontal wires fencing the enclosure, eermmm to a child of the ages 18 months upto at least 10 years this is not a fence its a ladder!! I think whoever designed this did not have young children!! Anyway, its really is nice to be finished and great to see the gorillas enjoying their new enclosure.

Day 8 - a busy day

Today we managed to keep real busy. Kate had her class, then we headed out to the Citadel outlets and on the way home we stopped at Travel Towne. The trains were fun, for some reason Kate was real nervous of the big engines and deathly afraid to walk on the track, after a while and a bunch of reassurance she relaxed a little so we had fun with the trains. Sara had fun running around, she mostly liked the rocks on the ground and one of her new things is to stick her finger in the dirt until she gets some on the end of it and then eat it, does this mean she is lacking in some nutrient? she knows I don't quite approve and so she just laughs as she does it!!

This is the little train ride around Travel Towne, notice Kate's rather nervous face, Sara loved it.

Oh! and my canning pot took its maiden voyage tonight, unfortunately the cranberry sauce I was making didn't quite turn out, I was mighty frustrated at first but now I just have a new resolve to try something else, maybe some jam.

And here is my little Sara, she only has two teeth on the bottom but she took on this apple, she ate it all the way to a little bit of the core and when I took it out of her mouth for fear of choking she was pretty upset, I am just so impressed that she actually managed to eat almost the whole thing though.