Adelaide
Independence Day
We visited some friends in Carlsbad for the Fourth of July.
Traffic was good, and it was fun to drive down to my old hometown. I wish we’d had more time so we could’ve driven around Vista, but instead I just looked at freeway exits and thought, I used to go to the beach off that exit…Our house was off that exit…My first job was off that exit…
They fed us good food — oh my goodness, I ate so much — and then we walked down to the beach to watch the sunset. Kyle and Adelaide went in the ocean, and I stayed up on our blanket while Augie dug in the sand. The sun sank over the horizon, purple and pink and orange.
Kyle and Adelaide flew a kite with some success.
There were fireworks shows from Legoland and Oceanside off in the distance, but fireworks lose their charm when they’re way off like that, you know? It’s just not as exciting when you can’t hear the explosions. Thankfully, as we were leaving — BOOM! — a big homemade display went off right in front of us. It was a pretty impressive show for guerrilla fireworks.
Then we went back to the house and had graham crackers and chocolate because the marshmallows had gone bad in the pantry.
But I didn’t take pictures of any of that stuff. Just of Adelaide enjoying the company of our friend’s dog, Henry:
Once they noticed the camera, all the girls wanted to get into the picture:
That’s one lucky dog.
Latest drawings
I had the crayons and paper out, and Augie started drawing faces. I was pretty impressed, because I’ve only seen him scribble. But here he was drawing real circles with eyes and even little pupils and saying, “Lellow eyes…gween eyes…bwue eyes…”
We don’t do a lot of drawing, so I’m not sure where he got the idea to draw pupils. Maybe he learned from Auntie Megan when she was here?
Adelaide made this cute drawing for me:
I’m pleased with how her letters are coming along, even without practicing every day. And it really touched my heart.
Then I saw the drawing she did for Daddy:
I have to say, I’m a little jealous. He’s in a surfing competition, and look at that D. And that palm tree…
Nah, nah, it’s OK. I’m glad she loves her Daddy.
Last Disney trip of the season
We squeezed in one more Disney trip on this year’s passes.
It was a busy day, but we did a few rides.
We went on the Disneyland railroad.
Then we spent some time in Fantasyland. Adelaide said she wanted to go knock on the door for kids. So we went to ToonTown, where there are lots of little houses and stores and trick doors for kids to play with. Adelaide pretended to be a puppy.
And Augie copied her, because he’s her little shadow.
Then a bunch of fireworks went off in the Acme building across the way.
Later we went back to Fantasyland, and Adelaide said she wanted to knock on the door for kids. Turns out this is what she was talking about:
It’s a little house outside of the teacup ride. Apparently it’s a thing to knock on this door, because there were other kids doing it, too.
Now we know.
How did you know?
Adelaide walks out of the bathroom and into the living room and grabs a new outfit from the pile of laundry I’m folding.
Adelaide: I’m going to wear something else.
Mommy: What happened to your old outfit?
Adelaide: It got a little wet.
Mommy: Did you put it in the laundry basket?
Adelaide: Yeah.
Mommy: So it’s not on the floor of the bathroom?
Adelaide: It’s not on the floor of the bathroom.
Mommy: …
Adelaide: Oh, I’m not telling the truth. (Heads to the bathroom.) How did you know?
Disneyland May 23, 2014
We took the day off to go to Disneyland with some friends a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t realize was that the park would be open 24 hours that day. Needless to say, the park was full, and more people showed up by the hour. But we still had a fun time. We got there around 11 and stayed until 8 or 9.
Our friends discovered on the tram ride that their passes were blocked out that day (sad face) so they upgraded their passes so they could hang out with us (happy face). I took some pictures of Adelaide and Augie while they figured out their options at the ticket booth.
(Shortly after these photos, Augie fell and bumped his head on the concrete. As usual.)
The fun part about busy days is that you end up doing things that you don’t usually do. We rode the Mark Twain. We rode the Storybook boat – which Kyle and I found extra enjoyable this time. We rode Casey Jr. and the teacups. We went to California Adventure and did some rides in A Bug’s Land. Then we went to the woodsy playground area over in California Adventure and let the kids run around while the adults sat and talked.
I guess Adelaide wasn’t too excited about taking a picture.
Oh, we also rode the rockets. Look how busy it is in the background.
(That’s our friends’ daughter sitting with Adelaide and Kyle in the rocket.)
One thing we didn’t get to do…well, two things: We didn’t get to do the Frozen Sing-a-Long – it was full by the time we got there, 10 minutes early. And we didn’t get to see World of Color, which our friends have never seen. It was just too crowded, and by sunset, we were all pretty tired.
When we left, the park was more packed than ever, and there was a line of cars backed up from the parking garage onto the freeway offramp of people just arriving for the overnighter. We were glad to be making our escape.
Until next time, Disneyland…