Southern California!

It was spring break for our kids, so we spent the weekend in Southern California. Two days at Disneyland, then a day at the La Brea Tar Pits and the Children's Museum in Santa Ana (picture above is from the La Brea Tar Pits). Sunday, we spent the day and went to church with DH's grandma in Tehachapi, then we drove home Monday.

The best part of the trip? Allison is now 40 inches and could ride the more exciting rides at Disneyland. Sarah, sadly, is only 39 1/2 inches. We were hoping that the ride operators would see twins, measure Allison, and wave them both through. Indeed, that happened twice. But other operators checked them both and Sarah got denied entry to the Jumping Jellyfish ride. Luckily, we had a back-up plan. We brought a set of "tall" shoes for Sarah to wear. Her Sunday sandles have a heel an inch high, bringing her well within the height limits. We found a bench, changed Sarah's shoes and walked right back to the Jellyfish ride. Sarah skipped and sang out when they told her she was tall enough, and we didn't have any more problems. Both girls walked on Space Mountain, Star Tours, Soaring over California, and Splash Mountain. Both liked Splash Mountain but said they didn't want to go again (Sarah later changed her mind and begged to go on it again). They liked everything else, including Space Mountain, which surprised me.




Another highlight was visiting the Borax Mine in Boron, California. I had no idea that borax was in so many products (all right, I didn't even know anything about borax at all before the trip). The borax is dug out of an open pit mine, the largest in California. The rock itself is a beautiful crystal structure (yes, that's it just behind Sarah in the picture above). We were allowed to sort through several rock piles before we left and take lots of samples home. It was great.

It was a great vacation. We did have a few hitches, mostly because we originally planned to leave Thursday afternoon after the kids' half-day of school but then decided Wednesday morning to leave that night. In the mad dash of laundry and packing and dealing with details, I forgot several items, including Eliza's pack-n-play and the Baby Bjorn. We did all right without them, but it would have been nice to have remembered.