John's Incredible Pizza

While we were in California my brother took us to a new (to us) restaurant called John's Incredible Pizza.  It was like a Chuck E. Cheese's, but a whole lot better.  There was a yummy pizza bar, along with a big salad bar, pasta/potato bar, and dessert bar.  The restaurant had themed dining areas, too.  THEN, there was a huge arcade area with tons of games and indoor rides.  The kids were in heaven.

We ate lunch first, which was an event in and of itself with everyone needing to make multiple trips to the buffet.  When it was time for dessert, the kids were excited to get soft serve ice cream cones.  Eliza walked into the dining area with a perfect vanilla ice cream cone.  When she walked past my brother, he quickly swiped a hunk of ice cream off of the cone with his fingers.

Eliza was INDIGNANT.  How could he do that??

Everyone else laughed and laughed at what Andy did, and Eliza's resulting outrage.

But with all of the unwanted attention she was receiving, her embarrassment soon overcame her and she began to sob uncontrollably.  For at least 15 minutes.

Ben held her.  Andy brought her a brand new ice cream cone.  I held her.  A random woman felt sorry for her and brought her a treat bag from another kid's birthday party.  Nothing helped.

Luke figured if Eliza wasn't going to eat her ice cream, someone should.  He found a unique way to go about it.

 

Once we couldn't think of anything else to calm her down, we decided we would bring her to the arcade area.  It took some convincing for her to go, but she finally agreed, and soon the tears were gone.

The kids had a BLAST playing games in the arcade.  And Cat seems to have a skill for hitting the "500 Tickets" button at the right time on the blinking light game - she won the jackpot twice.  We need to keep that girl away from Vegas.  (By the way, thanks for all of these great pictures, Andy!)

Andy had a great time playing the basketball game with Jack.
Jack seemed to have trouble finding the happy medium between too soft
and too hard - he would either throw the ball short of the guard rail or throw
it so hard that it would bounce back and hit him.  But he loved it anyway.

Jackpot!  (First time.)

One of the big hits of the day was the little roller coaster.  Jack and Eliza loved this so much, they rode it about 8 times, each time just as fun as the last.  The adults had a great time just watching them on it because they were so into it.  Eliza would flop around with every turn, swinging her hair and smiling from ear to ear.  Jack's laugh was more of a cackle, he was having so much fun.  I couldn't resist making a video, but I think it really doesn't do it justice.

With as much fun as the kids were having playing games and riding rides, I was glad we had enough tickets (thanks to Cat's willingness to share her winnings) for the kids to get decent prizes.  Cat got the biggest prize, of course, a mini Pillow Pet.  Jack chose a plastic snake that you hold and it looks like it's coming at you.  Eliza chose a big plastic ruby-looking ring.  That made leaving much easier. 

John's Incredible Pizza was definitely another high point of a great trip.

We're so thankful we were able to make it to Sawyer's Blessing Weekend Extravaganza.  We loved getting to spend time with Andy, Amy, and little Sawyer.  We loved getting to see Grammy and Oma and Opa and Reed and Jen.  And we appreciate everyone's willingness to hang out with us, even though Luke had a stomach bug all weekend.  You guys are the best!