Arizona, Disneyland and California

We recently took a vacation making stops in Arizona and LA. I was not very good about taking pictures, but we did have lots of fun. We first stopped at Manu's grandparents house where we got to enjoy conference weekend. Below is a picture of our little monkeys reaking havoc in their home. We all loved being there and despite the best efforts of T and Z, the time at Manu's grandparents was pleasant and relaxing, as it always is.

After leaving Arizona we traveled to LA. The plan was to spend the night in a hotel across from Disneyland and go to Disneyland the next day. However, the next day was cold and rainy and rather than having miserable kids we decided to postpone Disneyland for a day. Instead we went to Charles's house a day early and had him sprinting to get the house ready in time. That afternoon we went to Santa Monica pier and the kids played at muscle beach where Charles had them performing tricks for peanut butter cups. (Sorry no pictures).

The next day we headed out to Disneyland for a warm, sunny, crowded day. Luckily we had gotten the scoop from more experience disneylanders and knew what to do right when the park openned. There was much we did not do, but pleanty more we did. And it is official, Teah loves thrill rides. So as she gets older I will have someone to ride the rollercoasters with me, even if Manu does not want to. Zander was about a 1/4 inch to short to do any of the real roller coastery rides, so it is yet to be determined, but he did like all the rides he could go on including the pirates of the carabean, jungle cruise and teacups.

Pictures on the Teacups

Picture with Mickey Mouse (who Zander now loves. He also sounds incredibly cute when he says Mickey Mouse.)

Zander wasn't tall enough to ride this one, so I thought it could be fun for me and him to watch Manu and Teah on it. We discovered this was not a good idea as he just cryed because he could not go on. After that one of us just took him to do something else if Teah was going on a ride he could not.

We returned to Charles that evening with both kids completely out, but having thoroughly enjoyed the day. The next day we went with Charles to the natural history museum. There were animal displays and a very impressive gem stone section. However the biggest hit was the bug zoo with a variety of different creepers we could look at. The kids also really enjoyed the hands on exhibits and play areas in the discovery section.

The museum closed at 5, however, they had a special spider exhibit outdoors that was open until 8. We got tickets to see that and then waited outside a bit for my good friend Brittany, and her wonderful sister Courtney and Courtney's little girl Ava. They got a bit hung up in traffic, however, and we ended up going in a little bit before them. The kids got flashlights and buttons that lit up (although we had to take Zanders away from him because he kept licking the battery in the back). Then had several craft tables where Teah and Zander made spider hats, glitter webs, and colored. We then went into the exhibit where they had some spiders in little containers, just like in the bug zoo, and some interesting info on the spiders. For example, did you know that daddy longs legs are not technically spiders and the myth that they have the most poisonous venom, but can't bite humans is simply that, a myth. The final section was a green house with over 100 essentially harmless spiders from all over the word. You could walk through and see spiders and there webs everywhere. The largest ones were between the the size of my hand and Teahs. We were "lucky" to come in the evening when all of the spiders are active. Apperently during the day they just mostly sit one their webs. However, we got to seen many spinning their webs and some who had just caught dinner.

It was about this time Brittany, Courtney and Ava finally conquered the LA traffic to join us. It was wonderful to see them again and Teah had so much fun with Ava. We walked through the spider green house together and Brittany and I were lucky enough to have one of the active spider drop down right inbetween us. It or it's web brushed my face and it swung about an inch from Brittany's eye. We obviousely darted out of the way, although I dont think it was very thrilled either as it quickly climbed up its web to get away from us.

After the spider exhibit, we all went out to California Pizza Kitchen and enjoyed a wonderful evening together before parting ways. Seeing them all was one of my favorite parts of the trip and I only wish we could have enjoyed more time together.

The next day, we got to see more wonderful people as we went to the park with Charles to have any early birthday celebration. My aunt came down, as well as my cousin, her husband and their two boys. It was great to spend time with everyone and we had a wonderful afternoon.

With everyone warn out (inluding Charles) we headed out on Sunday. We stopped by Manu's grandparents for the night and enjoyed dinner with them, as well as his cousin who stopped by. Then Monday morning we finished our journey back home to rest from our vaction.