Disneyland recap and pictures

We celebrated Ruth and Alden's third birthday at Disneyland! A good time was had by all. I have more pictures to add but these are a preview. We stayed at the Castle Inn and Suites, it was a little shabby but clean and the price was excellent. We went for 3.5 days and I think that was the perfect amount of time, we arrived on Wednesday afternoon and hit the park after checking in to our hotel, then went all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The lines got progressively longer as we went into the weekend, and the line for the Princess Fantasy Faire was absolutely ridiculous. Next time we are going to pony up for the breakfast at Ariel's Grotto, so we can meet the princesses and skip the crazy line.

We saw Goofy on Main Street!

Waiting for Tinkerbell at Pixie Hollow

Spinning on the teacups

The carousel in Fantasyland

We love Pluto!

Disneyland or bust!

We will be celebrating Ruth and Alden's third birthday in style, with a trip to Disneyland! We went last summer and they had a blast, we decided to go again, and make it a longer trip. We only did one day last year, and Ruthie pried Nick's eyes open the next day and said "more Disneyland?" We figured we'd do three days this time, hopefully that will be enough for some real exploring, but not TOO long. I'm already doing some research, we'll probably stay at a different hotel this time, and I'm trying to figure out which character breakfast to attend, where the kids' favorites hang out, etc. Ruthie told me that she wants Tinkerbelle to hold her. What a crackup! Alden wants to see Mickey's house, he loves that mouse.

I think I'll wear this shirt, isn't it cute?

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Yesterday we went to Monterey in order to escape the heat. It was so refreshing to be out of this hot weather and gross air. Towards the end of the day we actually had to buy sweatshirts! I felt like such a tourist. We started out at the aquarium, which the kids l-o-v-e-d. We did the older part first, and the newly remodeled Splash Zone. We discovered that European tourists are extremely rude, and that it was pointless to bring the strollers in because Ruth and Alden preferred to sprint between exhibits. Ruthie's favorite animal is the "habapuss" aka octopus, Alden seems to prefer the starfish and kelp. We took a break around lunch time and had some pizza on Cannery Row.

After pizza we went to Trader Joe's and bought some flowers, then we went to the cemetary and put them at my grandfather's grave. To escape the somberness, we then took the kids to Dennis the Menace Park. Unfortunately our battery died at the aquarium earlier in the day, so no pictures of the twins having fun. While I was waiting for Ruthie at the bottom of the slide, I had a nice chat with a woman who just moved to the area a year ago. I commented that the park had changed a lot since I played there as a kid and she said "oh the park has been here that long?" I'm not sure what her interpretation of "that long" was, and I started to wonder if I'm really old, then I realized that I played there TWENTY YEARS AGO. Crap I'm old.

After we left the park, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf and chowed down on some free chowder samples, and we had a caricature drawn of the kids. We also went to the candy store and Ruthie picked out "candy balls" and Alden chose gold coins. That boy, he's all about the money! He loves carrying coins and paper dollars.

After the Wharf we went back to the aquarium and went through the Outer Bay area. The aquarium is open until 8PM on weekends in the summer, but it was mostly deserted. It was so neat to have room to let the kids run and shout without worrying about losing them or getting the evil eye from the previously mentioned rude European tourists. Seriously though, at the Splash Zone, Alden splashed some water. Approximately three drops landed in the vicinity of this little girl's sleeve. The five adults with her all shouted "hey hey hey" and shot Alden dirty looks and clucked their tongues and shook their heads. WHAT THE HELL?! I looked at them and said "he's 2 and you don't all need to yell at him". Ugh. Asses. It's not like he dragged her into the bathroom and gave her a swirlie.

Anyway, here are some pictures!

Disneyland

Disneyland was awesome. I totally misunderestimated (thanks GW for that gem) the twins. I thought they'd be overwhelmed and not have fun, or they'd be bored. HA! In hindsight we should have planned on going to the park for two days rather than just one. Our hotel was a dive but the location was awesome, right across the street from the Happiest Place on Earth. We checked in on Wednesday, hit the park on Thursday, then drove down to San Diego for more family fun on Friday! Ruthie loved the princesses, specifically Tinkerbell. Well, I guess she isn't a princess.....whatever. She loves her! I had to stalk some new pajamas on Ebay so now she has two pair of Tink jammies. We didn't take our camera in so I only have a few pics that my sister took. Enjoy. The first one is Ruthie with her cousins and uncle Tyler, and Cinderella.

My baby sister and my nieces, and Ariel.

Pollock Pines

We had a super fun visit with Grandpa and Nana and my sisters and brother in law and sweet nieces. I loved holding my newest niece Madeline Kate, she is so sweet and cuddly! Makes me want another baby. Shhhhh don't tell the hubster, he'll have me send up the river. Our visit marked the first time I went to the lake part of Lake Tahoe. I've been skiing up there several times but never actually ventured into the lake. It is very nice, lovely sandy beach, decent parking, not too crowded....we brought plenty of drinks and snacks and had a ball playing in the sand, splashing in the freezing water, and spending time with family we don't get to see often enough.

Travel plans

We are gearing up for a fun week+ of traveling throughout the state. On Friday we head up to my dad's house for Father's Day festivities, and Nana's birthday. Nick has to come back for work on Monday/Tuesday, but the kids and I are staying up there until we all leave for Disneyland on Wednesday. We'll drive through Merced for a potty break and to pick up Nick. We head down to LA and go to the park on Thursday, then Friday we drive down to San Diego to visit some dear friends. I'm looking forward to it! I want to go to Mexico too, we'll see what we have time for. Nick says we can't b/c someone will steal the kids. Whatevs, I'm sure I can translate "terrible twos" into spanish and that will scare everyone off.