Interruption

I'm interrupting the vacation posts again. We received a call from our real estate agent last night with some bad news. We lost the house. The owners decided that they couldn't wait until May 21 (the set closing date) to file for bankruptcy. Because they filed, the bank will seize the house, take back all approvals, and foreclose on it. We could try to wait it out and see if we would be allowed to TRY to buy it, but it would take 3+ months to go through bankruptcy court and we may even have to hire a lawyer to represent us through it. We've been advised to walk away.

We are devastated. We've waited 7 months for this house. We feel like we did everything right: Signed everything in a timely manner, continued to make sure we were approved for our home loan, and most of all, we didn't walk away when it was taking forever. I'm quite angry at the owners. We were the only buyers who didn't abandon our offer on the house and they just rip it out from under us when it was almost done? I don't understand why. Our agent doesn't understand why.

But we're not stopping. We have already looked at some listings online and are expecting a new list from our agent sometime today. We are also going to set a date to find a rental house if we aren't having any luck finding a place to buy. We really can't pull off the apartment living much longer. We are in desperate need of more room and an outdoor space for the boys.

Please keep us in prayer through this. We've got a lot of anger right now and it seems very overwhelming to even think of viewing houses and starting over again.

Vacation: Day 6 (before noon)

I'm splitting this day into two parts - it really was that eventful!

We walked to Disneyland and entered California Adventure right at opening. John wanted to FastPass Tower of Terror and Soarin Over California, so we grabbed those and then visited Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars. Their eyes moved to make them look more alive. Getting the picture taken was difficult, as Aiden wanted to spend our turn in line looking into Mater's mouth!

After revisiting some rides from Friday, we got in line to see a showing of Playhouse Disney Live on Stage! I am SOOO happy we did that. The boys were so excited and it was really fun.

We got to see Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...

Handy Manny...

Little Einsteins...(Nathan's favorite!)

And My Friends Tigger and Pooh.

It was a 20 minute long show with a human host, Casey, who interacted with the characters, gave instructions to the audience, and made the "story" of the show flow smoothly. While obviously geared toward little kids, knowing all the songs from the shows made it enjoyable for us parents too and it is one of our favorite highlights from the trip.

After that, John took Aiden on Soarin Over California while I waited outside with Nathan. Afterwards, Aiden runs out to me and says, "It was the biggest TV screen I've ever seen!!!". He loved it and John said every minute or so would let out a big "WOW!" as they "flew" over a new part of California.

Then it was time to let John go on Tower of Terror. Aiden begged. I can't tell you how much he begged to go on that ride and John was all for taking him, but I had to put my foot down on that one. I was very much aware that Aiden loved the thrill of roller coasters, but I thought it would be too much. I mean, they pull you down FASTER than free-fall! Uh-uh, no way. John thought I was just placing my fears of the ride on Aiden (I didn't go and never have any plans to - I'd touched on my fear of heights and falling too much already with that stinking rope bridge), but I stuck to it and refused to let him go. He's four years old - he doesn't need to go on Tower of Terror. After the ride, John agreed that it might have been a little much for Aiden, as they do make it pretty scary on your way to falling to your doom.

While we were waiting for John, Chip and Dale were walking around and taking pictures with people so I tried to take Aiden over to see them. Funny kid decided that two huge chipmunks were too scary and burst into tears! So we sat in the shade and ate our lunch while I called my dad (he had specifically requested a call from inside the park).

After some ice cream, we made our way over to the Disneyland side for a big shock as to exactly how busy Disneyland can be on a Monday during California's spring break...

Vacation: Day 5

Oh my, where does time go? Life has yet again been full of craziness and I will now attempt to resume the vacation blogging. Was it really almost a whole month ago? Yeesh.

So day 5 was Huntington Beach. Oh how I LOVE Huntington Beach. I have yet to find another place where I feel so relaxed and at ease. This was the first time taking the boys and they had been looking forward to sand and sea time all week. We took some beach toys with us so they could dig and dig as much as they pleased.

But first we took a long walk along the boardwalk and went out onto the pier. They were having a sort of old car show and it was cool to see all the old cars in excellent condition, along with some pretty cool paint jobs. John and I treated ourselves to Huntington Beach tshirts (mainly because John had chosen a collared shirt to wear to the beach and it was way too hot for that, so he needed a cooler shirt. And I wasn't going to let him get a Huntington Beach shirt without getting one for me too!). We watched the people fishing off the pier and there was a small shark that someone had hooked!

We started to get hungry and while I longed to eat at Ruby's on the pier (their burgers smell fabulous!), we did the thrifty thing and ate the sandwiches that we brought with us. We did enjoy watching the surfers and dolphins as we ate.

After our long walk, we found a spot on the beach and settled down for some play time. The boys dug and dug and dug some more and then Aiden decided he wanted to run into the water. Of course he was knocked over by a small wave while wearing regular clothes, but it didn't bother him any. He ran right back in! A family thought Aiden was cute and showed him a live clam that they had found. He was very interested, but I didn't get a picture before he tossed it back into the water. I'm sure the clam really appreciated all the handling and tossing.

I can't say enough how much I just love Huntington Beach. I can't tell you exactly what it is, but I don't think I'd complain if we had to move there.

We had some super fun beach time, but we did have to make our way back to the car eventually. We had plans to head to the Port of Los Angeles/San Pedro to see the Maritime Museum. Once we got there, we discovered it was closed. John had mistakenly read that it was open on Sundays, but oh well. There was a Fire Station with a Fire Boat so we looked at that for a while and we took pictures of the huge cruise ships there in port. One blasted it's horn while we were walking and the ground shook! The boys liked watching the HUGE cranes placing shipping containers on the container ships.

It was getting late, so we headed back to the hotel. We decided to take the drive back down the Pacific Coast Hwy, thinking it would be kind of scenic. We mostly ended up making sure the car doors were locked and not making eye contact with anyone walking along the street. Yikes. But then we got back down into Huntington Beach and all was well again.

We all washed the sand out of our hair once we got back to the hotel and I discovered that I burned through my sunscreen and looked like a scorched tomato. But it was very much worth it and I'm still enjoying the tan it left me once the redness went away.

The next day would be our final day in Disneyland and what a long and exciting day it would be...

Pause

I'll continue the remainder of my vacation posts shortly, I promise. There's a lot going on here, although in some ways, I don't really understand why I feel so busy as what I want to be happening to make me busy....isn't happening. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, John and I had a little adventure. If you can call it an adventure since it was planned for 6-8 weeks prior. We drove down to Eugene yesterday to see Conan O'Brien (of NBC Late Night and short lived Tonight Show). It was the opening night of the first tour he has ever done and it was simply amazing. They really gave everyone their money's worth and it was a great night of thanking fans for their support. There was a surprise appearance by Spoon (musical artist) and, the biggest surprise, Jack McBrayer (Kenneth the Page) from NBC's 30 Rock. John and I LOVE 30 Rock and I was super excited when he walked out on stage. By the time the night was over, my hands were numb from clapping and my throat was extremely sore from screaming.

John and I had left Portland at 4pm for an 8pm show, just because it was a Monday and we were not at all familiar with how much work traffic there might be on the way down there. To our surprise, it only took two hours to get there and we parked early enough before the show to not have to pay for event parking! We were going to walk around for a while, but it started pouring rain and I was starving, so we ran into the nearest bar and grabbed a menu. We had some yummy burgers and onion rings, then made our way into the show. We didn't expect to have that much extra time on us, but it made for a wonderfully relaxing date night. Even though we didn't get home until almost 1:30am, it was completely worth it and something I will remember for a long time.

And now I'll get back to our vacation posts for you. :^)

Vacation: Day 4

After two VERY full days in Disneyland, not to mention our travel day, we were ready for some down time. We had made the decision to not go into Disneyland on Saturday or Sunday (I can't even imagine it on a weekend...), so we slept in as much as we pleased. John ran over to the hotel breakfast and brought back some doughnuts, juice, and coffee for us. It was so good to just relax. I do have to admit that part of me wanted to go "play" as I watched all the families heading towards Disneyland, but we only had one day left on our park pass and that day was going to be Monday.

Around lunch, we got dressed and headed to the grocery store. We didn't have a kitchenette in our room, but we did have a fridge and a microwave and that seemed like enough to save us a few trips eating out. We got some basics: milk, juice, sandwich fixings, crackers, and some frozen corn dogs. We got back to our room and I opened up the corn dogs to make some for lunch.....and then I noticed the expiration date. November 2, 2008!!!! WHAT?? I immediately called the grocery store to let them know. The manager sounded appalled and sent someone to check the entire corn dog stock for old expiration dates. He told me to bring it back and he would refund our money, but it was only $3.99 and I didn't feel like driving back to the store on my down day, so I declined. I just wanted to make sure they knew about it.

After lunch, we decided to try out the swimming pool. That had to have been the coldest pool in all of California. The boys were a little braver than I was...I didn't get any further than my ankles! We quickly switched to the "hot" tub. It was the temperature that the pool should have been. Oh well. Not a big deal.

We went back to the room when the pool area began to get a little crowded and watched Ratatouille on my laptop. We had dinner and then decided the boys needed a walk. I'm sure it was a big change for them after having a few days of keeping very busy to now be sitting in a hotel room all day. We took the 1.2 mile walk down to the Coldstone Creamery right outside of Disneyland and went to town on high calorie ice cream creations. Mine had an entire brownie in it. YUM!

We walked it off back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We would spend most of the next day soaking up the sunshine in Huntington Beach....

Vacation: Day 3

Day three began with us being extremely sore, both boys coughing and turning into snot factories, and Nathan vomiting. John's cousin Colin and his wife Lisa were meeting us in the park at opening that morning and sadly, they had to do their own thing until we finally got our situation under control and made it over to the park around between 10:30 and 11am. We don't really know why Nathan threw up, but we suspect it was a combination of severe coughing and overeating at Spaghetti Factory the night before.



Once we finally met up with them, we took a ride on Autopia again while waiting for our FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters to become valid. We wandered around and did a few other things while waiting for the lunch call from Laura and Kevin. We finally decided to meet in California Adventure and have lunch at Pacific Wharf. We took a ride on the double decker bus to get down Main Street and it was a beautiful day to ride through the park.

Nathan (grumpy pants - notice Pooh Bear continued to join us), Me, Aiden (hiding behind me because he in an anti-picture phase), Colin, and Lisa

After a very yummy (and pricey) lunch at Pacific Wharf, Laura and Kevin went off to get in some more rides on their last day in the park and the rest of us headed over to California Adventure's outdoor excursion area (I'm completely blanking on what it's actually called). Aiden and Colin had fun walking on the rope bridge and Aiden came bounding back to encourage me to join them. I tried. I honestly tried. But I took one step out on that rope and nearly dropped into the fetal position. I cannot handle heights. Aiden begged and begged and BEGGED me to go with him, "It's so fun, mommy! You can do it! You can really do it, mommy!". I seriously had to fight back tears as I attempted to explain to him that I was so proud of him for walking on the rope bridge, but that mommy was not able to make it across. It may sound silly, but it was very upsetting to me that I was not able to do that for my child. I nearly ran out to the middle of the bridge just to get out there for him, but I'm pretty sure I would have gotten stuck out there!

After nearly needing a therapist, we left the rope bridge and went down to the tire swings. Nathan was too small, but Aiden enjoyed it.

Unfortunately right after getting off the tire swing, Aiden had a major meltdown and pushed Nathan to the ground, sitting on top of him and mashing his face into the concrete. I had to attempt to calm Nathan down (who was now insisting full force that we go home immediately) while John put Aiden in a long time out and threatened to take Aiden back to the hotel for the rest of the day.

After about 10 minutes, we were finally on our way again. We grabbed some waters and headed over to A Bug's Land. Colin suggested that we see the 3D It's Hard To Be A Bug or whatever it's called. We got into the 3D theatre that looked like an ant nest and Nathan flipped out. My bum barely touched the seat before I had to take him out of the theatre. We sat outside while everyone else stayed to watch and from what I could hear coming from inside that theatre, I started to worry about how Aiden was handling it. Just then a mom brought her sobbing 7 year old out of the theatre. Oh great. Probably a good thing I didn't make Nathan stay. Turned out that Aiden loved it, so no worries.

After that, we hit a few bug rides and then it was time for Colin and Lisa to go. They were great sports following us around all day with our very slow moving and very naughty children. They probably had a nice long "Do we really ever want to become parents?" conversation on their way home.

Aiden wanted to go on a few rides that Nathan wasn't tall enough for, so I took Nathan over to the play fountain and he had a blast running in the water. It was a very warm day and he'd been overheated most of the day, so it was a great chance for him to cool down.

He really did like it, despite what the picture makes it look like!

After both boys got thoroughly soaked, we went on the Monsters Inc ride and had lots of fun. At the end of the ride, the weird monster lady that says, "You didn't file your paperwork" is at the end and they have it slightly interactive. Of course I didn't know this when it started talking to me.

The first time we rode it:

"Young lady in the 2nd row"

-I glance over slightly afraid"

"I like your hair. Do you want to trade?"

-I smile, shake my head, and say "no".

"How selfish!"

The second time we rode it, I again sat in the 2nd row:

"Young lady in the 2nd row"

-I again look over-

"I see you have a small monster next to you"

-I pat Nathan's head as he huddles next to me-

"Yes, that one. You can't take any monsters out of the ride with you"

-I laugh-

"I'm serious. Please return him to the ride attendant"

You can see Aiden was still soaking wet from the water park.

After that, John and Aiden went on some more rides that Nathan was too small for and then we headed back to the hotel to meet the others for some In N Out Burger and to get the boys in bed. Dwight and Karla stayed with the boys again so we could go back to the park. John and I went on Soarin Over California, which is quite amazing, and then decided to say goodnight to the others while we sat quietly in Downtown Disney. Since this was our anniversary trip, it was nice to spend some time with just the two of us. Not to mention that we were exhausted and not up to any more rides.

After some overpriced drinks, we went back to the hotel to crash. We would all definitely need our down time the next day...

Vacation: Day 2

Sorry for the delay with the vacation posts - we've all been dealing with some sort of illness and I've been fairly wiped out.

So, day 2....our Magic Morning! We actually did wake up between 5 and 5:30 to get ourselves ready, but we were certainly tired. Thank goodness for in-room coffee makers, no matter how terrible the no-name coffee is! Nathan woke up bright eyed and ready to go, but it took Aiden a few minutes. When he finally opened his eyes and remembered that we were going to Disneyland that morning, he flops himself back onto the bed and lets out a "Arrgghhhh!! I am going to TRY to wake up!". It gave us a good laugh!

Our hotel was 1.2 miles away from the park on Harbor Blvd, but the weather was fantastic and we felt like walking. It was actually a very nice walk and the cool-ish California morning air helped wake us up a little more. Once we neared the gate and heard the music on the Disneyland speakers, the excitement contained in our little Aiden began to overflow. He starting talking VERY fast and kept shouting, "Disneyland is starting!!!!". Honestly, John and I both got a tad emotional over this. Who would have thought that seeing our child's face on his first visit to Disneyland would be one of the happiest moments of being a parent?
What was Nathan doing during this emotional moment? Clutching his stuffed Pooh Bear and sitting in the stroller looking like we were walking him into some unknown world. Poor kid.

We made it into the park at 7:06am and went straight to Peter Pan (there was already a 15 minute wait for it). Aiden was a little confused since he'd never been on anything like this before, but he loved it. I went with Nathan and he held tight to Pooh Bear for the whole ride. I don't think he liked it. We then went to Dumbo, where Nathan was given a "Disneyland: 1st Visit" pin by the ride operator. He promptly said, "I don't want it" and it was given to Aiden, who was thrilled to get his first Disneyland souvenir.

Aiden was super happy to ride on Dumbo! You can tell his hands are waving back in forth in excitement, since they ended up blurry!

Aiden wanted to ride on King Arthur's Carousel and I thought a nice slow carousel ride would be great for Nathan (still holding tight to Pooh Bear), but oh, I was wrong.

This was his face on most rides. And on his 2nd time on the carousel, he actually burst into tears.

We got off the carousel and Nathan announced that we needed to go home. This would be his opinion for the majority of the trip. At least his ticket into the park was free. After a few more rides (Autopia twice - which Nathan said he actually liked, but kept the same look on his face), John took Aiden on the Matterhorn for his very first ride on a roller coaster. You should have seen me pacing back and forth outside that ride waiting for them to get off....I was so nervous! But Aiden came bounding down the ramp towards me with the biggest smile I'd ever seen, begging to go again. He LOVED it. But it was time to go meet Brady, Carrie, Laura, and Kevin for much-anticipated Minthornes in Disneyland day!

In line for Nemo!

The last time John and I were there, Nemo was being built, so we had not been on it yet. It was really cool and Aiden loved it (although he loved everything, so maybe there's no need to mention it!). Complete with very fake Australian accent from the ride operator, it is a very cool ride underwater on a small submarine (do not go if you have any fear of small spaces) through the Nemo story.

After a couple more rides, we split up for a little while and John and I took the boys into Toon Town to look around. We just happened to come across Minnie Mouse doing her meet and greet, so we hopped in line and met Minnie. Nathan was in awe.

We then decided to walk through Mickey's house and happened to hit the very start of HIS meet and greet! Both boys were in awe of Mickey and Aiden couldn't tear his eyes away for the picture!

I think this was the first time all day that Nathan had smiled.

We had a great rest of the day with Brady, Carrie, Laura, and Kevin. Aiden took his first ride on Splash Mountain, which actually happened to be MY first ride on Splash Mountain as well. Aiden still can't decide if Splash Mountain or the Matterhorn was his favorite ride!

We met Dwight and Karla for dinner at Spaghetti factory (where we all devoured our food in record time - Disneyland works up an appetite!) and then took the boys back to the hotel, where Dwight and Karla put them to bed and stayed with them so John and I could go back to the park with everyone for a "grown-ups night". We had a blast! Even when we did Splash Mountain two times in a row and ended up soaked from head to toe at 11pm! We were sore as could be by the time we made it back to the hotel, but it made our first day in the park very memorable.

Next: Day 2 in Disneyland and the discovery of some limitations...

Vacation: Day 1

After getting most things on my to-do list done (a miracle!), we packed up the car and headed out. John's Aunt Lorna drove us to the airport and we arrived in plenty of time for our flight. This was our first time flying with both boys; the first time flying with any child was with Nathan when he was 4 months old, so he wasn't too much trouble. Needless to say, I was a tad nervous as to how it would go. But we'd talked MANY times about how fun airplanes were in order to - hopefully - avoid any panicking on the flight.

We used curbside bag check since I had already checked us in and printed our boarding passes at home, and we quickly headed to security. I streamlined everything as much as possible: Break down the stroller, get my laptop out, take everyone's shoes and jackets off....all while we were moving through the line. We made it through quickly and without any issues. It took us longer to get everyone and everything put back together after we got through security!

It was a LONG walk to our gate, but thankfully there was a Starbucks in that gate area so John and I were able to get our coffee fix while the boys had some juice and scones. We had made it through everything so quickly, we had an hour wait before boarding, but the boys stayed fairly well entertained with our new toys and books (brand new for the flight) and watching planes come and go. We finally got onto the plane, seated in the very back, and the boys continued to be excited for the flight.

Aiden was excited, but didn't want his picture taken.

Nathan brought Gee-Gee along (a $1 stuffed lamb that has been a part of our family since Aiden's first Easter) as a safety item for the flight and Gee-Gee seemed to enjoy his first flight.

Nathan announced that he was "ready for blast off!" as the plane engines started.

They did so well! Once we landed, the women in front of us remarked that they hadn't even noticed that there were children right behind them the entire time!

We landed in Long Beach around 5pm and John promptly headed over to get our rental car. An hour later, he finally returned with the car. I doubt we'll go with Avis again.... There were no issues with our reservation or anything, they really just took that long.

We finally made through LA traffic and to our hotel around bedtime. We were all exhausted and hungry, so we ate some burgers and went right to bed. We would need plenty of sleep to get up at 5am the next morning for our Magic Morning entrance to Disneyland!