Grandma Lala's Visit

Well, I'm officially a terrible blogger! Too many irons in the fire to keep up with ye olde blog, I guess. Anyway, A couple of weeks ago, Grandma Lala came for a visit! She'd been to California the previous week to visit Dave and Anna and Madison, and of course new baby Violet. Then she hopped up to Idaho for about a week to see us!!

The only pics I took were a few on my phone, but they'll suffice to tell the story.

The day Linda arrived was a big discount day at Silverwood, so I suggested that Lily and I go to Silverwood for a while, while Jim went with the little girls to pick up Linda, then they'd meet us at Silverwood. Lily and I had a lot of fun alone together for a couple of hours.

Once Jim and Lind and the girls arrived, we had even more fun! We didn't bother doing any adult rides, and just let the girls have a fun day on the kiddie rides, which was fun for us too! Lily is on the far right, then a stranger, and then the ragamuffin hanging over the bar is Goo.

 

Lily thought Goo might be scared, so she decided to hold her hand halfway through the ride. What a sweet sister! 

  On Monday, Lily went to school and Linda watched the little girls while I went to a hair appointment. That's when things started to go south. Linda said they were playing outside, and Goo fell asleep in a patio chair. When I got home, she went right to bed and slept for a couple of hours. Eventually, the puking started.

Lily got home from school and fell asleep on the couch, and after a couple of hours, the puking started for her as well. They were both sick for a few hours, and Lily stayed home from school the next day, but after that they seemed all better, and nobody else got sick. Poor little monkeys!

After the great sickness, there was more fun to be had bowling, and Jim and Linda took Lily and Grace to a movie one night. It was a short visit, and despite all the puking, pretty fun! Thanks for coming, Linda!

Klein Family Reunion!!

For the past couple of weeks, we've been in southern California to visit with Jim's side of the family! It's been over 3 years since we've all been together, so it was a lot of fun! We headed down nice and early so that Jim could build some projects for Dave and Anna, then once Bob and Holly arrived on Tuesday night, the festivities really began!

Now gird your loins for the onslaught of vacation pics!

 Clementine wasted no time climbing onto Madison's table.

Even though it wasn't super warm, the girls insisted on swimming. I even donned my swim suit for a bit, but I'm kind of a wimp, and didn't last very long!

Madison can swim! I was hoping that Madison's lack of water wings would convince Lily to learn to swim, but she still freaks out whenever I make her practice swimming without floaties. Sigh

With floaties, however, she LOVES to swim!

Grandma Lala with baby Clementine.

Madison had her own little easel set up in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure Lily asked me every single day if she could paint, but after our first painting fiasco and giant mess incident, I had to say no. 

Madison had the apron, so I made my kids paint nekked.

Gooby and Clementine playing in our bed. Their guest room had a Japanese style bed (on the floor), and I loved it because Clementine could sleep in it, and I didn't have to worry about her falling off!

The girls chillin' outside.

Lily decided to sweep up! She's a helper!

For Easter, Grandma Lala and the girls made a bunny cake! The girls enjoyed sprinkling on the coconut!

Trying to get a picture of 4 silly girls in their Christmas jammies is harder than you might think.

Someone is always making a weird face.

But they're happy!

Easter morning!

Madison is giving Lily a hug because Lily was thanking Madison for her birthday gift (soccer cleats!!!)

 This was the face Goo made at me when I took her picture at church. Lovely. :)

Ok, there were technically some better pictures of us from Easter morning, but I like this one because Lily is making a weird face, and Grace is crying and pointing at the (something...dandelion maybe?) that I wouldn't let her hold in the picture.

I think kids just like to make weird faces, no?

Speaking of trying to get a picture of 4 pretty girls...

Madison thought we were raising our hands because Clementine was.

If you make weird faces to make them smile, they just make weird faces back. Sigh.

Squinting, but not bad.

Cousin/sister loves!

Ready to hunt some eggs!

I love Madison's face in this pic!

Don't you love the Easter dresses we found? Two years ago when we were in SoCal for Easter, I think it took Anna and I a month of searching and coordinating to find matching Easter dresses. This time, we went to Marshall's, and just when we thought we were going to strike out, we found the perfect dress in all the right sizes! Adorable, sweet, fluffy....just perfect!

These two were being sweet and sharing the eggs they found.

The pink egg in the pink tree was a tough one to find.

Eggs!

Clementine got to watch the action from a distance with her Daddy.

Can I eat it, Mom?

Emptying eggs.

CANDY!!!!

After all the Easter excitement, the girls ended the day by cuddling up to watch Peter Pan!

 While we were visiting, Dave and Anna lined up a few projects for Jim to build for them, and as a thank-you, they took us out to sushi. I didn't even have to build anything, and I still got sushi! They took us to one of those places where the sushi rolls by on a conveyer belt, and the plates are color coded by price, and you just pick up your sushi as it rolls by. It was SO DELICIOUS!! I was impressed that it was so well-priced! Jim and I each ate $12 or so worth of sushi, and were stuffed by the end of it. Anna was pretty excited to have fellow sushi-lovers with her, since Dave does not partake, and we were pretty stoked to get to eat all the sushi our little tummies could handle. If we had a place like that here in CdA, we'd be in trouble!!

Bob and Holly and their boys were flying into San Diego Tuesday night, so we decided to go down to San Diego and visit the zoo on Tuesday. Jim and I had been several years back, but it was fun to get to go with the girls!

The crew walking through the zoo. Dave, then Steve pushing Goo and Clementine, Anna pushing Madison, Jim carrying Lily, and Linda.

Lily was most excited to get to see the giraffes!

Goo enjoyed the giraffes as well.

Sweet girls holding hands with Grandma

Triplets! Actually, we had multiple people over the course of the trip ask if Madison and Grace were twins. Did they not notice that Madison is Japanese!? :)

All four cousins. I don't remember why Lily was fussing (the rock was too hard to sit on?), but otherwise they're cute!

On Wednesday, we met up with Bob and Holly, and stopped at a beach on our way back to Long Beach. It was too chilly to swim or sunbathe, but we enjoyed a stroll up the beach, and got to see some fun tide pools.

Happy Goo!

Steve and Linda at the beach.

Grace in the sand.

Lily found a sea star in a tide pool.

Grandma and Grandpa and all their grandkids!

Our little family!

Playing in a little cave they found.

Lily wanted nothing more than to walk in the surf on the way back.

Thursday was DISNEY LAND DAY!!!! Last time we went to DL, California Adventure was finishing up Cars Land, and it has opened since then. Dave and Anna wanted us to get to go on the new Cars Land Radiator Springs Racers ride, but the fast pass usually sells out within an hour of the park opening. So we got there as soon as the park opened, and handed over our passes to Dave, so that he could stand in line and get us Fast Pass tickets. While he was waiting in line, we kicked off our day at A Bug's Land, which is geared toward young children, and was one of the highlights for Lily last time. 

Our first ride: Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.

Ready to roll!!

 

Clementine waiting patiently while I rode the bumper cars with the big girls.

Goobah first!

Lily waited patiently while Goo rode, then got her turn. She was more thrilled than this picture portrays. :)

Next was Flik's Flyers!

Lily and Grace had a fun time climbing on the tractor in Cars Land.

Next, we headed over to Disney Land and rode a few rides before lunch, including Winnie the Pooh.

Lily got to pick out a treat for herself and Grace while I was getting a coffee. A giant lollypop? Yes please!

Jim even got a bit of it, when it broke!

Finally, we got back to California Adventure to go on the Radiator Springs Racers ride!

Ready to rock and roll!

Woo hoo!

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of the trip. I had my camera out and was trying to snap pictures throughout the ride. Most of them were pictures of feet and heads and nothing, but this one captures the absolute JOY that Lily was feeling. What fun!

Dinner in California Adventure!

I had to get a picture of Linda taking pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa gave the girls some spending money to use at Disneyland. Both of the girls picked out a music box from the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. Grace's is "Tangled" themed (of course!), and Lily's is "Beauty and the Beast" themed.

Clementine watching her cousins play outside.

Lily and Carter playing catch.

The guys building Dave and Anna's outdoor seating.

Holly made some delicious lemon bars, using fresh lemons from Anna's tree.

Grant inside the tree to pick the lemons. He's brave to get in there, especially after the scary Lizard Incident!

I took a few pictures of  Dave and Anna's house to share. I admit that I was a little nervous about them having a pool, but it turns out that the pool was fenced off from the back yard with a safety fence, that is difficult for children to open, and not climbable.

This was our room! I loved having the Japanese style bed on the floor, because Clementine could sleep with us, and if we got up, we could just leave her there sleeping!

Madison's awesome play area, and the kitchen.

Friday evening, we went to a really  neat park to feed the ducks. Steve and Linda went to the store, and bought everyone their own loaf of bread to feed to the ducks. We were well-prepared, but the ducks weren't biting. For some reason, there weren't many ducks and geese around, and they weren't that interested in bread. So we had toast the next day!

Grace took matters into her own hands...and mouth.

As did Clementine.

The girls trying to lure some of the ducks to eat their bread.

This park was awesome! It was laid out like a map of Boston and the ride of Paul Revere, and had a little church and village, with all kinds of slides and places to climb.

Woo hoo for sliding!

Day two in Disney Land was Saturday. I was a little nervous about going on the weekends, because it seems like those are the times when it would be PACKED. Dave and Anna knew, however, that most season pass holders are blocked from the weekends, and that a lot of people who travel to DL travel on the weekends, and go to the park on week days. So the crowd was actually more sparse on Saturday than Thursday! Go figure!

Our plan was to hit Fantasy Land right off the bat, but first I needed to hit the restrooms. I suggested that Jim let the girls meet a character while I hit the restrooms, so the girls got to meet Mary Poppins and Bert. Grace was less than thrilled.

On the carousel! The girls were thrilled to ride it. When I was a little girl (2 or 3 years old, I don't remember), my family went to DL, and all of the rides scared us, so Mom and Dad would take us on a detox carousel ride between all the other scary rides.

Lily and Grandpa!

We took a picture of us on Toady last time we were in DL, so I figured we'd have to do it again, now that we're a family of 5!

Lily and Grace loved the Teacup ride. Jim and I were not so excited about it. I realized I must be getting old, because I was a little woozy after that one!

Dumbo!

Woo hoo!

Lily enjoyed Dumbo.

I'm pretty sure I had to bribe the girls with gum to get this picture.

These two are naturally sweet, though.

Cheesing it up!

Jim took Lily on Autopia. After the Cars Land ride, I didn't think it would be all that exciting, but Lily seemed to love it! She also got a yellow car, which was a BIG DEAL for her!

Gooby waiting for Lily.

Crazy driver!

Our last day together was Sunday, so we had a little cookout! Clementine discovered a love of hot dogs!

The kids table(s)

The whole family!

We had such a fun time in California! It was so nice to see the whole family, who we really don't get to see that often! The last time we saw Robert and Holly and the boys was just after Grace was born! We're looking forward to next time!

P.S. If you made it to the bottom of this and actually read everything and looked at all the pictures, you deserve a prize! I was too lazy to reread it myself, so don't be too hard on my for any typos!