Disneyland

This is my last post for our California Vacation. I had a really great time at Disneyland. It's one of my favorite places to visit. There is something about the atmosphere there, that other parks can't match. Legoland has some rides that are similar, but Disneyland makes every part of being there special. Even when you're standing in line, there are things that make you feel part of the ride before you get on it. That's not the case for every ride.... but a lot of them are like that. I really enjoyed walking around and looking at everything, especially since it was close to Christmas, lots of things had a holiday twist to them. The big castle was all decked out, and so was the Small World ride. All covered in tons of Christmas lights. They had a giant Christmas tree, the parade had Santa Clause in it, and the Haunted Mansion had been made over with the Nightmare before Christmas decor.

My favorite rides were Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, and Space Mountain. Michael says his favorite ride is Space Mountain too. I'm not sure if that's true or not.... it could be that he knows that we think it's cool that he liked that ride. I thought for sure he'd hate it. He complained about the Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. I thought he'd be scared in the dark... but it turned out that was the advantage. He couldn't see what he was getting into. After the ride he told me... "That's it??? Just one part??? We didn't even go down!". R i g h t .... we didn't go down.... sure Michael. I'm just happy he had a good time. He even went on again with Scott (we love stroller passes!). Matthew loved the Matterhorn. He was pretty excited that there were two monsters on it. Poor Matthew was too short for some of the rides... while we were fighting/convincing/bribing Michael to go on the rides, Matthew was begging us to go, but couldn't. He missed out on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain... which he threw a giant tantrum over. Poor guy.... maybe next year. Macey was just happy to get to ride anything. That's the one thing that Disneyland is good about. Babies can ride almost anything.... she even slept on a couple. I think that Scott feels that even on a slow day, Disneyland is far too crowded... but I think he had a good time too.

We had a great time on vacation. I feel like we wait, and wait, and plan so long for our trips, and then when we're on it they go so fast. I really tried to enjoy the time we were all getting to spend together. Time sure does fly by. Now it's time to start planning again.

Me and Michael on the Matterhorn, Matthew being eaten by a Jaguar

Jungle Boat Ride, It's a Small World Christmas Lights, Finding Nemo

Scott and Macey enjoying Small World, Autotopia (my kids are bad drivers!)

Where's the Meat?

The other night I was making dinner... nothing too fancy. I had planned to make some omelets for everyone, and then decided that I would just make some grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids, and the omelets for Scott and me. Michael is convinced that he doesn't like eggs, even though he regularly eats them. Matthew, however, will eat almost nothing with out us forcing him to. I decided I wasn't up for a fight that evening, and broke my rule of "I'm not a short order cook, everyone eats the same meal". I gave Michael his cheese sandwich, and after eating about half of it he says to me... "Mom, this sandwich is weak". I was surprised by his choice of words, and asked him what he meant. So then he says... "It needs some meat". I just thought it was so funny. Michael has turned into some kind of man who always need some meat with his dinner... cheese sandwich just won't cut it. So I gave him some deli slices... just waiting for the day he eats us out of house and home.

Sea World

We had a great time at Sea World too. This is Scott's favorite stop. I always enjoy Sea World too. There's something really amazing and still terrifying about those trainers swimming with a killer whale. The Shamu show was great. They like to include all this "feel good" stuff in the shows. But we would be happy with an entire show of just jumps and splashes. The dolphin show is also neat. Amazing how high they can jump. They're also really good at being funny. So are the animals in the sea lion show. They have this little otter that's in it.... it was so cute and funny. Who would have thought that sea animals could be comedians. Sea World also has a couple of rides. Matthew was too small to ride the big ones... and we didn't make it to the kiddie ones in time... they didn't have them last time we were there, and didn't realize they were there till the park was nearly closed. By that time the kids had discovered the giant playground, and were very reluctant to leave it. It's really cool, they have all these huge cargo nets to climb, and bridges and slides to maneuver. They also have a really big bouncy enclosure and a little toddler area that Macey could play in. And in addition to all of that you still have lots of animals to look at. My favorites are the manatees, polar bears, and beluga whales. The boys liked the penguins, and Macey liked the fish aquariums. We also fed the dolphins. I always feel a little bit gypped that I'm paying to feed their dolphins.... seems like we're just making things easier for them.... right??? Yeah... I know, I'm paying for the experience, and if they made it free then too many people would do it. But the boys all like it. They only give you three little fish, so I didn't get to do it. Maybe next year Macey and I will use all the fish. I thought the pictures we got at Sea World were some of the best of the trip. Michael has some classic faces.... on the splash ride, and feeding the dolphin.

Legoland

Legoland was fun. This is Michael's favorite place to go. He prefers Legoland to Disneyland. His favorite ride is the Horse ride. And this year Matthew got to ride it, and he loved it too. There's something about them getting to ride it all by themselves that makes the ride great. Michael also liked the car racing ride (he drove much better here then at Autotopia). The downside to this ride was that you had to be 3 to ride it. So Matthew wasn't allowed to ride. And if you look carefully in the background you can see Matthew pouting on the bench, but still trying to sneak a peek... wistfully at the ride he wanted to go on. This would become a familiar theme for Matthew throughout the whole vacation. He wanted to ride everything.... while Michael need a lot of convincing for some of the rides. Unfortunately for Macey there was only two rides at Legoland that she was allowed to ride.... and one of them was closed. Poor Macey! She didn't let it get her down though. She enjoyed watching the boys, and walking around while they rode the rides. Scott's favorite ride was the pirate boat ride, where your boat has water guns on it, and you can shoot the bystanders. It also has water guns that the bystander's can shoot back at them. So when Scott and Matthew rode, I was trying to get Scott, but ended up getting Matthew all wet... he was kind of mad when he got off the ride... but I'm not sure he knew it was me who had gotten him all wet. Matthew's favorite rides were the horse, a different pirate boat ride then the one that gets you wet, and the beetle bounce (a ride that is a miniature version of the Tower of Terror, that drops you, pulls you up, and then drops you again). My favorite was probably the Pharaoh ride (similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride) and the Dragon roller coaster, it has some really cool Lego builds inside the castle before you go out and ride the coaster. We also saw some little 4-D short shows they had that were nice.

Johnson Family Vacation

I know you've all been waiting for a post on our vacation. We got home from a couple of days ago, but I tend to put things off. So, I'm posting now so everyone can see how much fun we had. We all had a really great time. We went to California for about a week for some relaxation.... well I guess I wouldn't really call it relaxation... but it sure was fun. Maybe our next vacation we can do some relaxing.... this one was more about seeing how much we could do in the time we were there.
We left Sunday morning and made our first stop in Yuma. There is a really cool park there, (it's right off the freeway by the river) and figured we'd let the kids out of the car for a bit before we had to drive more. Macey seemed a little confused at all the time spent in the car over the course of the trip. Even now when I put her in the car seat she fusses.... seems she's concerned that she won't be getting out again anytime soon. Surprisingly, Matthew was our best passenger. He barely made a sound the whole way there and back... a nice change from our last trip with him.

After lunch in San Diego we headed over to the beach in Del Mar. Our kids haven't ever really gotten to play at the beach before, so it was really fun for them, and for me to watch them play. Macey was really intrigued by the sand, and the boys spent most of their time throwing rocks into the water, and running away from the waves. Matthew, however got caught by one. He was really mad at the water, and accused it of getting him. It was really funny... I mean sad that he was so cold, wet and angry.

It was pretty overcast at the beach as you can see... but the weather wasn't too cold. And Matthew didn't lose any toes or anything... even after he took a cold shower to get all the sand off of him. We really enjoyed the beach.... just wish it wasn't quite so messy ; ) Well on to the rest of our trip.