How many pictures is too many in one post? I really think I'm getting close to the limit. Whenever I go through my pictures I just love them all and can't help but add all of them!
We started out July by going climbing with the kids up American Fork Canyon. It was an adventure to say the least. We had a hard time finding the route we had picked to climb. It was quite a climb with the kids just to get to the rock climbing. It wasn't the easiest climbing spot, but the kids were all brave and tried it out. Even Finn attempted to climb, but was just too small and couldn't quite get the hang of it. He mostly hung there from the rope while we tried to get a good picture of him. This past month we have had a membership at a climbing gym and Tucker and Halle have both gotten really good at climbing. I'd like to try out some other climbs outdoors this summer and see how much better Tucker and Halle do. Even Finn has improved a lot, but there are some things that are just hard to do until you get a little bigger.
In July we made the trip to California. It was a long drive down there. My sister and I drove the kids down; Sheldon was coming back from a business trip and flew out to meet us. Halle got some weird fever/flu bug on the way down, small blessings at least she didn't throw up in the car! We were very glad when we finally made it to my parents house.
We had some good times at the beach. Tucker loves the water and will run and play in the waves the whole time. Halle loves to build sand castles and Finn loves to destroy them.
A trip to California is not complete with time spent at the farmer's market. I couldn't resist and bought some fancy balsamic vinegar. Real balsamic vinegar actually tastes so good, way better than that cheap stuff from the grocery store. Strawberries and balsamic vinegar also go well together, kind of like an italian version of PB&J. We made balsamic strawberry ice cream, and I thought it was pretty tasty.
As a part of our Thanksgiving Point Membership we can get in to some other museums for free. We checked out the Natural History Museum in LA. I was really excited to go there because they have a butterfly pavilion that I knew the kids would love, unfortunately we went on a Saturday and tickets to the pavilion were all sold out and then they closed it anyway due to rain. In these pictures they are attempting to lift a truck.
One of our main reasons for going to California was so we could make it to Legoland. Tucker really wanted to go to Legoland for his birthday and luckily Legoland is much cheaper than Disneyland, but not quite as cool. We used some of Sheldon's Marriott Reward points so we could stay in a hotel for 2 nights and spend 3 days at Legoland. You don't really need 3 days to see all of Legoland, but it was nice to be able to take our time and still get our kids in bed at night at a reasonable time. Halle thought staying in a hotel was so funny, for weeks afterwards she would tell me, "Remember that time we stayed in a room altogether?"
For being a park geared towards kids and families, Legoland actually did not have a lot of rides that Finn could ride. I think that would be my biggest complaint, along with slow lines and crowd management. There were rides geared toward 2 and 3 year-olds, but the kids would have to be as tall as a 4 year old to ride. It's kind of sad to have to do a baby switch on a little helicopter ride that goes up and down slowly. All the lego stuff is really cool to see and it's fun they have so many parks for kids to run around and play on and lego building areas.
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| One of the few rides Finn could go on. He was nervous at first, but loved it! |
The water park wasn't huge, but Tucker and Halle had fun. Al though once again they weren't tall enough to go on most of the water slides. Finn was exhausted and slept in the stroller while they swam.
The carousel is one of Halle and Finn's favorite rides, so we went on that multiple times a day. You can't beat a ride with a short line!
Wyldstyle from the Lego Movie! It was really fun to see the set from live action parts in the basement of the Lego Movie.
Halle and Finn and I went on a few rides while Tucker and Sheldon waited in line forever to get on the big roller coaster. In order to get a 'fastpass' at Legoland you have to pay extra money, so lame, we are too cheap!
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| Aquarium at Legoland. |
We went to check out some tidal pools, but didn't quite time it right and the tide started coming in pretty fast. We did have fun trying to build an epic sand castle and attempting to keep the water out for as long as possible.
My parents have quite a large collection of legos that we accumulated when we were kids and we all worked together to build a fort for Tucker to enter into one of the Lego magazine's contests. I think it turned out pretty good. You will find a wide variety of characters in there from ObiWan to pirates and indians.
And to finish off an epically long post, I had to take a picture one day when Finn actually held a bug in his hand. He is pretty scared of animals and bugs, so I got a little excited when he was willing to hold one in his hand.
