Colton’s family invited us to join their annual egg hunt on Sunday morning.  The boys were excited for it especially Connor; he reminded us as soon as he woke up that it was Easter day and that we were going to an egg hunt.  We arrived at the park and said hello to people while the boys went to play on the structures.  Once all the families arrived with total of 17 kids, the egg hunt began.  The kids were told to help hunt for all the eggs and bring them to the large baskets.  The eggs would then be distributed equally among the kids.  They were also allowed to hold on to an egg(s) that they really liked.  As soon as the hunt started, all the kids ran to the far area where the eggs were.  Connor held hands with Stuart and carried the basket in his other hand.  He walked around picking up eggs one at a time while Logan was excited and grabbed a few at a time to bring to the large baskets.  Logan came across a ninja turtle egg and he asked me to hold on to that one for him.  All the kids were so efficient that the eggs were all picked up in no time.  We then returned to the tables to have some brunch foods.  Connor was interested in the muffins and fruits, but Logan only wanted the chocolate cookies that I made.  Logan returned to playground to play with his friends after just a few bites.  Stuart and Connor hung out together and even did a short hike around.  Later Connor started playing together with Colton and Logan.  He had become one of the guys and the bigger boys treated him well too.  They played around for a long time before we left to come home.  The boys then had the chance to open up all the eggs to look at their loot.

     Connor has been excited with the prospect of his soccer lessons beginning and the first class was finally here on Saturday.  Connor was happy to wear the shin guards even though they were not required for the first class.  We arrived slightly before the class started; he and I had a chance to kick the ball around for a little bit.  When we were told to line up on the orange line to listen to instructions, Connor was excited.  He was just a bit clingy when the parents were sent to the sideline, but he lined up nicely along with other kids.  He seemed to listen to the coaches carefully and did the drills as instructed.  He had his hands in the jacket pockets briefly but soon he seemed more relaxed.  He was one of the more mellow kids there but he performed the tasks quickly though.  He looked up to me, Stuart and Logan every so often and waved to us too.  Once there was some confusing instructions, Connor looked at me with a blank expression but he just followed the lead anyway.   One drill was having the kids putting their heads on the ball while it was still on the ground; it was a funny scene.  Connor is definitely a teacher’s pet; a couple of times he went  up to the female coach and held her hand while they were told to line up.  At the end of the practice, Connor was very proud to give high fives to the coaches and to all of us.  He is looking forward to the next class already.

      Our goal for the second day (Thursday) was to take it easy and also to repeat some rides that we liked.  We checked out of the hotel in the morning, took the shuttle and started at Disneyland.  We went for Logan’s favorite Astro Blaster first; Stuart outdid the rest of our scores.  We then made it to the Peter Pan ride which was nice but short.  We did a couple of mellow ones Circus train and Connor’s favorite “Its A Small World” afterward to balance out the tougher rides.  We went to a store to let the boys pick out a souvenir; Logan was thrilled with a ranger rifle and Connor was happy to have a bubble gun.  We then took the raft to Tom Sawyer’s Island where the kids really enjoyed exploring and going through tunnels.  After lunch, we did the Winnie the Pooh ride and rode the Disney Railroad.  All day long Connor was asking for the one character Minnie who he had not seen there yet.  While we finally saw her near the entrance when we were heading over to the California Adventure, Connor had fell asleep in the stroller so I ended up taking a picture of her to prove her existence.  We wanted to make it to the Aladdin musical so Connor’s nap was cut short.  The show was fantastic.  Both boys paid close attention, laughed and clapped often.  We loved it so much that we talked about the show a lot afterward; both Logan and Connor even remembered a line or two of what Genie had said and they had a great laugh about them. 

     While we were in CA, we also caught a couple of mobile shows on the street, Phineas and Ferb and the Green Soldiers.  The boys liked watching them, but Connor was nervous that he would get picked to go up to dance or do the activities.  We made another ride at the Toy Story Mania and then caught the tail end of the parade to wrap up our visit at California Adventure.  Once we were back at Disneyland and after dinner, Stuart and I wanted to do another pirate ride which both boys were slightly nervous about the drops again.  Poor Connor was holding Stuart quite tightly throughout the ride.  We then climbed the tree house together that the boys enjoyed.  Maybe from too much fried food or from a hot cocoa, by then Stuart’s tummy wasn’t feeling right, so we decided that it was time to wrap up our visit at Disneyland.  We took a couple of night photos and said bye to the parks.  We caught the shuttle back to the hotel for our car and drove back to the grandparents.  The boys were excited to share their experience with Grandma.  When we were all cleaned up and ready for bed, Connor whispered to me “Let’s talk about Disneyland”.  We talked only one line about Disneyland, then Connor fell right to sleep and slept all the way until we woke him up shortly before 9am.  Logan slept well too but he was up as usual before 7am.

Here are more pictures from our trip.

    We told the boys about our trip to Disneyland a week before spring break.  Logan actually screamed out “Yay” and could not wait to share the news with Connor.  They had been so excited that we had fun even looking at the maps Michelle gave us before we left for the trip.  On Tuesday afternoon, we checked into the hotel and headed over to Downtown Disney for the evening.  We walked around and had pizza for dinner as requested by the boys.  They also got a balloon sword from the balloon guy at the end of our dinner.  We checked out the Lego store which the boys spent some time building Lego inside.  They also had fun playing with remote controlled cars at another store.  We then returned to the hotel to get rested and ready for the big day.

     On Wednesday morning, we took the shuttle and arrived at the park shortly after 8am.   With the recommendation from Robyn in mind, we wanted to make to most of the fun rides on our first day.  We decided to start at California Adventure to get the fast pass for the Radiator Spring car ride.  The line for fast pass was so long but it was moving fast.  Afterward, we did our first ride, Luigi’s flying tires; it was an easy and quick one just to get us started.  Then we walked over to try Toy Story Mania.  Logan really enjoyed this shooting game; Connor was a bit worried but he had fun shooting too.  Next we just hopped over to try the Jumping Jellyfish ride.  Connor did not really want to, but rode and held on to me tightly.  He was a little scared but it was over before he knew it.  Stuart thought the Goofy Sky School might be a very tame rollercoaster, so he talked Logan into trying it.  Although it was small it was also quite bumpy; they made it through but neither of them enjoyed it too much.  While Connor and I waited, we walked over to the Grizzly River Run and the guy checked Connor’s height and he just made the requirement of 42inches.  So after Stuart and Logan were done, we all in line for it.  Right before we boarded the boat, a different worker pulled Connor over to check his height again.  He hesitated but finally allowed Connor to go; by then Logan and Stuart had boarded, so we ended up on separate boats.  Connor got lots of encouragement from other passengers on our boat and he seemed to enjoy the ride.  His pants got a little wet while I got soaked, but it was fun.  By then, it was time to head back to Cars Land for our fast pass which had saved so much time.  Instead of a 1.5 hr wait it only took us about 15 minutes.  The ride was very interesting with nice scenery and it included a cool car race at the end.  The car race part was much faster but our car lost to the other car.  When we finished, both boys told us that the ride was too fast.   Last we rode the Monster Inc before heading over to Disneyland.

     Once we walked in Disneyland, Connor was very happy to see the characters, but he did not care to get close to them to say hi.  We checked out the Pirates of Caribbean ride as it was one of Stuart’s favorites.  Both boys got nervous with the slight drops initially but were intrigued with all the pirates actions.  We then headed to Tomorrowland.  We got the fast pass for Autopia first, then checked out Innovention.  Logan wanted to try a virtual Iron Man simulation but the line did not move at all during the short time we waited, so we bailed.  We all played with other games they had to offer there.  Afterward we went to drive the cars at Autopia which they both enjoyed.  We took another break by then and it was for ice cream bars this time.  Logan used the words “awesome stupendous” to describe the Mickey ice cream bars.  Next was the Mickey and Magical Map musical; it was nice to sit down for awhile and the boys enjoyed the show. 

     We finally found the line shorter to try “Its a small world”.  By then Connor had been asking and making sure that the rides were not too fast with no drops, and we reassured that this ride was nice and slow for him.  He was fascinated by the song and the actions; he told us that “I love this ride” when it was over.  Next we tried the Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and this had become Logan’s favorite ride; Connor liked it too.  Stuart suggested trying the Haunted Mansion, and apparently Connor agreed too, so I just went along with them.  But when we got inside, Connor was slightly scared.  I did not really want Connor to have nightmare from it, so I suggested covering his eyes partly.  Connor did not mind and even moved my hand to cover both of his eyes entirely.  He was content with my hand on his face the whole ride.  Logan apparently did not get too scared at all.  Next we went on the Jungle Cruise which all liked.  We stopped for dinner and by then we sort of became less eager.  We passed on Peter Pan’s as the line was too long so we opted for Pinocchio. 

     One interesting note was that the boys did not nap at all the entire day.  Logan had once almost wanted to take a nap while Connor did not seem tired at all.  Because of that, we decided not to wait for fireworks and we left right before 9pm.  By the time we got inside our hotel room, the fireworks just started.  We were able to lay on bed to watch it and it was a nice way to wrap up the long day.

    The boys were very excited to see grandparents.  We drove down south on Sunday.  As soon as we got into the car, the boys started asking how many minutes before we arrived and they asked the same question for the next six hours.  We had almost forgotten that this was the first trip where Connor was no longer on diapers; we stopped only twice toward the middle of the drive.  It was a close call at the end, but Connor did well, keeping himself nice and dry. 

    When we arrived, the boys were happy to see Grandma and Grandpa.  For the next couple of days, they enjoyed playing toys with the grandparents, drawing pictures/letters for them, and listening to Grandma reading bedtime stories.  Logan even played a game of chess with Grandpa; Logan was determined, and with some help from Grandpa, they had a close game.  On Monday, we spent the morning at Manhattan Beach.  Logan loved running around on sand away from the water.  Connor was more reserved; he observed for awhile before he got his feet wet.  We all had fun making sand domes and castles.  We had lunch there prepared by Grandma too.  Later we had dinner at Hermosa Beach and had a nice walk around the pier.  The next morning we spent some time at a local park before we headed over to Anaheim on Tuesday afternoon.  The boys enjoyed visiting with grandparents so much that Connor missed them even when we were in Disneyland.

     This was the third week of basketball league, and Logan is still enjoying it.  After school, at home he will practice dribbling and shooting, but is still excited for the “real basketball game”.  I saw the videos Stuart captured from the practice last night.  Logan was a bit less timid when the ball came to him.  I was quite impressed watching the guarding drill where Logan did well trying to guard the other boy.  The funny thing was seeing how goofy he was in those videos, so he must be feeling relaxed during the practice. 

  This morning’s game was early, thus Logan did not have a chance to play his Xbox game first but he was totally fine with that.  Connor and I decided not to go watch, so I had to hear the details from Stuart later.  Logan had lots of energy; he ran around the gym waiting for his team and coach to arrive.  He seemed to have fun during the game and ran a lot just like last week.  Logan did not have possession of the ball too much as he did not rebound and most of the players do not like to pass.  However, Logan attempted three shots and made two baskets.  I could tell Logan was proud of himself as Stuart informed me of his progress.