LEGOLAND!!

A couple of months ago Pete and I got to talking about Legoland. We have been a couple of times, most recently when Vinnie was an infant. Obviously Vinnie doesn't remember it, and Christopher wasn't even born. The problem is, Zachary is getting too old for it and we couldn't figure out when we would go anyway. You know, the usual conflict with having kids spread across different age groups.

But who says we all have to go? So I planned a short trip down to SoCal with Vinnie and Christopher. I pulled Vinnie out of school for a couple of days so we could go midweek. We had a blast!


It was pretty empty most of the day. Christopher was the only kid driving the cars! He was very proud of his drivers license and carried it all day.


Vinnie got to drive on the big kid roads. He took it very seriously!


Vinnie's favorite area was Mini town, with the replicas of several cities. Las Vegas was amazing! Can you believe that is built with lego's? I can't even imagine being the team that put these things together!


Of course my favorite was San Francisco. I actually lived 1 block away from the famous "painted ladies" when I lived in San Francisco (well, one of the many places I lived in during my years there).

There were several new areas to Legoland since my last trip. This airplane ride had Vinnie and Christopher screaming with laughter. There was no line so the ride operator let them ride 3 times in a row.

We enjoyed the 4-D movie. What is 4-D you ask? There was blowing wind, spraying water, and falling "ice" during the show. Fun stuff! Of course Grandma Liz came with us.


Don't tell Pete but I spent a ridiculous amount of money to have their caricatures done.


They made them look like little lego people! It was worth it, right?


Darth Vader is always a classic.


The day got a big thumbs up from all of us!


The very best part? Two wiped out kids at the end of the day!


The following day I had a wonderful 9.5 mile run along the beach in Huntington Beach. I was entertained by all the surfers and a huge school of dolphins along the way! Later we went to Balboa Island for lunch before heading to the airport. Here we are with my mom's friend Darryl. He is a nice guy (and the closet thing my kids have to a grandpa). He looks cranky in this picture though!

Great trip with two of my favorite little guys, Vinnie and Christopher!

DISNEYLAND!!

The boys were off of school last week for a "furlough week". Basically our schools are so short on money that the teachers took an unpaid week off and we had a week of vacation!
So what did the Contini's do? We went to Disneyland!
Our favorite thing to do is to have breakfast with the characters. It is actually a really good breakfast, with the characters coming around to each table and hanging out with the kids.

The first day started off pouring rain. No problem! We donned our matching ponchos and headed for the park. Luckily for us, the rain only lasted half the day. We knew lots of families that were there who had been there for a few days, with rain every day.

Christopher loved seeing Lightening McQueen.

We ran into Griffin, one of Zach's good friends. Zach spent half the day with them, going on all the great roller coasters while we stuck to stuff for the younger boys.


We also ran into Alle and her family. After hearing she went on Tower of Terror, Vinnie (and Joey) went on it too! They were terrified, just as the name implies!

We ran into many families we knew from school. Pete kept track and recorded about 20! It was fun.

An actual picture with me in it. Not something you see very often.

On the second day, my mom joined us.

Zachary was so excited to spend all day with us. As you can see, he especially like the Winnie the Pooh ride.

The cars were a favorite with everyone but me. For some reason my cars kept stalling. I think I was getting bum cars. Pete just thinks I am a bad driver. Whatever.

Nearing the end of the second day and I still had the 4 kids I arrived with. We put a card in the pockets of the younger 3 with our cell phone number on it, and instructed them to approach any employee or mom if they got lost. We lost track of Vinnie at one point for about 30 seconds. When we turned around and saw him he was already reaching in to his pocket for the card. What a crack up!

By 7:30 of the second night Pete was done. He took Christopher back to the hotel while I stayed with the other boys. We had a great time. As you can see, I did not do the tea cups with them. I will go on any roller coaster you can think of, but I do not spin in circles. Vomit time if you ask me!

The morning after we returned home Joey spilled his milk. Clearly the spirit of Mickey came home with us! Now if I can just get that damn "It's a Small World" tune out of my head!!