This fall, we went to Disneyland for the second time as parents. The first time we went was nearly two years ago and it was a bit too early for the kids to really appreciate it. This trip was a relatively quick, so we didn't stop to visit a lot of friends like we usually do when we're down in So Cal. We drove down at midnight and ended up at our hotel early in the morning. We went fancy for this trip and stayed at the Grand Californian.. Disney does hospitality well and we were luckily able to check into our room early.
TV to amuse the kids while checking in
Even Jad got a room key!
We arrived on the morning of our 9th wedding anniversary!
Since we had spent the night driving but had to hit the ground running, we tag-teamed on childcare. First, Nik took the kids to Downtown Disney to explore while Jad and I napped in the room. We reconvened when Jad woke up and when Jad took his second nap, I took the kids to the pool. In spite of this summer's successful swim lessons, Kai was pretty freaked out in the pool.
The best free diversion at Downtown Disney is the Lego Store..
.. perhaps they know that you'll probably end up buying something if you hang out there :P
Sora loves the water and kept saying that she was a mermaid (rolls eyes)
Happy as long as he was in the kiddie pool.. completely different story in the other pool
Eventually Nik and Jad showed up. It was Jad's first pool experience and he immediately made friends with some of the older kids in the kiddie pool
In the evening, we debated leaving the resort to have a "nice" anniversary dinner, but tiredness (and laziness) prevailed, and we opted to not leave and stayed at Downtown Disney. Since all the sit down restaurants had a wait, we decided to eat at a fast casual Cajun place.. it was definitely okay :P, but at least we saved our sanity.
Family selfie. Sora was so tired that she fell asleep sitting next to Kai
Happy anniversary! (plus baby)
The next day was spent at Disneyland. After a few choice photo ops, Sora, Jad, and I immediately made a beeline for the princess meet and greet, while Nik and Kai headed over to Tomorrowland. Sora was so excited to the meet the princesses, but when the moment arrived, she was starstruck and nervous, and couldn't smile for the camera. It was hilarious.
In between meeting Ariel and Cinderella, she literally was jumping up and down and said, "I'm so happy!" But the pictures.. >_<
All better now that there isn't a princess in proximity!
We still avoided the dark, indoor rides, but we managed to ride a number of other essential Disneyland rides like the teacups and Dumbo. We stopped by to say hello and take a picture with Mickey and Minnie.
Sora was quite pleased that her horse had a pink bow
Jungle Cruise! Jad was clearly running out of steam at this point..
.. so we went back to the hotel to have him nap while the kids did some Halloween crafts and trick-or-treating. They also ran into Dale in the lobby! And since Dale's not a princess, Sora managed to smile! :)
We went back to Disneyland after Jad's nap to meet Rapunzel (one of the benefits of staying at the resort)
For some reason, Kai was fixated on taking the monorail, so we had to ride the monorail as we were leaving the park
When planning this trip, we decide that it might be a good idea to have a recovery day in between Disneyland and California Adventure. So on Saturday we took the day off. Unfortunately, by then, we could already tell that Kai was getting a little bit sick and cranky. Luckily we always travel with meds. While Nik stayed with Jad during his morning nap, I took the kids out to Downtown Disney and just for fun, the kids wore their Halloween costumes.
Hanging out at the Disney store..
.. fishing coins out of the fountain was also entertaining, and we eventually ended up back at the Lego Store
Once Jad woke up and with a whole Saturday ahead of us, we decided to go to Downtown Anaheim to check out their fall festival (after the other day's trauma, Kai was done with pool). There were silly carnival games and lots of arts and crafts for the kids. We grabbed lunch at a Japanese place and managed to connect with Eui, who we'd not seen in years.
Jad loved meeting Auntie Eui!
I was so impressed by the arts and crafts section of the festival. Paints, stamps, pipe cleaners, glitter.. all set out and free for kids to use
Our one pre-planned social activity for this trip was meeting my UCLA friends. It's hard to pass up seeing Sabrina and Kane when they live only 10 minutes away from Disneyland. :) As usual, the Uyeharas made us feel right at home and there was lots of food to be had. So nice to see everyone and see everyone's littles, though Kari is not so little anymore! At the rate she's going, by our next visit, she may be bigger than me!
Baby Kari (circa December 2008)
.. and now off to a Halloween party. What a difference 10 years makes!
Outnumbered by kids and chaos! (poor Kai was so exhausted)
On the next day's agenda was California Adventure. Since we were staying at the Grand Californian, we were able to enter the park at 7 am, an hour before it opened to the public. When Jad woke up before the kids, I took the opportunity to go on a powerwalk with him around the park.
Totally empty!
The kids eventually woke up and Nik and I switched places. He went with the kids to the park while I stayed at the hotel with napping Jad. The first item on the agenda was to meet Anna and Elsa. After a few misfires, initially there was no Elsa and then while waiting in line to meet Elsa, they literally stopped the line in front of Sora, she finally got to meet the princesses and Olaf. Same deadpan face, unfortunately. :P
We headed over to Radiator Springs, but the kids were unimpressed since Kai was sick and both kids were exhuasted. By that time, we had already checked out of our hotel room, so taking the kids back to the room to nap wasn't an option and we had to make the kids nap in the stroller. They wouldn't settle in the double stroller since they were fighting too much and eventually we had to separate them in two strollers. Kai fell asleep relatively easily, but I made at least three circuits around the park to get Sora to nap.
Radiator Springs.. meh
The hard fought naptime.. I think it lasted only 30 minutes tops
After the kids woke up, we managed to go on a few more rides while waiting for the main event..
.. the parade! The Paint the Night parade was probably the only thing the kids really remembered from our last Disneyland trip, so of course we had to do it again. We staked out a good spot an hour before the parade started by Cathay Circle. Even by adult standards, it was a long and painful wait. The saving grace was that Jad fell asleep in the carrier and the kids were pretty well distracted while watching a movie on the tablet.
When the parade started, Sora was excited and dancing, and waved to all of the floats. On the other hand, poor, sick Kai looked like he could barely keep his eyes open. Remarkably Jad slept through the entire thing. O_o
Yay for modern conveniences.. how did parents do this before??
When the parade ended, Sora was like, "that's it??" I guess with more than an hour's worth of anticipation, she expected more. :P We then hustled out of the park, and saw a little bit of the fireworks show above Disneyland. The kids didn't want to stay long to watch the fireworks with the loud noises, so we headed back to the Grand Californian.
From there, we picked up our luggage from the claim check, got our car from the valet, and then began the long drive home. The drive home was peaceful and uneventful. At 10 pm, it was already late and after a long day at California Adventure, everyone passed out almost immediately, and we arrived home in time to get a little bit of rest in our own beds.
In mid-April we had contemplated going to a conference in Hawaii for our annual pilgrimage, but with things being as busy as they are with three kids, we decided against it and opted for a road trip to So Cal instead. Even though Nik and I always say that we won't leave packing for the last minute, it always feels like a scramble to the finish. Fortunately, we're fast packers, but packing for three kids is no joke and when you leave things for the last minute, you always forget something (this time, we forgot our soft carrier.. but we were able to borrow one from Mauri and Lauren).
Instead of putting the kids to bed that evening, we plopped them in front of the TV so we could pack and load up the car, and when we were finally done, we buckled everyone into their car seats for the long drive down. Fortunately, Jad fell asleep quickly, but the kids were too excited about the impending vacation, and both Sora and Kai took over an hour to fall asleep. We arrived in LA at 3 am; fortunately, Brian had everything set up for us and we were able to set up our beds up quickly and got everyone back to sleep for a much needed rest.
The next morning, we headed out to Santa Monica Pier. While Jad took a nap, Kai and Sora played in the surf and sand. We then headed over to the Pier and afterward, had a late lunch at Tsujita with dessert at Blockheads.
Well-rested after a nap, Jad enjoys the ocean breeze and view..
.. meanwhile.. this is why we always carry an extra set of clothing.
The merry-go-round was the only attraction at the Pier which wasn't prohibitively expensive
That's my girl: slurping the tonkatsu broth like a pro
Alicia, Ophelia, Sue, and Anne came over for dinner. Anne brought take out from Porto's. Honestly, take out is the best way for us to eat with friends and have a somewhat meaningful conversation where we're not just struggling to manage our kids.
Mmm.. cheese and guava rolls..
Storytime with Uncle Brian
The Natural History Museum was our primary destination the next day. We drove to the nearby Metro station and took the train. Perhaps our kids were spoiled by the Natural History Museum in NYC, but they were completely uninterested in the exhibits and just wanted to play with the interactive touch screens.
21st century kids. "Who cares about the mammoth skeleton when I can look at this screen?"
The interactive Nature Lab was more of a hit
And the highlight was the fountain.. this is where that extra set of clothes comes in handy again
After the museum, we headed over nearby USC for lunch with dessert courtesy of the Sprinkles cupcake ATM (conveniently located next to the student store!).
After another evening of takeout and hanging out with our LA friends, we started our trek down south. We met Catherine and her family at the Irvine Spectrum, we had lunch, rode the Ferris wheel, and wandered around together.
Sora really need to work on her cheese face
Working our way down to San Diego, we stayed over with Mauri and Lauren while we were in Orange County.. they rolled out the welcome mat with a big BBQ/pool party on Saturday evening, the kids loved the pool, and Clooney and Charlie. Vivi promptly fell in love with Jad.
The next day, we headed over to the Uyehara's to meet my UCLA friends. We finally got to meet Jo and Tom's twins, Brandon and Allison, and Nik competed against Kari (at drawing) and Kiryn (at Memory) and lost badly. We also did a little egg hunt with the kids since it had been close to Easter.
Drawing competition! 1-2-3.. FIGHT!
Kane is posing with a sleeping Kiryn, you can tell who the veteran parents are :P
After another night with the Castellanos' we drove down to San Diego, we stopped for fried chicken on the way down. Sadly, in spite of the cool, hipster vibe, the chicken wasn't any better than Popeye's (admittedly, it's tough to beat Popeye's). We met Matt and for dinner, he showed us around his stomping grounds at La Mesa. The kids enjoyed climbing around the old steam engine near downtown.
Sora inherited two dress up dresses from the Uyeharas.. she insisted on wearing them immediately
You take the kids to a chi-chi restaurant and what do they eat? Mac and cheese. Thank goodness humble mac and cheese is trendy nowadays
San Diego is a good town to get brunch and the kids were very impressed by the s'mores French toast. Afterwards, we headed to Cabrillo NM to check out the tide pools and meet with Tiffany. The kids enjoyed seeing the numerous hermit crabs, and although Tiffany didn't arrive until we were getting ready to leave the tide pools, we ended up spending the rest of the day with her and Matt. We went to the pool to swim and (it was Tuesday, after all), went to Old Town to get tacos.
S'mores at breakfast time?! Say what?
Kai was intimidated by the size and depth of this pool, so he was a little freaked out. Sora, on the other hand, declared that she could swim on her own (with floaties and Uncle Matthew's assistance :P).
Serenaded by a mariachi band
Just an aside to say that we really enjoyed our Airbnb rental in North Park. It was well-appointed with kids' toys and even a baby chair for Jad! I slept with Sora and Jad in one room, while Nik slept in the other room with Kai. Fortunately, with a full agenda every day, the kids slept fairly soundly with us in bed with them.
Hanging out with a bottle of stout after the kids go to bed
The next day we headed out to Balboa Park. Our first stop was the Model Railroad Museum. The exhibits were meticulously crafted with a lot of attention to detail. The kids loved it, and so did Nik and I!
The exhibits were amazingly detailed.. very entertaining, even for an adult!
After the museum, we met up with Matt for a quick lunch and took the free tram around the park. The kids enjoyed the "jerky, bumpy ride." Afterwards, we wandered around the botanical building.
Not bad for free diversion!
The kids were pretending to be tigers in the forest. Kai's "rwar" face..
.. versus Sora's. You can tell that girl's a feisty one. :P
For dinner, we had Thai food with Suzanne and her kids.
The next day was decidedly low-key. We had brunch and headed over the to Waterfront Park. Inexplicably, they tell you that you're not allowed to block the water jets, but the water jets are just perfect for blocking off and playing. Guess our kids are just rebels without a cause.
See what I mean? Completely irresistible
For dinner, we picked up anaçaà bowl from one of Matt's local faves and brought it over to the Carnitas' Snack Shack for dinner, their Triple Threat sandwich was not as awesome as we had hoped, but their pork belly was pretty good.
Triple Threat sandwich.. looks impressive, but only meh
The following day was the main event: the San Diego Zoo. The kids' priorities were seeing the otters and penguins (undoubtedly influenced by our trip to Monterey). The animals were surprisingly active and we watched the river otter swim back and forth. The new penguin enclosure was pretty neat, it was awesome to see the penguins swimming underwater. Though we met up with Mauri and his family at the zoo, it was difficult to coordinate the interests of four kids, so we ended up touring most of the zoo on our own, though we reconvened for dinner.
Back in the day: dating and goofing off with statuary (circa 2008)
And today: married and three kids later, still goofing off with statuary
The zoo is huge, and after all the walking and the heat, Sora passed out in the stroller..
.. which meant lots of choice pictures with Kai
Awake and smiling again
The only way to get a picture of all four kids: park them in front of screens
As if we didn't have enough wildlife the day before, the next day we met Luis and the boys at the Living Coast Discovery Center. It was actually a nice change of pace after the zoo. It was small and intimate, with a lot of hands on exhibits that were just right for young children. I'd never seen a sea turtle up close like that before and the ray exhibit was really awesome.
Hands on with a ray(?) egg
Demonstrating waste water run off
After visiting the Discover Center, Lizette made us feel right at home with a home-cooked meal and a water balloon fight. It was great to just hang out and we caught up while the kids watched a movie.
The next day was the final day of our So Cal trip. We visited Jennifer and Ethan for lunch, and learned about the magic of the rice roll (turns out, Kai will eat a lot of rice, as long as it's rolled in seaweed).
Since we had a bit of time in between social visits, we decided to kill time at the park and get a frozen treat.
We closed out our trip with visiting Dana and Yop at their home for dinner. Kai, Sora, Eli, and Noelle are all close in age, so they had a great time playing with each other. Eventually, when it was time to take a group picture, we handed the camera to the oldest kid.. and he took a surprisingly decent picture.
Not bad, Eli!
We attempted an all night drive back home as we had done it on the way down and it was significantly worse. Mind you, I'm now writing this five months after the fact, but I remember no one sleeping while driving through the Grapevine, a bunch of crying kids, and Sora having the pee in the middle of nowhere at midnight. We ended up exiting on a random off ramp and I had to hold her up as she did her business on the side of the road, while I tried not to get peed on. Fun times. Maybe it's better that I don't remember the details anymore.
Anyway, I'm closing off this monster post with a video. It's only taken me over five months to finish this post and it's easy to remember the good times and forget the bad. But a lot of moments in our trips are like this:
It's not all rainbows and rose petals, but you still have enjoy the present while you can.
