Disneyland adventures

We just got home from Disneyland and from a week and a half of Kearns family time.  My parents are very generous and my mom especially treasures getting her kids and grandkids together.  I'm amazed at her love and energy to make it happen.  She flew to Texas to pick up Andrew and Bailey.  Ryan and Sarah just had baby Megan and so they stayed home.  Mom flew the Kearns kids back to Fremont for the week and then we all flew together to the OC for 3 days at the Disneyland resort.

Lukas was so excited for his cousins to come and stay at his house.  He talked about it for weeks before they came.  Once we got home from church on Sunday, he burst through the door, ran full steam towards his cousins, and started hollering.  The boys all started to play together right away.  Little Bailey would get tired of all the "boy play" and wander around the house by herself.  At night the kids had a big sleepover and usually Lukas and Bailey crashed out first.  Kai and Andrew stayed up late talking.  The first night I peeked my head in and they looked so cute lying with their faces toward each other, elbows propped up, and talking in low voices about the universe and Adam and Eve.  During their Fremont visit, we went to Happy Hallow, saw the Minions movie, and went to the water park.  Fun times, but man, I'm exhausted!  And the fun didn't stop there...

Who's ready for Disneyland?!

We all hopped in the plane and headed to the Disneyland Hotel.  It was really nice!  There were lots of Disney touches such as our bed headboard lit up into fireworks and played a little music box lullaby.  The bathroom sink faucets were shaped with Mickey ears and the lights from held up by Mickey hands.

From our hotel window, we had a perfect view of the real fireworks at night.  The kids didn't get to watch them until the last night because they crashed out too early to see them.

Of course my sweet tooth sweetie wanted some of the 60th anniversary cupcakes

Getting ready for the pool

One of the other really cool things about our hotel other than that it was within walking distance of the parks was the pool area.  The pool area had 2 swimming pools and one splash zone with 3 slides next to old school monorail decorations. We went swimming 2 of the days because most of the days were very hot.  The weather though was very unusual.  It was hot during the day and rained Saturday night.  After our hot morning at California Adventure on Sunday, we went back to go swimming and the weather started to get cold and breezy.  It rained that afternoon and night.  Mom and dad went to California Adventure after dinner and enjoyed the rides in the rain.  On Monday, it got hot again and everything was going okay.  Mom and Ryuta took Andrew and Kai to Thunder Mountain.  Dad and I took Lukas and Bailey to Winnie the Pooh.  After the ride, we found a shady spot to stop, check our phones, and figure out where to go next.  The next thing you know... Lukas is toppled over the railing with his head crashed down on some river rocks screaming and thick blood dripping from his head.  I picked him up and ran him to the nearest snack shack to get ice or help.  The Disneyland employees were excellent at attending to us and trying to be helpful.  I need to write a thank you card to the nurse Vivver and the security guard Lisa.   They were very, very good to us.  Lukas had a gash in the back of his head that wasn't big, but it was deep and cut all the way through his skin.  Ryuta and I grabbed a taxi to the nearest Kaiser to urgent care.  We waited awhile and the doctor ended up putting a staple in Lukas' head.  Now, if you've never experienced your kid's head getting stapled and you are faint at heart, I don't recommend it.  It was just a little traumatic for everyone.  Luckily, I had a lollipop on hand.  Unluckily, the doctor got it wrong and had to pull out the staple which was just as traumatic and do the stapling one more time! Ah!  We spoiled Lukas after with candy and found Star Wars cereal at the store across the street.  After which he was back in good spirits and didn't seem to mind the big ole bandage on his head.  Mom and dad said they could watch the kids that night so that Ryuta and I could go back to Disneyland.  All was well with Fastpass tickets, etc., but then... I reached into my back pocket and my phone was gone!  This was icing on top of the cake.  The Disney Lost and Found called us the next morning as we were headed to the aiport that they found it and would be mailing it back.
Anyways, here are some happy pictures of our trip:

Check out those monorail slides!

Tutu & Papa with most of their grandkids

Meeting Mickey

One of the highlights: We got to meet Darth Vader!!!

Join the dark side!

When it was time to say goodbye and take separate planes, it was sweet and sad when Lukas realized that he was saying goodbye and started crying.  Even when we got back to the bay and were driving home, Lukas asked about Andrew and Bailey and started to cry again.  I'm glad that our boys got to spend some time with their only cousins and had some fond memories.