California Trip 2009

I am finally going to blog about our trip to California back in April. It was such a blast. One of the few vacations I have taken that I was not ready to be done with.

First things first ... we picked oranges from my Grandma Berkline's tree the first morning we were there. We squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and drank orange juice to our hearts' content all week long (at least I did).

Picking the oranges was a little tough for the kids, but they enjoyed the process.


Grandma kept laughing because Owen would point to an orange and say "apple" and we would say, "No, that's an orange" and he would point to it again and say "apple." Funny kid!

Hauling in the load ...

Trying to haul in the load ...

Silly boys playing on the patio.

The beach (er, the bay) was a huge hit. Thanks, especially, to the fabulous beach toys we borrowed (thanks, Forts!).

Water and sand ... what more could 2 boys ask for? (Except maybe rocks.)

The BIG shovels were BIG hits!

They both LOVED the water ... until they both almost drowned (or so they thought).


Dig and throw ... dig and throw ... dig and throw ...

Evan was sporting these great Ninja Turtle goggles most of the time. Awesome!


After debating it for days and days, we finally decided to go ahead and take the boys to Disneyland. Owen was still free and they were both at a point in their lives where Mickey Mouse was still pretty cool. (And after hitting up the Strawberry Days Carnival in Pleasant Grove yesterday where we bought 20 tickets for $20 and spent 2-3 tickets on each [crappy] ride per person, we decided that Disneyland is a pretty good deal!)

We didn't have to do too much waiting, but when we did, the boys were pretty good.

Here is Evan checking the "nap" (he's pretty obsessed with maps lately).

Being a boy means taking any opportunity to throw projectiles into bodies of water. Here, the boys are picking up minuscule pieces of trash or gravel off the bridge to throw into the Small World river below where people were casually floating by in their boats. Yeah. Boys will be boys.

The boys enjoyed the play area just as much as the rides, I think.

Owen got a little tuckered out at one point. In fact, he and and Evan were riding in the stroller together (a no-no, I know) and I noticed, just in time, that Owen was falling asleep and falling forward out of the stroller. Whew. We narrowly escaped an incident.

We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride about 5 times. And later, after we were back home in Utah, Casey and I surprised the boys with their very own Buzz Lightyear "shooters." Owen, king of destruction, broke his pretty quick, but Evan's still vibrates and lights up and such. Great investments.

Mama Jones treated the boys to their first ears.

Owen really enjoyed the Pooh ride. It is by far the most tame, happy, sappy, sweet ride in all of Disneyland. Not a hint of anything scary or disturbing.
So Disneyland was a great success. And since Mama Jones came to California with us, she and Aunt Carol came and picked up the kids so Casey and I could hit a couple of adult rides before closing.


We had another adventure-filled day at the duck park (or that's what we've called it as long as I can remember). The kids loved feeding the ducks (which we saw later you weren't supposed to do).


Owen would get so excited when they ate his bread.

These big white geese were a little too aggressive. I'm pretty sure the one on the left is the same one that befriended a large man with a plumber's crack when we were there a few years ago. (Kate, do you still have that picture? I should post it. I looked for it in our pictures, but I think it got deleted when Evan deleted all those pictures of ours.)


The last night we were there we went to Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Hotel. We walked around and saw the ponds of koi fish and the big colorful waterfalls, then headed up to the top of the parking structure to watch the Disneyland fireworks. Well, after waiting FOR.EVER, someone said it was too windy and they would not be having fireworks that night. BIG bummer. Evan, bless his heart, took it much better than I thought he would. He was soooo looking forward to it. And let me just say ... if Anaheim thinks that was windy, then we must have a tornado at least once a week in PG. Give me a break!



Here is sweet "Great-Grandma Brokeline" (as Evan called her) with the kids and me and my double chin.


Evan took this picture of Owen (who always seems to have a funny look on his face when Evan takes his picture).


Owen took this picture of Evan. Hilarious!


And Casey got to do a little plein-air painting in Grandma's backyard. Here is a view of her orange tree and bird bath.
It was such a great trip!