a little less than a year ago, maybe ten months i guess, we started planning a trip out to california to
1. visit some family we have out there and
2. take judah to carsland and disney’s california adventure BEFORE he turned 3, so we wouldn’t have to pay his admission.
so we just decided to turn it into a birthday trip. since probably last october, judah had reminded us everyday that he was going to get to see mcqueen and mater for his birthday.
finally, the day came to head to california. may 17th. i knew flying with kids would be tricky, buuuut…well, i won’t go into detail too much about sour attitudes and such, but the first flight? wow. actually judah was great. he loved it. sorin screamed basically the entire 1.5 hour flight. second flight, both of the boys slept. it was glorious. the third flight…interesting. sorin was really well behaved. it was a much much smaller plane, he got to spend more time on the floor by the window because the plane wasn’t nearly as full. it was awesome. until he decided it was time to have a blowout. oh. my. gosh. panic washed over me as i realized there was no space in the lavatory to change my kid, we were 40 minutes out from landing in LA and i couldn’t just let him fester in his diaper that long because the smell was slowly taking over the plane. it was bad enough that it woke the people sitting behind robby and judah from their naps.
once we finally got to my grandpa’s house, we set up for bed and crashed. when monday rolled around, it was time to take the boys to disneyland!! sorin was so tired, he fell asleep on the drive to disney, stayed asleep while we put him in the stroller, slept through us taking him out of the stroller to ride the bus from the parking lot to the park, and STILL slept when we put him back in the stroller. but once he woke up? magic. the first thing we did was find mcqueen and mater. sorin was so excited, every picture we had taken with any of the cars, he was backwards, staring at the car. judah was just shocked and in awe.
after walking around a little bit and sitting down even more (i was/am still on modified bed rest, so we had to take it pretty easy and slow), we decided to just hang out on some benches and let the boys run around a little. i noticed that lightning mqueen was driving up the road, so i stopped sorin mid-run and pointed the car out. his face LIT up. he shrieked so loud and bolted after mcqueen. i’ve never seen him move so fast or seen him so excited! judah loved disneyland, which we were sure he was, but i think he tried to play it cool and not seem TOO excited. i thought sorin would be too little to really care, but his reactions were the biggest. he was in paradise for the few hours we were there. 🙂
a couple of times during the week, we also went to newport beach. the boys had so much fun. despite it being kind of chilly and REALLY windy, judah loved playing in the waves, holding daddy’s hand and running up the the water and then trying to outrun it as it washed back on the shore. he lost that race MANY times. fearless sorin had as much fun in the water as judah did. my mom held his hand because i couldn’t be running. i was stuck up on the beach, taking it easy. she said that it was nearly impossible to keep him from breaking free and charging into the waves. that boy knows no fear, apparently. and always has to keep up with or outdo big brother.
then for judah’s 3rd birthday, we took him to the old spaghetti factory (a favorite!!) in newport beach for some cheenee doodles & bwockwees (fettuccine noodles and broccoli…his current favorite food). sorin had a tough time being confined to the booth…don’t i know he has energy he needs to run off?! obviously not. judah enjoyed every second of it. stuffed his belly to bursting and then lit up when the servers at the restaurant sang “happy birthday” to him.
the trip back…the first plane was small. we basically had a repeat of the small plane trip from before. it was….wow. so bad. then we got to el paso for our connecting flight and found out it had been cancelled. dallas was having thunderstorms, there was really no other option but to stay at a hotel for the night and catch a flight in the morning. so that’s what we did. and i, being pregnant and extremely hungry, swore that if we got pizza, i could easily eat an entire large myself. robby, being a sweet and accommodating husband, gave me the benefit of the doubt and ordered 2 large pizzas from pizza hut. with a large order of breadsticks. we came nowhere close to finishing all that pizza, but it made the out-of-sorts night a little easier having an over-abundance of food and HGTV. 🙂
finally, monday afternoon, we made it back home, safe & sound. and we promised ourselves to never again take a plane flight vacation until baby #3 is at least 3 years old. haha we’ll see if that sticks, but for the moment, we’re pretty set in our decision. stay-cations are the way to go for us. unless it’s just a little trip down to the gulf. THAT we can handle. 😉
ALSO…exciting news. we had our “sneak peek” ultrasound on tuesday. so…boy or girl? you’ll have to wait til the next post… 🙂
the (not so) napping house 