Pumpkin Patch!

Now I am officially into the swing of things. Parker's pre-school class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch, and I'm ready for fall now. It wasn't too cold, but cold enough for jackets, and it was so much fun to watch Zoey running around trying to pick up the pumpkins

First she started out with the smallest, then she put it down and moved a size up and so on until she was trying to lift pumpkings that were larger than her. She was also moving them to where she thought they looked better.

Parker and Zoey both liked the tractors alot. Unfortunatly we had to try each and every stinkin tractor in the pumpkin patch! Needless to say mom was losing her cool after about the fifth tractor.

So it was a great day, Parker got to spend some fun time with friends and Miss Lisa, and Zoey got to run amuck. After the pumpkin patch we headed home for hot chocolate...and a nap! We're Ready for Fall at the Rands house!

Parker Favorite Part

For the most part of our trip we stayed in the Howard Johnson Hotel in Aneheim. If it was not for this hotel, we probably would have gone crazy. The rooms were clean, but not luxury by any means, but we would stay there over and over just for the pool. As you can see from the above picture it was a giant pirate ship. From different points of the ship you could shoot water and there were three small waterslides attached that were small enough that we would just send Parker to play and we didn't have to watch him like a hawk. However, the best part of it was the bucket you can see at the top. Every two minutes you would hear a bell start to ding...and as the dings got closer the more quickly children would run to get to their spot before this 500 gallon bucket would tip and drench all that were standing under and or near it. It was so much fun!!

You can see Zoey in the picture here, and Parker is standing just beyond the boy in the black. This is just as the bucket starts to pour.

I know it's not a great picture, but if you can see the little guy just to the left of the girl in pink....that's Parker. He loved getting right in the middle of it.

Zoey was content to walk around the little three foot pool. She didn't want help.....she was going to swim on her own. I absolutly LOVE that she finally fit into her swimsuit...(thanks Lizz W.!!)

And This is Parker just after the bucket drops. He played by the pool one night for almost 5 hours. It was so nice and warm that he didn't want to come in. So if you ever need a great hotel in Disneyland with something to bribe you kids to go back to the hotel...I highly recommend this place!

The End of the Fun

Well I pulled up my pictures all kinds of backward, so we'll start with the end. Who knew that out of the whole trip that the beach would be the kids favorite part. Kyle and I both thought, well they will want to hang around maybe fifteen minutes and then they will be bored. When we tried to leave both of them dug in their heels. The simple things in life ARE the best.

Zoey decided that she wanted to sample all that the beach had to offer. I don't understand what is so appetizing about sand, but I couldn't get her to stop eating it.

Sea World was our second to last stop...and yes we were sitting this close. Kyle and I both thought hey you only live once, lets sit in the "Soak Zone". This might be fine for the dolphin show, but we were so soaking wet that it was like we jumped into the pool with Shamu, and got right back out. I forgot totally that Shamu lives in salt water until I was drinking it. We got to spend the rest of the day drying out and forming a nice salt crust on our skin. It was amazing to see...just very wet.

Since Mommy's favorite animal in the whole world is a Dolphin, we spent a good portion of our time at the dolphin feeding area. Parker thought it was awesome to feed them little fishes and kept asking me what they tasted like. How do you describe the taste of fish to a four year old...well son, fish tastes....fishy. Anyhow, he loved it and Zoey seemed to enjoy herself too.

We did also make it to the San Diego Zoo, and this was the absolute best picture in the world for me. My two busy little bees stood long enough with their heads in this thing to get a picture. It was GREAT!! In the end the zoo was a zoo....a big gigantic zoo, but nothing I would go fight the crowds for. Which was another interesting thing. We didn't stay too long because they were having a beer and wine tasting....at the zoo. We got out of there before too much tasting got going, because there were lots of people...and they all drove.....enough said :)

Universal Studios

The next park was Universal in the Rands trip. Parker got to this part of the park (above) and thought that it would be really fun to go on the clown ride. I was very hesitant to take him on it, but he really wanted to go. So we got all strapped into the motion simulator roller coaster and took off. Lets just say by the time the ride was over...Mom was right. He didn't like it much, but did enjoy meeting the characters, but he wouldn't talk to them. I think he thought it was his way of chewing them out for such a horrible ride.

This was the most fun for both kids. They have a whole Curious George play park for the kids. The outside is nothing but water either spraying you, or being dumped on you, but you go inside this building and there are thousands of nerf balls all over the floor that you put into buckets and send through different tubes. You can suck them up with a tube that drops them into a basket that when it gets full enough, drops them on your head; or you can put them into a volcano looking area that will blast them into the air. I think Zoey liked the fact that I put her down and she got to run as far and as long as she wanted to.

Zoey was obsessed with having her own bucket and putting the balls in herself. Heaven help me, she's already into the "don't help me mother" phase of her life!

I had to talk Parker into this picture....I have no idea why! :)

As most of you know, Spongebob was one of Parker's first loves, can you tell by the shirt? This trip was fun for me and Kyle because it brought to life some of these characters that he's just seen on TV or movies. It was so fun to see him light up and be excited about things. He told me George was fun, but he's such a silly monkey

I liked meeting Donkey from Shrek. There's someone in the cart that does the voice of donkey and can obviously see whoever is coming up to the cart, and carries on a full conversation. Zoey would laugh at what Donkey was saying, but when it was time to say goodbye Donkey ask if she wanted to pet him, so I leaned in and got the bloody murder scream...she didn't think Donkey was all that funny after that.

The Rands Go to California!

So it's been a couple weeks, and for those of you that didn't know. We went to Disneyland!!! It was a such a great trip. We went for 12 days to California and we got to go to Disney, Universal Studios, the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. I'm not going to put it all into one post, so enjoy the next few posts.

We started off on Saturday Morning and DROVE to California. Let me caution anyone who wants to do that with a 4 year old and a 15 month old. Bring Sedatives!!! We got to Las Vegas and Zoey was through being in the car, and was quite upset when she realized we still had a long way to go.

We did make it to California and the next day we headed over to Disneyland. Parker was excited, but didn't know why, and Zoey was along for the ride but was unimpressed. Until we got to the t-cups that is. She enjoyed that ride alot! She liked all the colors and fun music, and Parker was just happy to be on a ride.




Parker really wanted to show us that he could lift these....poor guy dosn't know they are cemented to the ground.

Parker really loved meeting Mickey and Pluto, he really didn't have much interest in anyone else. He is now obsessed with Micky...has already told me all the Mickey things he wants for Christmas. I think we're in Trouble

Parker loved all of it. To my surprise, Parker really liked Splash Mountain. Kyle took him first and after he came running off and wanted to do it again...with mom. That's Kyle with his hands up in the back, and Parker is sitting right in front of him, holding on for dear life.

The parades were a lot of fun for the kids. Zoey liked the Disney parade more, and Parker loved the Pixar parade. Zoey blew kisses to Ariel, and Parker yelled at the top of his lungs when he saw Buzz Lightyear "He's real mom...he's real he's real!!" It totally made the trip worth it. So we'd seen Disneyland. Then it was off to our next park.