Children's Fantasy Trip

"Mom, when are we going to Legoland? You promised we'd go!" Said my son, several months ago. And, he was right. I first promised about two years ago, and then, last February, we were scheduled to go, and plans changed. Since he's going to turn 11 in January, we'd better go soon, I figured. Dad is a good sport, so he's along for the ride, trying very hard not to tally the indulgent spending.

Yesterday we headed south, towards Crestline, where we lived for almost 3 years, a decade ago. The kids have heard a lot about the town, that is where we lived when my son was born, and also where we acquired our two cats. We stayed Monday night with friends who moved there from Santa Cruz one week after we moved back to Santa Cruz. It was nice to reconnect with them and their kids. I'm posting photos here of their lovely dog "Ginny" but forgot to ask if we could post pics of the kids, so we won't.

Then we headed for the American Girl Place in LA. Sam has been obsessing about this visit for the last six months. She has studied every item on their web pages, and sent out her Christmas "Wish list" to anyone she can. Her mother, on the other hand, has been appalled at the strength of the marketing machine. Upon arrival at the mothership, however, I also fell under the spell, and purchased a "Kit" for K (Sammi). I couldn't help it. Her expectations were so low, she was so enamored, and the look of disbelief when I offered to buy it was so overwhelming! "Is this a dream? Or is this really happening?" she said as she clutched her new doll. I was conflicted in being so proud of her sweetness, and ashamed of depriving her by my cheapskatedness.

Then, we headed to Anaheim. We commented on how warped the road. Hmmm. Was it really the road? Turns out, it was the tire, which failed in a bizarre way, causing the unsteady ride. When we landed at the Motel 6, we spent the evening schooling & feeding the kids, purchasing new tires at Costco, shopping at TJoes, getting settled. C has been obsessed with his planned visit to Legoland, and the purchase of Bionicles with the $$ he has saved over the past month (he sold some Star Wars stuff on ebay, washed the dog and saved his allowance). Exhausted as we all were, we had to go to Downtown Disney (at 10PM!) to visit the Lego store. He bought Toa Mahri, all 6 models. I asked the kids, again, if there was anything they'd like to do in Anaheim. K said "we should find a nice park to spend the day in". Sheesh.

Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland. (We finally spilled the beans on the surprise. So many hints, and they didn't figure it out?!) I hope we can tear C away from his Bionicles long enough. He seemed truly conflicted when I asked him if he'd rather stay at the hotel and play with them.

Thursday is Legoland, then we'll head home on Friday.

I'm so proud of both of them, they are so uncorrupted by expectation, and grateful for what they get. Its nice to be able to spoil them.

[the slideshow has photos of our drive south, including the kids with Joshua Tree, and views of the famous Cajon Pass rail route, and Silverwood Lake, then photos of Ginny the Dog at the M's house, photo of our old house in Crestline, views from the top of the rim, looking down on San Bernardino, then photo of the the "A" restaurant, and picture of the kids standing where I first found our deceased cat "whiner" 14 years ago. The rest are self explanatory]