october adventures

we had a pretty fun october as shown in pictures below, and it doesn't even include halloween!  a couple of times a year, i like to do a one on one outing with jacks and livi.  i stumbled on this great sleepover at the academy of sciences in golden gate park that jacks was super excited about. however, i did not have the same reaction to the idea of sleeping on the ground in a large museum with +200 other children! luckily, john thought it sounded amazing so off the two of them went.

then the following week my friend and i planned a secret trip to disneyland.  we told our kids we were running a quick errand on a thursday afternoon, and off to the airport we went.  even though our flight was cancelled and we had a long day of travel, the kids were still excited when at 11pm we arrived in our hotel lobby with a huge mickey mouse statue inside.  it turns out disney is pretty fun with 5 year-olds (thank goodness lyla stayed at home!).  livi loves roller coasters and rode all of them with me, while jacks liked thunder mountain, but passed on the matterhorn and space mountain.  jacks liked the dark and creepy rides like pirates of the caribbean while livi whimpered through that one.  by the time we got back home on sunday, we were wiped out but so very excited to be reunited with lyla and john.

a little dessert before museum exploration

they had the butterfly exhibit all to themselves

this looks like a perfect place to rest

sleeping with the fishies!

john's coworker had extra tickets to the famed color factory

we weren't sure what to do expect (it's a bunch of color themed rooms)

the kids enjoyed it and we got some cute pictures so
it's a win-win in our book

special black lemonade

everyone was brave enough to try it

cheers!

mopping the floor

disco time!

the people waiting in line for us to finish our picture
loved watching the girls in this one

you can't trust them to smile in any picture!

can't wait to see what's upstairs!!

it's the "selfie" room

selfie angels

on the count of 3

truly a kid's dream come true

it was REALLY hard to move the kids out of this room

after all of this, i'm shocked we didn't pick up an illnesses

more and more pictures

poor lyla was constantly swallowed up by the balls

time to go home!

once john drops the twins at school,
it's finally quiet at home

everyone wants a piece of mickey!

park time!

lyla pushing her boyfriend rory (leanne's son)

she even got him a balloon for his birthday

checking out the view from lyft headquarters

john and lyla had a special weekend together  while
we went to disneyland

which included ice cream of course

all smiles at the airport

instead of a direct flight to orange county, we headed first to vegas

and ran like maniacs to catch our connection to burbank

where we landed +4 hours later than originally scheduled

they finally passed out, gaining strength for the day ahead

day 1 at california adventures

let the fun begin!

3D glasses make everything cool!

we went on one water ride and the kids get drenched

we survived our first day...and we're all exhausted

the jungle cruise...i love their freaked out expressions

jacks always wanted to ride with his buddy so livi
and i got a lot of  quality time together on rides!  

love those teacups!

we stumbled into mickey's house to escape the heat, and
after waiting +60 min, we finally got a pic with the guy

rested and waiting for our lyft to the airport

picked up this guy on our way home

everyone was excited for lyla to try out her new gift

i think these two were especially happy to be reunited