California- Take 2

We made it back from California! The first day we were there we drove to Disneyland and went to downtown disney to get some food and disney spirit. Both were found quickly! Emi especially liked trying on  the hats- I wish we had more time to do that!

That night, Kimberly met us at the hotel and we were at the park for the opening! By 9am we had gone on 8 rides and had a plan for the rest of the day- to not rush and stay off of the darker rides- they made Pete a little nervous.

We headed over to Toontown (where Mickey lives) to see the big cheese himself next- this was one of Pete's shining moments and one where Emi struggled a little- they terrified her! But Petey went up to them all, gave hugs and talked to them a little!

Another big moment in our day was the Tiki room- Garrick LOVES it- so of course we all sat through it- well most of us- Emelia took a short nap.

But the boys were in heaven! 

We did a few more rides, had lunch (and watched the Jedi Training where little kids learn to use light sabers and fight darth Vader- very cute!) and took a quick picture before heading back to the hotel for naps.

After nap time, we went to the other park at Disneyland and did a few rides, waited in some lines, saw the new Cars-land- which was amazing- and made the decision that we were going to wait out the night as long as possible and stay for the fireworks! I am so glad that we did, we took a monorail ride, saw the fireworks which Peter is still excited about and got snacks.

Overall, it was a great great day and the kids were as good as they could be all day long. We had a long drive the next day up to Carmel where friends of Garrick's family live. We went to the ocean for the afternoon and let the kids  play in the waves. We all were soaked by the end of the that trip.

 The next day we went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium which is also huge and like nothing else- the kids really liked the water, the fish and the different tanks that you walked through, under and  popped up in.

Compare to this!

This is where my picture taking ends- we also spend 3 days at Erika (garrick's sister) house and swam in their pool, played trains, took walks around their beautiful neighborhood, ate great food and most of all, relaxed!!! That was another best part of the trip- but I didn't get my camera out of the car. she did take some pictures of the cousins all together and I'll get those from her hopefully and add them in.

It was a long great week, but by the end it is always  nice to be home! The kids are still tired two days later!

North Shore

 Over Memorial Day we took out annual trip to the north shore. We left a little earlier than usual to be able to hang out  in Duluth a little before driving the rest of the way up to the Temperence River. We walked past the lift bridge (which according to Pete goes click...click...click up up up) and out to the light house. The walls were too high for the kids to see over, so they would peek in every drain hole along the way.

 This is exactly what each kid would have done the entire time we were there- Pete crawling on the biggest highest rocks driving his trucks and Emi walking on all of them with a little help.

 We spent one rainy and tired morning in Grand Marais.

 But here is proof that we had a beautiful day! The sun was out and we got to go for a nice hike. We didn't make it to the top of Mt. Carlton this year- the kids were just at too wierd of an age to take them on that long of a hike but we had a lot of fun along the way. Pete started to ask "is he nice?" about every person that we passed along the way.