california 2014

randy's grandmother passed away at the age of 92 at the end of june. in july, we flew down to southern california to celebrate her life and be there for her burial. the kids did great on the flight, and even survived the harrowing experience of obtaining a rental car at LAX.

randy's grandma lived in fullerton, which is only fifteen minutes from disneyland. so, since we were down there anyway...

we spent friday at disneyland. randy's dad came with us, as well as randy's brother and his family, and randy's cousin, bryan. it was fun to go with so much family and nice to have so many adults around to help keep tabs on the kids. the last time we went to disneyland was when madeleine was an infant and we were down in california visiting family. i think she enjoyed it a little bit more this time around.

consistent with our personalities, randy and i had made out a plan of the characters, rides, and food we wanted to experience throughout the day. our kids are young and scare easily, so most of what we did was confined to fantasy land and toon town. we started by going to pixie hollow, since our girls love tinkerbell right now. we were greeted by a very friendly, energetic light fairy, and then moved on to a tinkerbell who seemed like she may have been out a little too late the night before.

then, we were off to dumbo. i love the dumbo ride. it reminds me of my dad, who managed to make even the slow moving dumbo ride seem thrilling and silly when i was a kid. our kids loved it and we rode it several times throughout the day.

next, we were off to autopia. diane was not impressed. 

but she loved the carousel. all of my kids did. we spent a lot of time on the carousel throughout the day. some people may think that's kind of lame, but i loved it. no line, the kids loved it, and really, that's all i cared about. also, i do have fond memories of my dad jumping from horse to horse when the ride attendant couldn't see him, so there's always the nostalgia factor. bad news, dad - they have cameras that show the attendant all sides of the ride now.

we went and met goofy and minnie and rode on the little rollercoaster in toontown, which was plenty scary for our two youngest.

my sister-in-law, kim, is an angel, and missed out on all of the previous activities because she was waiting in line to meet elsa and anna. she called us right when she got to the front of the line (two and a half hours later) and we ran over to meet them just in time. they were really good about spending time with the kids and talking to them and the girls thought it was pretty great.

throughout the day, we got fast passes and went on some of the more adult rides, as well. diane and jonathan couldn't go on most of them (and wouldn't have wanted to anyway), so we just did a child swap and took turns going. this was big thundermountain railroad, which madeleine loved.

around 11:30, diane was getting hot and tired and told us several times that she wanted to go home. just what you expect your kid to say at disneyland, right? it probably didn't help that right as she started saying this, we went on pirates of the caribbean, which had jonathan in tears by the end and diane was on the verge.

we headed over to the jungle cruise after that. i'm pretty sure that jonathan loved the ropes, fences, and gates associated with the lines more than the rides themselves.

due to a miscommunication, randy and i both rented a stroller and we ended up deciding to just keep both of them. i'm really glad that we did because diane and jonathan hung out in them a lot throughout the day and diane would have been miserable if she had to be walking around all day. this is them playing in their strollers together while we waited to go on indiana jones.

diane was still having a hard time, so we decided to go on it's a small world with her. she LOVED it and begged to go on it again immediately. so we did. it was nice and cool in the ride and there was not one scary thing about it. it seemed to revive her and she didn't ask to go home for the rest of the day.

we rode the train twice around the park, which jonathan loved.

jonathan took a brief nap for us.

we finished off the day with more dumbo and carousel.

we did a few other things that i don't have pictures of, but that's the gist of it. the kids loved it and it was fun for me to take my kids and experience the magic again through their eyes. we sent jonathan and diane home with my father-in-law around 7:30 and then we were going to head back into the park for some more rides and the fireworks, but decided that we had had it, too, and headed home soon after. some people may think that we're party poopers or that we missed out, but i don't like parades and large crowds of people, so to me, we ended on a high note and i had a great day.

on saturday, we had a celebration of life memorial service for omi at the fullerton community center. randy's mom and her sisters did a wonderful job and there were lots of people there to celebrate and share memories of omi. randy's mom did a great slideshow with tons of pictures from omi's life. i didn't see half of it because i was chasing jonathan around, but you know...

all of omi's great grandchildren:

and randy's cousin, bryan, who the great grandkids all love:

after the celebration of life, we headed over to randy's aunt for some swimming and food.

on sunday, we spent some time in huntington beach at randy's other aunt's house, and then headed over to seal beach. it was super windy, which i love, but jonathan had a hard time with the wind combined with the sand. there were tons of kite surfers out, which you can see in the background.

i love those little legs of his.

on monday morning, we headed to riverside national cemetery, where omi's ashes were buried next to randy's grandfather, jebil moll. riverside was beautiful and we were there with just family. it was a sweet experience to be there and share some memories of omi. she was an amazing, intelligent, and extremely generous person who overcame some hard things in her life, including surviving the holocaust, and is a great example of determination and hard work.

diane started making this face in pictures lately. she tells me that she's frowning, but she's smiling when she does it, so it ends up looking like she's puckering her lips instead.

randy's mom and her two sisters:

all of omi's living grandsons:

daughters and SILS:

after the interment, we went back to the hotel for naps and then hit in-n-out on our way to the airport. it was a great trip to california and good to see so much family and remember omi.