Yates Foursome

We had a great 4th of July. We had kind of an open house and invited what seemed like everyone we know ho lives within a reasonable distance to stop by. Quite a few did; we had a full house and it was great fun. We had Rockband and Wii Sports set up for people to play. The kids played in the backyard and garage and did some crafts. We had all-American burgers and hot dogs for dinner and the kids decorated star-shaped sugar cookies for dessert. It went really fast and before long it was getting dark outside and close to fireworks time. We brought all the chairs out to the front lawn, passed out glow sticks and bracelets to the kids, and settled in for the fireworks show at the park. The fireworks show was awesome and we had a perfect view from our front yard. It was great. Micah still is afraid of the loud booms and bangs of the fireworks so he watched from our office window with Cisco and Daddy. Not as great a view but still decent. Right after the fireworks pretty much everyone headed home and to bed pretty quick including us. It was a fun day.

Here are Micah and Caleb with their new Mickey Ears at Disneyland. It was Caleb’s very first Disneyland visit and the first that Micah remembers. Micah has actually been there three times before, but he was only about 7 months, 15 months, and 16 months old on those trips so he doesn’t remember. We decided to get annual passes so that we could get our money’s worth over several visits.
The boys, especially Micah, wanted to go on Autopia (the car ride) first, so once we got our annual passes processed we headed toward Tomorrowland. We saw Jasmine, Pinocchio, Cruella DeVille, and Buzz Lightyear greeting guests along the way. I had thought the boys would be excited to get to “drive” the cars themselves, and Caleb was but at the last minute Micah didn’t want to drive. So Caleb drove with Mommy and Daddy drove with Micah. Caleb didn’t like the way the car jerked back on track when he didn’t steer well so Mommy ended up helping him steer too. After everything, Micah said Autopia was his favorite ride. Next we wanted to try the Nemo submarines but the line was over an hour long so we ditched that idea. Instead we headed over to Fantasyland for a while. We went on Peter Pan’s Flight which they both really liked. Then we had to take pictures of each of them trying to lift the Sword in the Stone. Next we went on Dumbo which Caleb was really excited about because his favorite zoo animals are elephants. In the end, he said Dumbo was his favorite ride. Then we rode the Carousel which left them both with big smiles. By then we were starting to think about lunch plans so we decided to walk over to Critter Country to go on the Winnie the Pooh ride and eat lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant. Micah & Caleb liked the Pooh ride and were excited to see Tigger greeting guests near the ride exit. Caleb wanted to go talk to Tigger, but we didn’t want to wait in line for that, so we headed over to lunch. We watched the Columbia and Mark Twain float by a couple times while we ate. Micah did not like the Columbia’s cannons (too loud) and tried to rush to be done so we could go before it came by again. After lunch we went on the Jungle Cruise, which was good except for Micah didn’t like the “gunshots”. I think the boys thought the animals were real. We stopped at the Dole stand by the Tiki Room for some pineapple whip. Then we walked through the Castle into Fantasyland again. Our last ride was the Storybook Boats. Both boys liked that one a lot too. We stopped at a souvenir stand for some personalized Mickey Ears (gotta have those!), then shared a couple of Mickey-shaped ice cream sandwiches before heading out and home. They were both beat and fall asleep in the car pretty quick. It was a fun day. Can’t wait to go again!