Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Holiday Season Part 2

Part of the holiday season was spent catching up with, and spending time with friends, both old and current. I had the rare opportunity to introduce Da Boys to perhaps my oldest friend. (In the sense that her and I have the longest friendship, not in the sense that she is old as dirt) She and her family were visiting So. Cal, and I was fortunate enough to catch up with them twice; once in San Diego, and once near Disneyland.



We took this photo at Downtown Disney. Her two boys and our two boys. To me, the contrast in size is a powerful reminder that it all is going so fast. It seems that in a blink of an eye, Casey and Sydney will be as old and as big as Alex and Owen...

We rang in the New Year with the Nakamura's. As usual, all four boys played so well together. For the first time ever, Da Boys stayed awake until midnight!!! Quite the milestone...

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Legoland Hotel

For our first adventure of 2017, we choose the Legoland Hotel. Sydney has mentioned that he wanted to stay at the Legoland Hotel; we decided to make that happen.

First, a little back-story. For two years now, we have had Legoland annual passes. It has worked out great, since Legoland is located in San Diego County, we tie visits in with trips to Nai-Nai's house. That said, for Da Boys, its always a special treat to stay in a hotel. Our plan was to maximize the hotel experience, even at the cost of neglecting Legoland resort itself. (We figured that we could goto the resort anytime)

Upon arrival, our first activity was the hotel pool. It was pretty much like any other outdoor hotel pool, except it came with floating Lego bricks!!





One thing Da Boys really enjoyed was... A TV in their bedroom!!! A definite highlight was for them to be able to be in their bunkbeds and watch TV until they were SO tired, they couldn't even keep their eyes open.



Another highlight for Da Boys was the treasure chest. They had to complete a scavenger hunt to decypher the code to the locked treasure chest. Each parent took one kid to separately do the treasure hunt. We all met back at the treasure chest so Da Boys could open it together.



The hotel also featured a castle play area. Da Boys made Lego guns (oh yay), and played shoot 'em up with other hotel patrons.



Toward the end of the trip, Da Boys rated the Legoland Hotel as "The Best Hotel Ever".

PS: They had so much fun at the hotel, we didn't even set foot in the Legoland resort...

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Holiday Season 2016: Part 1

We had an action packed, adventurous holiday season. It started with a trip to San Diego during the week before Xmas. We visited Nai-Nai, and baked holiday sugar cookies.



Da Boys surprised Nai-Nai with a Christmas gift.



We had a slumber party in San Clemente with the Mirski family. All the children got along so well. Nicole taught Casey how to makes eggs for breakfast.



We returned home on Christmas eve; left Santa a note...



Apparently, Da Boys were good (enough) throughout the year, because Santa came, and even left Da Boys a return note... And ate the cookies and milk we left for him.



I guess Da Boys didnt think they were all that good all year long, because they sure were surprised on Christmas morning, once they realized the Santa visited. The big gift from Santa this year was the Nintendo 3DS!