Hauʻoli lā hānau, Deven!

Dear loyal reader(s): in the spirit of FIFO, I am finally writing up our wonderful trip to Hawaii earlier this year (and back-dating it accordingly). Much has happened since then, but don't worry, I'll get there eventually...

For reasons that are not worth describing, we had four tickets to Hawaii that were due to expire in mid-February. Nothing like sunk cost as a forcing function to take a vacation! So, we decided to "celebrate Deven's 2nd birthday" by taking the trip, and since we had to go to Oahu (long story, but basically because of the way the tickets were purchased originally that was the case), we decided to try out Aulani, Disney's new resort in Hawaii. Yes, we are those people. Sonia was elated (having devoured every piece of direct mail marketing we received about the property, which was a lot), and we were psyched to stay at a brand new property where we would be able to get a room that was essentially a little mini-apartment (living room separate from bedroom, kitchen and w&d included, etc.). If you would like the scoop on how to book Disney Vacation Club properties at a discount when you are not a DVC member, drop me a line.

After a relatively uneventful flight (thank you Steve Jobs), we got off to a bit of a rocky start when another passenger mistook our luggage for theirs, and so we were short one bag. Of course, it was the one with all of the kids' stuff in it, so while Sameer toured the property, I made an impromptu visit to a nearby Target for swimsuits and Froot Loops, the latter because I have told Sonia that the cereal is only available while you are on vacation (miss smarty pants recently asked me if that was true, then why is it sold in our local grocery store, but seemed to accept 'because people come here on vacation too' as an adequate response).

After being reunited with our luggage the next morning, we proceeded to spend the next week on a vacation I would describe as relentlessly fun. I have never been on a cruise ship, but I can only imagine it must be something like this. Each day there is a schedule printed of all of the activities going on in the resort (all family-oriented, and largely included for free while you are staying there). So, instead of sitting your a** by the pool as we have done for all previous Hawaii vacations, you find your self taking "surfing lessons" with Chip n' Dale (note: on land, we're not there yet w.r.t. swimming ability). The kids *loved* it, and Sonia has asked to go back on a weekly basis ever since we've been home. Sameer and I were left to wonder a bit what happened to our relaxing week in Hawaii, but it is hard to imagine that there could be any destination that was more kid friendly (and I will say that their spa was an amazing refuge, easily on par with other high end places we have stayed). And I was very impressed by the multitude of lifeguards on hand (literally, several constantly positioned around each pool), to the point that if our kids could actually swim well, I could envision a very different vacation where we are firmly ensconced in our lounge chairs while "keeping an eye" on the kids. Pencil our reservation in for 3 years from now.

All sniping aside, many, many highlights to remember:

• Sonia was able to see her beloved Disney characters (or at least the ones who are "visiting" Hawaii, namely Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Stitch, whom she deemed weird, but still hugged to be polite). And that whole experience was much more low key than Disneyland, which was nice.
• The hotel itself is really amazing, with a pool area that was the best for kids I've ever seen. Sonia is still raving about the slide you go down in rafts, and even braved the "big kids" slide once (due to some ill advised daring on the part of her father). Deven was more of a fan of the lazy river, and everyone was thumbs up on the hot tub. The pool was so nice the kids were practically complaining when Sameer insisted they go to the beach (literally 50 feet from the pool).
• There are tons of activities around the hotel for kids, so on the couple of days the weather was less-than-sunny, we were able to hang out at the kids' club, do a very cool high tech scavenger hunt with custom configured loaner iPhones, watch tropical fish being fed in their big salt water aquarium, etc., etc. Way too much to describe. See my reference above about the "relentless fun."
• I was very grateful that they were very prepared to make Deven's birthday a big deal (obviously having children celebrating their birthday at the Aulani is not a new concept for them). We attended a "character breakfast" that morning where Deven received special attention from Goofy, Minnie, and "Auntie" (not clear he was happy about all of the attention, but his big sister enjoyed the spillover effect), and then at dinner that night they were able to provide a birthday cake complete with a tropical Minnie & Mickey decorations on top. I looked like I had my act together, even though that was not at all the case.
• Not to be outdone by the special attention being paid to her little brother, Sonia was delighted to get to go to the spa for the "keiki package", which I thought was sort of girly hula lessons, but turned out to be a full blown toddlers-and-tiaras style makeover. I drew the line at makeup ("pixie dust"), but since we had already gone through a manicure, pedicure, full updo, and a new dress, Sonia didn't mind. Yikes. Still, if you ask her what was the highlight of trip, she will definitely mention it, so I guess it makes the list here. :-)
• I should also note that they have a deal where if you buy one of their plastic mugs, you get unlimited self-serve refills on soda, so I had as many Diet Cokes as I could conceivably consume. Given that Deven stubbornly refused to switch timezones (causing us to be frequent visitors to the lobby to pick up the day's schedule when it is released at 5am), I very much appreciated this all-you-can-drink access to caffeine.

Not included on the list of "highlights" include several lowlights, most notably the absolute fit Deven threw on the plane ride back to California which caused a complete stranger to offer us his iPad just to get Deven to stop crying. Note to self: do not book flights during naptime with the overly ambitious goal that your child will sleep then, because odds are they will get too riled up, skip the nap, and then be a complete nightmare.

But, I digress from the fun...and there was tons of that...here are just a few of the many moments:

Sporty Spice

I was never really into soccer when I was a kid. In my defense, it was Oregon, so soccer in the fall = cold and muddy, and there was also the fact I had zero natural skill for the game.  So, I acknowledge that it was pretty hypocritical that I decided it was time to sign Sonia up for soccer, even though she wasn't that excited to start.  She did get more excited when I explained we would be buying her a new soccer ball, cleats, shin guards, and matching soccer socks (all pink, of course). At this age, soccer is just a once per week class on Saturday where they play various skill building games before "scrimmaging" for 5 minutes.  And by "scrimmage" I mean run around in a pack somewhere in the vicinity of the ball, while the one kid who is naturally skilled scores goals at will (needless to say, not our kid).

In yet another reminder of why we deal with California's high cost of living, the weather has been beautiful, even though the classes started in January.  Sonia has learned how to kick the ball with the "power spot" on her foot (not her "stinky toes"), the basics of defense in a game that involves "kitties" chasing "doggies", and a bit of goal tending (where the ball is an "insect" which she has to keep out of her "house").  I don't think any of it has really sunk in, but I am just happy that she is having fun, and Sameer is working on controlling his facial expressions when Sonia allows the other kids to take the ball away from her when they are scrimmaging.  Apparently we have over taught her the importance of sharing.  :-)

The kids line up for the first day of soccer class (Sonia second from the right)

Running around, nowhere in the vicinity of the ball

Time for a juice break -- for the record, if you added in orange slices here you would have captured all of my positive memories of soccer

Sonia walks away after scoring a goal (of course, note the lack of goal keeper)

Showing off her "soccer pose"

Besides soccer, Sonia also goes to swimming each week (and she used to go to gymnastics, until we missed the cutoff date to renew her enrollment, so there went one shot at the Summer Olympics).  She has been working on getting her "red ribbon" (the next level of swimming) for what seems like at least a year, to the point that Sameer had considered enrolling her in more frequent swimming classes (earning him the nickname "Tiger Dad" from Molly).  After our recent trip to Hawaii (a blog post to come), the extra practice paid off and Sonia finally managed to get her ribbon. That means she can do 5 "up faces" in a row (essentially taking a breath five times while she swims), can "pencil jump" into the pool, can float on her back, and two other things I forgot. Next up is her "white ribbon", which requires her to swim underwater for 16 feet, pick items up off the bottom of the pool, and dive in from the side (head first, feet last).  Stay tuned for the post where she earns that ribbon...in about a year at least I would guess.

With her brand new red ribbon (note: I did not sanction the wearing of this 2 piece swimsuit, but maybe the lack of clothing propelled her to swim faster)

So You Think You Can Dance

As mentioned in the last post, one of Deven's favorite Christmas presents was a musical Thomas the Train toothbrush, which plays the Thomas theme song at surprisingly loud volume for such a tiny thing. Encouraged by his sister, Deven has taken to playing the song over, and over, again, each time "dancing" when he hears it.

Based on the video below, I fear some awkward moments during future school dances, but at least they've got enthusiasm. Perhaps Deven's dancing moves will improve once he figures out how to get his feet to leave the ground.  :-)

Closing Out the Year in Pictures

It's been a while since we posted pictures from all of our various comings and goings (since before the 4th of July!), so below is a random assortment of pictures from the second half of 2011. Definitely for true Team Dholakia fans as there are a ton of them...lots of great moments to remember!

Holidaze 2011

Taking another trip back in the time machine, here is a recap of the holidays...now backdating properly so things are less confusing.  :-)

2011 did not disappoint with another wonderful holiday season, even though we managed to take far too few pictures to document all of the fun occasions.  We started off by spending nearly a week up in Oregon for Thanksgiving, which gave us plenty of time to try new recipes, hit the zoo (which you have nearly to yourself when you're there when it opens and it is rainy and cold out), and even get in a little bit of wine tasting. The highlight was definitely our family Thanksgiving dinner at Julie & Randy's, featuring some amazing food and lots of kid antics. Sonia and Deven were active participants in building the barricade to the living room, which involved dumping every article of clothing, toy, and pillow they could find to wall off the room. Needless to say, the adult clean up crew was required to put everything back in order.

Somehow we managed no pictures of the great living room wall, but here are a few from the trip that we did manage to take.

Thankfully the play structure did not collapse under the weight of lots of cousins

Deven thoroughly enjoying his wipeout from the slide

Braving the weather at the zoo

Close encounters of the polar bear kind

Close encounters of the sea lion kind

After Thanksgiving, we returned home to discover that somehow it was almost Christmas and we were completely unprepared. Thankfully, we have one of those blasphemous (to Oregonians, at least) artificial Christmas trees, so we quickly put it up and not-so-quickly put up lights on our house (the latter involving more than one trip to Costco because apparently we can't do basic math to determine how many strings of lights we needed to buy) and overnight we were in the holiday spirit. Sonia in particular really got into the meaning of the season, which for her is requesting potential presents from every catalog that came in the mailbox. Which, as all parents know, is about 5 catalogs per day during the holiday season.

A new tradition we started this year was going to the Nutcracker ballet in San Francisco. Sonia was thrilled to have another occasion to wear her fancy holiday dress, and even more excited when it turned out that cousin Maya and Melissa were sitting right in front of us (an unplanned coordination, which is pretty remarkable given how large the auditorium is).  Note to self: next year smuggle in flasks and juice boxes as the intermission lines were crazy, and chugging champagne before you have to rush back to your seat is nearly as enjoyable as it sounds.

For the holiday itself, Grandma and Grandpa came from Portland, and Uncle Kevin came up from Los Angeles, and Dada and Bebe drove down from Tracy so we could all celebrate together. Santa and his elves were very busy Christmas Eve when Santa delighted Sonia and Deven by bringing them both a "mini" trampoline and a train table. Santa must have mistakenly thought we live in a big house! But, the rather large additions to our family room were well worth it based on the beaming smiles that lasted for days. I don't believe Deven was more than 3 feet away from the train table for at least the first week it was in our house.

As she does every year, Sonia monitors Santa's progress online with help from Uncle Kevin

Sonia works on making Santa cookies (an annual tradition, despite my resolution each year to just go with store bought)

You know you have too many presents when they stop fitting under the tree

Santa's cookies, milk, and carrots (for the reindeer) are all set

Sonia no doubt wonders how Santa managed to get such a large train table down our chimney

You can't imagine how tired Sonia was at the end of the day after jumping on her trampoline for hours

A lesson in frugality: Deven's favorite present was this musical Thomas toothbrush from his stocking

While Christmas was a true highlight, New Years was a bit of a lowlight as I rung in the new year slightly sick (two years running!), and for the first time ever called it a night long before midnight. But, we managed to rally to attend the Fiesta Bowl to watch Stanford lose (alas) in a heart breaker. But, it was great to see so many good friends in Phoenix, even if the outcome was not what Andrew Luck probably had in mind when he stayed one more season. I suspect next year we will not have the luxury of worrying about which bowl we'll be in, but you never know.

All in all, it was a wonderful holiday season...great food, lots of time with friends and family, spoiled children who managed to be (mostly) on their best behavior, and great memories that are finally posted here for posterity.  :-)

Family Photos

One of my new year's resolutions was to get back into a regular pattern of blogging updates, and since it's now February with no updates, it's obvious that that resolution was as successful as all of the others.  :-)


But, you've got to start somewhere, so going back in our time machine to last November (where we last left off), here is the next post I should have written....

Just in the nick of time for holiday cards (and with the weather only somewhat cooperating), we managed to get our "annual" family photos taken (annual in quotes since we don't seem to manage it every year, but two years running is almost a pattern!).

Here were our favorites...

The whole family, in our attempt to be coordinated in our outfits without being too "matchy matchy"

Two little munchkins (Deven's strange expression due in part to the fact he is chewing a pretzel)

"If I look at you long enough with my large eyes perhaps you will give me anything I want."

"Who me? I couldn't have done it...I look so innocent!"

Praying for divine intervention as Deven declares that the photo session is officially over

Sonia turns 5!

Earlier this month, we hit a big milestone in our house when Sonia turned 5.  This is a day that had been eagerly anticipated for months. I think it may have even taught Sonia to fully grasp dates and subtraction, as in, "My birthday is on November 7th, which is only 8 days from now." We were able to gently steer her in the direction of wanting to have a party at Pump It Up! again this year (yes, we outsource), and she took to the planning process in earnest. She helped pick out the proper Evite to send, confirmed the guest list (everyone from school plus a few others), selected the cake (Ariel the Mermaid, of course), chose the treats for the goodie bags, and helped pick out a new "5" t-shirt to wear to the party.  The day of, she was like the proverbial kid in the backseat asking "are we there yet?" -- literally counting down the hours until it started. We were all ready for it to start (Sonia) and be over (Sameer and me) when the time finally arrived.

The party itself was a blast. Sonia enjoyed running around and reveling in silliness with all of her friends...I don't believe she stopped moving once. Deven was considerably less excited about all of the people and screaming preschoolers, and had a true moment of terror when he went down the slide with Sameer. But, it all ended in pizza, juice, and cake -- smiles all around, especially from the birthday girl.

A few photos of the happy occasion...

Wheee....down the slide

Taking a breather in the middle of the obstacle course

A brief sneak preview of what Sonia will look like in 5 more years

Everyone making their "silly faces"

Admiring her very large Ariel cake (complete with Ariel candle!)

Now that Sonia is officially 5, I wanted to note a few things that I'll want to remember when some day she is 25...and maybe a few things I'll have happily forgotten.  :-)

• Sonia is the "biggest" (oldest) kid at her school, since she has a November birthday and thus is quite close to the cut-off to go to kindergarten.  We had decided it would be great for her to get another year of social confidence under her belt, but I think we perhaps underestimated just how confident she would get. Not a day goes by where we do not review the relative ages of everyone in her class, and note with pride for the millionth time that she is the oldest. At our parent-teacher conference this year, the feedback was across-the-board positive, except the new issue of Sonia becoming a bit of an instigator of silliness in the classroom combined (ironically) with her tendency to proactively enforce the rules on the little kids since she "knows everything about school." We now receive a daily report where Sonia self-grades whether or not she made "good choices" (and receives a stamp / sticker if she does). Yesterday Sonia told me she made "a few bad choices" but still gave herself a sticker. Grade inflation starts early.
• As noted in our Halloween post, Sonia is obsessed with Ariel (and pretty into princesses across the board). I have decided to just roll with this, citing the fact that I too had a pretty mean Barbie habit when I was little, and have somehow managed to not have warped views of gender roles as an adult (I can almost hear the snide comments on that front ;-)). Nevertheless, I do hope that we outgrow this phase soon, if nothing else so I never have to answer the question, "Mommy, who is your favorite princess?" again.  For the record, it's Belle because her favorite thing to do is read (like me). Sameer pointed out that I should have said Tiana, because she is an entrepreneur, but it was too late and Sonia requires that I always answer the same.
• On that last front, it is still remarkable to me what an incredible memory Sonia has. I imagine this is true for all little kids...maybe their brains are just super efficient because they're not yet full of decades of junk. But, whatever the reason, Sonia can recall long past details in an uncanny fashion. So, if your favorite princess was Belle five months ago, and you answer Tiana this time, she will correct you. Or if you said in January that when she turned 5 she could get a 2-wheel scooter, then she will make sure you know it when the time comes. Or, if you say that she has not read a certain "Fancy Nancy" book, she will correct you by reminding you that two years ago at Thanksgiving she got it from the library in Beaverton when visiting Grandma and Grandpa.  How foolish of you to forget.  It is like living with a stenographer. She does seem to forget when we make new rules about whether or not she is allowed to eat dessert, so there are some unexplained lapses.
• While Sonia is seemingly doing well on all cognitive fronts, she is [ahem] perhaps more like her mother when it comes to all things athletic. This is of course quite troubling for Sameer, and perhaps it is too soon to say how it will play out in the end. She has started taking "gymnastics" (read: mostly somersaults) and her teachers have reported back that she is showing much better balance of late. But, her pace of learning to swim remains glacial and I don't see her cruising around on her 2-wheel bike anytime soon. Peer pressure is a strong force, though, and it is sad to see her near tears when she realizes that Leah (her 4-year-old friend) can ride a bike and she can't. But, apparently peer pressure is not a strong enough force to get her to continue to try things she is not good at (like practicing riding a bike)...perhaps she has a bit of Sameer in her after all.  ;-)
• Sonia is a fantastic big sister, almost all of the time. She really loves her little brother ("gaga" these days, although nicknames change often in our house), and is clearly adored by him in return. Deven cannot say "Sonia" (or many other words, for that matter), so calls her "Nana" which I think is him trying to say "Nia-Nia" (the end of her name). One of the first things Deven says every morning is "Nana?" to ask if Sonia is awake yet. He almost always hears back, "No, Nana is still sleeping," (because of course he is awake too early), and he is visibly sad. When it is an acceptable hour, all you have to say to Deven is, "Go wake Nana up!" and he will run to her room, push open the door, and run over to the bed and start to make noise and touch her until she is awake. Sonia pretends to be annoyed, but is clearly pleased that she is Deven's favorite. At nighttime, she will sing him songs, and then gives him a hug and says, "You're my favorite thing in the whole world." Every time it makes me want to just hit "pause" on life and stay in that moment forever. 
• Despite being a great big sister, there are (of course) the occasional moments of not being so loving. Sonia does like to take advantage of their height difference by holding toys Deven is interested in well above his head and watching him reach up in vain to get them. When you scold her for it, she quickly says, "What? I'm giving it to him!" in an indignant tone which does not bode well for future teenage encounters. Whenever Deven gets a new toy, there is also quite a bit of jealousy and tattle-telling ("He won't let me play with it!"), which we are actively trying to curb. But, in general, they are two little peas in a pod, and it is easy to imagine the future when Deven is bigger and more articulate and her little partner in crime on all fronts.
• Sonia is also becoming quite opinionated about her own appearance, putting together some very interesting outfits (her ideas of what goes together and my ideas are quickly diverging). Also, she really wants her hair to be long ("really, really, really!"), so we are slowly growing it out, despite my efforts to convince her that it looks much better when in a short bob. Clearly, the days where I get to choose what she looks like are officially over. At least Deven is happily still wearing whatever I pick out (but does think his Thomas the Train PJs are the best).

All in all, Sonia is fast (too fast!) becoming a fantastic big kid. Quick to giggle, eager to try out her new jokes on you, loyal to her friends, and a remarkable combination of silly and serious all at the same time. She has all of our best traits, and some of our worst, but is already her own person. I can't wait to see what the next year brings, and all of the ones after that.

Happy birthday, Sonia...we love you!

Ariel for a day

While in typical fashion, we are way behind on posting to the blog, I did want to make sure that I had a chance to go back and write about the fun Halloween season we had.  And I say "season" because Sonia has obsessed for so long about her costume (literally months and months of anticipation), and there were so many activities, it is hardly just one day at this point.

First off, we had to decorate the house (Sonia was quite insistent on this as she saw more and more neighbors get in the spirit of things).  After putting up our "Happy Halloween" sign on the door and our ghost lights, of course the critical missing ingredient was pumpkins.  Slight complicating factor was that Sameer was out of town on an epic European tour for work, so Sonia, Deven, and I hit the pumpkin patch without him.  Deven was a huge fan of the outing, Sonia enjoyed the bouncy house, and I was proud that I managed to wrangle two kids and a cart full of pumpkins without incident.

"I am smiling to distract you, then I will run off and see how fast you can chase me while not losing my sister or dumping all of the pumpkins on the ground.  Weeee..this is fun!"

After acquiring the pumpkins, of course it was required that we carve them.  Sameer was back at this point, but quickly declared himself to have no skills in this area, mostly because he seemed a bit squeamish about reaching into the pumpkin to scrape out all of the seeds and guts.  Cross reference his "inability" to carve a turkey at Thanksgiving.  In a fit of stupidity, I told Sonia that she could pick out the designs she wanted from the book that came with the pumpkin carving set.  Mind you, when we were kids, we cut out some triangles for eyes with some huge chef's knife and called it a day.  We were lucky to manage one snaggly tooth in the mouth.  Sonia instead elected for a cat pumpkin again ("because I still like cats"), and also the "castle" pumpkin (I think because somehow this could be princess related?).  By the time I finished both, I have to say that I felt like the Michelangelo of pumpkin carving, so wanted to make sure to preserve for posterity these masterpieces...

"Cat Pumpkin" makes an appearance for the second year running

That's right, be impressed, because it was a complete pain in the you-know-what to carve "Castle Pumpkin"

More important than pumpkins, of course, are costumes.  They are so important that a 4-year-old will talk for an entire year about what she wants to be for Halloween.  Sonia's latest obsession these days is Ariel the Mermaid, so despite my constant efforts to encourage other ideas, she was determined to be her for the day.  I ultimately relented, spent an hour (no exaggeration) going through every possible mermaid costume possibility online (holy cow are there lots of choices...trying to get to the right level of cute but not weirdly adult with spaghetti straps), and in another fit of stupidity (a trend?), acquired an Ariel wig at Target to complete the look.  Go ahead and judge, but Sonia was glowing with happiness as she was magically transformed into Ariel for the day, and happily endured the itchiness of the wig and her inability to take normal size steps (oh, the agony of the mermaid skirt) without complaint.

Ariel graces our doorstep...needless to say, the wig was a hit at preschool

Sonia and her friends during the preschool Halloween "parade"

Finally, Halloween itself arrived and it was time for trick-or-treating.  It was Sameer's turn to take the kids out (while I stayed home to hand out candy), so he was asked repeatedly by Sonia what his costume would be.  He finally relented to wear a set of ghost deely-boppers (?) and a glow necklace.  We also put Deven in his train conductor costume (given his obsession with "choo choos"), although he refused to wear the hat for more than two seconds. 

Off they went (with our neighbors who have two kids the same age), and Sonia was a pro this year at rapidly going to each house and acquiring candy.  Deven (in his rookie season) was a bit slower to pick up on the pattern.  At the first house he accepted the candy, but then tried to hand it back.  At another point he tried to give his entire pumpkin bag full of candy to the person who greeted him at the door.  But, eventually he got it, and seemed to really enjoy running up to new houses, ringing the doorbell (admittedly, a favorite pastime), and then accepting gifts from strangers.  Not sure why we are teaching him this is a good thing.  :-)

Sameer and his "costume"

The only photo we managed where Deven is wearing his hat

The whole family

Of course, the night ended with the ritual sorting of the candy.  Deven was asleep, so not there to complain when his big sister swiftly combined his candy with hers and declared it all one big collection from which she could choose her favorites.   I suspect the dynamic will be different next year.

Sorting through the bounty...Skittles were declared "my favorite"

Sonia was allowed to have a couple of pieces of candy right before going to bed, which turned out to be as smart of a decision as it sounds.  Oh well, once a year, sugar highs are allowed.  Sonia is already planning her costume for next year (current leading contender is Minnie Mouse...a return to old favorites!).  Only 11 months more of debating this topic to come...

Summer vacation - Part 2: The happiest, most sleep deprived, place on earth

We pick up where the last post left off...

After 5 days in Oregon, we traveled down to Anaheim for the second half of our vacation.  To say that Sonia had been eagerly anticipating going to Disneyland would be a vast understatement.  We have fallen prey to the marketing forces of Disney, and Sonia is their loyal follower, interested in everything from Minnie Mouse to Ariel, even requesting over and over again that we play various songs from Mary Poppins whenever we are in the car ("Let's Go Fly a Kite" being her current favorite).  I know, I know...I can feel your judgement, but if you've ever heard a 4-year-old sing "Under the Sea" phonetically (getting most of the syllables right, but few of the actual words correct) at full volume with a giant smile on her face, you too would just go with it.  And, yes, I realize that it makes absolutely no sense to take a 1 year old to Disneyland, but Deven was happy to be along for the ride (and Sameer was happy that we had decided to not go all the way to Hawaii, since even the flight to Anaheim was a challenge for Deven).

Okay, caveats aside, we arrived at Disneyland at night and went to bed in short order anticipating a big day ahead.  We had fantastic memories of the last time we were at Disneyland, but what stuck out above all was that it was well worth motivating for the "magic hour" early entry where you can get in an hour before the rest of the world if you are staying at the park.  So, like the good Type A parents we are, we woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning and made our way to California Adventure in search of the the new Little Mermaid ride (which Sonia had watched videos of on the computer at home in joyful anticipation).  Before we got there, we took a brief detour to take Sonia on "Soarin' Over California", her first "real" ride.  Last time we took her she was too short to even consider going on these types of rides, but this time, the older, taller Sonia was anxious to cement her big girl status.  She was truly terrified for most of the ride (literally trembling at some points), but afterwards declared it "lots of fun" (and went on it again later in the trip).  From there we then went to the Little Mermaid, which broke down in the middle of it, which sounds like bad news unless you are a 4 year old "stuck" in Ariel's underwater adventures.  In which case you never want to leave.  After a few minutes, we were on our way again, and the rest of the morning hit more rides (including trying in vain to keep 3-D glasses on Deven's head in Toy Story Mania).  We were anxious to get a lot of rides in as the park was filling up, and as you can see from the picture below we may have pushed it too much as Deven hit the wall on the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel. 

10:32AM:  all smiles on the ferris wheel

10:39AM: yes, we have pushed it too far...naptime awaits

By lunchtime, we were all ready for a bit of a break, so we happily ventured over to Ariel's Grotto for lunch and cocktails (Sameer, me), princesses (Sonia), and whining (Deven).  I will spare you the full set of photos of Sonia meeting each princess, but if you like Sonia will happily share with you her autograph book / photo album (yes, I too am a victim of Disney marketing) and give you the play-by-play.  The short answer is that Ariel is her "favorite" and she gave Mulan a hug despite having no idea who she was.  Good to be polite, I guess.

Sonia and "her favorite" Ariel

The rest of the day was pretty quiet.  We took advantage of staying close to the park to head back to our hotel for some afternoon napping and to hit the swimming pool (sadly, probably the highlight of the day for Sonia, which begs the question why we traveled so far in the first place).  Sameer and I even managed a bit of a date night, taking in some adult rides and catching the fireworks while a sitter stayed with the kids. 

The next day we were again up early and went to Disneyland itself.  The whole thing now is a bit of a blur of character hugs, juice boxes, and reapplying sunscreen.  We went on the rides in Fantasyland first, and Dumbo remained a favorite with Sonia, and Deven too seemed to like it.  It was actually nice that we had been at Disneyland pretty recently (2 years ago), so we were much more relaxed about whether we got to take in a particular ride (hour long wait for the submarines? uh...let's just reminisce about when we saw it last time).  After the park started to really fill up, we escaped to have brunch with "Minnie & Friends" on Main Street.  Sonia and Deven were both overjoyed to discover "colored Cheerios" (Froot Loops), which they now request at the grocery store (note: they are denied...even bad parents have limits).

Minnie Mouse visits our table to sign Sonia's autograph book

Sonia hides under the table when Captain Hook comes by

Some of the character visits are kind of random...who the heck is Mr. Penguin?

In the afternoon, we saw the parade (a big hit again this trip, especially since Sonia could now identify Ariel, Mary Poppins, and others), took in several rides (including Pirates of the Caribbean...where I was keenly aware that Sonia could now understand the themes and wondered it it was good call to go on it), and ultimately escaped in favor of resting at the hotel.  The kids were exhausted (I've never seen them so happy to stay with a sitter), so Sameer and I headed out in the evening solo to go to "Club 33", an exclusive in-park restaurant where a family friend had hooked us up with reservations (leave it to us to find the only place in Disneyland that has a full bar!).  The experience got off to a rough start as Sameer was initially denied entry because he was wearing "flip flops" (they have a very strict dress code, where apparently leather sandals from Nordstrom are not acceptable, but random lace-up shoes you buy at the concession place across from the Indiana Jones ride are).  But, despite that rocky beginning, the meal was fabulous and afterwards we ate dessert and watched Fantasmic (and patted ourselves on the back for not bringing Sonia as the giant fire-breathing dragon threatened Mickey and friends). 

Highlights from the last day at the park included becoming "honorary citizens" of Toon Town (where Mickey lives with his friends), meeting countless characters, buying souvenirs from the various stores, and hitting some of the rides we missed in the first couple of days (quick plug for the outdoor adventure area at California Adventure...we had always just walked by before, but since we had extra time decided to hit it and it was a highlight of the day). 

The "citizenship" ceremony in Toon Town

The two newest citizens

The whole family meets Mickey!

Since it was our last night, we decided to have the sitter stay with just Deven and bring Sonia out with us to catch some of the evening shows.  She was very excited that Mommy (!) won her a stuffed Dumbo at the midway-style rides at California Adventure, and she was hugging it as we settled down to take in the "World of Color" water show (where huge crowds gather...think the Bellagio fountain show on steroids with Disney characters included).  Literally 5 minutes into the show, Sonia declares she has to go to the bathroom, so despite having gone to some effort to secure tickets for the preferred seating area, we had to bail.  We took it as an omen and ran over to Disneyland to get there in time for the fireworks show, which turned out to be even better.  Sonia was entranced as we watched from Main Street...hearing all of her favorite songs, watching both Dumbo and Tinkerbell fly above her as fireworks went off in the background...a truly magical moment.  Enough to make me forget being up with Deven at 5:30am in the hotel lobby so the rest of the family could sleep, the staggering amount of money we spent on food, and even the crazy toddlers-and-tiaras style kids we saw decked out in makeup and princess costumes.  I've got to admit, when Disney decides it's going to wow you, it usually succeeds.

A lazy morning on the last day when we were flying out included one last brunch at Goofy's Kitchen -- perhaps the most kid-friendly menu on earth, where they serve (I kid you not) peanut butter & jelly pizza as well as "worms and dirt" (gummy worms mixed with crushed Oreo cookies).  Right before it was time to leave for the airport, Sonia posed for one last picture.

Until next time!

At the airport, she suggested maybe we should come back "when Deven is two" (cleverly suggesting that it was for his benefit that we would need to return).  We'll see, but for now I'm really glad we went.  And, writing this months later, I think I am finally no longer exhausted from the experience.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

Not sure why it has taken me so long to write this, but before I forget every last memory of it, I wanted to share a few stories about our vacation earlier this summer. 

Side note: actually, I do know why it has taken so long...a combination of our photos only being on the iMac in the kitchen, the kids never leaving me alone if I try to use the computer there, and wanting to spend the time when they are both sleeping doing more fun things like working or drinking wine or both.  Oh, and did I mention my husband has decided to travel for work *all the time*?  Yes, I believe I have mentioned that to a few of you repeatedly.  :-)

Back to our story...we motivated to head up to Oregon at the end of July to attend my 20th high school reunion (yikes), and then head out to the beach for a half week on the coast.  After that, we flew south to Disneyland, but we'll get to that in the next post.  The trip got off to a rough start when I remembered as we were pulling up to SFO that our flight was in fact out of SJC.  If you are curious if it is possible to make it from SFO to SJC in less than 30 minutes during rush hour, the answer is yes if you qualify as a car pool and you drive like an idiot.  Then we got to Portland and discovered that the car I had rented would not even come close to holding the four of us, car seats, and our luggage.  The days of the sedan rental are sadly over.  With our costly upgrade behind us, we finally left the airport trauma behind and things improved steadily from there. The high school reunion was good, but uneventful.  In the age of Facebook, you pretty much know what everyone is up to, which takes away any of the surprise factor.  And having it be a paid bar was crazy bad news, because believe me more free-flowing alcohol would have livened things up considerably.  Sameer was a trooper to attend, was no doubt bored out of his mind, and as a consequence made an excellent drink sherpa.  Leave it to Sameer to make friends with multiple husbands in the line at the bar who were also responsible for drink fetching.  So, good to put the check in the box, and I'll see everyone again in 10 years.

The next day we drove out to Gearhart (with a pit stop at the Vineyard on the way out of town), and spent a wonderful few days hanging out on the coast.  The house my parents rented was super nice, we got to spend time with Kevin & Beth, and even convinced Charity, Kellie & family (plus Gina) to come out for a day.  The kids loved playing in the sand and the waves (although no one but the truly hardy ventures out into the very, very cold water) and running around the yard chasing bubbles.  Sonia got to hit the putting green with Grandpa at the golf course within walking distance, another day we walked to the ice cream shop in "town" (approximately 5 stores comprise all of "downtown"), and best of all the house came with its own playhouse outside stocked with toys (not to mention a sleeping loft reached only by a ladder which Sonia declared at first sight would be her room for the duration of the trip). There was of course lots of wine tasting (these are the Johnsons, after all), good food, and vows all around to repeat it again in the future for a whole week.  A few highlights:

Picking dandelions at the vineyard

"Sissy" gets a hug

Sonia and Jayna scream while the waves "chase them" (while Kellie makes sure no one really gets caught)

Deven sticks to digging in the sand (I know we used this picture in the last post, but it is too cute not to include again)

Sonia proudly points out that she ate 4 pieces of corn at dinner (hollow leg?)

Grandpa tries to explain the comics to Sonia (harder than you think) while Deven mugs for the camera

Grandpa checks on how his future golfers are coming along with their chipping practice

All in all, we were sad to leave Oregon, even if it was to head to Disneyland.  Yet another reminder that some of the best trips are where you get to just hang out with friends and family and not try to cram everything in.  Or, maybe just the best trips are where you rent a place large enough that everyone has their own room to sleep in.  But, we'll leave the stories of the whole family sharing one hotel room for the next post...