Jacob and Jonah's Golden Birthday

The twins turned 10 on April 10th this year. I wanted to do something pretty big for them, and came up with a couple of pretty good ideas. First, back on April 6, a friend of mine returned from her Spring Break trip to Round Rock, TX, bringing with her some very precious cargo. We all know about the Stoddard's love affair with donuts, especially the twins. Years ago, I had seen on the Food Network a donut place in TX that sold huge donuts that were supposed to be some of the best in the country. About a month before the twins birthday, I posted a total long shot question on Facebook to see if anyone would be around Austin or Round Rock during Spring Break and would be willing to ship me the donuts . Well, I was shocked to find quite a few people willing to help and it just so happened my friend Leah was within a couple miles of the Round Rock Donuts and she carried on two huge donuts and a dozen regulars all the way back for me! It was so much fun to surprise the boys with them!

Then came the Monday night before their birthday. We met over at Nana and Pogger's around 5pm. Bud met us over there, because we told the boys we were going to go shopping for their big present, Bibi guns! They were really excited. We got in the car to drive to the store. We drove and drove. I thought surely they'd notice something was up when we were pretty much out of the city. Then I thought they'd notice when we crossed over the state line, but I finally ended up asking them where they thought we were. They said they didn't know and I told them we were in California. We asked why they'd be in California and then told them we were on our way to Rancho Cucamonga California to stay at a hotel that night before heading to Knotts Berry Farm the next day for their birthday! They were quite stunned and didn't really give me the freak out I'd expected, but once I prompted it with "you don't seem too excited, should we just head home?", they got really excited. We got to Rancho Cucamonga pretty quickly and before even checking into the hotel, stopped at Ferrels Ice Cream Parlor to embarrass the heck out of them. And get WAY too much ice cream! The servers made them dance and rapped for them. Jake was all embarrassed, but a good sport. Jonah had no problem dancing around. It was hilarious. Then we headed to the hotel (so easy to travel with just two kids!).

The next morning, Tuesday, the 10th, was their actual birthday. We got up, ate some breakfast, checked out, and got on the road. When they got in the car, we had some presents for them (including their Bibi guns!). Then we headed down to Anaheim for a pretty nearly perfect day. Even though it was spring break for CA, the crowds were minimal and the park was so well-kept. We started off strong with three roller coasters back to back to back. Then I had to slow down as my extremely sensitive motion sickness set in. I only threw up once at the park though. But then the heavy lunch at the Knotts Country Kitchen pretty much did me in and I only had one or two more rides left in me. Our last ride was on the Ghost Rider. It has one of those cameras that takes a pic of you as you drop. The pic it took of the four of us was so hilarious, we had to buy it. It still makes me laugh every time I look at it:

We left the park around 4pm for our drive back to Vegas. For some reason, about 20 minutes after we left, my stomach had just had it. We had to pull over at a gas station to throw away Jonah's hoodie which was the only thing I could grab in time as my lunch decided not to stay down. RIP Jonah's blue hoodie (pictured above). : ) Unfortunately, that wasn't the last time we had to pull over either. Did you ever see the Modern Family episode where they go to Disneyland and Phil thinks he's too old to handle rides, but turns out he had the flu? Well, I didn't have the flu, so maybe I'm getting too old for amusement parks. : (

The drive home was very quiet as we had finally worn the boys out. I look at how big these boys are, and I cannot believe it! They've grown up so quickly, but I'm really proud of the people they are becoming. I"m so grateful they're a part of our family! They really deserved such an awesome birthday! A huge thank you to the grandparents for watching the girls and making it all possible! Best birthday ever!