Gemini Crickets Twins Picnic

Today we went to the Gemini Crickets Twins Picnic in Saratoga. I thought these shirts were perfect for the events. If you can't read it, they say "FOR SALE: BUY ONE GET ONE FREE"
Besides playing at the playground, they also had craft tables set up.

And bubbles...

We had a fun time. The club raffled off two Disneyland tickets, but we didn't win :(

Sunnyvale Health Fair

On Saturday we went to the Sunnyvale Health Fair.
The boys loved exploring the Life Flight Helicopter, Fire Trucks, Ambulance, and Police Cars. The also loved filling up their bags with all the give aways from the booths. The health fair was located at Columbia Park, only a couple blocks from our house, so it was a fun afternoon adventure.

Coyote Point Museum

On Memorial Day we spent the day at Coyote Point Museum and Park.

We arrived around noon and had a picnic lunch outside by the park. Before going in the museum, the boys played on the playground.

When we arrived at the park, we watched the otter feeding, looked around at the animal exhibits, and the kids played on the hands-on exhibits.

Gotta love Connor's forced smile in the above picture.

It was a fun day and beautiful weather.

Clean candy

When we went out to lunch today, the restaurant had a basket of hard candies. The boys took a couple pieces so they could eat one and put one in their pocket for later. Unfortunately, Connor forgot about the candy in his pocket and when he took a bath tonight, it went in the wash machine. Connor went in the garage to check to see if the wash machine was done and saw his candy in the door. He broke out in tears about losing his candy. He just keep watching the clothes spinning around and his candy stuck inside. Connor was in tears when we went back to check on his candy and it was gone (the wash machine ate it!), but then he was happy when he checked back and it came back. Poor Connor!

And a close up of the candy getting cleaned. All the red has already been washed off, so now it is clean candy.

Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day weekend! Saturday marked the last day of soccer for the Spring season. The boys had fun, but were more interested in kicking the ball themselves than doing what the coach told them to do.

Today (Sunday) we walked to the Mountain View Farmer's Market. We left our house around 9am walked to Farmer's Market, enjoyed lunch in downtown Mt. View, then walked home using part of the Steven's Creek Trail, stopping at at a park for the kids to play, then found this crocodile that the boys could ride. After all that we didn't get home until about 3pm after walking about 11 miles.After spending the whole day outside, what did Connor and Ryan want to do when we got home? Go in the back yard and play, of course.

Cruise - departure and driving home

On Sunday it was time to leave the Ship and head back home. Another perk of the suite was priority disembarking. We were scheduled to get off the ship any time after 7:45am. By the time we finished breakfast, we were able to walk off the ship. On the drive home, I kept watching the outside temperature and it got up to 109 degrees. It was hard to believe how hot it was after being so cold on the Ship. The boys were still tired after a long week and slept on the way home. Now no one is going to believe me when I say my kids don't sleep in the car. I think Connor and Ryan have slept in places other than their bed more this week than ever before.
After getting back home, we found out that many kids from daycare were out sick this week. I guess that is where Connor and Ryan got it from. The boys were thrilled to get back home and wanted to ride their bikes, scooters and wiggle cars as soon as we got home.

Cruise - day 7 (at sea)

Saturday was our last day on the ship. We let the kids play in Ocean Adventures in the morning so we could have a couple of hours without the kids. In Ocean Adventures, the kids were preparing for the talent show. There were five Aquanauts (3-5 year olds) that morning so they practiced a group song for the talent show. We had instructions to meet the kids at the talent show at 10:50am with the talent show starting at 11am. Connor and Ryan were happy when they saw me at the talent show because they got very worried when they left their Ocean Adventure room. They didn't think that Mommy and Daddy could find them if they weren't in the place we dropped them off at.

Note: The video is viewable at http://daneya.blogspot.com/
During the whole song, Ryan just stood up there with his arm on his face and I think Connor was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" because he knew the words to that song better. Oh well, they got first prize anyways (everyone that performed got first prize). They were proud of their first prize ribbons. I was just amazed that they were brave enough to get on stage to perform their act.

After the talent show, we went ice skating. The kids were complete with helmets, knee pads and elbow pads.

Ed made it around the rink once but was not stable enough to stay on his own feet and help the boys stay on their feet at the same time, so I took the kids out one at a time while the other waited on the side. The kids basically just stood in front of me with their feet still so I could push them around. They loved it!

Finally, the weather warmed up enough to go in the pool.

The kids played in the shallow kid pool for a bit, but then wanted to join Daddy in the big pool. Below is Connor waiting on the side of the pool for his turn in the water.

They love jumping in.

It was warmer than previous days, but still not warm enough for me to go in the pool, so I watched.

Our last family picture of the cruise...

Ok, I was just having fun with my camera, the lights, and angles on this one. I think it turned out kinda cute.

Connor and Ryan tried so hard to help lift the weight, but they kept telling me "it's not working."

Nope, Connor didn't win any money. But there were so many buttons to press when walking through the casino.

We decided to push it and go to the last show. Of course, Connor and Ryan were asleep by the end of the show.

Cruise - day 6 (at sea)

On Friday we were ready for relaxing a day at sea. We started the day with balloon animals at breakfast. Two different people made balloon animals for the boys so they each got a hat and a dog. It added to the mouse and sward that they already had.

As suite guests we were invited to a party to meet the captain. The boys played connect four while waiting for the captain.

Even while smiling, Connor still looks tired. Just look at those eyes. It wasn't even noon yet and that face looks ready for a nap. The boys just never seemed to have enough sleep even though they were always taking naps and sleeping.

Me and my monkeys. They love to climb all over me.

Connor and Ryan with Captain Johnny. He was a very personable captain.

Friday was our second formal night. After a long nap, the boys are ready to go!

Connor is such a helper. I was trying to set up the camera on the timer to get a family picture and Connor was trying to see what I was doing and help.

But, I was finally able to get a picture with the four of us. We tried to do the professional formal pictures, but none of the pictures turned out that great. At least I took one with my camera :)

Cruise - day 5 (Seattle)

On Thursday we were in Seattle, finally a port that we were able to get off before noon. It was yet another cold day...We brought booster seats with us, so Steve picked us up a the ship and drove to Pike's Place. It was quickly apparent that the kids were still tired from a long day in Victoria the day before. Poor Steve got to deal with cranky, grumpy kids. I don't remember the last time they were as grumpy and tired as they were this day. If we didn't already have plans with Steve, I would have just stayed on the ship and let the kids sleep.
But, it was another day when the kids fell asleep when they stopped for too long. In the below picture, they are sleeping in Steve's car on the way to have lunch with his mom. The boys do not typically sleep in cars, so it shows how tired they were. If we had a booth at the restaurant, the boys probably would have been asleep at the restaurant too. They fell asleep in the car ride back to the ship too.

Hopefully we didn't scare Steve off too much with the tired and cranky kids. We had to cut our visit with Steve short and went back to the ship after lunch for the kids to get a much needed nap. We skipped going to the dining room for dinner and ordered room service instead so the kids could sleep.

Cruise - day 4 (Victoria, Canada)

On Wednesday we arrived in Victoria around 11am, so we got off the ship after lunch. Before arriving in Victoria, we walked around outside on the ship. Yet again, it was a cold and windy day, but today we also had rain in the afternoon. I took the below picture to show how dead it was outside because of the cold. So far on the cruise, it has been too cold for anyone to spend any time at the pool or outside. At times they had to close the pools because they looked more like wave pools because of the rocking of the ship.

This is a picture of us at lunch before spending the afternoon in Victoria.

We didn't really have any plans for Victoria except walking to town and looking at the shops. Our first stop was (what else?) a potty, which was found at a Days Inn. The second stop was a bench in front of another hotel for the boys to have a snack since they were complaining they were soooo hungry. The doorman of the hotel was very friendly and came over to us to tell us about the baby ducks that were in the pond outside the hotel.

We asked the doorman for suggestions on what to do in Victoria. He suggested walking to Beacon Hill Park.

The park was beautiful, full of flowers and greenery.

It is a large park with walking paths, ponds, flowers, a playground, petting zoo and a potty (we couldn't miss that highlight!)

At the petting zoo, there were baby goats. The newest goat was born the day our cruise left LA a couple days before.

We did a lot of walking in Victoria and the boys were too tired to walk all the way back to the ship. We ended up carrying them back since we didn't have a stroller.

When we got back to the ship it was time for dinner then the ice skating show. The ice show was my favorite. It was a circus theme show. When we walked in, we were asked if Connor and Ryan wanted to ride on the train in the show. At first they were excited to do it, then Connor changed his mind, which led to Ryan changing his mind too. Luckily they changed their mind before the show started so we didn't have to deal with them freaking out during the show. The below picture shows the train that the selected kids ride on in the show.

It turned out that Connor made the right decision about not wanting to be in the show because he was fast asleep before the show even started. We definitely wore the kids out on this trip because they would fall asleep whenever they stopped to long, which is very uncharacteristic for them.