Dog-sitting

 

We got to watch Zayva for a few days. She is so much fun. She and Dixie get along so well, and the kids really love having her at the house and playing with her. 

Memorial Day

 

Kitten Season

 

Kitten Season is upon us, and we have so many cuties at the shelter, I can't stand it! They are so much fun to cuddle and play with. 

Last Day- California Adventure

 Our last day was at California Adventure. By this time, we have been having a lot of fun but are a bit worn out. 

We first went over to the ride, Soarin' over the world. Poor Kilian was so traumatized over the Harry Potter ride that he kept asking if this one was scary. When we got to the seats, he really started to panic. It's because they look like this....

They do lift you up over a large screen, but the seats don't move around like they do on the Harry Potter ride. We kept reassuring him it was going to be ok. Even after we got him buckled in, he kept glancing at everyone else. As they raised us up in the air, he kept an eye on the people in the cart beside us. When he was satisfied that we weren't moving, he finally relaxed and seemed to really enjoy himself. After the ride, I asked him how he liked it. He calmly said I think that's my favorite so far. 

It was warming up, so we decided now was probably going to be the best time to ride Grizzly Bear Rapids. The line wasnt to bad, and it was warm enough. It's one of the rides Kilian has been asking to go on for a while. It's funny because everyone was scared that Kilain wasn't going to like it, and he was going to get scared. I wasn't worried, and Kilian didn't seem to be either.

At the end of the ride, Kilian was so excited and said, "Best ride ever." As we were waiting for the boat to get to the loading and unloading area, a cast member came over and asked if we had fun. Kilian said, "Yes." The cast member smiled and said do you want to go again. This time Kilian screamed, "YES!" The cast member told us to just stay in our seats. When we came around the corner to where they would usually have stopped us. It looked like they were cleaning out a boat. SO we think either someone got sick or had an accident. Either way, it was so much fun, and the kids were so excited to be able to go a second time nonstop. 

After we got off the ride, Kilian said the ride broke his shoe. I looked down and saw that the bottom of his tennis shoe was falling off. So we headed to the shops to see if we could find him some new shoes. On our way, we saw Pluto and decided to stop and meet him. Avery really enjoyed meeting Pluto. He saw her shirt and started pretending to be a dinosaur. Avery was watching him and said, "Uh, I don't know what you're doing." The cast member with Pluto had to help us decipher what Pluto was trying to say. It was because of her Jurassic Park shirt. It was a really cute interaction.

We headed to the front of the park, where most of the shops are located. We were able to find Kilian some Stitch Crocs to replace his shoes. When we came out, we saw a line to meet Goofy. We got in line,

 but we were a little too late. But before he left, he came down the line and said hi and took quick pictures with us. 

Before we went and got lunch, everyone wanted to go ride the Incredicoaster...well, almost everyone. Kilian, of course, didn't want to. So while we waited for everyone, we found Mr. Incredible. 

Avery and I got in line for Avery to ride it one more time, and so I could ride. But right as it was our turn to ride. The ride malfunctioned, and they had to fix it. So we were asked to exit. We headed back over to Cars Land to eat at Flo's Cafe again. After we went racing at the Radiator Springs Racers.

We started talking about what we wanted to do next. We hadn't been to Avengers Campus yet, and Kilian really wanted to meet Spider-Man still. So half of us headed to the Avengers Campus and half went back to the shops to look at souvenirs. We watched Spider-Man's show, and then Kilian was able to meet him. He was so excited, he even got to talk with him a little while he signed his autograph book.

After we headed to meet up with everyone and found out that Avery wasn't with them, and no one knew where she was. We alerted Security, and Shaylee went to the right side of the park to look for her and the security guy, and I went to the left side while he was on the radio alerting other guards to keep an eye out. I was praying so hard and so freaked out. We searched for such a long time and couldn't find her. After awhile we all met up back at the entrance by the security. Shaylee decided to go out of the park to see if she had left and then couldn't get back in. That's exactly what happened. Shaylee brought her back in and straight to us. I was SO relieved. Avery and I just held each other, crying. After that, Avery and I were both done and just wanted to go back to the hotel. 

On our way back, the rest of the group stopped to get ice cream, but Avery and I just went back to the hotel to decompress. When we got there, I was so overheated after my rapid walk through the WHOLE park. I decided to head to the pool to cool off. Avery didn't want to go, so I headed down. After awhile I saw Shaylee, Jill, Mom, and Kilian come back from ice cream. Pretty soon, they joined me to stick their feet in the hot tub.  After awhile we headed back to the hotel to order some Panda Express for dinner and a quiet evening, followed by bed to get a good night's rest to head home.

Disneyland Day 2

 

After 3 days of fun and constant go-go-go, it's starting to show a little and take it's toll. But we keep pressing on. Today we went back to Disneyland to explore the left side of the park. We started off a little later in the day, we didn't get to the park till about 11:30 and it was starting to heat up already. So we decided to start with the Jungle Cruise which is always so much fun. After the Tiki room was unfortunately closed and the Indiana Jones ride was temporarily closed while they finished up some stuff So we headed over to the haunted mansion; since I didn't get to go and it's SO much fun!! It was a really long wait though which was kinda hard in the heat. But we made it through...much to Kilian's horror. He was NOT a fan, even though I was trying to make it so fun for him. 

After we stopped at a gift shop so Avery could buy a cute Jack Skellington purse and some Nightmare before Christmas playing cards. Then we headed over to the Winnie the Pooh adventure, the line was short and it would help put Kilian in a better mood after the haunted mansion. I also facetimed James during the ride because I joked with him that I would. He actually answered the phone and "rode" the ride with us 😂. After that it was time for lunch. So we headed over to the Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree and got to sit upstairs in a cool shady spot overlooking the river. It was nice.

After lunch Shaylee, Jill and Avery wanted to head back over to the star wars resistance ride. Kilian and I wanted to meet Mickey so we split up for a bit. Before that though Mom and I wanted to take Kilian on the Disneyland Railroad. (Train). Mom and I had never been on it and Kilian really wanted to ride the train. It was really fun. We got to see the backside of some of the rides and in the tunnels they had varying displays like the grand canyon and dinosaurs from the prehistoric time. and we got to see inside Splash Mountain (Now Tiana's Bayou adventure). We actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

Then we headed over to Toon Town to meet MICKEY!!!. Mom didn't want to go with us and said she was fine waiting. Kilian had fun going through Mickeys house and trying out all his furniture. ;) He even didn't mind waiting in Mickeys theater watching cartoons till we got to go see Mickey. He was very polite and respectful (even if the people behind us weren't) and I was super proud of him. He was excited to meet Mickey and get him to sign his autograph book. After we left to go find mom, I realized that in the same book I had a signature from when I first met Mickey, one from when Avery first met Mickey and now one for Kilian. Stuff like that brings so much joy to my momma heart. Seriously I was almost in tears when I discovered that.

After Toon Town we met back up with Shaylee, Jill and Avery at Big Thunder Mountain. Kilian didn't want to go on it (it looked like a scary roller coaster) So we did a kid swap. Kilian and I waited for them and then after Avery and I went on. This was another ride that it was my first time. So much fun! Avery and I had a blast. 

After they wanted to go to Tiana's Bayou I REALLY didn't want to wait in that line. They said we could try the kid swap again, but that was still a long wait. Instead Kilian and I went on Mark Twain's Riverboat, which was nice and peaceful and gave me a chance to rest my feet. Kilian loved riding on the big boat. He was running all over though which was driving me a bit crazy. 

After the boat ride, we headed back over to meet up with everyone. But they were still in line. So Kilian and I went and got a churro and found a good spot to sit, wait and watch them plunge down the waterfall. They made the plunge and got nice and wet, it was fun to watch them.

We were starting to get hungry for some dinner, but Jill wanted to go see if Indiana Jones was up and going again. So we headed back that way. It was up and running and the guy said he could get us on right now. Mom doesn't like the Indiana Jones ride so her and Kilian decided to go on the Jungle Cruise again while waiting for us. I am so glad that we took advantage of it, because right after the guy said he could get us on, we almost walked all the way to the ride before we had to stop. When I looked at the wait time it had jumped to 60 min. Avery asked if this was a roller coaster type ride, I said kinda you definitely get jostled around a lot but I told her she was going to like it. She asked what jostled meant and I told her you'll see. At the end of the ride Shaylee asked Avery if she knew what jostled meant. Avery said yeah thrown around a lot. yeah pretty much :)) We met back up with Mom and Kilian and decided we didn't want to eat dinner in the park. Instead we wanted to go back to the hotel and order some food. But before we left the park we stopped on main street to look at some shops. I wanted to show the kids one of my favorite things on main street. The Main Street Cinema! It's this cute little building that has old black and white cartoons playing on a continuous loop on different screens. So while some of the others went souvenir shopping we went and watched some cartoons. After we headed back to the hotel for some relaxation, a foot soaking treatment and ordered Panda Express.