You know that moment when you're taking pictures in the bright sunlight and the glare is so great that you can't tell that your pictures are all over exposed and whited out until you leave the friends you haven't seen in a year and fly home? Yeah, I hate that. Only a couple of my shots are remotely post-able but I'll do it anyway. On a final day in California, we were able to meet up with our friends the Himes at Manhattan Beach who were fresh home from the Netherlands. It was so lovely to see them again. I just wish we could have had more time!
Isla and Maddie played together like they've been friends all along and Maddie and Geoffrey taught our girls how California kids do waves.
Emma was absolutely petrified at first (I think the scar of Disneyland is going to take a while to erase...) but eventually, after holding her until my arms were about to fall off, she was getting her toes wet like the rest of 'em.
Jack made his appearance and then proceeded to take a 2 1/2 hour nap in the shade of the stroller. I love my third child! My girls were never portable nappers.
Of course I have no pictures of us adults but we had a lovely day and hope we find ourselves in close proximity to the Himes family again soon so we can spend more time together.
After covering our bodies and filling our ears with the perfect combination of sweat, sand and sunscreen, we bid our rental mini van adieu and boarded our plane home. Twas a full and fun trip!
Then came time for the wedding! The girls of course couldn't wait to get all dressed up and go. Isla wondered why she wasn't going to be the flower girl (and rightly so I guess as she's played the role of flower girl in 100% of the weddings she's attended up until this point). She didn't seem to mind once we told her she could still wear and fancy dress and dance. I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier that keeping 3 kids quiet during the ceremony might be somewhat of a challenge. Emma was encouraged to be "as quiet as a church mouse" which almost worked, if you consider whispering loudly throughout the entire ceremony being quiet.
Camera man Scott, hard at work
On the tables at the reception were kazoos, perfect entertainment for the kiddos (and I figured they'd be great for our carry ons for the trip home too....not!)
Even Jack got a lesson in kazooing from Uncle Mike
When they weren't dancing or blowing their kazoos or eating chocolate kisses (Emma!!), the kids could be found in the one patch of dirt in the entire place.
And I thought my flower girl knew how to have fun... Kate definitely had her beat!
The wedding was wonderful the and reception lovely, complete with a flash mop singing and dancing performance of Step In Time from Mary Poppins by all the men and boys in the family and then the ladies too in the grand finale. I hope to post a video soon. Graham also did a live vocal and ukulele performance for the bride and groom's first dance.
Somehow this is the only picture I got of the bride but the moment was too perfect not to capture (her bustle broke).
The kids really broke it down on the dance floor, especially Emma. She's got some mad skills already!
The remainder of our trip was mostly filled with wedding-related events. We moved on over to the Embassy Suites in Arcadia for the last 2 nights. After "helping" with the set up of the reception (I use quotations because I literally did nothing beyond field and attempt to contain my own children and keep them from undecorating), we made a bee-line for the Santa Anita Horse Races that were literally a 90 second drive up the road.
This was totally unplanned and spontaneous and a fun way to spend our afternoon before we headed off to the rehearsal dinner. The girls got to pet one of the horses - not a race horse but maybe one of the staff??
I had NO idea how into horse races people get. The crowd, if you can call it that, was a strange mixture of us (who had absolutely no idea how to even work the machines to place our bets) and then a bunch of men who looked, err, weathered to put it kindly. Let's just say they may know how to use those machines a bit too well.
After the horse races, we brought the kids back to the hotel where a couple baby sitters came to watch them (along with 5 of their second cousins) while us parents went to the rehearsal dinner. Talk about some BRAVE babysitters. It was lovely to spend time with extended family, especially those that we see very rarely like Mark and Heidi who came from out of the country. The next morning we offered to take their kids to the park for a bit so the two of them could have a chance to finish a sentence after being apart for 5 weeks. Our kids just loved hanging out with Eli (who was too busy running around for me to get a picture of apparently), Big Jack and Kate. All three of them were in the wedding later that day so I did Heidi a big favor by slathering them up in sunscreen and then rolling them in the sand pit. Whoops.
We're still hoping someday their family will move to Seattle!!
"Most kids don't get to go to Disneyland two years in a row" we said to Isla to which she responded "Well then how about we go three years in a row?" I think she may have missed the point. Needless to say, yes, we did take our kids to Disneyland. Again. When we learned the wedding would take place in California, it was hard to resist. Especially since Isla was now tall enough to ride on Splash Mountain. She's been talking about going on it all year and could hardly contain herself. I mean, even Jack's been on it (yeah so I might have gone on it pregnant last time...)
Upon arriving, we didn't waste any time and pulled Isla right onto the Thunder Mountain Railroad (below) which she rode with her hands in the air. It wasn't until afterwards that she said it was too fast for her.
Emma has been on a Winnie the Pooh kick and so was DELIGHTED when 3 of the characters appeared. Last year she was petrified of all characters but this year she saw Tigger and instantly told Graham "I want to go and give him a big hug!"
Watching this was the highlight of the day for all of us I think. I am so not a Disney fanatic (Jackie, cover your eyes if you're reading this) but seeing this sure did warm my heart. Afterward, Emma recounted her experience by hugging herself and rocking back and forth while saying "He go like this," perfectly mimicking his hug. She didn't want to let any of them go.
*melt*
I'm pretty sure I know what kind of birthday cake miss Emma will be requesting this year...
Jack was a trooper and went on as many rides as he could between naps. Grandma Crozier took all the kids on It's a Small World and said he LOVED it and was humming to the music by the end. Isla said Small World was her favorite ride and Emma loved Dumbo and the carousel the best.
I just love seeing her smile!
We even went on the teacups as a family. Some onlookers gave us the evil eye but we didn't spin it much and so it really was pretty tame. Isla spotted Rapunzel but since her parents aren't too into princesses or waiting in line to see princesses, this was the best picture we got.
At lunch time we stopped at the New Orleans Cafe where we enjoyed live music. The girls of course got up and danced and the musicians proceeded to throw Marti Gras beads at them. Graham joined in too and I caught a precious snippet on video.
So then came the moment we'd all been waiting for: Splash Mountain! As soon as Isla saw the ride, she changed her excited tune and immediately said it was "too fast." But, in a moment of amazing parenting, we more or less forced her aboard. She was thrilled when they let her sit with me in the back. She did great on the first drop and started to lose it on the second one. By the third one she was bawling and asking if the big one was over yet. I don't know that I've ever seen the poor girl more scared. And that, my friends, is why you can't even see her in the picture (bottom left) below. She is literally curled in a ball practically underneath me, completely out of view of the camera. And so now we have no proof but you'll have to take my word for it: Isla went on Splash Mountain! We tried to convince her to go with us a second time (bottom right) but she absolutely would not have it.
In case you're about to accuse us of unfair treatment toward our kids, never fear! We scared Emma out of her skin too! Poor girl, she got scared on Pirates of the Caribbean, she didn't like any ride that got dark (which was basically all of them) and she was absolutely petrified of the Fantasmic firework and light show. I thought that maybe she was shivering with cold as she watched but I soon realized she was literally trembling in fear. Well, if this doesn't remove us from the Parent-of-the-Year award, I'm not sure what will.
Emma fell asleep in the stroller literally 2 minutes after Fantasmic ended and Isla walked all the way to the main gate before she fell asleep sitting up. Meanwhile, Jack partied on and laughed and giggled until well after 10:30 PM. Overall it was a good day but twice is enough for now. Sorry Isla, we won't be doing Disney again next year.
