Legoland!

We spent two days visiting Legoland, the second leg of our trip! Our first day at Legoland was great!  The weather was good…no rain, and Justin appeared to be recovering well from his bout of stomach flu. 

Unfortunately, on our second day at Legoland, it drizzled the whole day!  It wasn’t enough to stop us, just enough to annoy us!  Also, Justin took a turn for the worse.  At some point during the morning, Ryan hopped out of his stroller to play and Justin hopped in!  After this, it became clear to us that Justin had completely run out of energy from hardly eating over the previous 4 days.  Justin and I went back to the hotel and I forced him to eat…ANYTHING!  He rested and nibbled on little bits of crackers, M&M’s, granola bar and grapes.  The more he ate, the better he started to feel.  Within 2 hours we were back with the family enjoying Legoland in the the rain!

The boys hanging out with Bob!

 

Travis loved the Daytona 500 Lego display!

Ryan enjoying his ice cream treat!  He wouldn’t come sit next to the rest of us!

Justin earning his driver’s license!

Although Travis is getting a little too big for Legoland, he still had a great time!

Travis posed in front of the Lego gal in the red dress, but he is so embarrassed by the picture, I thought I’d better not put it on the blog forever!

Travis and Justin enjoying a ride together while Justin was back at the hotel resting.

I think Travis can take him!

Ryan, maybe not so much…

R2D2 hanging out with my boys!

….and we’re off!

Our vacation started off full of excitement!  The kids were ecstatic to be going on vacation AND not to be going to school!  First up was San Diego.  Our good friend Gina was getting married and it coincided perfectly with the boy’s fall break from school. 

Ryan LOVED the airplane!  He was so excited to check out the sites below, to sip his juice and eat peanuts and he especially enjoyed me reading the emergency card over and over again!  “What’s this?” he would say, pointing to the picture of the airplane crashing into a mountain or in the water. ”Oh, that is just the airplane crashing into the water.  We can’t use the rear exit door in the event of a water landing!”  He was captivated.  He even practiced his crash landing position as pictured on the card! 

San Diego greeted us with gray, drizzly skies, but our moods were not to be dampened!  The boys thought our connecting room with Grandma was awesome and monopolized her TV with endless cartoons, while leaving Jeff and I to hang out in our side of the room kid free.  Unfortunately, the rain and lack of prior planning confined us to our room much of the afternoon. 

The weather improved that evening and Jeff and I were able to go out, kid free, to meet up with some friends and visit with Gina and her husband to be.  We had a fun evening. 

When we arrived back at the hotel we found the boy’s sleeping “comfortably”!  It cracks me up, how Justin sleeps.  He is all over the place all the time.  Poor Travis is a perfectly calm sleeper and had to deal with his brother’s bad habits.  Unfortunately, that is not all he had to deal with….

Just two hours later, Justin was throwing up!  Oh, yeah…good times.  It just wouldn’t be a Carter vacation without someone getting sick!  The stomach bug was rampant at school and although, I hoped and prayed they wouldn’t get it, I knew someone would!  I was told that most kids recovered in 12-24 hours, not Justin!  He threw up on 3 occasions over 3 days, with the highlight being in the car all over himself as we were parking to go into the wedding!  Thank goodness for Grandma!  She saved the day once again and took them all back to the hotel while Jeff and I spent the rest of the day and evening enjoying the beautiful wedding and reception.

So, San Diego didn’t quite go as planned…luckily Justin had periods of time where he was feeling better before he crashed again. The pictures below were  taken at a picnic on Coronado Island hosted by Gina and Jason.

The boys!  Justin looks pretty good for just throwing up a few hours earlier!

Croquet for the boys!

Ryan says, “CHEEEEESSSSEEEE” 

After this, we were off on the next adventure of our trip….Legoland!!

SURPRISE!

We surprised the boys with a vacation! They got up, got ready for school and then in a serious voice, I asked them to "please come sit down on the couch". They thought they were in trouble. It just made the surprise that much more fun!

Just two hours after they found out, we were on an airplane ready for a 9 day trip which included Disneyland and Legoland! The boys were super excited. I just wish the video showed the excitement they had after it all set in!

My little boy gets a “big boy” bed!

Ryan was super excited to have his big boy bed finished and set up in his room! 

Big brothers, Travis and Justin, showing Ryan how to “make” his bed so that all his cuddly’s  are displayed!  I think Travis and Justin were just as excited about Ryan’s new bed as Ryan!  It was pretty cute!

Travis and Justin reading books to Ryan before he went to bed!

  Ryan went to right to sleep in his new bed.  It was probably so nice for him to stretch out!  He has been pretty cramped in his crib lately! 

 

I knew this day was coming, after all, Jeff has been working hard to build Ryan’s bed for a couple of months now.  Ryan NEEDED a bed.  We would go in to check on him at night and find him either all scrunched up or his feet and legs sticking out of the crib slats.  He was just getting too big!  So, Jeff finally finished his bed and got it put in his room today.  It looked great and Ryan loved it!  And then, Jeff started taking the crib apart.  It made me sad, sad to think that all my boys are growing up.  I no longer have a baby in the house!  The crib has been set up and used for nine years now!  All three of them have slept in it, and now all three have grown out of it :(  It is exciting to see Ryan growing up and all that goes with that, but still I am sentimental and sad for the time that has passed and how quickly it seems to go!

Justin joined Cub Scouts!

I am so excited for Justin, I think he is going to LOVE Cub Scouts!  In the short time that he has been involved (less than a month), he has had a great time!  He thinks his uniform is the coolest thing ever, he was super excited to build a boat with his Dad for the Rain Gutter  Regatta, and even enjoyed selling popcorn in front of the local grocery store. 

Tiger Cubs, Justin and Parker, selling popcorn!  They did pretty good!  It must have been because they were so cute because this popcorn is seriously expensive!  “Would you like to buy some tasty popcorn?”

Justin with the boat he built with Jeff for the Rain Gutter Regatta!

Justin racing his boat!

A Day at the Races!

Jeff took Travis out for an evening of racing up in Roseville!  Travis is a huge NASCAR fan.  He had a blast hanging out with his Dad, having snacks, and watching the races.  It was a great night for both of them!

Roseville Raceway!

So happy!

Travis sitting in his beloved #24…The only thing that could have made it better is if it was actually Jeff Gordon’s #24! 

Sitting in the car was one of the perks of going to the races on Fan Appreciation Day!

He even walked the whole track!  What a great day for him!

A Bad Hair Day!

I love that the boys frequently will get up and get themselves ready for school in the morning, but I cringe when they decide to fix their own hair!  Since the boys have had enough hair to comb, I have been fixing their hair.  I like it when it is neat and parted like little men.

So, when they locked themselves in the bathroom the other morning, I knew what they were up too.  To my surprise, Travis came out looking pretty good.  He required a little fixing which he was more than willing to accept from me.  Justin, on the other hand, hasn’t quite figured out how to work that brush!  It took everything in me to tell him, “Great job.  It looks good!”  I offered to help fix a few areas that needed some help, but he wasn’t taking it!  He was so proud of himself and thought that it looked perfect!

This picture really doesn’t do the hair justice!  It was literally a comb-over from near his ear and there was a spot in the back that was combed completely forward, plus he had severe bed head in the back!

Here you can see the hair in the back combed forward!

  Travis did a pretty good job!