California Here We Come

Katherine and I took a trip to California to visit my brother and his family. I surprised her and did not tell her until the day before we went. It was so much fun to have a 4 day trip with just Katherine. She really has gotten to be such a big girl and was wonderful to travel with. We went for no special reason but to go play with cousins. So, we flew using buddy passes from my brother. That means flying standby and it took us three flights to get there.
Katherine is all buckled up and ready to go. She had fun packing her airplane bag and she did great keeping herself entertained. This was the first flight in over 4 years that I have not had a lap child so I really enjoyed being able to actually read some magazines.
She had her own rolling backpack which she carried about half the time and I carried about half the time.
On Friday I took Katherine and Sophia to the park while Will stayed home with Ally while she napped. They had so much fun playing together. Katherine loves playing with the flowers and she was pretending to make all kinds of food dishes for me.

After Ally woke up we went to Fairy Tale Town which is a fun park with all kinds of things to play on from different fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
We started off in King Arthur's Castle and sat on his throne.
The tortoise from the tortoise and the hare.
Katherine playing on the foot from the giant in "Jack and the Beanstalk".
Cinderella's carriage is always a favorite.
Here are the girls with Mother Goose. It is actually a slide.
I enjoyed holding sweet Ally. She is the most laid back baby.

This was a pretty steep curvy slide at "Old Mac Donald's Farm".



The "Crooked Mile"
Owl's tree house from "Winnie the Pooh".
The kids were worn out by the time we got home and all took nice long naps.

Thanksgiving visit

Uncle Will, Aunt Jaime, Sophia and Ally came for a long visit last week. They arrived Sunday and went home on Thursday. It was a lot of fun for them to be here so long and for the girls to get so much time to play together. Sunday night we played at Nana and Pop's house and ate dinner. Katherine was sure to bring dress up clothes over so that all of them could dress up at the same time.

Monday we went to the Science Museum. Nana could not join us because she was having a root canal and Caroline went to mother's day out (She is still having a hard time so we did not think she should skip a week). Since Sam was at work it was kind of nice to have an day with just Katherine. I rarely get that alone time.
They dug for dinosaur bones.
Experimented with the floating ping pong balls.
Made bubbles.
And dressed up in the nature room.
Even Pops joined in on the fun.
Last we played on the farm where Katherine rode a stick horse.
We then ate lunch and picked up Caroline and rushed home before time for our evening activity.

California State Fair

I never finished blogging about our Labor Day trip to California. We decided to venture out to the State Fair. It was a lot of fun and the kids did great, especially considering it was a long, hot day with no naps.

We started out on the midway where we rode the carousel. Katherine wanted to be on the pretty bird so we were on one of the non-moving animals. Kind of boring in my opinion but she enjoyed it.

Then we went to the Ferris wheel. Katherine decided it looked too scary so only Will and Sophia rode it.

Then while Will and Jaime shopped for hot tubs, Sam and I took the girls to fire safety town where we learned all kinds of things, saw a puppet show and then sang happy birthday to Smokey the Bear.

After that was lunch. This was one area where the California State Fair differed from the Texas State Fair. In Texas there is literally a contest for the most original friend foods and you can find just about anything in fried form (fried butter anyone?). In California there were a few friend things but more of the food was catered in from restaurants. We decided to get corn dogs. I hate to say this, but I liked it better than the Fletcher's Corny Dogs at the Texas State Fair. The cornbread was sweet, thick and perfectly done. Caroline tried it and enjoyed her first corn dog.

Next we went to the kids midway. Katherine had her mind set on going in a haunted house. This is because in the "Angelina Goes to the Fair" book they go in a haunted house. Luckily she was too short and we were able to convince her to go into a fun house instead.

The girls enjoyed a pony ride. A few months when Katherine went on a pony ride she clung to me the entire time. This time she rode like a pro.

I love the look of concentration on her face.

She was very excited to tell me that the name of her horse was "Dr. Pepper", my favorite drink.

Next up was the petting zoo where we saw cows, sheep, goats, horses and chickens.

Katherine and Caroline were able to paint a pony. I am not sure where they got this idea but the kids enjoyed it.

Instead of a sandbox, there was a "corn box".

Then is was back to the kids midway for a few more rides. I took the girls on the hot air balloon ride and then Katherine went on a canoe ride.

We did finally make it to a few of the exhibition halls. The first was called "Wild Wacky California" and the second one was about candy. Of course Katherine found the princess Pez dispensers.

Finally, here is a picture of Ally at her first fair. She was very content.