Spring Break Memories

After Easter weekend, I forgot to pay attention to the day and to the camera most of the time. Here are a few memories I managed to capture.

We went to trivia at Longboards. My family is so good that they are only allowed to go once a month now so other people have a chance to win. We called our team Bob Diamond and the Little Brains, which Valerie came up with...and huge respect if you "get it". We were trading the lead with another team every round, and going in to the final round, we were down by 1. The questions for that round were pretty obscure, but the stars aligned and each person on our team knew one answer. We were pretty confident, so we decided to go for double or nothing and it paid off. The team that had been ahead actually only got 4/6 right that round so we would have won either way, but it was more fun and more nerve wracking to go all in. Here's the team for the night.

Kristen, Me, Valerie, Kelly, Glenn
  
We spent one day at Balboa. This time Alex opted to ride the mechanical shark.


 
Luke also got in the saddle.
 
We have talked a lot about how much Alex looks like my dad, but this shot of Luke reminds me very much of the black and white picture of my dad that always hung in my grandma's living room. Luke has his daddy's eyes, but I am seeing a whole lot of King in this pic, too. 

 
Lyssa did the bungee trampoline.


 
And Chloe doesn't like to do anything without Kelly, so she chose to ride the ferris wheel. 

 
We walked around the island and stumbled upon these fun sand sculptures that someone had left behind.


 
Of course we got treats, but I only managed to take one picture of Alyssa and Audrey, and then had to crop Alyssa out because her shirt fell forward in a please don't post this on the internet mom kind of way. 
 
This is just a random shot of Luke, who is weeks away from turning 7, riding in the baby seat. Ha,ha! 
 
More time at the beach
 
This time only Alyssa wanted to swim and Steven volunteered to run home and grab trunks and go in with her. 

 
On Friday we went to Knotts. We were going to go on Monday, but Val and her kids don't like roller coasters so we decided to wait until they were back in Temecula for school/work so they didn't feel like they were missing something they actually wanted to do.

We walked right on every ride, and rode all of our favorites twice. I didn't get many pictures, because I was riding but here are a few.

This is at the end of Ghost Rider when the train is pulling in to the station. Alex and Kristen saw my camera and understood that they were supposed to pretend they were still mid-ride.
 
Jeff and Alyssa clearly didn't get the memo.

 
How embarrassed does Snoopy look?


 
After riding the spinning Sombreros with my mom and Kelly, Chloe wanted to go back again but did not want anyone with her this time. She loves to go on rides alone, go up and order her own food, sing loudly on a crowded airplane...she just doesn't have any inhibitions.
 
I had never been on, or even seen the Xclerator. The last time I was at Knotts, my kids were pre-coaster heights so I didn't even know this existed. You take off at 84 mph and go up and over that arch. Alex was exactly tall enough to ride, so we took a few spins on it. There is really no way to prepare yourself for a take-off that fast. It screws up your face and sends your stomach to parts of your body where it doesn't belong, and then when you head down the drop you come right out of your seat. Very disorienting, and very fun! 
 
I had just gotten off the ride with Kelly and thought I would try to catch these guys on take off.


 
And there it is. Hello G-force! 
 
I hate spinny rides. I will ride just about anything else, but I sit out when it is time to get dizzy.



 
I sent my brothers with my kids on the log ride, because it was getting cold and I didn't want to get wet. 
 
And here is something highly amusing. The Pony Express. It is a roller coaster, but you have to sit on a carousel horse while you ride. Is that just to embarrass people? My mom won't ride anything else, but she loves the horsey coaster, as you can see.


And that is all I have in the way of photographic evidence, but we came home with a bag full of happy memories as well. It was so fun to see everyone again, after only 4 months, but it was also time to get home. Between traveling for work, the funeral, and my Cali trip, Seth and I had only been in the same state for 6 days total over 5 weeks so it was good to get home and have 6 days in a row together before he had to travel again. And now I must go and be productive for a moment before I head off for Visiting Teaching, Ice Show Dress Rehearsal and TKD belt promos today.