Greetings, all! Catching up on the last two weeks :) The main event was our Feb school break, during which we took a road trip to SD and LA to visit friends and go to Universal Studios. But before then, I captured a few moments of kid fun..
Sora and Jad found out they could dance with lights and take some time delay pictures. They had a blast dancing around :) One day we'll show them some light writing..
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| Pretty cool arcs |
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| Triple colors for Jad |
During our last Art Class, Kai kept fighting with Sora so Amy sent him back home. It's hard, we aren't sure why Kai tends to poke at others so much. Usually, he's fine when there's something to occupy him but when he gets bored, he tends to default towards causing some disruption or annoying someone else to get stimulation. I read that it may be due to insecurity in the child so we are both trying to build him up so he doesn't feel like he needs to behave that way. Sigh, raising kids is hard.. Anyway, I tried not to chastise him too much and instead took him for a walk to the creek. He was very pleasant (as they usually are when we're 1-on-1, it's when they conflict that is the most difficult) and we had a nice talk and a bit of bonding time. Man, I hope we're doing a good job with these kids..
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| Kai on some debris at the creek |
Ok, now to the main event! The kids had their February break (ski week, they call it here, never had this growing up in SoCal) and I was lucky enough to get the week off as well. We got up early on Sunday, packed the car and got the kids in, stopped for donuts and hash browns for breakfast and we were off. We drove about 7 hours with minimal stopping down to OC to see Matt and Nicole. The kids have gotten better at being in the car, they sleep a bit and then we tried to listen to some classic audiobooks like Treasure Island and Charlotte's Web but it didn't hold their interest so they watched a bit of Run for the Money on the tablet and just listened to some music.
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| We had a nice pasta lunch in Fullerton |
We're glad Matt and Nicole are doing well. Nicole is looking for a job now as her teaching credential is finishing up and Matt is doing some courses to become a psych NP. They are keeping an eye out for a larger place to stay as they plan for the future. Hopefully, they can find a place they like soon.
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Then got Cream Pan and went to a playground nearby
to work off some energy before getting back in the car |
We drove another hour and a half to San Diego to meet up with Luis, Lizette and their three kids Lazarito, Leo and Luciano (and their puppy Lucky.) It was really nice to see them and catch up. We haven't seen them since Jad was a baby, so almost 4 years ago! They have moved to a new house which they are doing some massive renovations on, much of it by themselves. I admire their initiative and it's going to look amazing when it's done but I don't think I could do that much work on a place.
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| It was great to have dinner and hang out for a couple of days |
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The next day, we took the kids out to the Children's
pool in La Jolla. Baby seals!! |
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| They had a lot of fun clowning around |
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| Cute pic of Jad and Lu(ciano) |
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| Cute pic of their dads too :p |
Kai got along really well with Leo and Jad with Lu. Lazarito was sick for the couple days we were there and Sora was the odd girl out (something she complained about) but overall, they all got along very well. Luis and Lizette were so generous and hosted us for two days while we were there. It was great to see them again!
After two days, we headed back to LA so we could meet with the Shaws and go to Universal Studios. On the way, we made a quick stop at Mission San Juan Capistrano for a quick tour. Amy says she always had a vision of taking her 4th grade kids to all the Missions up and down California so this was a start :) Then we went on to Viet and Dina's to visit them for the first time since they moved to SoCal. It was also great to see them in person (even if I talked to Viet a couple times a week while playing Xbox :)
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".. I heard the mission bell
and I was thinking to myself.." |
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Such a short visit to Viet and Dina's for lunch,
we only got a pic of Jad and Gracie playing :) |
After that, we forged through the LA traffic and made it to Dana and Yop's house (we did visit lots of friends on this trip :) I'm very glad that we have close friends who are happy to host us and who we would feel comfortable hosting as well in our home. As with our previous visit to their house, about 1 1/2 years ago, Kai got along well with Eli and Sora with Noelle. Jad glommed on to whoever was having the most fun at the time.
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| Playing board games .. Sora is off to the side, reading |
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| Haha, this is the only picture I got of Dana :p |
Then to the climax of our trip (aside from awesome friends, of course).. Universal Studios! We had bought a California Neighbors Pass this past summer, mainly for Harry Potter and the Wizarding World stuff but then learned that they would open Super Nintendo Land in Spring of 2023. The kids were very excited and we had our fingers crossed that our passes wouldn't expire before they opened. We thought that we might be out of luck as the new Super Mario Movie was coming out in April and they would wait til then but then we learned the Land was opening in Mid Feb (holla!) We were also lucky that the Shaws had also planned to go that week so we could enjoy the park with them and their kids.
We knew it would be busy as Nintendo Land had just opened the week before so we got up early and busted it to the park by 8am and were at the gate when we got our virtual passes at 817am so we were ready to go. We did hit the week of the weird cold rain and ice storm in SoCal so the Shaws actually got stuck in icy roads coming from Palmdale and didn't make it til 930am.
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| At the gates! |
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| The crowd at the entrance of SN Land |
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We're on our way through the pipe!
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Overall, they did a great job. There were lots of little details scatter about the recalled the Mario games like the pipe "sound" as you entered the pipe to go into the land, the clink as you collected coins, Bowser's statue in his Castle or the steam as the whomp landed above you. We did resent the money grab a bit but all these new lands in the theme parks are the same .. just 1-2 rides and a gangload of shops and restaurants where you can spend more money. We did get the kids a power band so they could go around the world and collect coins and do special challenges. It's basically an RFID band that would activate various things when you held it up. But we did make them share with Evelyn and William.
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| Bowser's castle and the hills above Toadstool Cafe |
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| The real clouds above added to the look of this shot |
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| Hitting those power blocks for virtual coins |
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I'm glad we got to meet up and the kids could play
with Evelyn and William, especially as we don't
see them as often now at their new church |
We got in the MarioKart Bowser's Challenge ride line early on the first day and got through in about 20 mins. It was a fun ride and their augmented reality goggles worked pretty well. I like that your score went on a leaderboard and you could compare everyone's score throughout the day, making it more like a game. I got to ride twice because of Jad's rider switch :) We were lucky too as later the line stretched on and on. Ansel and William went into the single rider line and even that failed because the ride broke down before they got on and they had to wait for almost 2 hours!
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| 4 hour wait!!! |
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The start of the ride.. the augmented reality was pretty cool as you could see
the other racers lining up then zooming forward (can't see it in this picture) |
Having experienced the ride on our first day, on the second day, the kids opted to head straight for the Bowser Jr. challenge. The gist of it is that you need to use your power band to go around the Land and get three keys from various stations go to a specific room to fight Bowser Jr. The problem was that as the day wore on, the lines for each of the key stations grew super long so you had to wait 30-45 mins for each one and then there was the line for Bowser Jr. himself too. In the morning, there was a very short line for all three key stations and we managed to get all three keys in just 10 mins, then we waited for Evelyn and William to arrive so they could join in the challenge. When they did and we got to the front of the line, the person there told us that we could only two people could go in with one power band and I was like, "say, what?" But after saying that we weren't going to buy more power bands just for this, the operator felt bad for the five kids standing in the rain and let us all in.
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Cool statue of Bowser.. they really did
the details well |
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| Bowser Jr. partying with friends |
The challenge itself had us all lined up in front of a big screen where it motion captured your shadow (kind of like a kinect device) and you had to jump and hit boxes, throw fireballs, duck from bullet bills, etc. It was pretty fun and the kids really liked it. Pretty fun but probably not worth waiting multiple hours for (then again, I don't think much of anything is worth waiting hours for :)
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| Jad is jumping to hit the question block |
The second day was also very cold and rainy (we all wore two pairs of pants :) and it hailed while we were waiting to go down the escalators. Such a surprise for LA but climate change.. We had lunch once at the Three Broomsticks in the Harry Potter section and that was nice. Still expensive but at least, the food is pretty good.
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| Evelyn is usually the ring leader when they are all together |
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| Striking a pose in front of Hogwarts |
Kai and Sora also finally went on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride (just a 15 min wait on a rainy day!) They both thought it was a bit scary but not too much and they had fun. I'm glad they had a chance to ride it as I'm not sure when we'll come back to Universal again.
The other place we ate was the Toadstool Cafe.. It was very crowded on the first (more sunny) day so we went at 10am and got a return later at 245pm ticket. The nice thing about that is we could leave the Nintendo Land area and then come back without a virtual reservation (which runs out by early morning). The 2nd day is much quieter and we waited 15 mins before getting in to hide out from the rain and wait for the Shaws to arrive.
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| Chef Toad talks to you while you're in line |
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| Mushroom soup, mario jr burger, tiramisu question block |
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I love Evelyn's expression here :D the digital "windows"
played ordinary life scenes from the mushroom kingdom
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We also went on the Transformers Ride which I thought was pretty cool but there was a lot of wrenching movements and loud #D explosions so Sora did not like it. Also the studio tour again and this time Jaws was working so Kai got some water sprayed on him which he liked.
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| The world famous studio tour :) |
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| We also got a cute picture with Hello Kitty |
We also had a nice dinner on our 2nd LA day with Brian, Sue and Ophelia. His parents were visiting (that's why we didn't stay with him this time) and they cooked us a nice dinner. It was fun to catch up with them and we were able to lend our wand and power band to Ophelia, who is planning a trip to Universal in a few months.
Overall, the trip was fun and we had a lot time to hang out with friends which was huge. There was a big storm that moved in (from Canada apparently) at the end of the week so we got the start of it on our 2nd day at Universal and then the drive home was difficult. It was so cold that the 5 freeway was icy and closed so we drove up the 101, which took a lot longer. Up in the hills near Solvang, it was raining so hard that it was borderline unsafe to drive.
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| We could barely see the car in front at times |
We coordinated with the Shaws and stopped for lunch in Solvang, only to discover that much of the town had lost power. We wandered to three places, getting quite soaked, before finding one that could seat us and eating lunch together. Good times..
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| Just the adults this time! |
It took us 10 hours to make it home (with a quick stop at Broken Earth Winery in Paso Robles). We were exhausted and the kids ate some cereal/ramen/udon for dinner and went to bed. Lucky, we had planned in a couple of days at the end at home so we were able to recover from the trip. The kids were very happy to be home and see Sesame again. That cat is cute but troublesome :p
