Bella, Gabe and Josiah

 

We made it home. It was a long day of traveling, but we made it. And we learned that Bonky is not allergic to pretzels or orange juice, but he is allergic to chocolate planes…

Josy announced that he wanted to pray at dinner. So we closed our eyes and he said “I love you. I love you a lot. I like you. I like you a lot. Thank you for the food. Amen.”

Well, we’re definitely all ready to go home. I mean, this was literally only reasonably picture I took all day. And while it’s beautiful, it tells you where my head it. This morning we checked out of otter hotel. Then we had lunch with Uncle Matt and Asta. He had to go to work, so we drove up Costco to get gas. Then we wandered the mall in Burbank for a bit and got some shopping in. Then we checked in to our hotel and hit up the pool, which was actually our first time to do doing swimming. Then we got some dinner, stopped by a Trader Joes and cleaned it the car. It was a super exciting day. But I think it’s indicative of the fact that we are all ready for life to go back to normal again.

At one point when Pat and I were planning this trip, we playing with the idea of going to Disneyland yesterday. We ended up deciding not to (for a lot of reasons…) and I’m so glad that we did. After 7 days of parks and museums and being constantly in the go, we needed a couple of slower days. That said, when we booked hotels, we stayed in Anaheim so that we could get back to Disneyland. It ended up being a long ways away from the rest of our days plans, but such is life. Anyway, we had a quick snack at the hotel and then drove up to have brunch with Uncle Matt. He brought Asta, so she and I hung it for a bit. Gabe had picked up a pad of paper and was drawing everyone, so he did a cute one of her. He also did me: Dad: And Josy: After breakfast we always walked to the dog park so Asta could run around and the boys could throw some balls for her. It was really hot and Matt had to go to work, so that didn’t last long. But then we headed over to the Griffith Park Observatory, which I’d neve...

For our last day in our tour of amusement parks, we went to Knotts Berry Farm. It was another one that I went to several times as a kid. Plus, we came with Bella and Grandpa Jim 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it was super hot and the boys were too short for the water ride. That would have helped us cool off a bit, but we survived. We started off the day in San Diego and it was 62 and foggy. It was a tad chilly, but nothing crazy. The boys, on the other hand, we’re freezing. They’re going to have trouble going home. Josy’s teeth were chatting… After an apparently chilly breakfast, we drove up to Knott’s Berry Farm! The boys made some new friends. We took a train ride. Actually two train rides… And a stagecoach! And bumper cars. Pat has spent the entire trip trying to convince Gabe to go on roller coasters with him. Gabe flatly refuses. But today I asked if he’d be willing to go on this one and he agreed. Pat quickly put him on it. He was pretty sure that he was going to die after the just...