Big Birthday Trip - Part I

As most of you know, we decided to take the kids to Disneyland for their birthdays this year. When Emmie was just a wee baby, I had said Disneyland for her 4th birthday. This way we could take her there without worrying about her missing school but have her be old enough to remember, of course at the time I was not picturing a little Drew to be around. But I stuck with my plan, so our vacation plans were set. In the end we decided to make it a multi-leg trip since flying home from Las Vegas was going to be cheaper, we extended the vacation by 2 days and added Vegas to the itinerary. Since we did so much in the trip, I’ve decided to break it up into more manageable pieces. This first post will be about all the traveling joys we had on the trip and the non-Disney, non-snow and non-Vegas things we did.

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

On Drew’s 2nd birthday, we headed to the airport. Since Drew turned 2 that day, we were trying to sneak him on the plane as a lap child and not have to pay for a ticket. I brought 2 passports, Emmie’s and Dennis’s, which I didn’t realize until we were checking in, opps! Well the Southwest ticket lady was having none of that. She asked when his birthday was, and I said March 23rd, which apparently was too close for her not to check. I’m wondering if I had said his birthday was in June or July if she would have let us go. Well she didn’t, so we had to buy a ticket for him which they said we could get reimbursed for if we just faxed in proof of his birth date. Since Drew was born around 11:30 in the morning, Dennis thought about faxing that in saying that he wasn’t officially 2 when we got on that plane. He may still be thinking about it, but I’ll let him fight that battle. Alisa loaned us her Joovy (double stroller), so we had the 2 kids, 2 carseats and the one double stroller to carry-on. The Joovy was a lifesaver because it was easy to maneuver and the carseats stacked perfectly on them. The plane ride was good for the most part, until a certain 2 year old started getting tired and wanted his milk. Well we all remember the last time he had milk on a plane, so I wasn’t about to give him any. So for about 30 minutes (felt more like 2 hours), I walked a fussy loud Drew up and down the aisle. He finally accepted drinking a Kool Aid Jammer and fell asleep. After he fell asleep, it was peaceful. He slept through the landing and woke when we de-planed. Emmie was the perfect angel, relaxing in her chair, checking out her surroundings, coloring in her new book, and of course eating her snacks! Since we had so much stuff, we decided that Dennis should go get the rental car and come back for us. After being cooped up on the plane, all the kids wanted to was run around. I had to keep them contained while watching the luggage cart and the stroller full of stuff. He couldn’t get back fast enough. From the airport, we headed to Dennis’s Aunt’s, Tita Joji. When we got there, Tita Joji had set up a sweet little surprise for the kids for their birthdays. Super cute! We rested for a bit, while Tita Joji wrapped up some work; then headed out to dinner at the Universal Studios Citywalk. Its right outside Universal Studios, there’s just a bunch of shops and restaurants. And of course we got pictures of us at the Universal Studios entrance, so now when they look, the kids will think they got to go to Universal Studios too!!! We ended up at Bubba Gump’s, where we all had some yummy shrimp and they sang happy birthday to Drew with an ice cream sundae. That was all the kids could really handle, since by that time it was close to 10 p.m. Houston time, and we had our big day at Disney the following day.

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Disneyland post to follow.

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Remember, we had all those things we had to bring for the trip (i.e. carseats, stroller, and luggage for 4)?! Well also included in that was Dennis’s golf clubs because he planned a golf day with his cousin, Carl. I explained to Dennis that Carl had an extra set of clubs he could borrow, but apparently it’s not the same when you don’t play with your own clubs. My original plan was going to be to just hang out at Tita Joji’s, but her house is not too kid proof, lots of breakable things all over! Luckily, Erica, Dennis’s cousin who came with us to Disneyland, was off on Friday, so I took the kids to her house. She’s got 2 little boys, so her house was definitely a lot easier to have the kids hang out at. Plus they had all kinds of toys to keep them entertained. We spent the day at the house playing, watching TV and lounging. It was nice to just unwind, plus it was raining on and off the whole day, so wouldn’t have been good to be outdoors anyway! Dennis finished up his golf round in the early afternoon, and we headed back to Tita Joji’s to rest before meeting my family friends for dinner. Dinner ended up being very far away and on a rainy Friday night during rush hour traffic we headed to Garden Grove to meet my family friends for some Korean BBQ. The kids were fussy and tired for the entire car ride which was close to 2 hours. We finally made it to our destination! The food was good, but luckily both kids ate before we went because they were super grumpy and were not happy campers. At one point, I had one child on each leg and could still eat. My friend was asking how I managed to do it, and I was like you just learn to work around them! It was a very long dinner and a long drive home, but it was great to see my friends that I grew up with after so many years! Funny to see that the little girls, were now practically adults and they were Emmie’s and Drew’s age the last time I saw most of them. CRAZY! Luckily the kids passed out on the ride home!

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

The following day, we didn’t have anything specific planned, so Tita Joji took us to the Griffith Observatory in the Hollywood Hills. We were under the impression that it was going to rain, but it ended up being a gorgeous day! We took in the sights and took loads of pictures. Dennis wanted to see if we could drive to the Hollywood sign, but apparently you can’t, so Tita Joji took us another hilltop that gets you as close as you can get. By that time, Drew had fallen asleep and Emmie was done taking in the sights, so I stayed in the car while Dennis went to take a few pictures with Tita Joji. On the way home, we picked up some McDonald’s for the kids and then stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up lunch for ourselves. Unfortunately at Trader Joe’s, they no longer had our favorite tortillas, Sun-Dried Habenero, so it was a bit of a let down, but it was still fun to walk through the store and pick out some yummy healthy snacks! Later that afternoon, we headed over to Carl and Elenor’s, Dennis’s cousins, house for a family gathering! We got to see all of the Californian family there, hung out and had some good food. The kids got to play with their cousins and Emmie’s Bieber Fever intensified because Kalea (6 year old) has major Bieber Fever. Good times! It was nice to hang out with the family and catch up since we only see them every few years for big events (i.e. weddings). The big boys took some shots, which some how turned into the kids taking in some shots too!

Sunday, February 27th, 2011 & Monday, February 28th, 2011

Snow and Vegas post to follow.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

After a fun filled week, we were happy to be heading home. The night before I laid there thinking to myself why do we always schedule early flights?! Everything was packed, and ready to go! I got up 30 minutes earlier then Dennis and I agreed on because I was just nervous. So by 6 am, we were all ready to go and head to the airport! I was already getting antsy about getting to the airport, that when we had to drive quiet a ways to return the rental car I was getting even more nervous. Dennis apologized for not looking up directions to the rental car place, but we were going to make it. We drive through the garage around and around to the Payless car rental place. The conversation went like this:

Me: That says Payless Rental Car, not Fox Rental Car!

Dennis: Oh, it’s the same company!

Me: OK!

We pull up, both of us jump out of the car to start unpacking as the rental car man comes up to us. He says to Dennis, “oh you’ve got a Fox car! You’re in the wrong place; it’s about 3 miles down the road. #@*@!!!! That’s right, wrong place with no minutes to spare! We hop back in the car, I’m cursing Dennis from the inside but calmly try to figure out what we’re going to do. I call Fox Rental Car just to make sure they have a shuttle that goes to the airport. No they only have a shuttle that takes us back to the car rental garage that we just left, where then we could catch a shuttle that takes us to the airport. Double #@*@!

We get to Fox Rental Car, not before I get us turned around a little, as a shuttle is pulling away. Triple #@*@! We asked about calling a cab but the guy said it would take longer to wait for a cab that another shuttle is coming. At this point, I’ve resigned that we’re going to miss our flight! We finally get on a new shuttle, and he gets us to the car rental garage where all the other car rental places are except for Fox…we see some cabs so decide to take a chance, we’re in Vegas after all! The nice shuttle man helped us carry all of our things over to the cab, while the cabby tried to shove all our things into his car. It was CRAZY! Luckily everything fits and we’re off! We get to Southwest and go through curbside check-in. Since we’re running so late, we checked the carseats and the guy rushed us through. There was no question about Drew’s age or anything. Phew! There’s a slight delay through security but then we’re running through the terminal trying to get to the gate. And guess who’s the lucky parent pushing the double stroller with both kids strapped in?! That’s right, Mama! I was tired. Dennis later commented that he was holding the loose jackets and backpack of toys...umm not the same!

Luckily we made it, they hadn’t boarded everyone but we were the last ones on the plane. We didn’t get seats together! Guess who was the lucky parent that sat with both kids! Bingo, Mama! Dennis sat catty-corner to me, and turned to mouth “That was awesome!” I shook my head and said he owed me big time! In Dennis's defense, in taking the shuttle at LAX, Payless and Fox car rental did share a shuttle therefore he thought they were one and the same!

After that eventful boarding, the flight was pretty uneventful. Until of course, a certain 2 year old starting asking for milk again! Luckily it was towards the end of the flight, but he was not a happy camper at all. He was definitely “that baby” on the plane that you didn’t want to be by! Walking up and down the aisle, offering juice, candy, gum…nothing worked. It was a crazy landing because he was just all over the place. But we were pretty much able to confirm the theory that he gets motion sickness. He started gagging a few times as we were landing, but since we left so early in the morning he had nothing in his system! Good thing because the plane we were on was going on to Phoenix after dropping us off in Houston. It wouldn’t have been good if he threw up in there and delayed the flight!

After we landed and got off the plane he was a happy camper again! Lolo picked us up from the airport and it was Home Sweet Home! Great trip! The kids had a lot of firsts and we got to spend some quality time with family. Can’t wait to take them on another trip, except we’ll be doing road trips until Drew understands that he get sick on plane rides and I’m only trying to help him when I hold a bag to his face!