More Disneyland

June 5th was the last day Grammy could go to Disneyland until the summer is over, so we were glad we were able to get in one more trip with her.  Our friend's Carrie, Brayden and Tyler also joined us for the morning!

The first ride we tried to go on was Alice in Wonderland, but after waiting for, thankfully, just 5 minutes it broke down and we decided not to wait and see how long it took to fix.  So we headed to Toon Town and the roller coaster instead.  I think this was Wes' first time, I know it was mine and he loved it!  Grammy stayed with Cora and Tyler while Carrie, the boys and I rode and then we switched and I stayed with the little ones and Grammy and Wes and Carrie and Brayden rode again.  So fun!

The boys "driving" a car in Toon Town, eating snacks somewhere, and riding the Casey Junior train.

After lunch and a ride on Autopia, Carrie and the boys left and Wes, Grammy and I took the ferry over to Tom Sawyer's (now Pirate) island.  Grammy and I haven't been since they changed it and this was Wes' first time.

They had a lot of fun things to climb on and check out...above we are crossing a suspension bridge, and below Wes and Grammy are pumping water (I think it made a treasure chest come up out of the water?)  Grammy was telling Wes about Tippy Rock, which used to be Uncle Chris' favorite thing to do here, and we looked all over for it, but couldn't find it.  When I saw a worker, I asked her if it was gone and she told me they took it out over 12 years ago!!  Wow, so it really has been a while since we've been to Tom Sawyer's island!

We did find lots of pirate treasure though!  No pictures, but we finished up our day with a stop at Downtown Disney for some beignets.  Our favorite way to end a day at Disneyland!  We'll be back with Grammy after summer is over!

Costa Mesa Fish Fry

Mike went back to work the day after we got back, so Wes, Cora and I were on our own for the weekend (which having both kids alone for two days after having the helping hands of Mike, my mom and a bunch of family for a whole week made those two days seem like FOREVER!)  Anyway, since we had a Saturday with no plans I  googled what was going on in Orange County and found out the Costa Mesa Fish Fry was that day.   For years I've seen the signs up, but we've never gone, so I figured this was the year!  The Fish Fry is put on by the Lion's Club and supports local charities and schools, so it was a good cause too. 

We got there around 11 after a long detour trying to find the parking lot, but once he saw the carnival rides, Wes was really excited!

We waited in line to get me a fish plate with fries and coleslaw and then headed over to support the Newport Harbor baseball team by buying Wes a hot dog.  Trying to handle Wes, Cora in the carrier, a plate of fried fish and a hot dog with extra ketchup was quite an ordeal.  But we finally made it to a table and enjoyed lunch! 

After lunch we hit the carnival and I can tell already that Wes is going to be a huge fan of all things carnie.  We played this game where you shoot the water and blow up a balloon.  We both played and lost to a five year old.   Then since he really wanted to go on this "Anti-gravity-barf-your-brains-out" ride but was too small... 

...he settled for back seat driving in this little car ride.

Next he wanted to play another game, so we decided on this ducky fishing game, where every ducky was a winner!  He scooped up a ducky with the long pole all by himself and won a "small" size prize.  I'm convinced every ducky but one says "small" on the bottom!  He even got to pick his own prize and settled on a little green duck.

We checked out the fire truck (fire trucks will never get old to this kid!), the police department 's SWAT team's gear and then Wes HAD to check out the fire department trailer.  I thought it was just first aid but it was actually a travelling education center so we learned about smoke alarms, whey we need to keep our rooms picked up so we have a clear path to an exit (that one is tough), and how to climb out a window and down a ladder.  Very cool!

Then it was treat time and I was disappointed that Wes choose a snow cone since they had kettle corn, but I did tell him he could pick.  And he chose the flavors too - lime, cherry and blue raspberry.  Sucking out the juice was his favorite part!

And sister was there too of course, she just rode around in the carrier all day.  She'll get in some pictures one of these days!  Thanks Lion's Club for a fun afternoon!

Home

When we got home from Nebraska, we did the typical two days of decompressing...unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, and trying to get our two kids caught back up on the dozens of hours of missed sleep.  One thing that was on Mike's to-do list was to give Wes a summer hair cut...or buzz cut actually.  Mike had it the perfect length and then he said "maybe a bit shorter" and a second later, all his hair was gone!  I did feel bad though because I kept saying, in front of Wes, "I don't like it, it's too short."  To which Wes kept asking the rest of the night, "why don't you like my hair mommy?  I like it, I look like daddy."  So very true too, like father like son! (Plus saving the $25 at the kid haircutting place is a bonus!)

The next thing we had to do was check on our garden.  Our next door neighbor Miss Susan was watering it for us and she told us about a giant zucchini growing in the back.  Either we missed it before we left, or it grew that big in week, but we were all excited for our first one!

A couple days later, Mike marinated it and grilled it up with some chicken for dinner.  Yum!

Iowa - Monday and Tuesday

On Monday morning we packed a few things and headed out for the three hour drive to Albia, Iowa and my Great Aunt Ruth and Great Uncle Bob's house.  The kids did well on the drive; Wes refused to take a nap, but other than that we made it there unscathed.  It was so great to see Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob!  They came to California for our wedding in 2003, so it's been quite a while.  We arrived around 11:00 and my mom's cousin Jane and her husband Ernie arrived shortly after.  We were so thankful that Jane and Ernie made the drive from Corydon since Jane had just had hip surgery, (hope you are healing well Jane!) and had a nice lunch and visit in my aunt and uncle's new enclosed porch.  

I was so excited to come to Iowa this trip since I figured the last time I was here I was 19!  It was great to be able to come as a family too, though I know my dad was bummed he missed this trip because he always loves coming to Iowa.

When my mom called Aunt Ruth when we got to Omaha to tell her we were in town and were wanting to come to Iowa, she made some phone calls to all the local relatives and we ended up having an impromptu family reunion!  Uncle Chris, Aunt Michelle and the girls even made the round trip drive from Omaha on Monday so they could be there too.

We took a walk into town to see how things have changed since our last visit.  Albia is a small mid-west town with the traditional town square and I was a little bummed that we were there on Memorial Day because everything was closed.  Even the old fashioned soda fountain, where I was looking forward to getting a banana split! (next time for sure!)

After our walk, Aunt Ruth got out some water balloons for Wes and Mike to play with and it turned into a bit of a water fight between those two.  But they had fun and Aunt Ruth's plants got watered, so it was a win-win!

Our family started arriving a little bit after that and we enjoyed a dinner of pizza, salad and pie for dessert plus lots of visiting.

Such a great day and evening!

On Tuesday morning Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob took us to breakfast before we needed to hit the road back to Omaha.

After breakfast Wes took Uncle Bob exploring...

...and Mike had to go fetch them.  Wes wasn't interested in getting into the car, I think he really liked Iowa!

Before we left we made a quick stop at Uncle Bill's house for a little visit.

Wes loved seeing this tractor just driving down the highway in front of us on the way back, definitely not your everyday freeway sighting at home!

The kids both slept on the drive home and were a little bit rested for one more trip to La Casa when we got back to Omaha.

We decided to leave Wednesday morning because the loads looked ok and we had definitely squeezed in everything we wanted to do on our vacation.  We made it out of Omaha to Denver with no problem, then grabbed some lunch while we waited for the connection to Orange County.  And unfortunately we had to split up again to get home - Grammy, Wes, Cora and I got on the flight to SNA, but Mike had to go to Ontario.  But the bummer about it was there was an empty seat on the flight to Orange County!  With all my years working in the airline industry and with all of today's technology, I don't understand why they can't figure out who's butt is in what seat!!  We were the last ones to get on the plane and when I told the flight attendant my husband was trying to get on this flight too, the pilots actually had them pull the jet bridge back and had the agent look for him (totally unheard of, but much appreciated!!)  Unfortunately I pretty much knew he had already booked it down to the Ontario gate at the other end of the airport.  But he got on that flight, Grandpa Al was able to pick him up and drive him home, and he arrived home not too long after we did.  We had a great vacation, and are so thankful to all our family for letting us stay in their homes and hotels :)  And Mike and Cora definitely enjoyed their first trip to Nebraska and Iowa!  

Missouri River-Sunday

Geeze, I can't believe it's going to take me a month to get all our vacation pictures up.  But baby food-making has certainly thrown a wrench in my allotted nap-time schedule of getting things accomplished.  And we've been so busy doing fun things, I fear I won't get caught up until summer's over.  (ok, ranting always help me feel better, on to more vacation pics!)

On Sunday the Boisseree's invited us to their new cabin on the river.  They bought this cabin about two years ago, but while we were growing up their family owned a trailer just down the road from this cabin.  A trip to the trailer while we were in Omaha was always a highlight of my summer growing up!  Love that we were able to go this trip and Wes, Cora and Michael got to enjoy it to.

We met Paul and Sandy at the "Tank" which is the landmark in town where you turn to head to the river.  We kept telling Mike, who was driving, to watch for the tank and in his mind he thought we meant "water tank."  But all of a sudden this real tank comes into sight and he started laughing!  So funny when you have one picture in your mind and find the exact opposite :)

Mike hitting some golf balls into the Mighty Mud.

I haven't been here in years, and even though it's a different cabin, everything (the smells, the river, the mud) is exactly as I remember it.  And for a sentimental person like me, that's pretty awesome!  Wes loved exploring, and playing with his new truck set Mike bought for him.

Mike and Paul had to drive 30 minutes back to Blair to buy life vests for the kids (lots of things were ruined  last year when the Missouri flooded), but it was worth it because Wes was so excited to go on a boat ride!

I don't think Cora was quite as excited, but she sure looked cute in her vest.

There was a sandy "beach" down the river a bit, so we all unloaded here and played for a while.  It was neat to spend time with the Boisseree boys and their wives and kids as well.  Sarah Boisseree, who is my age, lives in Arizona now.  We haven't seen each other in years, but thanks to Facebook, we can keep in touch :)   

And the highlight of Wes' trip to the river was his first jet ski ride!!  He was so excited!  

A little video of Wes and Michael.  Mike and I went out next, and I don't think I've been on a jet ski since we sold ours years ago.  It was fun to remember all the great river trips we went on long before we had kids.

Grammy and Cora played in the boat where there was a little bit of shade.

Michael was so excited to get his hands on a golf club a couple of times while we were there.  And since Paul buys boxes of balls from a friend who works at a driving range, there were no hard feelings after launching them into the river.  In the top left picture, Wes is sitting with Scott, Joe's son.  We met him when we were in Omaha in 2010, check out the pics here.

We headed back to Omaha, which is about a 45 minute drive, a little bit before dinner and everyone was exhausted from a great day.  Wes asked for a snack, took one bite of a granola bar and fell asleep with the bite in his mouth!  I'm so glad he didn't choke, but he definitely needed that nap!  What a fun day with friends, thanks for having us Boisseree family!