Happy Birthday Josh!

Karen surprised Josh with a cake for his 38th (gasp) birthday. We celebrated it at her house in Santa Ana, Ca after a long, fun day at the beach. Lander is pouting because he doesn't like German chocolate cake and Josh is teasing him with it. Jake's pouting on the other side of the table.

I would like to think that the boys were pouting due to extreme exhaustion, but in reality, I think that all of our beaching & amusement park playing had turned the little boys into egocentric little monsters. Since this wasn't for or about them, they both were total party poopers. 

Newport Beach

I just love with this picture of Jake & Josh. These enormous waves were crashing onto the beach & had eroded a little embankment. Josh was teasing Jake, until they both nearly fell in. I'm such a typical mother because I felt much better when the rough housing was over, but I loved the smiles on their faces anyway!!

Princeton Ave., Corona del Mar & Balboa Island

We took a day off in the middle of our Disney adventure to do a little sight seeing. Our first stop was to drive by the homes in Costa Mesa that Josh's parents grew up in. Josh & the boys are standing in front of the Princeton house, the home where Shauna grew up. There is a picture of her standing by this (now dead) tree when she was a little girl. The house was a little worn, but the neighborhood looked great & some new owners were in the process of fixing up the home.

 This is the home that Brad grew up in. The street address has been re-numbered & it has brick, but it (supposedly) looks basically the same.

 Lander, entertaining himself during the drive

 After driving around the old haunts, we stopped by Corona del Mar to play a little frisbee.

 then we looked around at the tide pools & snapped a few photos

 the boys have never seen a tide pool before, so this was very interesting to them

While we were taking pictures & looking for critters in the tide pools, the seagulls decided to rampage our picnic. They were so bold, tearing our towels off of our brown paper sack & tearing into our lunch and ripping a bag of chips into pieces. For a while there, we thought they had even made off with a pair of Lander's underwear--dirty underwear--until we found it a while later. Apparently they are discriminating birds.

After playing at the beach, we met up with Karen Moeller (Grams' best friend) who had graciously offered to host us during the Disney portion of our California vacation. She took us to Balboa Island, and Josh & I instantly fell in love with the vintage homes. She even treated us to a ferry ride to get to the island. The boys LOVED it. Here's Jake standing in front of the car on the ferry. The ferry holds 2-3 cars.

After driving around a bit, Karen treated us (imagine that, letting us stay at her house & then treating us? I feel like we should have been scrubbing her toilets for a week just for putting up with our choas!) to dinner at the Crab Cooker. Jake & I both had crab. Lander wished he would've ordered one too. I think he ate almost half of my dinner! Karen wouldn't pose with us for the picture, so we'll just have to imagine here standing with us. P.S. She was quite the amazing hostess!! I don't think that I can say that enough!!

After dinner we stopped by Newport beach....Awww...but that's another post!

Disneyland!!

We spent 3 days at Disneyland & California Adventure, a first for all of us except for Josh. I wasn't sure if I would be bored, or sick to death of crazy kids, but it turned out to exceed all expectations. We had a 'magical' (ha, ha) time. No really. We did.

We weren't able to get many pictures because it rained a good portion of our visit. Which sounds lame (and in some ways it is, such as the soaking wet clothes from the waist down, even with our ponchos on), but it turned out to be a huge blessing. We rarely had to wait in lines. We were able to ride Splash Mountain several times in a row without even getting off!!

 We all had a GREAT time. Good memories!!

 Lander & Josh on Grizzly River Run. One of our favorite rides. That and Space Mountain for Josh (Jake HATED it. It totally freaked him out!), Star Tours for the little boys & Big Thunder Mountain Railroad & the Indiana Jones ride for Dixie.  The two rides we wanted most, California Screamin & Pirates of the Caribbean, were closed....guess we will have to go back again!

Jedi Training Academy

These pictures were taken at Disney's "Jedi Training Academy". 

It was pouring rain, hence the ponchos, but the soggy weather didn't dampen the boys excitement.

Jake & Lander were both chosen to attend the Jedi Academy where they learned the basic moves to become a Jedi. They both got to fight Darth Maul. Josh & I were bummed because we wanted them to fight Darth Vader, but this was still pretty exciting for them.

Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake's 11th birthday was celebrated at Legoland. Actually, his birthday just happened to fall on the day that we had scheduled to go to Legoland. Lucky coincidence, but we made the most of it!!

Legoland Highlights

More pictures to add to the zillion and a half already posted about our trip. Here are some snap shots of pictures that we want to remember about our day in Legoland.

Lander & Jake with a Bionicle

They love, love, love playing with Bionicles. Lander just said "that would be cool if it was a robot and it cleaned our house." Yes, Lander, that really would be cool!

 One of the Lego neighborhoods

 Jake & Lander looking at another Lego landscape

 We thought the Lego dad & kid looked an awful lot like Josh & Jake--especially the white socks :)

 We coerced Lander into posing as the little girl. He's still holding it against us.

 Everything is made of Legos

Jake & a Lego Rhino

 Jake loves Harry Potter

Lander & Indiana Jones

 Another one of the cityscapes. They are huge & very impressive.

Mission Beach

These are some (okay, too many) of my favorite pictures from Mission Beach

The water in the last picture shows the red tide that occurred during part of our trip. We didn't realize that if we would've stayed out at night, the waves literally glow as they crash onto the beach during this phenomena.

Lander on steriods

Lander's been working hard on turning his wiry frame into a lean, mean, muscle-man machine. 

looks like it's working