California Vacation 2014 Week 2

So my stomach is definitely still not ready to do a Fun Food Friday blog, so instead I'll just fill you in on the rest of our vacation.  But before I do, I have to share a sweet thing that happened yesterday.  So Jonathan woke up crying so I went into their room to get him up and David was awake too.  Jonathan tells me "poop Mommy" :) letting me know he has to poop (which for Jonathan is sometimes a whole day process).  I pick Jonathan up, give him a hug and then ask if he can walk down the stairs himself so I can get David out of bed.  He tells me yes so I set him down and pick up David, realizing that David is soaked (that kid drinks like a camel).  So I change David and set him down.  In the meantime Jonathan has gotten down on all fours to try to poop (I told you, it's a process for that poor little guy).  And this is the sweet part- so David gets down of the floor next to Jonathan and says "Oh Jonathan" and gives him a kiss on the check.  Then Jonathan looks at David and says "Thanks David!"  My heart melted right there on the floor.  It was the first time I've ever seen them talk to each other and use their names.  It was just the sweetest thing and I had to share it because, well, I thought you'd want to know :) and I didn't want to forget it.  Okay, now on to our vacation:

Wednesday the ladies and 3 younger boys headed to the mall so Grandma could take the little guys on the train that goes around the mall (it's California, so the mall is outside :)).  These little guys were pretty excited about the train!

All Aboard!

They really didn't want to leave the train

My mom told me they spent the whole time saying "Choo-choo!"

So Much Fun!

 

Then after the train we had the crazy idea to have lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with 3 little guys :).  But thankfully it was a nice day so we could sit outside where you didn't notice how loud they were being :).  And they were actually pretty good.  And the food was delicious!

 

Meanwhile my Dad, Steve and Micah took my Dad's motor boat out on the ocean.  And Micah convinced Grandpa to "take him fishing."  For some reason (I think it has something to do with Sheriff Callie) Micah was determined he wanted to go fishing.  So when we asked him if he wanted to go on a boat his immediate response was "Can I go fishing?"  And what Grandpa can say no to his grandson?  So my Dad borrowed a fishing pole from his neighbor and made Micah's day by taking him fishing

 

And Micah was so excited when he reeled in the line and there was a little fish on it (he had no idea that was a lure and not real :)).  He decided all the big fish were sleeping so he was fine with his little catch.  Got to love the mind of a 3 year old

 

After his fishing he just enjoyed the ride.  Thanks Dad for making this kid's vacation by taking him fishing!

Micah learned how to play Checkers on our vacation.  He also learned how to cheat at Checkers :).  Steve was playing him and Micah tried to do a move that's not allowed and when Steve told Micah he couldn't do that his response was "but Grandma lets me do it" :)

One other food place we wanted to hit up before we came home was Chick-Fil-A.  And Micah loved it because they had a playground (which caused him to only eat 2 bites because all he wanted to do was play on the playground.  We got in the car to go home and he told us he was hungry :)).

 

Caleb got to join in on the fun too

We went out to breakfast with my Grandparents the morning of the twins' birthday and Micah held my grandma's hand as we walked out, so precious!

Trying to get a nice shot of my boys with my grandparents, best we could do :)

After breakfast we headed over to a park with my parents and my younger brother and his kids who had flown in the night before

 

Birthday boys taking a ride on the swings

Jonathan

David

Obviously Micah :)

My Dad had this foot bike he got at an auction and took it along to the park.  The boys were fans of getting rides on it (well, Jonathan was until he decided to step off while it was still in motion and he wiped out :))

Eating lunch at the park

 

The birthday boys

 

Micah, my mom and Sanders (my younger brother's boy)

At night the twins got to have a birthday party with my side of the family, a first for any of my kids! They were very excited to get these little barns

And they loved these trucks my older brother got for them (Micah is a little jealous)

My nephew Sanders' birthday is just a couple weeks away so the party was for him as well.  Here we are ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to all 3 boys

Micah showing them how to blow out the candles (and me trying to keep him from actually blowing them out)

We did eventually just let Micah help

And then of course they want to grab the candles :)

Eating his cupcake

Not sure what he was doing to his cupcake

Micah wanted to eat one of the train cakes

Sanders was a fan of the cupcakes too

Saturday morning we went with my Dad to a Fall Festival at the Water Conservation District (where my dad is on the board).  California is in a drought and this festival had lots of ideas for adults on how to conserve water, but it also had lots of fun things for kids to do. 

One of the things was sit in a fire truck.  Micah was a little unsure of it so he sent David in first :) (who of course had no fear)

Once he saw David did okay Micah wanted in

They have a huge tortoise there which the boys thought was pretty cool

They also had a petting zoo

And when you go out with Grandpa in the drivers seat, most times you end up at Costco :)

 

Then Saturday night we had the big birthday party for my grandparents' 90th birthday!  We first took a picture of my mom's entire family (a total of 60 people) and then we headed over to hanger turned into a banquet room at a little airport by my parents house for a dinner.  It was so great to get to see all of my family and celebrate these two wonderful people!

 

After dinner we had a little program where anyone could do something to pay tribute to my grandparents.  My dad changed up the words to the Frank Sinatra song "I Did it My Way" to fit my grandpa and him and I sang it.  I've never sung with my dad (other than in the car) and I have to say, it was so much fun!  He sings loud like me :). 

 

 We forgot to take a grandkids picture when we were taking the big picture, so we took one after dinner.  Here are my grandparents with all of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

(I stole these pictures of my cousin's facebook, so thanks Gloria :))

 

Unfortunate through the night Saturday I got the stomach bug that had been hitting my family.  So I had to miss going to church with my entire family and singing in church.  Yeah, I had the potential to actually sit by my husband in church 4 times on this vacation and I was only able to do it once :(.  So that was a big bummer, but I'm very thankful I got it that day and not the next day when we were supposed to fly home.  I'm very thankful I have all these pictures to remind myself that we really did have a nice time because honestly, all I remember is my kids being sick and me being sick at the end. :) 

 

On the plane ready to go home (notice it's dark outside, we had a 5:55am flight :))

 

On the tram in Denver, Micah was pretty excited to get to go on a plane and a "train" in the same day

We had an almost 4 hour layover in Denver so the boys did lots of playing on the floor

Eating some lunch before we got on the plane

5 minutes after we got home we had the twins' birthday presents out :) I'm not sure who was more excited about them, Micah or the twins

The next morning we woke up (around 9:45- it took a while to adjust back to Michigan time) to an empty refrigerator so the boys and I headed to the grocery store to get some food.  Unfortunately we could only get as much as we could fit in the cart next to David :)

 

And that concludes my recap of our trip :)  Thanks Mom & Dad for hosting us for 2 weeks!  Despite all the throwing up, we still had a great time :).