Disneyland!

(We decided to go to Disneyland on Elijah's birthday to take advantage of Disney's deal - get in free on your birthday! With Elijah being free because of his birthday and Natalie getting in free because she's so young, we couldn't pass it up!) :)

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Celebrating Elijah's birthday at Disneyland was a blast! We had such a great day, from the weather to the rides to the kids just making it all day without naps (and without crankiness!)...everything was great!

We got there right when the park opened at 10 and went right to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, which we walked right on - Perfect! Elijah REALLY loved that ride and rode it again with Dave and then we tried once more after dinner but they closed it down for some reason. :( Dave and I really tried to pick out rides (before hand) that the kids would love, could ride on without lots of height restrictions, and also ones I could do too, being pregnant. I think we did a pretty good job of figuring things out ahead of time so we wouldn't waste a lot of time during the day.

While still in Tomorrowland, after Buzz, we went to Finding Nemo's submarine ride and drove our own little cars in Autotopia. Dave said Elijah did pretty good driving in his car! Before lunch, we even got to watch some of the Jedi training show and saw the "real" Doctor Gator (aka Darth Vadar). Elijah loved it but did step back a bit when Darth Vadar came close to us. :)









After lunch, we hit Fantasyland: Peter Pan's Flight and King Arthur Carousel. (Small World, Casey Jr. Circus Train, and Storybook Canal Boats were all closed) :( Then on to Toon Town, where we saw lots of Disney characters but decided to only meet Mickey (there were lines for all the characters). From there we took the train around Disneyland to the other side of the park so we could go to Splash Mountain. Elijah really wanted to go on the "log ride." After seeing there was a wait, they decided to get a fast pass and come back later. While waiting we went on the Jungle Cruise and to the Tiki Tiki Room.


















Finally, Splash Mountain! Natalie and I sat out but Elijah made the height cut off - and loved it!!! There was one medium drop in the dark that scared Elijah a bit but he loved the big drop! He told Dave right after, "Daddy, that was totally cool!" :)


We also stopped to watch the parade and after dinner Elijah and Dave went to Star Tours (which Eli also loved!). To end our day, we waited around to watch the fireworks at 8pm but they made a few announcements about possibly canceling them because of the high winds. We decided not to wait to see if they would have them or not and just went home. (They ended up not doing the fireworks so we made a good choice leaving early.)

We were all tired after our fun day at Disneyland! The kids fell asleep on the ride home and once Dave and I unpacked all our stuff, we went to bed too! If only we could go to Disneyland more often!!! Guess we'll just have to wait til Christmas time when we'll go again with my whole family!

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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159072&id=626588267&l=aea8a991e9

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday ELIJAH!!!!
Happy Birthday to you.

Today Elijah turns 4 years old and we are spending his special day at Disneyland. He is super excited and so are we. Here are some random pictures of Elijah...

The Wild Parrots of LA

It's long been rumored that there is a flock of wild parrots roaming around our city, but we can now confirm that this rumor is true. The parrots visited our backyard this week. We were eating lunch and heard all this squawking outside. We went outside to check what it was and it was the parrots - probably about 20-30 of them. Weird. It doesn't seem to make any sense that wild parrots would be roaming around such an urban area, but they must like it here.

Here are some pictures I took. We later looked some info up on the internet and found out that most people believe they are Amazon red-crowned parrots, but to be honest, I'm not really sure.















































Here is a video also so you can hear how loud they are...I guess they don't sound as loud against the noise of the freeway also in our backyard :)

Star Wars

This week when I (Laura) was working at the thrift store (my two hours of volunteer/helping out time), I found a light saber. I thought Elijah would love it. He really likes "fighting" with swords but using a light saber would take the fighting to a whole other level. It was all in pieces in a shoe box but I thought maybe we could figure out how to put it together. Right under that shoe box donation was another identical shoe box with, you guessed it, another light saber. Having two kids now we have learned that one toy is not usually enough. It works so much better to have two - no fighting, playing at the same time...a "fighting" partner for Elijah...perfect!

So I bought them, brought them home and Dave put them together. The kids loved the surprise!!! We've been telling Elijah a little about Star Wars (more about Darth Vader, aka Doctor Gator as Elijah calls him, Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knights, etc.). We took a video of the kids' first time playing with them, with lights out. Then Dave and Elijah took another video of them playing.






Finally, here's a picture of the light sabers found on-line. They are sold for $25-30 and have lots of different parts that allow you to change the color, sound, and style of the light saber. Totally cool!!!

LA County Fair

We thought we'd share some pictures from our time at the LA County Fair.  We went this week with my parents and had a great time checking out all the new exhibits.  We had planned on going a week earlier, but passed when it was supposed to be 103 degrees that day and opted for a cooler time.

First stop...the trains.  Elijah thought this was the coolest thing ever.  He was a little disappointed that he couldn't go on every single one, but forgot all about that when he was able to blow the horn on one of the trains.

While waiting for the pirate show to begin, we checked out the flower garden and took some rides on the Big Slide.  Both Elijah and Natalie went down with me separately.  Natalie loved it!  I thought she might be a little scared, but when I asked her if she liked it, I got an enthusiastic, "YEAH!"

On to the pirate show.  We weren't really sure what this was supposed to be all about, but ended up being a high-wire act and was pretty cool.  They did some pretty neat stunts.

Next to the trains...again - this time model trains.  This year they had some Thomas trains.  Natalie decided she was going to walk onto the displays and take a police car off the set.  She was so excited that she found a police car and really wanted to show Elijah.  She got in trouble and the staff seemed to keep a close eye on us the rest of the time we were there.

They had a new exhibit this year on Dinosaurs...

Then we headed off to the petting zoo...

Then rides...Natalie was a little disturbed when she was riding in an airplane and her steering wheel fell off.  Elijah rode on the bumper cars, but afterward decided that it was too scary.  Maybe next time?

After dinner, we tried to go on the large farris wheel, but it broke down, so we went on a few more rides and then headed home.  Both the kids fell asleep in the car.  Another fun time at the Fair!