4th of July

We spent the holiday out at the property that Athena and Falsh have with lots of great friends. The kids played in the creek and the dirt, and enjoyed running around the forest for a few hours. Falsh had dug out a little inlet at the creek and the kids were daring each other to jump in (its only about 4 feet deep). Each of the kids were taking their turn, laughing at whatever poor sap was in the cold water at the time. A friends little boy wanted to try it, and though he can swim, the cold water shocked his body and his muscles went stiff. Antonio immediately jumped in (clothes and all) to get him out knowing he wouldn't be able to swim to the edge. Being the awesome person that he is, Antonio hadn't even though about his phone that was in his pants pocket when he went in the little pond. Thankfully, kiddo was fine, and the phone even survived being submerged!

 

Get a group of people together that includes 4 men who like things that blow up, and you're going to have one great fireworks show! It took quite a while to get through all of them, but at least there were no injuries (I'm always super paranoid at the 4th).

 

The survivors of the polar plunge.

 

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California Trip - Driving Home

Like we did coming down, we drove up and spent the night in Sacramento. This time we had an adjoining room with cousins!

 

We made a late night stop at Leatherby's Ice Cream Shop. Yum!

 

Enjoyed the gorgeous view as we drove through the mountains.

 

We made it home exhausted, but in one piece. We had such a good time on our trip and made some great memories with the family.

 

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California Trip Day 6 - Six Flags

The adults and big kids who like roller coasters spent the day at Six Flags. I stayed at the condo with the kids and we spent most of the day in the pool.

 

I think they were able to get in 13 big coasters for the day. Whew!

 

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California Trip Day 5 - Disney and CA again

This was our last day of being able to enjoy the parks, so we hopped back and forth between disneyland and California Adventure. We started off the day in Cars Land, and that really neat!

He was so excited to see Red, but annoyed by all the noise going on.

Radiator Springs Racers was SUPER fun. The wait always gets to over 2 hours so we went there right away. And we got fast passes so we could get on quicker. I only had to wait 10 minutes!

 

Then back to California Screaming where Ninja figured out when they take the picture...

 

Back to Tower of Terror....

 

And back to Grizzly River Run.

 

Sometimes there was just lots of walking around with general silliness going on.

 

Had to get a pic of the family in front of Mickey.

 

Antonio took the kids on one more late night ride at Splash Mountain.

We had so, so, so much fun. It wasn't too hot (except the last day), and most of the time the waits in line weren't terrible.

 

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California Trip Day 4 - Newport Beach

We spent today in the sun and waves at Newport Beach. The water is much warmer than our frigid pacific waters. It was all fun and games until Aunt Julia got stung by a sting ray on her foot. Good thing the cute life guards were there to take care of her.

 

That night we had an adult dinner and fun at Dave and Busters. The food was good and we were having such a good time at the arcade that this is the only picture I got. She's focused.

 

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California Trip Day 3 - California Adventure

We got park hopper passes so our next Disney day was spent at California Adventure. We headed straight for Grizzly River Rapids because it is a fav for everyone! There was no line at all because it was early and still a little chilly, so we got in 3 good runs before moving on to something else.

The big people who could then went on the California Screaming roll coaster. This is the only thing I was super bummed to miss out on because of the pregnancy. I love roller coasters! Ninja looks terrified, but he loved it and rode it several more times!

 

The kids enjoyed a little parade by Phineas and Ferb before going over to Bugs Land.

 

While some of us were in Bugs Land with the littles, the others went to the Tower of Terror. It seemed to be a big hit!

 

We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which was really awesome and had yummy food. While we were waiting for a table, we were entertained by a Macaw named Elmo. She was amazing!

 

On the way back from lunch we stopped in at the Lego store.

 

We took the monorail back over to Disneyland Park for more fun.

 

Half the group went on Matterhorn while the others went on the Finding Nemo Submarine. I was in the submarine group and it was a very long, very hot wait. We finally made it into the sub and were about to take off. Just then a woman stands up and says, "I'm claustrophobic, I need to get out!" I was so irritated. Don't get on a tiny little submarine if you can't handle tight spaces!

 

We all met up again and went rowing on Americas Rivers.

 

Winnie the Pooh was next before heading back to California Adventure for the World of Color show.

 

Some of us were so wiped out by the end of the day that we didn't go to the show (me and Rocket).

 

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