happily ever after: Knott's Berry Farm birthday party, Ruth Chris, and 3 year Photos!!! (Week 158/20)

Look at this - posting a day EARLY! amazing, I know. :) Had a ton of pictures to share and some time tonight so I figured I'd get a hard start.

What's been going on this week. Tyler has suddenly developed some sort of fear at bedtime. He talks a lot about this bear that is going to come and eat him. What are they reading at school? Will told him a nice story about how his Pikachu on his bed sleeps during the day and is awake at night to keep an eye out to make sure Tyler is safe. It was really sweet - not sure if it worked though.

Friday we headed to Knott's Berry Farm. And it was almost 100 degrees. Are we insane? Yes! It was our friend Shirley& Jesse's baby Sharon's 1st birthday! We haven't been to Knott's forever... it sure has changed a lot. Here we are at the entrance with our friend Chrissy and her son Jayden - Jayden is a month older than Katelyn!

It was super duper hot. I felt a bad for poor little Katelyn - her head was so sweaty and there was no air conditioning! I even tried to find a mother's room I had read about on their website - but they had changed it to a First Aid center or something. Boo.

Good thing we brought the Bjorn. I had Katelyn in my MT sling, and it was SO hot. The Bjorn is definitely cooler to wear her in, but I don't like her in it for long periods of time. Katelyn never really fusses when she's in the Bjorn - she likes hanging out and looking around.

We headed directly to Camp Snoopy where the birthday party was being held. SO HOT! Poor Katelyn couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep while I was holding her.

I'm still having flashbacks of the heat in that room - even with all the doors open! I was downing fluids like crazy and VERY happy when they brought in ice cream sandwiches. :) Here's a picture of Shirley/Jesse with their baby Sharon and Snoopy!

Here's a group picture. Tyler at first wanted nothing to do with Snoopy. It wasn't until I went up to take a picture with Katelyn (who was totally asleep) that he decided he wanted in. Hi Snoopy!

Then it was time for rides! I was definitely nervous - Tyler doesn't have such a great track record when it comes to rides (flashback to crying/scared bouts at Disneyland last year) but Camp Snoopy is GREAT! Those rides are perfect for his age! The first ride he went on was an airplane ride with his buddy Jake. I was VERY nervous watching them - mostly because Will and I couldn't sit with him in case he got scared! Tyler looked concerned too...

Very concerned. A lady next to me even mentioned that he looked nervous. Ahh!

But then the ride started...and I held my breath...

and Tyler LOVED it! Every time they flew by he would wave and laugh at us. Sniff sniff. He's so grown up!

Did I mention it was hot? It was so hot that my black sandals were absorbing the sun and burning my feet. It was THAT bad! After the plane ride we rode the hot air balloon ride and train ride (both allowed adults) and then we headed to watch the Snoopy on Ice show (which was WAY on the other side of the park...) I was so relieved when we got there - there was air conditioning! (For old schoolers like me, it was where they used to have the Land of the Dinosaurs ride or something...) Uncle Jesse got all the kids light up wands and Tyler really enjoyed waving his around. Katelyn knocked out pretty fast, and would have had a nice nap if the people behind us didn't get super excited and cheer loudly every time an ice skater did a little flip or something. sheesh.

Next up? Mexican hat dance ride! Hmm... we may have been a little too adventurous to try something outside of Camp Snoopy. We were going to sit in the same hat as Joan/Jake but Jake declared he wanted to go fast and Tyler declared he wanted to go slow... so we took our own hat. At first Tyler was excited to spin, but then even when he stopped spinning the hat was still spinning quickly just on momentum. Tyler was not happy. Crying ensued, and the ride operator yelled out on the intercom: "Lady in Blue!... Do you need me to stop the ride?!!" Yes, we did. Lesson learned.

Tyler quickly got his spirits back up as soon as he saw the carousel next door. Actually, even as we were getting off the hat ride he was already asking to go on another ride! He decided he wanted to ride the reindeer. I got on a zebra next to him. As the ride started, I quickly realized that his reindeer didn't go up and down! Oops. I tried to distract him but he's too smart - he was like, "mama, mine not working!!". I was worried he was going to get upset, and I totally couldn't get down off my moving zebra... but he was fine!

Loves the carousel!

After that we headed back to Camp Snoopy. On the way back, we stopped for some funnel cake (omg it was super sweet) and some carnival games. Tyler played the one where you throw ping pong balls into this big pool of water and try to get them to land in these little plastic bowls. He got one in on his very first throw! What beginner's luck! He won a white polar bear that he named Gordon - the cool thing is that this stuffed animal actually has some meaning to him now. Very exciting.

Back at Camp Snoopy we checked out the other rides. Race cars - Tyler was going to LOVE this one! It's an interesting ride - it's just a loop but the cars make a sharp/quick turn on each end. I warned Tyler about the speed ahead of time to prepare him and he loved it. He even raised his hands by himself and went "whoooaaahhh!" I'm surprised I fit in there with him! haha!

Next was a manual train ride. Not a line for this one at all - kids these days don't want to work for their enjoyment! It was really cute though - Tyler had to pump the handle forward/backward to move along the track - it was a lot of work for a little kid - especially since the track was kind of long!

Here's a video from my iPhone of Tyler pumping along the track!

He was very excited to listen to the ride operator. He's such a big boy now!

Next was the school bus ride. This one was actually pretty fun for me too! (I had given up on going on any real rollercoasters that day..)

Tyler loved it too!

Here's a video I took with my iPhone of us on the ride. Tyler was squealing and laughing like crazy!

Next up - a spinning ride - kind of like a kid version of Whirlpool. I would have sat with him if I could, but there was a height limit! I was really worried it was going to go fast and the ride operator assured me that they could stop the ride at any time. Yes, I'm that mom who's super overprotective!

But Tyler loved it! It wasn't fast at all...

Every time Tyler would spin by he'd yell out "HI MAMA!!" Loved it!

Katelyn chilled in her bassinet most of the day. It was just too hot!

We even got a lot of use out of the roller board attachment for the Uppa Baby. Tyler really liked being able to hitch a ride on the board as we pushed the stroller through the park.

Whew what a day. I didn't think we were even going to last that long and I can't believe we stayed until 8:30pm! It was tough when we got home though - Tyler had fallen asleep and I was determined that he take a shower (we were all SO smelly) and Tyler was not too happy about it. We needed all Saturday to recover and recuperate, but Tyler had a GREAT time!

Saturday was Will's mom's birthday so they came over (thank goodness, since we definitely didn't feel up to heading up to San Gabriel) for an early dinner. We dressed Katelyn up all cute - she was so adorable I almost died. Seriously. Haha! Here she is with Will's mom.

I had to get in on the picture too. LOVE the knit flower in her hair.

Here's Katelyn with Will's parents. Not such a great picture but i thought it was funny how fuzzy and light her hair looked in here!

Signature Katelyn smile. It totally distorts her face, heehee!

Another one of Katelyn and the grandparents.

And the grandparents with both kids. Nice non-fake smile Tyler!

We headed over to Ruth's Chris Steak house for an early dinner - haven't been there in ages! I was nervous about taking Katelyn there but she did great. One of the waitresses actually came up to us and told us that she nearly teared because Katelyn was so cute and smiley. Aww!

Tyler was very silly. He makes the funniest facial expressions sometimes. Here he is with his bread and the grandparents.

Katelyn and Will!

Sunday we decided to go to Target and take Tyler's 3 year photos. Remember the days when we took portrait studio photos of Tyler EVERY month? hahahahahahahahahahahaha. hilarious. Katelyn's only going to get milestones and Tyler is just every year now. He was feeling the motorcycle they had there. Thumbnails of the photos I'll add at the end of the post.

And Monday night Jake and Brandon came over to play with Tyler! It was actually really nice - the boys all got along really nicely and there weren't any sharing misunderstandings from what I can remember. VERY nice. :) Tyler had taken a picture the day before (at the studio) with Katelyn sitting between his legs so he really wanted her to sit there again that night. I was nervous, because, uh, hello, they're sitting on stairs! - but he held onto her tight. He's a great big brother. :)

Some miscellaneous pictures from the week. Katelyn is quite vain, heehee - checking herself out on her little play mirror.

Ooh and I got a picture of her little teeth, those sharp little buggers!

Thumbnails of the photos! I still had the outfit that Katelyn wore on Saturday so I threw it on Katelyn and had her pose with Tyler. They turned out so cute!