New Posts Coming Soon!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I will try to get some more recent pictures up soon. We have been so busy this spring that I haven't been able to keep up!

Dec 2009 Chuck E Cheese with "The Girls"

Over Christmas break, Bennett got his first trip to Chuck E Cheese. He got to go with some of his "girls" from school. (We say that because he was the only boy with about 10 girls in his preschool class for about 6 months...the girls love him!) He had a blast and talks about wanting to go back all the time!

Samantha, Christina, Kaitlyn, Rachel, and Bennett. Stina, Marina, Samantha, and Bennett getting their picture taken.

We saved alot of money on tokens that day because they wanted to ride everything together. :o)

Bennett and Stuart Little

Playing some air hockey. Marina is really good at this!

Santa Ana Train Depot

We did a "Bennett's Traintastic Day" one day over Christmas break. We started out at the Nixon Library to see Lego Trains, then on to the Santa Ana Zoo to ride the train, then on to the Santa Ana Train Depot to watch trains come and go, and then ended up at the McDonald's right outside of Knott's Berry Farm that has a train theme and running model trains around the ceiling for dinner. The Santa Ana Train Depot was just an amazingly romantic example of Spanish Architecture. It was beautiful. You instantly felt transported back to the 1940's and they even piped in 1940's music at the outdoor platform for passengers to listen to while waiting for the train. We spent about an hour and a half there just watching trains come and go. Bennett LOVED it!

In front outside the main building. Fountain in front of the depot.

In the back of the depot out on the passenger platform.

The bridge to go over the tracks to the northbound passenger waiting platform.

Bennett thought that the trains were very loud when they came roaring in and had to hold his ears every time. :o)

Courtyard at the depot with staircases leading up to offices.

Santa Ana Zoo

Who knew that Santa Ana had a zoo? I didn't, but now I do. What a cute little place. As part of our traintastic day for Bennett we headed to the zoo to ride on their smaller scale train. We got there too late and only had an hour before the zoo closed...so no train rides, but we really enjoyed what we saw. We will definitely go back. So much for the kids to play on and petting zoo as well as the train rides and carousel.

Bennett and Dan racing around the tractor tire.

Bennett crawling through the tractor tires. Yeah...Bennett wanted to pet the turkey of all things. At least he still has all his fingers. :o)

Richard Nixon Library

We decided to take a drive to Yorba Linda to the Richard Nixon Library to see this amazing Lego Train display they had there. The display was huge and very intricate in design. We toured Nixon's helicopter also as well as seeing Ward Kimball's train.

Fountains in front of the library. Nixon's helicopter...it had more ashtrays than seats! Crazy.

Ward Kimball's train. Ward Kimball was an animator for Walt Disney and was the one who got Walt Disney interested in trains as a hobby.

Switching yard of the Lego Train Layout.

Cute holiday store made of Legos complete with snowmen and carolers.

Bennett's Preschool Christmas Program

Bennett's Preschool had a very cute Christmas program this year. They practiced songs for months, and I heard Jingle Bells over and over from about Nov. 15th through February 1st! The kids are just so darn cute though all dressed up. They had Santa come and give the kids each a cute little gift as well. Bennett was a bit scared of Santa this year and didn't want to sit on his lap. Oh well...maybe next year!

The teachers at the preschool.

Zoe, Samantha, and Bennett.

Samantha, Marina, and Bennett.

Legoland with the Lewis and Ferrulli clan Dec 2009

We joined the family at Legoland around Christmastime for a day full of Lego fun. Amanda, Joe, Max, Sam, and Nick and Ardis met up with us there. Bennett truly loves it there, and Dan loves just being around Legos...I think it might secretly be his "happy place". :o) Had a great day and so fun to see the park decorated for Christmas.

Curious George got to be escorted around Legoland all day. So we had to have a picture with him in it! :o)

Grandma and Bennett waiting for the firefighter show to start.

Do you know how hard it is to get 3 boys to take a picture together at the same time? This was as close as I got that day!!

Grandpa riding the pirate ship ride with Bennett and Sam.

San Diego - December 2009

Before Christmas we decided to combine our trip to Legoland with the Lewis-Ferrulli clan into a weekend in San Diego with the Lenharts. My mom and Cheryl went along with us to say overnight a few nights in San Diego. Such a fun trip! We took Bennett to Balboa Park to ride the Butterflies and Airplanes ride, the Carousel, and the miniature train, and then spent most of the day at the miniature railroad train museum. We also went to visit the Hotel Del on Coronado Island...so pretty there. I had to laugh though because it was Christmastime, the Hotel Del had an ice skating rink up, and everyone was in their scarves and mittens ice skating, while off in the distance you could see people surfing in the ocean. Only in California!

Cutest ride ever...butterflies for the girls and airplanes for the boys. This ride reminded me of something you would find at a roadside attraction while traveling across country.

Dan and Bennett on the miniature train in Balboa park.

Bennett playing in the sand at the Hotel Del.

Mom and Bennett...Hotel Del.

Bennett intently watching trains go by at the miniature train museum.

The Lego Train exhibit...we could have watched this one all day!

We also went to see the Christmas Light Boat Parade. Very neat experience...everyone decorates their boats and parades them through the harbor.

Bowling!

Ok - so with lots of practice on the Wii at Bowling we decided to take Bennett bowling for real for the first time. He LOVED it, and totally got into being the bowling ball monitor...very good at handing them to us when it was our turn. I must say I was pretty proud of him for getting a score of 92 on his first time bowling ever.. (we won't mention that there were some bumpers involved. :o) Who knew that they made bowling shoes that small too...he had fun "slipping" around on the lanes in his shoes.