We were THAT family

So remember how I dropped a little mension of an accident at Disneyland in my post about my week off work? Let me elaborate. Let me welcome you into the bubble of horror and embarassment that I got to experience.

Anthony is 3.5 years old, he will be four in November. He has been potty trained since he was just over two years old. So we're goin on two years of potty training here. His butt hasn't touched a diaper in almost two years. I haven't had to deal with an accident or carry a change of clothes with me for a very long time.

The drive from my house to Disneyland is around two hours. Give or take, depending on traffic. This particular trip to Disneyland we decided to make quicker by eating breakfast in the car, rather than stopping. So Anthony ate and drank on the way there.

When we got there I saw that one of the most popular rides, Peter Pan, had only a ten minute wait (as oppose to its normal 40min wait). So I jumped on the opportunity and rushed us all into the line. After we got off Peter Pan I noticed that Dumbo also had a short line, which is not usually the case. So I ran us over to Dumbo to jump in line, forgetting the fact that we had eaten and drinken on the way up here and had yet to make a bathroom stop.

So there we are, standing in line for Dumbo, minding our own business, when Anthony starts dancing a little and tells me he has to go potty. We were next in line so I ask him "Do you have to go now or can you hold it until the end of the ride?" and almost immediately after I finished my question it happened. The most embarassing Disneyland moment of my life. He just started peeing. Right there in line for Dumbo. Peeing. Down his leg. On his shoes. Peeing. I couldn't do anything, I couldn't pick him up mid-pee, I couldn't make it stop, I couldn't do anything! All I could do was stand there in shock and horror, and watch my child pee himself in the middle of the line, in the middle of Disneyland.

We hung our heads low and when our turn came up, we let the line operator know we had had an accident and needed to get through. We rushed to the bathroom where I stuffed Anthony in a stall (that I could see from the sinks) and washed off his shorts and sandals in the sink. I got some looks of "wth are you doing?!" from some moms. I got ingored by some moms. But mostly I got looks of pity. Looks of "I see what you're doing there.. I've been there too" Which was oddly comforting.

Luckily for Anthony it was knockin on 100 degrees that day so his shorts were dry in less than a half hour. His shame was quickly dried away and soon there was no evidence of it. Also luckily for him, he's three and was at Disneyland so he didn't give two shits about the fact that his pants were wet, or that he peed himself in front of everyone, he was just happy we were there. Oh, to be three again.

That one week I spoiled my kids

Last week the owner/operator of our daycare (who also happens to be my sister) took a vacation, leaving the daycare closed. A closed daycare meant no other means of childcare for me, which ended up resulting in me taking a week off of work. It didn't take much convincing to get me to take the time off.

I work, a lot. I drive a lot to get to and from work. I don't get a lot of time with my kids. So when I saw an entire week of time off just me and my boys, I pounced on the opportunity to go do fun stuff. Not only did I want to spend some time doing fun stuff with my boys, I also didn't want to stay in the house all week long with a bored 1 and 3yr old. That does not equal a fun time for mom or boys. So I made a little bit of a game plan and my boys and I got to have a seriously awesome week.

Our first stop of the week was to the happiest place on earth... that's right... we went to DISNEYLAND! We have annual passes so this really isn't that huge of a deal, we go about 8 times a year. But our passes are blacked out during the summer and this was the first week they were valid again, so after a summer of no Disneyland Anthony and I were pretty stoked to go. Last time Noah went he was about 6 weeks old (yes, I took a 6wk old to Disneyland, judge me!). The last two times we went we left Noah with Grandma so this was really going to be the first time Noah could experience any rides. It was....underwhelming? haha! He didn't really seem to care about any of the rides. The only two he had any reaction to were Small World, he danced and seemed to enjoy it! And Pirates of the Caribbean, where he had a death grip around my neck, whining... he hated it. Maybe next time he'll go to Grandmas again. Anthony had a great trip! Other than an accident on the Dumbo ride, (upcoming post for that!) it was an awesome day.

Getting ready to go on our first ride of the day: Peter Pan

Anthony and I on the rockets

Noah and I on Dumbo

Our next stop of the week was to the New Children's Museum. I had heard good things about this place but once we got there it was seriously awesome. We spent over three hours there without even realizing how long we had been there. Everything is child friendly (duh) and interactive. They have crafts and painting, building blocks, bubble blowing, a real car that the kids could paint, and best of all a giant bouncy tube thingy!

Painting the car! The color of the day was red. Clearly.

Looking like Dexter after painting

Noah playin drums

My little men!

Inflatable tuby thingy!

Playing on the giant love sack thing

Anthonoy rockin the rock wall!

Next stop on our tour de awesome was up to Grandmas house in Oceanside. We needed to escape the East county heat and where better to go than the beach!? So we made the trip up to Oceanside and made our way down to the beach. We enjoyed ourselves so much up in Oceanside we ended up staying two nights up there and making a couple trips to the beach!

Beach baby. He LOVED it at the beach

Beach baby 2.0

My boys and I out to lunch at my favorite restaurant in Oceanside - Cafe 101

After we packed up and finally left Grandma alone, we headed out to the San Diego Zoo to meet some friends who were in from out of town. The zoo is always a good day! But unfortunately we didn't take many pictures.

hippo sittin!

We left the zoo and went straight to a birthday party, fully equipped with a bounce house and cake! What more could a kid ask for!? The next day, my final day off work we spent at Grandpa's house, swimming, snacking, and relaxing.

It was a very busy. very exhausting, but awesomely fun week. I would do it all over again in an instant. I had so much fun getting to spend some good time with my boys, time like that is so rare in our house. They really enjoyed it too, they both definitely had a look of WTH this morning when I dropped them off at daycare rather than whisking them off to the next fun adventure.

Hawaii

Our trip was amazing. Seriously, amazing. The extra money spent for the ocean front condo was well spent. You walk into the lobby of our condos and were met with a giant all glass wall and an endless ocean view. Our room had the same giant glass wall and endless ocean view in both the living room and bedroom. You can't beat that! The wind in Maui is insane, it was so windy the entire time. We had what we lovingly referred to as the wind tunnel in our room. If the sliding glass door was open, when you opened the front door you were met with INSANE wind. I dried my hair in the wind tunnel one day because it was too hot for the blow dryer. No seriously, I really did.

View from our balcony. I drank and read a lot out there.

Our first day there we got in too early to check in so we ate a local, gourmet lunch of McDonalds chicken nuggets in the condo parking lot then went swimming on the ocean outside our condos. The beach was rocky, therefore the water was rocky and not a great swimming beach. But once you swam out past the break it wasn't so bad. After about 15 minutes of swimming we noticed a few people pointing to something in the water and I look over to see two GIANT sea turtles swimming maybe five feet away from me. Amazing. We were friends. As long as they didn't try to snap at me, we were friends. We checked in, got dressed and went to dinner at the Maui Brewing Company which originally, I was SO excited to learn was within walking distance. It was a total disappointment. The menu was tiny and overpriced and the beer was okay.

Our roadside beach!

Next day we took the approximately 10 minute drive South to Lahaina with all intentions to do surfing lessons. But once we got cruisin the shops and eating shaved ice we decided we didn't want to stop, so we just kept on walkin and shoppin. We went to a small, hard to find beach at the North end of Lahaina that had incredibly clear water and TONS of coral with fish swimmin around. What it didn't have, however, was any sort of waves. There was a rock wall about a hundred feet out in the water, I assume to protect the coral. We spent about an hour there before we got bored with it and went in search of another beach. Maui had these random beaches on the side of the highway. You'd be driving along the highway then see cars parked on the side and people on the beach. So we decided to stop along one of these random highway beaches and it ended up being our favorite beach of all. The shorebreak was a little rough but once you got past it the swimming was easy and water was crystal clear. We saw ANOTHER two sea turtles swimmin along at this beach too! It was really nice that no matter what beach we went to, it was never crowded. Im used to the beaches in San Diego where you have about two feet of beach to yourself. Every single beach we went to was us and maybe one or two other people.

At least Brandon looked handsome at the luau

The next day was our anniversary so we went to breakfast at this little place we randomly found on Yelp called the Gazebo. We found out later this restaurant is uber popular and ended up waiting a good half hour for a table. The wait was well worth it. Banana and macadamia nut pancakes? Yes, please. After breakfast we packed up some snack and some beers and headed back to our favorite roadside beach. We lounged and swam ALL. DAY. LONG. Heaven. We went back to the wind tunnel and got ready for our Luau. We booked the Old Lahaina Luau because I had heard many different places that this was the best one to go to. The most authentic luau on Maui. I was less than impressed. I guess the raving reviews made my expectations too high or something. The spread was pretty small (my plate was still half empty when I reached the end of the buffet line), the drinks were extremely sweet and weak, and the performance was pretty average. For the money we spent, I was not impressed.

Road to Hana. See the waterfalls and one lane bridge sign?

The next day we got up early and headed out to do the Road to Hana. Possibly the best day of our trip. When they say that Hana is a rainforest... THEY AREN'T KIDDING. Holy jungle. I've never seen anything like that in my life. And random waterfalls on the side of the road or up on the mountain sides just made the scenery that much better. We ended our trek at the 7 Sacred Pools (Oheo Gulch) where we hiked up to the top pool and swam. The water was COLD. Like, literally take your breath away when you jump in cold. And when you swam out to the center of the pool, hurt your skin cold. Never ever ever get used to it no matter how long you swam for cold. The lower pools were warmer since they were smaller and further from the "source" but they were crowded and we were alone in the top pool, so we stayed. I swam underneath the waterfall and OMG. The pressure and power from the waterfall took my breath away all over again. But an experience I wouldn't trade for the world. The drive back, even without making any stops, took 2.5 hours. The road is SO CURVY that you can't drive faster than 20mph. And even 20 is pushin it, the speed limit was 15mph. And SO MANY ONE LANE BRIDGES. A little bit scary! We were gone from 7am to 5:30 pm. A FULL day.  We went to dinner at this little, local place called Aloha Mixed Plate on a recommendation, best dinner the entire trip. Authentic, DELICIOUS food.

The next day was our last. We went into Lahaina and got some waterfront breakfast. Went to the other side of the island to experience some other beaches and found a beach that was cloudy water (strange, from our experience) but the water was so so warm. We swam a little, ate a little, just kinda hung out. Brandon was feelin a little sick from our breakfast (his crab was extremely fishy tasting and a little suspect looking) so we went to the airport a little early and just hung out until our flight. The trip home was a nightmare, but I'll spare you the details.  Instead I'll just share pictures :)

Sunset from Lahaina

View point turnout on the side of the highway. Breath taking views.

One of our first stops on the road to Hana, a black sand beach. We did some exploring and climbing on some lava rocks

I swear i'm not doing a thumbs up. I'm making fun of Brandon for his hang loose

HAHA this sign was along a little path we were hiking on. Wasn't plannin' on it, no worries!

Waterfalls and shorty shorts. I didn't realize how short those shorts were until I went back and looked at pictures.

Just past the "dont shit here sign" How 'bout here? Can I shit here??

Swimming in the 7 Sacred, freezing Pools

Swimmin under the waterfall

The depth in these pictures is decieving, that waterfall is a good 20-25ft tall.

Vacation countown

In 21 days, Brandon and I will be on a plane, jetting across the Pacific ocean to the Hawaiian island of Maui to celebrate our third year of marriage. Not that I'm counting or anything... who am I kidding, I am literally counting down the days. Do you have kids? Then you understand. I love my kids more than life itself. I would do anything for them, I would go hungry so they could eat, I would go cold so they would be warm, any need they may have, I'm there to fulfill. But sometimes, even to my surprise, I remember that I'm still a human with....get this...my own needs too. I know, crazy right? One of those needs is to get the hell out of town sometimes. I need occasional breaks from life to stay sane. I haven't had one of those breaks in far too long, so we decided this year that we're taking a vacation. A kid free vacation. When I actually speak logistics about being away from my kids for 6 days my anxiety sky rockets. But then I remember where we're going. I daydream of peaceful meals without battles, of naps... taken by me! I daydream of beautiful crystal blue waters on the beach right outside our vacation condo. I think about the fact that we can do what we want, when we want, for as long as we want. We aren't working on the whims of a bored baby, or to avoid the meltdown of a sleepy toddler. No, we will be doing nothing other than whatever the hell we want. And I remember that my kids will be in the very loving and capable hands of wolves my sister, and I know that they'll be just fine.



The condos we're staying in



We're staying just outside of Lahaina at a beachfront resort. We decided since we don't vacation often and its for our anniversary to go all out and actually booked a beach front room. We plan to embarrass ourselves at some surf lessons, hopefully get lost on the road to Hana, and over indulge at a Luau. Other than that we're keeping our schedule open. I plan to drift. Maybe I'll drink a bottle of wine and pass out fall asleep on the beach. Or maybe we'll go snorkeling. Or maybe we'll whale watch. Or maybe we'll just cruise and walk around Lahaina. I don't know what we do and honestly I don't care. As long as I'm in paradise with my husband, I'm happy. 21 more days.