Fall Trip - Day 14 - Science Center, Zoo, and Western Museum

Friday, October 26, 2012

Well, today is our last full day on our trip.  The kids and I made sure we hit the last few things on my list so that I didn't feel like we missed out on anything.  The first thing we did was the Discovery Science Center.  This was a fairly small science center, but it had a few things that the kids had fun with. 

Here is the cockpit from the Endeavor space shuttle.  I'm not sure if it's real or not.  There was no information posted about it and you couldn't go inside it or anything.  It's just the front of the shuttle, but back is not there. 

The kids all had fun laying on the bed of nails.  This picture is of Max who didn't mind it at all, but Jacob was nervous about it, so he didn't lay as flat which made it a little uncomfortable.

Zoe in the Bob the Builder camper.

 

The boys stopping pucks in the Hockey Science section.

 

Walking inside of a large dinosaur.

 

 



Then we drove all the way back north of Los Angeles to go to Griffith Park which had the LA Zoo and the Gene Autry Western Museum.

 

 

 To keep him interested, I told Jacob that he could take all of the animal pictures which worked great until he decided...

...to only take pictures of animals butts!

 

 

We went to the Gene Autry Western Culture Museum because I read some very positive reviews online.  I still really didn't expect to like it since I'm not very interested in the old west, but it turned out to be pretty good.

 

 

 



An old time kitchen

 Zoe playing with some old time toys.

 

 

 

 

Jacob getting to be in a western movie.  Seems like they should have given him that plastic horse and the hat for this.

 

 

 

Well, it was another great trip, but I can't wait to get home.  Vacations are tough with kids, but they sure are fun!  Who knows where we'll end up next.  We have a Disneyworld trip scheduled in May, but that's a long way off, I'm sure we'll hit the road before that!

 



 

 

Fall trip - Day 13 - Pretend City and the beach

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to bring the camera so we only have one picture today.

Kyrie is busy with her conference now so the kids and I started the day at the Pretend City children's museum.  The kids had a blast there.  It's set up like a little city with a bank, gas station, farm, medical clinic, dentist, cafe, grocery store, etc.  Jacob liked running around collecting all of the money that he could find.  Max spent most of his time in the cafe cooking up pretend orders for the volunteers who worked there.  Ella liked everything - maybe dancing on the stage was her favorite.  Zoe liked the little cars she could drive around the little town.

Boy, those would have been some cute pictures!

After that we had lunch at the kids' favorite place - Panda Express.  Then we took a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway while Zoe napped and eventually stopped at Crystal Cove State Park and played at the beach.  The kids had fun looking at the tidepools and measuring the movement of the waves on the beach.

This is a picture from the parking lot after we got done.

Fall trip - day 12 - One last day at Disneyland and then on to Newport Beach

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The kids at Mater's Petting Zoo.

 

Zoe loved this toy in the store...for about three minutes, then she threw it on the floor and didn't want it back.  At least she didn't wait until after we bought it!

 

 

We only took a few pictures today.  Kyrie and Jacob still got up early even though we were up late last night.  They hit lots of rides and Kyrie even talked Jacob into going on California Screamin'.  He loved it and ended up going on it several more times.  Later in the morning the rest of us joined them for a little more fun before leaving for Kyrie's conference at Newport Beach.

 

So now we're at the Radison Newport Beach.  Kyrie will be at her conference and I'll be entertaining the kids for the last couple days.

 





Fall trip - Day 11 - Mickey's Halloween Party



Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tonight we went to Mickey's Halloween Party with some cute vampires and a bat.

 

 

 

This is as close as Max will get to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

 

Zoe couldn't wait to get her hands on her first piece of Halloween candy.

 

Barbershop quartet of ghosts on a raft.

 

The parade.

 

 

 

 

We watched the fireworks from the front of It's a Small World.

 

 

The end of a fun night. 

 





Fall trip - Day 10 - World of Color

I've lost track of the days.  I think this was Sunday, but I'm not completely sure.  We've had some late nights, so I haven't been keeping up on this.

Max and Ella on the Fun Wheel.

 

Tower of Terror - suprisingly one of Ella's favorite rides.

 

Jacob took pictures of his favorite rides while on the Fun Wheel.

 

Goofy's Sky School

 

After a couple hours at California Adventure we went across to Disneyland.

 

The Jungle Cruise - I like the Disneyland version better than Disneyworld.

 

Lunch at the Hungry Bear restaurant.  Ella thought there was a dead bug on the cupcake.

I think Ella's exact words were, "I don't think that's going to be very yummy with that dead bug on there." 

 

Astro Orbiters

 

After a break, we had dinner at Carthay Circle.

 

Zoe's reputation must have preceded her because they gave us a little room all to ourselves.

 

 

 

World of Color was pretty amazing.  Dinner at Carthay Circle gave us tickets to the reserved section, but it seemed that the Wine Country Trattoria had the best section.  The kids had a hard time seeing.