It's that time again!

Yup, another installment of swim lessons!This time Max gets to join in the fun:)Even better his little friend Caleb is in his class! YAY!It's so cute to hear them squeal and get so excited to see each other!
There might be significantly less pictures on my blog since I BROKE my camera in California! It's very tragic, I really liked it and only had it like 6 months. It still takes pictures but the LCD screen in the back it broken (it had a viewfinder) so you can't see the picture preview or change any of the settings! BOOO! We'll see how long it takes me to sweet talk my babe into buying me another one!:)
On a happy note ( I like to end things on a happy note:) My wonderful friend Heather gave me a blog makeover for my birthday and it's almost finished!! I can't wait to reveal it to you in all it's glory! Look for it!

The reason for our trip,

Wow, OK, I've been slackin'. But I'm back, and here to tell you about the second half of our trip:) Let me back up first, our first night at Disneyland we got a call from John's cousin Jason, inviting us over for dinner! We thought they lived like an hour away, turns out it was like 30 minutes. He came and picked us up AND took us back to his place and fed us! We had a great time catching up with his family and John's other cousin Mariann came over also with her two kids, AND John's Aunt Carmen and Uncle John showed up too! We had such a great night chatting, sitting around the fire pit and eating yummy pie Mariann brought over, I took NO pictures, so you'll have to visualize it in your minds:) Thanks again everyone, it was a great night!
OK, so AFTER that, we had a nice 4 hour! drive from Disneyland to Fresno -or as John loving refers to it- the butthole of California! The trip would have been better if we didn't have a puking 4 year old in the car (yeah, that part sucked) but we made it:) The festivities were planned for Saturday so we enjoyed a few days of sleeping in and visiting with family and friends. Friday I got to go somewhere I've heard so much about but never been.... Table Mountain Casino. Well, it didn't disappoint, it was a casino alright. A smokey obnoxious casino:) But we had a little fun. This was the only picture I managed to snap before I was told that cameras were NOT allowed (sor-ry geez!)Look at my adorable husband, withdrawing our life savings!:) Actually it was only $20 -and NO that's not our life savings smarty pants!- We left with $60, so not bad babe!
Saturday we had lunch at the favorite place to eat in Fresno, Shanghai. It was really nice. 50 of Grandpas closest friends and family were there for the occasion!Then we went to a friend of the families house for swimming and cake! The kids loved the pool!AND trampolineMax liked the pirate ship pool best (of course!)and Mina liked swimming with Auntie Lyssa:)Well so did Max:)The party was great, complete with mooshy toastsand a cake with Grandpa and grandma's picture on it!You KNOW Max liked that part!Max sure knows how to get a party started!Look at that white hiney! Our time there was cut a little short due to a still ailing feverish bee:(
Max was so played out we carried him in, set him on the floor, and he just fell over and slept for like 2 hours like this!!I think Max is ready to go home now! (I found him like this!)We love you Grandpa! Happy 80th birthday!!

The final instalment

Well almost:) I still have to blog about all the family stuff we did after (and during actually) Disneyland!:) AND the swim lessons Mina and Max started this week! I better get started!

Well our final day I didn't take NEARLY as many pictures because it was all stuff we wanted to do over! BUT we did start the day at Space Mountain, John was very excited to ride! It was closed!! But only for a little bit, and after eating breakfast it was open and he decided to try again. While we were waiting look who showed up!Max was REALLY excited, even though he doesn't really know who Buzz Lightyear is:) After about 20 min this mass of people started flooding out of the ride and here comes John "I was standing ON a number!!, and they closed it!!!" So he got a fast pass for 7pm!! And we headed for Star Tours. Mina had said she wanted to ride it with daddy:) So I waited with Max and after about 20 min here comes John and Mina. "We got all the way to the front and were about to board the ride and she started FREAKING out and crying and saying she didn't want to go into outer space!!" Another ride foiled! So we rode Alice again and Dumbo and we hadn't been on these yetI wisely sat this one out:) and you can't really see too well because of the perfectly positioned bar (the cup moved right as I snapped the pic) but we told Max to cover his eyes if he was scared and John said he rode the whole ride with his eyes covered!:)and we did it's a small world againJohn was excitedWe walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle (it was so dark in there the pics didn't really turn out:(And look who we ran into on our way to Adventureland!
We visited the Tiki room againthe Jungle cruiseand of course Pirates and Haunted Mansion! We even caught a cool bird show on our way back to the hotel-Max was actually enjoying himself but was really tired:)
We played in the pool, relaxed in the room and ate a great dinner at Rainforest cafe:)
All in all, I give Disney two thumbs up! We had a wonderful time but I think four days about does it:) I Love my hubby, I love my kids, and I loved hanging out with them:)
Next post...Grandpa's birthday!

MORE Disney!

Well this day we started out @ Ariel's Grotto to have breakfast with Ariel and all her princess pals!Mina was very excited to see Ariel again and had colored a little picture to give her:) So cute!Mina wore her new Ariel dress of course:)The breakfast was really good and all you can eat (which Max loved!) They introduced the princesses one at a time and they circled the room, going to each table to sign autographs and take pictures. (This sure beats waiting in line for an hour!) Sleeping Beauty came out first and we waited patiently for our turn to meet her."Here she comes, are you guys excited?" I asked the kids. I looked over and apparently Max was a little too excited, maybe he took the "all you eat" breakfast a little too seriously. But he just puked a HUGE amount all over the table, floor and self. "Um, sorry Aurora, were having some technical difficulties.""Oh, my" she said. Yeah, it was quite embarrassing!Mina still got her autograph and a picture:)Now Cinderella is making her way over while I'm still trying to get Max cleaned off!He managed to not get anything on his shirt but his pants were coated so I just took those off and here he is in all his glory ready to meet Cinderella!He must have made quite an impression. A baby with a Mohawk and no pants on!
Cinderella met Mina and said "who's this" pointing to Max!Well I guess it's something we will never forget! And Sleeping Beauty has no idea how close she came to wearing Max's breakfast!
Next Snow White stopped byand then Belle,After an exciting breakfast we decided to ride King Triton's carousel. Mina love it of course:)And I went on the HUGE Ferris wheel with my husband and daughter, who are both scared of heights, and Max who doesn't like anything (except bacon apparently)I think everyone was happy when that one was over:)But it was beautiful, you could see SO far!
We walked around the Paradise Pier area but didn't ride much more there. I was excited to ride Grizzly River Run! We decided to do the kid switch off and I went first. It was SO fun! After my ride I asked Mina if she wanted to ride it with daddy and to my surprise she said Yes!She was NOT pleased when she got off soaking wet!Next we went to meet the Cars! Max loved it! But he wanted to get in!Cute family!And we had to eat more of course!We just snacked for lunch:) Ice cream!Mina insisted on cotton candy:)After we went to see the playhouse Disney puppet show.The kids loved it because it's the cartoons they watch at home! Even Little Einsteins! It was cute:)Um I think our kids are dead.We headed back the pool to revive them and spend the afternoon. We had arranged for a babysitting service to come watch the kids in our room and I, being the lucky woman I am, got to have a DATE NIGHT with my hubby!!this picture was taken outside our hotel! The waterfall was beautiful!
We grabbed some dinner for the kids to eat in the room.They only got BBQ sauce on part of the bedspread! And we went to a WONDERFUL fancy dinner at "Napa Rose"Voted the best restaurant in Anaheim! It was amazing! And so was the company:)
What did we do on our final day, you ask? you'll have to tuned back in and find out!