The Jones Girls

Since we arrived in Vermont on July 1st, I have been thinking I would like all of us to meet Cliff’s mom’s side of the family.  I spoke to Cliff’s mom, Mary, and asked her what she thought of it.  She loved the idea! 

She gave me all of her relatives phone numbers and we invited them all.  We had a nice potluck dinner and a wondeful family reunion.    There were relatives that Cliff had never met.   Others hadn’t seen him since he was a baby.

An even bigger suprise is Cliff’s niece, Robin, came down to visit us. She lives a couple of hours away from our house.  Robin stayed a few days with us.    It was our first time meeting in person after talking on the phone for many months.

We got lots of great pictures.   Everyone had such a great time. Hopefully we can do it again next year.

Rob joined us to go to Downtown Disney to watch Toy Story 3 at the AMC Theaters.    This is the very first time that the girls have seen a movie in the Big Screen Theatre…a what better place to take them for their first time than the MEGA AMC Theatre at Downtown Disney!!

We saw the 4:15pm showing.    We got some great seats, the theatre was not crowded at all.   I got everyone popcorn and licorice.  Everyone was excited and so happy.   It was a great Toy Story 3.    We LOVED it!

Then we went back to the parking structure to get the stroller and a few things and we headed out to the trams and went to Disneyland.  We grabbed some dinner…Turkey legs and roasted corn – can I just say YUM!!

After dinner we sat back and watched Fantasmic!!  This is the first time the girls saw it since last year.   The dragon is HUGE and there are some neat new water effects and pyro fireworks.

Afterwards we watched the fireworks then I got them cute Minnie Mouse keychains.   Then we got back in our car at 10:30pm to drive home.  It was a lot of fun and another exciting day at Disneyland!!

Today I took the girls to San Pedro to see where my brother and their Uncle Ron and Rob lives.   Both of my brothers moved out of their apartment and moved a few blocks down into another apartment.   

We had a nice lunch in the apartment.  The girls enjoyed playing with Ron’s cockatoo.    They ate at in the living room on Ron’s surf-board shaped coffee table.   They thought that was really cool because I only let them eat in the kitchen. 

After lunch Rob drove with us to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium at Cabrillo Beach.  It was maybe 6 blocks away from the apartment.      I was pleasantly surprised to see a playground right on the sandy beach, lifeguard posts right there on the beach watching the kids in the water, and across the parking lot, maybe 100 feet away, was the AMAZING Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

The entrance fee was very nominal – $5 per adult and $1 per child.    Best $14 bucks I ever spent for sure!!     There were so many incredible exhibits with live marine life.  They even had a touch pool that the girls gleefully dipped their hands in to touch beautiful starfish, sea urchins and other sea creatures.

At 3om they have a daily fun activity for the kids.  They let the kids hatch their own grunion fish eggs. It is amazing to see the fish hatch right out of their eggs right in front of our eyes. 

They had amazing fish aquariums and lots of educational and interesting things to look at and see. 

 They have a playroom with fish themed costumes, a puppet show theatre for kids to play and a huge table with comfy chairs for parents and kids to play with puzzles and games that they provide.   There is a neat courtyard with fun photo signs for the kids to peek their heads through and parents take pictures of them. 

This place is like a miniature Long Beach Aquarium, except no crowds!!  This place is a hidden secret, a quiet gem that is a true treasure to come across!!

California Adventure Disneyland opened up an amazing water light show 10 days ago.  Today we spent the day there and then saw the show at 10:15pm tonight.  Feli joined us today.

We waited in line for 45 minutes to get fast passes in the morning. This gave us Priority Seating for a good view.

During the day we saw the theatrical performance Aladdin.  The show will be ending at the end of August and a new performance will begin in the late fall or by December.    It was spectacular and the Genie was so funny!

Then we went to see Nemo & Crush interactive show.  Maryssa especially enjoyed this show!

After that, we went to Play House Disney.  Feli had just as much fun as the girls did!!

We had gotten Fast Passes for the ride Soaring.   Maryssa was too short, so Feli stayed with Maryssa and got her cotton candy while I took the other girls on Soaring.  They went crazy and LOVED it!!  It is a truly amazing experience.

At 5:15 we grabbed a spot to watch the Pixar Parade while getting a bite to eat.    It was fun and relaxing.   The characters squirted water on us!!

Then we went to It’s A Bugs Life Land and rode some rides and watched a 3D movie there.

We did a little shopping and I got the girls Fantasmic Micky Ears and a few other things.   

At 9pm we jumped in line to wait to get our spot to watch World of Color.  One of the Cast Members told me that over 25,000 people a day were watching the show!!  That is amazing!!

The show was spectacular.    We weren’t expecting to get as wet as we did.    Thank goodness I had brought blankets to cover up the girls to protect them from getting wet and to keep them warm.   They stayed pretty dry but I got pretty wet.

All of the girls made cute gifts in school for their Daddy for Father’s Day.  

Savannah presented Daddy with a cute card that was in the shape of a dress shirt and tie.  Inside the card was a picture of her in a cute frame.

The triplets gave daddy cute foot imprinted gift bags.  Inside were a picture of each girl in a cute frame along with a laminated foot print with a sweet message about loving their Daddy.

We also gave him Father’s Day cards and I gave him his favorite Special Reserve 12 year Canadian Club Whiskey. 

He was really happy and it was a nice Father’s Day.

We had our next door neighbor, Sid, over for Father’s Day dinner as well as my brother Rob.  The weather was perfect today so we ate outside on the deck.

A few weeks ago Miranda’s head collided into Savannah’s upper right tooth.     It knocked Savannah’ s tooth loose.  She has been eating soft foods in hopes of keeping her loose tooth in her mouth.    I did try pulling it and she said it hurt so we left it alone in hopes that maybe it would tighten up.

Her two upper front teeth haven’t come in yet and the tooth that is now loose is her favorite tooth to chew with.  She sort of looks like a toothless Dracula these days….LOL!!

This afternoon she came to me and said “Tada!”   she pulled her tooth out!!   She told me that she wanted to keep this tooth and that she didn’t want to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to come.    She wants to keep her tooth.   She does believe in the tooth fairy, but the wants to keep her teeth now, she has no desire to get the money from the tooth fairy.

Now Savannah looks like she is all gums.  She is happy because she says now she can chew much better since the loose tooth is no longer there.    Hopefully her two front upper teeth will come in soon.

Today is the last day of swimming lessons for the girls.  They will resume again in September when they get back in school.

Today they got to play with the floaties…this is their favorite time of the whole class and they only get to do it on the last day of the 4 week swim class.

They were presented with certificates of what they have completed.    See you back in September!!