September California Visit!

 

 

Hi all, Ben here, writing my first blog.  Cut me a little slack

 

Kids and I flew to Sacramento to visit mom and dad at the end of September and I'm just getting to this now.  Trisha was supposed to come, but we just lost our Yorkie, Molly, and nearly lost our other Yorkie, Mina, in a span of 2 weeks.  Mina was recovering and needed a lot of care after coming home from the pet hospital.  We decided that the best decision for everyone was for Trisha to stay home with Mina and for me to go to California.  We all missed Trisha dearly, but it was the right call.

 

The plane ride was just as I imagined it, 4 hours of hell.  I found out that you CAN travel spouseless with two young kids, but I would NOT recommend it.  Special thanks to the flight attendant who changed Chelsea's Pull Up mid flight while I tried to corral Tyler!  We made quite the impression.  While waiting for our luggage, several people came up to me with reactions all across the spectrum, from "you poor bastard" to "you bastard".

 

Once we got to CA, my life became much easier.  Mom "Tyler proofed" the house and we had 3 adults watching 2 children, a much more manageable ratio. 

 

The flight back was much better, I said to hell with the rules.  Feed Tyler and endless stream of goldfish, gummy bears and suckers?  Sure!  Let Tyler play with the seat back tray the whole time (table goes up, table goes down)? No problem!  Allow him to be unbuckled during takeoff and landing? okey-dokey!  You get the idea.

 

Pardon these pictures being out of order, the pictures came from several sources and I don't know how to order them correctly.

 

Mom "Frozened" Chelsea's bedroom, needless to say, both kids loved it immediately.  This picture has a special place in my heart because I have a picture of Jon and I looking just like this when we were kids.  I'll try and find the picture and post it for comparison.

 

Mom also furnished the kids with an art desk with tons of coloring books, crayons, colored pencils and markers.  I hope the black marker came off of your floor, walls and couch mom :)

 

One of dad's best contributions, $3 worth of sippy cups, a huge hit all day long.

The entrance to Fairytale Town, an unexpected great place in my opinion.  With a name like that, I was expecting all shades of cheap, hokey and disturbing, but I was wrong.  We could have spent all day there and almost did.  Kids loved it and so did the adults.

The pool.  The biggest highlight of the whole trip.  Spent hours upon hours within a 10 foot radius of the hot tub.  Many more pool pics below

The normally aggressive Tyler was surprisingly cautious when it came to the water.  He had a daily routine of testing the water every day.  He had to be able to touch at all times and be able to see his feet.  The water jets gave him fits, but he overcame the fear each day.

Swimming is tiring!

In Tyler's "Office"

Chelsea became a much better swimmer as a result of this trip as well.  Upon our return, Chelsea quickly passed out of her Lifetime swimming class and moved up to the next level!

Thank God for Johnnie Walker...

Now entering, the "cold pool"

Babysitting is such tough work!

The dreaded squirt guns!  Dad learned his lesson and didn't spray Chelsea this time :)

My feeble attempt to capture some posed pictures.  Got a couple good ones

Pretty flowers, Grandma Jane!  Say, this fence looks a bit wobbly, hope the wind doesn't kick up...

Again, apologies for the out of orderness, but this is an airport picture on the way out.  Spirits and ignorance levels are high!

Dad lost out in paper, rock, scissors with mom and I and had to go on the roller coaster with Chelsea.  This was a big deal for Chelsea, who had normally been afraid of any and all rides up until this day!  I think dad's chiropractor had a good week after we left.

"Swine Moat!"

Do not let your kids play in the front seat of the car, trust me.  Every time we went anywhere after this incident, it was an epic battle to get Tyler in his car seat.  He thought he should be allowed to drive.

Another great toy from mom and dad.  Tyler and Chelsea made us lots of burgers and hot dogs doused in ketchup.

Just another day at the office...

Command Central

Tyler's room.  This was actually my biggest fear of the trip, even bigger than the flights.  Until this trip, we has been having horrible luck getting Tyler to sleep outside of our home.  We would put him in the pack and play and he would scream his lungs out for HOURS.  So for this trip, we thought we'd just try a mattress on the floor and take everything out of the room.  It worked beautifully!  He slept great and when he woke up in the morning, he would just sit on his bed reading books until one of us got him.  What a relief! 

More Fairytale Town pics