We Went to California

This year we took advantage of Matthew's mid-winter break to travel to San Jose to visit Grammy and Grampy and to attempt to catch up on months of missed vitamin D.

The boys choose to wear their "biggest brother" and "big brother" shirts on the plane ride down.
Unfortunately, Seth caught a cold before we left and Matthew proceeded to pick up the same bug. Thankfully, we planned on a pretty low-key trip; so despite being sick most of the time and sleeping horribly at night, we managed to do everything on Matthew's invented spelling "To-Do" list. Here are the highlights:

Playing at the school - luckily San Jose Unified school district was also on mid-winter break, so we had unlimited access to the playground across the street. The boys especially enjoyed driving the Grammy's jeep at the school.

Happy Hollow - We took advantage of Grammy's annual grandma pass to Happy Hollow and spend a morning with Grammy, Grampy, Mary, Lily, and Samuel at Happy Hollow.

Matthew and Lily enjoyed feeding the animals, but Seth had no interest.
He became fixated with the giraffe on the merry-go-round. Luckily, we were able to position ourselves in line so that when it was our turn to ride he had his pick of animals.
All the kids (except Samuel) rode the cars


the bugs,

and the dragon train (including Samuel!).
Lily and Matthew braved the swings, while Seth enjoyed some time with Grammy.

Finally, Matthew and Seth convinced me to take them for a ride on the roller coaster. While we waited FOREVER in line, Grampy practiced his action photography and was able to capture these priceless pictures when we eventually had our turn to ride.

Sending a package to Heidi - Aunt Heidi was due to hit her mission year mark the week after we were in California so Matthew and Seth got to help create and send her a candy bar card to celebrate.
A trip to Olive Garden - Grampy never fails to entertain hungry and restless kids! Sorry for the grainy cell phone pictures

Chuck E Cheese - Unfortunately, we were unable to escape rain completely, so one day we headed to Chuck E Cheese for some dry, indoor fun.

A little father-son air hockey . . .
firefighting . . .

I love that he strapped in his cotton candy for safety.

horseback riding . . .
train engineering with Barney . . .
and hot air balloon riding.

Miniature Golfing - Matthew's patience for the game is improving. Seth, on the other hand, had very little interest in hitting the ball and preferred to simply cause general chaos by picking up, throwing, and hitting everyone's ball but his own.


Fun times not pictured:

• Trip to Toys R Us to help Grammy choose some new toys for her house.
• Playing with said new toys.
• Family dinner and hanging out at Gram's
• Watching the BYU v. San Diego State basketball game with Derrick, Danielle, and Caleb.
• Missing the snow and cold weather in Seattle!