Ladd Photos

Disney California Adventure is an amazing place. I’m not sure if it is more fun than the original Disneyland but the atmosphere, from Radiator Springs to the California Sierra Nevada mountains, is mind-blowing. If I were rich and retired, I would just spend all day walking around and enjoy the feeling of being in another world.

This trip we decided to eat at Arial’s Grotto. It was much more expensive than I expected but at least the food was very good. The boys didn’t enjoy the ‘meet every princess’ experience but a little girl would have been in heaven.

We spent the afternoon visiting the Sumatran tigers at the new Tiger Trail at San Diego Safari Park. The park did a beautiful job on the exhibit and the tigers seemed to be really comfortable in their new digs. My monkeys enjoyed crawling on the new toys that are part of the new park area.

Connor really loved the “robot children” of It’s a Small World. We ended up going on the ride 3 times. I loved that the ride was nice and cool.

He also could have spent all day looking at Iron Man’s suits and watching the Honda Asimo show. It really was a day of robot dreams for Connor.

I could see Connor becoming a real life Iron Man… or at least a robotics engineer.

Gavin’s kindergarten class put on a performance for all the dads. It included a variety of songs, skits, and jokes performed by the students. Bravo!

He also got to take home a giant box filled with all his kindergarten projects and memories. So much cool stuff that I’m sure we will treasure as he grows up.

Another childhood milestone for my little man… loosing his first tooth. He is growing up so fast.

We told him to put the tooth under his pillow and the Tooth Fairy would take it and leave some money. That totally freaked him out. He was not cool with the idea of some strange creature sneaking into his room while he slept and swiping something that was under his pillow.

The only way we got him to go to sleep was to explain that the Tooth Fairy wasn’t real. It was just a game that parents played with their kids. We swore to him that nothing would be sneaking into his room while he slept.

My little guy is just too smart for his own good. Or, looking at it from a positive viewpoint, he has a very mature and rational grip on the world around him.

By Aliciana:

Aliciana took some photos of the boys visiting the San Diego de Alcalá with their Great-Grandma Terry, along with other family members. Their great-grandma was visiting for the week from Redlands. She loves watching the boys run around and it looks like they all had fun.

I was busy working… so I’ll have to visit the mission some other time.

We spent all day driving though the desert to make it to Phoenix, AZ for an evening Diamondbacks baseball game.

One of our goals as a family is to see a ballgame in every MLB stadium before Gavin goes off to college. So far, as a family, we have marked off Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Petco Park (Padres), and now Chase Field (Diamondbacks).

The family and I spent the next day of our Arizona trip at one of my favorite places in the world: The Grand Canyon. It was every bit as beautiful as I remembered, although there was a fire near the east side of the park, so the views from the Desert View Watchtower were a bit hazy.

I think the Grand Canyon amazed the boys at first, but little boys can only look at a giant hole in the ground for so long. We spent a long time walking along the rim of the canyon. We even had a close encounter with some mule deer.

Next time we go to the canyon the boys should be old enough to walk on the trails down to the bottom. I doubt we will make it all the way, but it would be amazing to hike a mile or so down and back up.

We caught an Angels baseball game in Anaheim. Gavin was excited to see his favorite ball player, Mike Trout, and the rest of the team. The Angels ended up beating the Tigers by a run (2 – 1).

After the game both boys got to run the bases. Gavin has now run the bases at Angels Stadium and Dodger Stadium. It was Connor’s first time but he was quite proud of himself when he made it all the way to home plate.

We were up in the Pacific Northwest so the boys can hang out with their grandparents, their Aunt Courtney and her family, and AJ and Michaela.

The first full day we were in Portland we caught a Hillsboro Hops minor league baseball game. It was record breaking hot, with the field temperature measuring 102°. The field was artifical turf, so it must have been like being in an oven for the players.

We only made it through half the game before we needed to retreat back to my parent’s house.

We headed up to Seattle from Portland to catch a Seattle Mariners game. “King” Félix Hernández pitched a beautiful game and the Mariners ended up pounding the Blue Jays, winning 11 – 1.

Before the game we walked around the downtown area surrounding the stadiums and I showed the boys the building where I worked for Amazon.

This was the 5th Major League stadium we have seen a game at: Dodger Stadium, Petco Park (Padres), Angel Stadium, Chase Field (Diamondbacks), and Safeco Field (Mariners).

We drove around Mercer Island to show Gavin the beautiful island where he lived the first 3 months of his life. Then we played a bit at Luther Burbank Park, on the north shore of the island, so the boys could enjoy a beautiful day.

After our visit to Mercer Island, we continued about 30 minutes east to Snoqualmie Falls. I think it was the first large waterfall the boys had seen and they were amazed by it. It is such a beautiful piece of nature; if you are ever in the Seattle area you should make the trip out to the falls.