Overcome Fear of Slides...Check!

Will was never very interested in going down slides for some reason. It's not like he's had some really traumatic experience where his mom sends him down a dark tunnel of doom and he comes out head first screaming into Daddy's arms. But if he ever did have an experience like that, I'm sure the mom had no idea it was a slide meant for older kids.
Well, the point is, he's overcome whatever fear of slides he had before and is loving them now.

Prince Charming

We had a tea party activity with our courtyard last week. (I had many a memorable tea party as a kid. They were more sugar than tea, and they got pretty wild.) Kids were encouraged to dress up so I did what I could with Will's clothes and helped him look smashing for the tea party. One of the little girls actually said "We're all princesses, and Will is our prince!"
It can't be helped. Will is surrounded by girls! Pretty much all the kids that go out to the playground are girls. He recently started greeting them all with hugs. He used to give the little girl below lonnnnng hugs. It was so cute, but then she moved back to Canada. 'sniff'
Luckily, the girls aren't all about tea parties. They like to get messy too. Here's Will splashing around in puddles with one of his favorite neighbors.

iFly Indoor Skydiving

For Christmas my mom got Britton a ticket to do a beginner's round of indoor skydiving. Last weekend we finally got to see what this indoor skydiving is all about. Giant vertical wind tunnel...say what?! Our fluid-dynamic loving nerd was in heaven! Britton also convinced his little brother and friend to join him in this neon jumpsuit and ridiculous goggle wearing escapade.
We got the official video of them flying around. Here it is in edited form for all you busy people out there. In case it's hard to recognize them the order is:
Alex and Britton Round One
Alex and Britton Round Two
Trainer guy shows off

Theme Park-athon

9 People
2 Vehicles
1 Stroller
3 Days
3 Theme parks

Our Goal: To optimize the theme park experience in Southern California.

Before we left, Britton pulled up a map of the parks, and started to do his research on optimizing our time at Disneyland, California Adventure, and Universal Studios. Turns out there are a lot of other engineering-type fathers who tried to do the same thing, but the reports from the daddy blogs he read were unanimous, families interrupted the plan! Nothing went according to schedule.
But we did our best to make the most of the official hours of operation. Did you know Disneyland is only open until midnight, but the stores and restaurants outside of Disneyland are open another hour!? You can get back to your hotel by 2 AM and then go right back when they open the doors at 8 AM! Crazy? I think so.
Here are my best tips for navigating these three parks.

DO take advantage of the FAST PASS. Our runners, Derek and Britton, took everyone's tickets ran across the park to get fast passes for crowded lines like Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones.

DON'T buy too much food in the park. Bringing your own lunch and snacks will save you TONS of money, and then you can treat yourself to a leisurely dinner outside the park.

DO share the chocolate lava brownie volcano at the Rainforest Cafe. It's gigantic!


DON'T get too close to the giant chipmunks. They're really creepy.

DO bring lots of sunscreen no matter what time of year it is. It was beautiful and 80 degrees in March.

DON'T take your 1.5 year-old to the Bug's Life movie. The squirting water will scare him. Ghosts and pirates, however, will not scare him.
DON'T make your son wear the "Sassy Lassie" shamrock headband.
DO visit Disney's California Adventure. I wasn't sure what to expect there, but it was so much bigger and better than I expected! I loved California Screamin' the rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and the cute Bugs Life kids area.
DON'T club anyone with a giant turkey leg.

DO take a kid with you. They make everything more magical. (Britton counts as a kid.)
Universal Studios

DO dress to impress in case you see anyone famous at the studios.

DO wait in the long line for the tour of the studios. It's worth it. My favorites were the studio tour, Simpson's ride, Jurassic Park, and The Mummy.
DO walk ahead of your sister-in-law and her friend in the House of Horrors. These two were magnets for the creepy monsters and water...which kept me completely safe and dry:)

DON'T be fooled by the cute face. He's only interested in the pretzel.