Ocean World

We went to Ocean World this morning to have a fun day with our kids.  I know that Kennedy looks terrified in this picture, but I assure you she had a blast.  This aquarium in Crescent City, CA is small, but for how little it had, it was pretty cool stuff.  Our first stop (after the gigantic gift shop where Kennedy stuffed toys in the stroller while we weren't looking) was the tide pool where we could pet the animals in the water.

Kennedy loved petting the starfish.  She was even brave enough to touch an anenome!  The other little girl on the tour screamed every time she saw anything, so I was pretty proud of Kennedy.  Although Noah didn't pet anything, he did try to eat a starfish.

Then our guide asked for a brave volunteer.  After seeing what this guy had to do, I'm really glad it wasn't me.  He was asked to feel the sting of an anenome, but because they can't sting through our skin, he had to put his tongue on it.  And he did.

Yuck.  And just so we could take his word for it that his tongue got tingly.  Do you know how many people's tongues have been on that thing?  I'm sure it's clean, but I won't be licking an sea creatures any time soon.  Just so you have a better idea, he licked one of these.

Once again, yuck.  We went to see the actual aquarium part of the place next, which was definitely limited.  They had some fish, and a bunch of manta rays, including a baby which was really cute.  They did however have TONS of sharks.

There are 7 in this picture, and that wasn't anywhere near all the ones they had.  We even got to pet a couple of sharks after looking at them in the tanks.

I caught the fin on this one, and it was a lot harder than I expected.  They didn't feel very slippery either like you would expect.

Even though Kennedy had no problem touching starfish and anenomes, she wanted nothing to do with the sharks.  I think her face sums it up pretty well.

We had to take the obligatory picture in the shark's mouth.

There were also two harbor seals and a sea lion who did tricks.  She impersonated a shark and a dolphin, went down slides, jumped really high, and did double back flips.  Afterward, Kennedy wanted to ride on the jet ski ride out front, and she actually let Noah sit with her.

And of course we couldn't leave without getting a picture of Noah surfing.

Trees of Mystery

We ventured out again last week, this time to Klamath, CA to see the Trees of Mystery.  It's a cool name to make people stop on their road trip - it's just a hike through the redwoods to see some really cool tree formations and sculptures.  On our drive there we saw the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced.  We were driving on the coast, but high above the ocean.  It was foggy though, so when you looked over the guard rail, you saw some trees and then nothing.  Nothing at all.  It looked like the world ended and that you would fall into oblivion.  Totally weird, but awesome.  When we got there, we were greeted by Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.

Yes, that's me and Kennedy at the bottom of his foot.  He was huge.  He talked and waved to Kennedy and commented on her yellow shoes.

The trees were really beautiful.  We walked through the wildflower garden, but there were no wildflowers to be seen.  Only this turtle with a cute little girl on it.

Seriously, these redwoods are gigantic.  We saw a 3,000 year old tree, some that were growing horizontally, and a tree that had 12 trees grafted into it.  It was pretty amazing and a really nice hike.

Kennedy really enjoyed running around in all of the trees.  She was running up the trail faster than us sometimes, and it was pretty steep.  We also got to see the cathedral trees, which were a bunch of trees that grew together at the base and formed a canopy overhead.  Apparently lots of weddings happen there each year.  You can see it behind us in the picture below.

Noah, of course, loved his stroller ride and was very content to watch the trees overhead and suck his thumb.

And here is the biggest tree you've ever seen.  I can't even guess how tall this thing was, but it was thick as all get up.  It was really beautiful at the top.

We took a gondola ride to the top of a ridge with a view of a really pretty valley that was full of trees and nothing but trees.  Gondolas scare me a little bit, I never feel safe - but Kennedy was very willing to ride and pose for pictures along the way.  She said that we were flying.

We had a really fun outing, and one that we really needed.  Kennedy liked getting out of the house since she has been stuck inside quite a bit while she's been potty training.  She was a trooper and hiked the whole way with us.  She was very understandably wiped out from her long day.

When Noah gets a little bit older, it might be really fun to go back and show him all the fun things he might have missed this time around.

Beach Bummer

Apparently Kennedy is not a fan of the beach.  Actually, I'm not positive whether it was the poopy diaper or the sand that actually upset her, but she was not a happy camper.

She was really happy and just being herself before Brett put her feet in the sand.  We didn't even go anywhere near the water.  But she cried.

And then Wyatt started crying because Kennedy was mad.

So they were not going to have any more sand.  Hopefully she'll get over this fear of sand before we go to Hawaii.

Thanks grandpa for such a fun trip!  We all had a blast.

Disney Hats

We all tried on a lot of hats at Disneyland since they are plentiful in the shops.  I have some Mickey mouse ears with a graduation hat on them from my senior trip to DisneyWorld with my family, and Brett and I have a set of bride and groom ones.  I had to buy Kennedy a hat, so we tried several on.  First up is pirate Goofy.  Christine ended up buying these and wearing them around.

Next up: Wyatt in the Sorcerer's Apprentice hat.

Here comes Kennedy as Minnie Mouse.  And you can see Christine sporting the pirate Goofy look.

Here are Kennedy and Wyatt in the hats that we bought for them.  I wanted this one because her name is embroidered on the back.  And of course Wyatt has his name on his hat too.

While we were waiting for the hats to be embroidered my dad found a Grumpy hat that we all thought was pretty funny.

The Disney Experience

Saturday was Kennedy's first experience with Disneyland.  I can't definitively say that she had fun, but I don't think she didn't. :) She had some nap issues and was really tired, but she was a trooper and let us have a lot of fun.  She was tired even when we got there since it was nap time.

Wyatt on the other hand was excited and ready to go!  He was a smiley boy in his cute Tigger outfit while we waited for grandpa to come back with tickets.

Here's grandpa with Kennedy and Wyatt at the entrance to Disneyland.  We had to get a picture with the Mickey flowers.  But by this point we were ready to go get on some rides.

First stop: Dumbo.  We didn't want the line to get too long, and we only had to wait about 30 minutes, which was great.

Kennedy had a good time with the air blowing in her face just like I knew she would.  She loves wind and liked the wind that was in her face during the ride.

After that we headed down to Splash Mountain, but it broke down on us twice during the day, so some people didn't get to ride it.  We of course went on all of the big rides: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion.  After the lights came back up in the elevator going down, Kennedy started clapping.  I think she liked Haunted Mansion best out of all the rides she went on.  Here is an appropriately scared but clapping picture in the elevator.

She finally fell asleep right before we got in line for Pirates.  Poor Brett was tired from carrying her around, and she was exhausted too.

We weren't able to do as much as we would have liked - I didn't realize how much having kids slows you down at a place like that.  But we had a great time nonetheless!  Considering that we went on a plane and to Knott's Berry Farm the day before and didn't get home until almost midnight that night, Kennedy was great.  And I think she had as much fun as a 10 month old can have at Disneyland.  I certainly loved watching her there and can't wait to take her back!

The Happiest Place on Earth

And so it is.  I love Disneyland and DisneyWorld.  I am so excited to take Kennedy for the first time on Saturday!  We are going to have a whirlwind trip to California, but it's going to be fun.  We're going to Knott's Berry Farm and we are going to partake of their fabulous fried chicken dinner.  It has several fattening and delicious courses with your fill of wonderful mini biscuits.  Of course we are going to go to Disneyland and take Kennedy on Dumbo, eat free fruit from Tomorrowland, and just have a great time.  We have to go on all of  my favorite rides, and introduce Kennedy to Pirates and Haunted Mansion.  We'll go to the pier and In-N-Out.  It's going to be great!!  I will make sure to post plenty of pictures next week when we get back.

I also just thought I'd make a note about American Idol.  I usually start the season out with a few favorites and then after a few weeks one or two really start to stand out.  Last year David Cook didn't really start to stand out to me until a few weeks into the competition.  But this year I have a clear cut favorite already.

Adam Lambert can wail.  I have several other people that I am rooting for and that I really enjoy listening to, but Adam takes the cake.  He has some serious stage presence, has an incredible voice, and performs better than any of the other contestants.  I don't see any reason why he won't at least be in the final show, if not take the whole thing.