roadtrip: sacramento 2.0 - the city that we slept in

*i wrote about our first trip to sacramento here. we also visited it this november as well*

i bet some of you are just sitting at home, lounging about in your snuggie watching reruns of 'saved by the bell' and thinking, 'wow- that mel really leads a wonderful life.' well people, it's true. i do.

justin's free weekends in carson are extremely limited so when my one friend [and i don't mean my 'one friend in many'. i mean my 'one singular friend in carson'] mentioned going to the zoo in sacramento i started looking into it. then she said shee was going this weekend and i thought that we should as well. thankfully justin lives for spontaneity and our one hoodlum kid has no choice so we set out for state capital! i had a $50 giftcard for travelocity due to my amazing skills as a survey taker in my free time so we made it an overnight trip. saturday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed we headed out of town. now there are three ways to get to sacramento from carson:

- the northern way through reno - adds about a couple minutes more
- the middle way right under tahoe - least amount of time
- the southern way way under tahoe - the longest route

so naturally we chose the second right? wrong. i really should have labeled them this way

- the northern way - two laned highway that adds more time but saves you stress & isn't windy
- the middle way - the windiest route that gets you stuck behind stupid slow trucks
-the southern way - really was never even an option

post throwup playing with his tongue like a silly willy. enjoying the bike racks that he can walk right under. enjoying the zoo and daddy time.

we had taken both the northern and middle way before but i was feeling nostalgic and wanted to take some pics of beautiful tahoe, see the sights so we went the long windy and horrible way. we let landon play 2 hours before we left in the morning [to get his wiggles out and hopefully get him tired]. he fell asleep for a good hour but then during the mountain/forest part he was awake and mad. so he screamed and screamed. then threw up. then threw up. ALL over his clothes and carseat. my former arch-nemesis/favorest sister used to get carsick on drives but i didn't remember it that much. well this would definitely stick in your mind - the SMELL was horrendous. and poor landon was freaking out. we hurried and pulled over [thankfully within a few minutes of a stop - because there are not a lot of stops in the mountains] and i pulled him out [getting me all nasty]. poor guy had a puddle in his carseat. once he was out he was fine but totally reaked. i cleaned up landon and justin tackled the carseat but it was no use. that thing STANK! no amount of febreeze, air fresheners and rolled windows could mask it. thankfully we had one more outfit for him [which didn't help because his body smelled]. this did not start off well.

once we got to sacramento we discovered that about half the population in sac thought it was a good idea to go to the zoo as well [seeing as how there was a high of 65]. we had to park literally a mile away [said in a rob lowe 'west wing' voice and no in a rob lowe 'parks & rec' voice]. once we got to the gate we had to wait 30 minutes just to pay. once inside, landon was not in his brightest and best of moods [and lets be honest, neither was justin]. we saw our friends for a bit and took off to see the animals.

the tiny tiny toilets and a giant me = no fun. loving the train and wishing he could ride a real one.

this was landon's second zoo adventure and while i had a blast, he still didn't quite get it. most animals he couldn't see but he really enjoyed the giraffes, lion but really the otter was his favorite [audience: the otter? me: yes. the otters. he's a narnia fan]. i think this was due to the fact that it was a glass container  that he could see into and stand next to. plus the otters were so energetic, running back and forth. he had so much fun chasing them from one side to another - and they often stopped next to the kids. if i had to ask landon, he would prob say his favorite was the train that went around the park but sadly he didn't ride it. his mean parents didn't want to wait in the hour line.

anyone who knows landon knows that him going into a tube is a BIG deal. you can't tell but he's ecstatic over seeing the ducks. having snacks with daddy.

across the street from the zoo is a place called fairytale town. this was def more landon's speed. it's about an acre's worth of playgroup fun. you walk in under humpty dumpty's wall, you slide down the old ladies shoe, climb into cinderella's pumpkin, you get the idea. there's also plenty of small animals to pet- billy goat's gruff, baba black sheep, etc. landon has fun but it was fairly crowded as well. we spent an hour here until landon got a little cranky. you could tell by the fact that he started refusing to share [the train wheel, the pirate wheel, waiting for turns on the slide].

thankfully he took a little nap on the way to our hotel. once we got checked in he was wide awake. we spent some time chilling then landon and i took a dip in the hot tub [oh so nice! i can't wait for the summertime!] then found some place on yelp [ps- i hate travelling to new citys and finding somewhere to eat that's non-chain. you can't really trust reviews]. it was an artsy fartsy place downtown that said it was good for kids [it wasn't really but thankfully landon behaved]. pretty upscale for us but delicious [and expensive]. after that we headed to gunther's where we had gotten ice cream last time. it was just as good as we remembered! and landon was a huge fan- he even shared with me [so generous].

the second day we had planned on visiting old town again and letting landon ride the train which runs along the river. fortunately we found out the night before it doesn't run til april so we thought of a back up plan. and fortunately for us again it was daylights savings weekend. landon never sleeps in past 6, he's usually up around 5:30 and this day was no different. so while other's groaned over their lack of one hour, it was wonderful for us because places opened earlier then usual! we had a nice breakfast [ok yelp, this one wasn't so bad. but it was no ihop either] then went back to fairytale land. i felt bad doing the same thing twice but it was way better this time around. no one was there early sunday morning so we had it all to ourselves. meaning he could go down the big kids slides with me or chase the ducks around the park. we had so much fun! and it wore landon out enough that on the drive home, he slept for an hour an a half! twas wonderful.

even better was coming home to a meal that wasn't cooked by me. we had previously been invited to dinner by a member in the ward but they had to cancel due to sickness but they still brought us food anyways. delicious! carson is really shaping up to be better then i thought [did i just say that???].