The big holiday, part 7

And now on to the final instalment of the big holiday. The boys seemed to get a lot more on the move while we were in California and just in to absolutely everything. Here they are climbing into one of Auntie Ivanna's shelves - surprise surprise that it was Alex in first. Little scamps!
And towards the end of the trip, we discovered how brilliant 'Cherry on Top' was. It's a frozen yogurt shop where you help yourself to all different flavours of yogurt and all kinds of toppings - and it's only half a mile from Auntie Ivanna's house. Ignore the person in the photo below, but this is the frozen yogurt wall.
And Michaela's camera skills in the shop!
On the way home from Cherry on Top is another play park. Here's Isaiah enjoying the swings.
And Michaela climbing up the ladder, which she learned to do all by herself.
On one of our last nights there, we went to the neighbours' house for a barbeque. It was great and their daughter helped Michaela play dressing up. Here's one of her many costumes.
Both boys seemed to like playing in Akilah's bed, much to Akilah's disgust I'm sure! Isaiah left, Alex right.
And a picture of Auntie Ivanna's house.
And little Isaiah enjoying playing with Daddy's cap.
All in all, the holiday was fantastic. It was a bit of an effort with the kids, but thank goodness we had Granny there to help us out. Not sure we'll be going again any time soon, but you just never know....

The big holiday, part 6 - Disneyland!

Now on to probably the best day of the holiday - Disneyland! Unfortunately for the boys, they weren't included - Granny took care of them while Mommy and Daddy took Michaela. Shelby, Dave and Samantha also came. For those of you who don't know, Disneyland is only about a 20 minute drive from Auntie Ivanna's house!

Very first ride was the carousel, or as Michaela calls it, the horsies! Here's Michaela and Samantha enjoying the ride.
And Dave and Mommy too!
Next stop, the tea cups. And Michaela chose that we went into the pink one. Quite a squeeze with Mommy, Daddy, Shelby and the girls, but we just made it in.
Then Michaela met the Mad Hatter. He was absolutely brilliant and even shouted at Captain Hook when he tried to come near us. Even though Michaela doesn't know who he is, she absolutely loved meeting him and looking at his big, green shoes.
Here's Sammy and Michaela on the 'It's a small world' ride. They both just loved it. Michaela spent most of the ride waving to all the people singing. And, it was nice and cool, which made all the adults love it on such a hot day.
We got to go in a Dumbo ride, which flies around in a circle, but you control how high or low it goes. Michaela loved that we went higher than Daddy's elephant! Poor Daddy had to sit by himself and take photos of us.
And lucky Michaela got to meet Mickey Mouse, after walking though his house. She was so excited, but told us later that she forgot to give him a kiss!
Michaela also got to meet Rosetta (one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends).
But the absolute highlight of the trip for Michaela was getting to meet the real Tinkerbell!
After, Michaela asked us if she'd held Tinkerbell's hand, could they have gone flying together. How cute. The other highlight of the day for Michaela was getting to go on the Finding Nemo ride in a submarine, but no flash was allowed so we didn't get any pictures.

We were so amazed at how much Michaela enjoyed Disneyland, but also how much Samantha did (who only just turned two). We can now totally understand how people have a five day trip just to Disneyland. Maybe EuroDisney will be on the cards for another year?

The big holiday, part 5

As I said in an earlier post, Alex and Kali became really good pals. Here they are playing together. For a dog that's never normally around kids, she did amazingly well!
And yet again, Isaiah playing with a ball. He loved these balls so much that we ended up buying some to take home - and they both still love playing with them.
Here's Michaela walking Akilah at the park. We were amazed at how many play parks seemed to be in the area and how well-maintained they all were.
Our boys just love eating fruit (as does Michaela and Daddy), so they were really spoiled with so much fresh fruit to choose from in California. As you can see from Isaiah below, it does normally end in a bit of a mess.
We were pretty good at getting everyone adjusted to the time difference and normally the boys were in their usual routine of one nap a day. But some days, they were just too knackered close to tea time, so Mommy let Alex have a short snooze while reading her book.
Still trying to get a good family snap in the pool - Left to right, Isaiah, Daddy, Michaela, Alex and Mommy. We tried to get in the pool quite a bit as the kids are really good in the water. The boys particularly will just splash and play for ages!
But, too long in the pool leads to wrinkly feet! Isaiah's
And Alex's
Here's Shelby playing with Sammy and Michaela on the float. Generally the girls were really good together and it was so cute to see them playing.
Daddy and Mommy got a day shopping to themselves as well, while Granny and Auntie Ivanna watched the kids. We managed to buy loads of things; for ourselves, for the kids, for gifts and as special requests from friends. Not surprisingly, we went out with three suitcases and came back with six - full to the brim!

The big holiday, part 4 - San Diego Zoo

We all went to the San Diego Zoo while we were on holiday (except Granny who stayed home to watch the dogs). It took a little while to get there, so by the time we were there, it was already hot outside. Sometimes instead of walking around, Michaela hitched a lift with Auntie Ivanna.
The first place Michaela wanted to get to was the elephants, which of course was about the furthest away from the entrance as you could get!
But when we got there, one of the elephants decided to head directly for us, which was so exciting for Michaela.

We got to see lots of animals, including koalas, camels, meerkats and birds. Probably one of the highlights for Michaela was getting to meet the Hippo walking around.
They also had a children's zoo section which had a play area (leading to a bit of a fall out between Michaela and Mommy as she didn't want to stop playing) and also a petting zoo. There were sheep and goats to touch there. Michaela got to pet a goat.
And another goat decided to come up by Mommy and the boys (Isaiah left, Alex right).
And Michaela and Auntie Ivanna had some fun.
Even though it was really hot and a really long day, all the kids did so well. Especially the boys, for sitting in their buggy for all that time. There were quite a few hills, so it was a bit tiring pushing them both up hill, but definitely worth it.

The big holiday, part 3

Just a few days hanging around the house now. As I said earlier, Kali has been so great with the boys. Here's Isaiah sitting right next to her and they're happy as can be.
The park up the road from Auntie Ivanna's also kind of doubles as a dog park - the neighbours all meet up at certain times for their dogs to run around and socialise. The first day there, Michaela met Coco and just loved her. So Coco came over one day to play for a bit. Think Michaela took a shine to her with her pink around the collar.
And here's the park again. Michaela has been a brilliant big sister and was helping Daddy push the boys in the swings.
Both boys have always been really good in the pool. Here they are floating and splashing away (Isaiah with the tree over him).
We've discovered it's really hard to get any decent pictures of the kids in the pool, but we had many, many attempts at it!
About two weeks before his birthday, Alex cut his first tooth. Here's the first decent picture of it.
Walking back from the park - how cool does Michaela look? We borrowed this double buggy off a friend and thank goodness, it was so useful in America and especially for the travelling!
Alex has got really in to climbing and he was so chuffed with himself when he realised he could use the chair to get onto the couch.
The boys are going to be so embarrassed by this when they're older, but here's Isaiah giving Alex a kiss. They do this occassionally and they both just giggle about it - it's soooo cute!
Isaiah was particularly obsessed with throwing balls. He could just get a ball, throw it, and follow it around for ages.
Phew, part three done, but I think this will be in seven parts, so hope to get the next instalment up and running soon.

The big holiday, part 2 - The boys turn 1!

The morning of the little boys' birthday and here they are eating up their breakfast - Isaiah left, Alex right.
Already, by day two, Alex had struck up a good friendship with Kali. And Kali was so patient with Alex, as you can see!

The day of the boys' birthday, we were having a huge celebration as cousin Samantha's birthday is just a few days before. And since all the US relatives hadn't seen Michaela, Shelby decided to make it a birthday party for her too!
Samantha just loved being able to do all the things her big cousin Michaela could. When Michaela splashed in the pool, so did Sammy. But of course, as we would find out time and time again, Kali had to be there as protection whenever anyone's in the pool.
Auntie Jean and Uncle Hop were still out in America for the birthday party, so it was great to see them again after soooooo long! Here's Auntie Jean with Isaiah splashing (with Uncle Hop, Shelby and Sammy in the background).
We had a great meal - honey roast ham (Mommy's favourite), potato salad, beans, salad, macaroni cheese, etc. So much more than we could all eat. I think Alex was feeling pretty luck to be sitting with Uncle Hop and getting so much food to eat.
Here's Sammy's Dad, Dave, holding Isaiah. There was a house full at Auntie Ivanna's - All five of us; Granny &, Auntie Ivanna; Shelby, Dave & Sammy; Auntie Jean & Uncle Hop; Yvette; Sammy's other granny and one of Auntie Ivanna's pals.
After all the swimming and eating, we finally got down to open presents. Surprisingly, the boys did take a little bit of interest in opening presents, but there were so many, they couldn't open them all. Thank goodness big sister Michaela was there to help out!
And Sammy, all tired from the exciting day, cuddled up watching her favourite DVD.
It was a brilliant day and so fantastic to have so much family around to help celebrate. Unfortunately for the boys, with everything going on, we ended up only eating the cake after they'd gone to bed!