Santa Ana Zoo, Disneyland and Hiking! ... (Week 241/103)

Catching up!  This post was the mid week after my second exam.  I was done!  Everything was out of my hands, and I was praying to the partial credit gods.  I thought I would be all stress free after the exam, but the anxiety of waiting for the results was killing me!  I was very much looking forward to spending time with the kids again.  Almost 2 months of no family/social outings.  Life sure had been dreary.

Here's Tyler with his fav teacher Vanessa.  They made jet packs at school that day, and they turned out really cute!  The boys really enjoyed running around with their jet packs.

Saturday.  After my second exam.  The kids woke from naps and we decided on the spot to take them to the Santa Ana Zoo.  It's quite close and the family year pass is only $60 (free parking too!).  It's not a spectacular zoo by any means, but just enough for the kids to have some fun.  Yay for family outings again!

Sunday we decided to take a hike, but wanted to start slow.  We chose a local trail, the "Jeffrey Open Trail" super near our house.  It was not much of a hike, but a nice walk around a really large stretch of park-like land.  The kids didn't know any different and Tyler had a great time.  Next time we're going to try something a little more hike-ish! :)

Video of Katelyn before our walk.  She's gotten so big now!:


Sunday night I celebrated with my wonderful friend M - we weren't celebrating the unknown results, but instead celebrating that I had survived the exams!  We went to Yardhouse at Spectrum and it was a wonderful, much needed and appreciated stress outlet.  Plus I discovered their "skinny" menu that had these delicious mojitos on them for less than 150 calories each!  Winning! :)

On Monday, the schools were closed for President's Day.  Boo.  I was really hoping for a day of rest!  Will had to work so I was on my own with the kids.  We had a nice morning.  My parents then came over in the late afternoon.  The original plan was that they would come and help watch the kids during the day with me so I could just have a day off - but this worked out too.  As soon as Will got home (early), he and I headed out to watch a 430pm showing of the Artist.  Date night!!  We were home before 7pm, and my parents said the kids were super well behaved.  Kids do get easier to take care of as they get older.  Katelyn was her super sweet self and very loving to the grandparents.  She was happy with her broccoli too. :)

Love this picture!!

Video of Katelyn singing after dinner.  She is so  talkative now.  It's getting a bit ridiculous:


Tuesday was another closed day of school.  Spring Cleaning Day.  Argh!  We took the opportunity to take the kids to Disneyland.  Originally I was going to take the kids themselves with another mom and her kids, but then I convinced Will to take the day off and my friend convinced her husband too!  We ended up with 3 families, 2 kids each.  Tyler was SO excited about going to Disneyland!  SO EXCITED!  We got there nice and early and it was already a bit crowded.

Riding the tram!

Katelyn was tall enough to ride Autopia!  Man, her face is so chubby in this picture!

Look how little she looks in the car!  She rode with Will and he said that she was laughing manically.  My clearest memory from that whole day was after she got off the ride.  I was already off and she ran as fast as she could to me, so excited, yelling, "mama!  I driving car!!  KK driving car!!".  Her look of pure excitement was heart melting!

Video of Tyler driving at Autopia:


Next up - Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. 

Look how EXCITED Katelyn was!!!!!

After the two rides we met up with our friends who had just arrived.  Lunch was sit-down in New Orleans Square (we're such grown ups now!).  Katelyn fell asleep right after as we walked over to the Winnie the Pooh ride.  She had a nice long hour+ nap.  She needed it!

Pirates of the Caribbeans was next.  Grrr.  Tyler pretended to be scared as the ride started and Katelyn went from curious and excited to REALLY scared.  This is a little girl that I have NEVER seen scared before.  She spent the whole ride with her face buried in Will's lap or in my shoulder.  Poor baby!

At the end of the ride she still looked worried and concerned.

Tarzan's tree house!  Will and the other husbands took the older kids up while the moms and I hung out at the bottom with the little ones.

Small World!  Line was surprisingly fast.  The kids enjoyed it too!

Then a quick visit to Mickey's house to meet the mouse himself!

Group pix of the older kids!

Carousel in Fantasy Land.

Family photo in front of the castle!  Last time we all came together Katelyn was only 4 months old or so, and I was wearing her in a sling!

By this time we were all really quite tired but we powered through it and headed across to CA Adventure.  Our goal was to hit two rides only - Ariel's Adventure and Toy Story Mania.  I was SO tired already though.

There was no line for Ariel's Adventure whatsoever - yay!

We all squeezed into one car for this ride!

The line for Toy Story Mania was CRAZY long though.  Tyler had a bad stomach ache too and made it back just in time.  I think it was probably a combination of tiredness too that made him feel so bad that he cried sadly.  The kids went to town with the popcorn too.  It was past 7pm and we hadn't had dinner yet!

Finally made it onto Toy Story Mania!  Will said Katelyn LOVED it too.  Afterward she told me excitedly, 'KK pew pew!" (like gun sounds and motions).  Why does my child refer to herself in the 3rd person? hah!

Whew, what a day!  We headed to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Irvine with our friends and then headed home for some GOOD rest.  The kids were in silly moods on the way home too!  Wonderful fun day.  Can't wait to do it again!