After a fun time with Kevin’s family, we drove out to Bellflower and spent a couple of days with my Aunt Nancy. Monday we went to Knott’s Berry Farm (love that place)! The kids’ area there is called Camp Snoopy and Ricky was so excited to go to “Noopy’s house.” We got there bright and early and went straight for the trains.
We rode the big Railroad Train first and during the ride, some bad guys held up the train. When they rushed our car and told us to put our hands up, Ricky put his hands up in the air and didn’t put them down until the bad guys moved on to the next car. He didn’t look afraid, just following orders.
Billy and I took advantage of the mostly empty train and the comfy seat to sneak in a midmorning snack. (Thanks for the picture, Kev!)
Here is Billy with his Great Aunt Nancy, or “Gr-auntie” as she prefers.
Next we hit the Calico Mine Ride and then headed over to Camp Snoopy. Ricky immediately got to see Snoopy. As soon as it was our turn, he ran right up and gave him a big hug (our slow digital camera missed the hug by a second). After a few pictures, Ricky still wasn’t ready to say good-bye.
Then we moved on to some kiddie rides, the Red Baron Airplanes, the Hot Air Balloons, the Ferris Wheel, and more. Ricky loved the rides, and was mostly patient waiting in line. We were lucky to have a fairly uncrowded day with short 10 or 15 minute waits.
This next picture is a ride called Huff and Puff. I know the picture is blurry, but it is the only one we got. We were too busy cheering him on. There was no one on this ride when we got there and the attendant asked if Ricky could propel himself the whole way. The ride is individual wagons that the child moves along by pumping the lever. We had no idea if Ricky could do it or not, and it took a big push from the attendant and a lot of cheering from Kevin and I, but he did it. We were so proud!
After Huff and Puff, Ricky’s next ride was a big trampoline/inflated jumping thing inside a big Snoopy tent. It was wall to wall (actually net to net) trampoline with a small, child sized door as the only in and out. Kevin took Ricky over and I was sitting in the shade with Aunt Nancy watching. I told her, once Ricky got inside, that I wasn’t sure how they were going to get him back out again. The time ran out and all the children headed towards the exit with Ricky following. Just before he got to the door, he took off for the other side. He went back to jumping, completely ignoring the beckoning from Kevin and the attendant at the door. Aunt Nancy and I were chuckling. Then the attendant went in to get him. Um, she wasn’t the most agile person and Ricky was darting from her, so Aunt Nancy and I were busting up by this point. Then when she had a hold of him and was working her way to the door, lost her balance, and fell, we just couldn’t help ourselves–I was actually crying. Finally, Ricky got close enough to the door for Kevin to grab him. It was just too funny to watch–poor attendant girl.
Billy enjoyed the day, I’m sure, but it is a little hard to tell since this is how he spent most of the day . . .
After hitting most of the rides we wanted, we all went to a Snoopy-On-Ice Show. It was nice and air conditioned and there was a lot of ice skating. Ricky liked the little Snoopy cartoons that were being shown on the wall during the show best. And then he fell asleep. After the show got over, we went to Mrs. Knott’s Famous Chicken Dinner Restaurant for a late lunch. Once we finished our yummy meal, Mom and Aunt Nancy took the boys home so that Kevin and I could have a couple of hours to ourselves at the park. This meant roller coasters! We immediately hit Ghostrider, which is an amazing wooden roller coaster, then we moved on to some of the other more thrilling ones. Kevin isn’t as big of a fan of roller coasters as I am, but he was a good sport. I only had to go on two by myself. Here I am riding Xcelerator. Kevin wouldn’t go on this one with me, no matter how much I begged. It launches you off and you hit 82 mph in 2.3 seconds as you climb 205 feet and make an immediate drop at 90 degrees. Very, very fast. I am the bright yellow spot in the middle of the cars.
I did convince Kevin to ride a coaster called Silver Bullet. I had to buy the picture they snapped of us during the ride and it will make its way onto this website sometime soon ( I accidentally left it at Aunt Nancy’s house). All I can say is that when I told Kev that closing his eyes would make it better, I was wrong. You just have to see the picture. It was a great day at Knott’s, but I love that place so I am biased.
The next morning, Mom went home and we went to the beach. Ricky loves the water and he and Kevin jumped the waves for a long time. Billy and I hung out close to the umbrella and the shade. That little blue striped lump in the shade is Billy sleeping.
At one point, Kevin misjudged the size of a wave, was knocked down, and chose to cling to Ricky and let his glasses get washed out to sea. We are certain that they have washed up on some shore with a blind person who truly needs them. Ricky enjoyed finding sea shell and burying my feet in the sand.
It was a lot of fun visiting with Aunt Nancy. She doted over the boys and even had a little kitten for Ricky to chase around. She also has a life sized figurine of a gray cat that Ricky called “Cat Rock.” He played with it more than the real cat–of course, it couldn’t run away, but how he dragged it around I don’t know–that thing is heavy! The red on Billy’s head is from a kiss from Aunt Nancy.
I enjoyed myself and all the family time. Yes, that red on my knees is sunburn. I thought I applied the sunscreen evenly, but somehow just the tops of my knees burned. And the middle of my back where both Kevin and I missed. I was the only one to burn though, so I can’t blame the sunscreen, just the applier!
We left for home early on the 4th. Ricky was still mostly asleep as we left, but enough awake that the sun bothered his eyes. I couldn’t find his sunglasses so I loaned him mine. Ricky chose to wear them upside down. Here he had fallen asleep again.
We took a lunch break in St. George and visited the LDS Visitors’ Center (so Billy could eat in air conditioning). The temperatures as we crossed the desert climbed to 117 degrees. We also drove around town and found a home built by Kevin’s great, great, great, great grandpa. It was built just 3 bricks at a time because that’s all the brick molds he had.
It was a great vacation. The van was wonderful (as much as I hate to admit it) and Ricky gives the DVD player two thumbs up!