September 2013

First things first – when I wrote the beach post we apparently hadn’t downloaded all of our pictures, and I missed including these two:

They were too cute not to post, correct?

Now, onto our new items of business.  After vacationing for five days we finally went to Disneyland!  The kids were super excited.

You know, before we left for Disneyland I read a lot of guides by people who live and breathe all things Disney so I could learn tips and tricks.  Not a single guide recommended that you get matching t-shirts for everyone in the group.  I know.  I was shocked, too.  After spending four days in Disneyland (and each day wearing a matching shirt!) I can say with complete confidence that neglecting this bit of advice is a serious oversight that I cannot allow.

There were so many benefits to the matching shirts.

#1 – Matching shirts automatically make every family picture cuter (even when not a single child is looking at the camera!).

#2 – You can keep track of your kids so much easier.  Really, it’s amazing how much easier it was to find kids wearing bright salmon-colored shirts.  Plus, if a child started wandering away, other people knew they belonged to you and would help steer the kid back in the right direction.

#3 – Say you all want to get on the tram.  Other people know you’re part of a group, and they kindly try to make room to help everyone fit.

#4 – Along those same lines, say you’re waiting in line to get into the park (or a ride).  Sometimes random people would find themselves in line right in the middle of us all and we would let them ahead of us or they would automatically slide over and let our stragglers join us.  Very nice of them.

#5 – Ride attendants could easily see we were a group and could plan the seating assignments accordingly.

#6 – Now we have a fun souvenir of our vacation!

Really, the only drawback is matching shirts are kind of inherently dorky so just get over caring about that and you’ll be fine.  Oh, and people make comments, but that just adds to the fun.  Try it out on your next Disney trip.  There’s (probably) no way you’ll regret it!

We actually went to California Adventure this day.  We waited in line to get into the park:

Then we did more waiting once we were inside because the rides hadn’t quite opened yet:

Good time to get a picture with Walt and Mickey:

And by the fake road:

Our first ride was the Monsters, Inc. ride:

Dallas was pretty excited:

This ride was a favorite, and we rode it several times while we were there.

Then Dallas took the girls on the Tower of Terror while I rode baby rides with Spencer:

Did you catch what I just said?  Dallas took the girls on Tower of Terror.  Girls, plural, which includes Caroline.  That ride was way scarier than I remember it being and I couldn’t believe I allowed my little Caroline to ride it!

We loved Cars Land:

We spent a lot of time trying to earn our Wilderness Explorer badges.  We found Doug:

We went to a ceremony where the kids got their badges.  Here they are participating in the ceremony:

Later, when we got bored in line the girls would often resort to doing their little wilderness explorer routine which I thought was adorable.

Russell was there to give out the awards:

The Little Mermaid ride was a family favorite.  We probably rode this thing at least a dozen times during our trip:

So much to look at:

We met Woody and he was so cute with the kids:

A Disney miracle!  Spencer fell asleep!

We noticed the walkways were getting sectioned off so we asked a cast member what was going on.

Cast Member:  “We’re getting ready for the Pixar Parade.”

Dallas:  “What’s that?”

Cast Member (likely wondering how to state the obvious without making us feel dumb):  “Well, um…it’s a parade…with…um…Pixar characters.”

Is that funny?  Maybe you had to be there.

Since we were there we stayed there and watched the parade.  We loved it.

It started getting a little chilly.  Dallas suggested that we go to the indoor Aladdin show.  It was advertised as “A Musical Spectacular.”  I thought it would be a little twenty minute thing where the characters would sing the Aladdin songs.  It ended up being almost an hour-long performance of an abbreviated version of Aladdin.  Had we known it was going to be an hour we probably wouldn’t have done it because I wouldn’t have thought the kids would sit that long.  Luckily, we didn’t know and it ended up being one of our favorite things that we did.  The show was so fun.  The scenery and props were amazing.  The kids giggled throughout the entire thing and thought the genie was so funny.  They laughed about things he said for the rest of the trip.

Really, if you’re going to Disney, see this show (in your matching t-shirts, of course).

After the Aladdin show it was really getting chilly and the park was close to closing, so we decided to go back to Belle’s Castle and rest up in anticipation for our next day of fun.

Our next day of vacation started with a delicious French toast breakfast courtesy of my dad:

The little boys busied themselves by playing with all the cars and trucks that Sarah brought:

We decided to have a beach day so we all headed off to Newport beach.

Me:  “Did we get everything?”

Dallas (looking at our overcrowded stroller): “Um, yeah.  I think we got more than everything.”

All the grandkids in one picture (plus Abe and Sarah):

The beach was so fun.  The weather was perfect.  The kids loved wading in the water and playing in the sand:

My parents playing smash ball:

Caroline was a little nervous about the water and Spencer was a little nervous to go out alone, so he’d run up to her, grab her hand, and together they would brave the salty blue:

Brooke made some new friends:

Not pictured is the older man who sat by himself building a sand castle that Brooke also befriended (and even whispered secrets to before the afternoon had ended).

Newland was in heaven:

Abe and Ben tried out some boogie boards:

Dallas also had a turn:

Please admire our farmer’s tans:

Group shots:

Dallas drew a crowd by saying he had found bugs in the sand.  We all ran over to see.  He would scoop up handfuls of sand, let water run over it, and these little critters would run all around burrowing in the sand.  It was disgusting.  Then Dallas said, “You can feel them tickle your feet when you’re standing on the sand.”  Turns out I was standing right on a pile of them, and he was right.  I could feel them scurrying all around.  Eww!  We were all a little scarred by the discovery of these ocean friends.

I took video of everyone freaking out about the bugs.  If you look closely you can see the shiny little creatures running back into the sand.  (Make the video full screen to see better.)  Does anyone know what these things are?  I tried to google it and couldn’t find anything that looked right.

Everyone else left, but we were still having such a fun time that we stayed and played nearly the whole day.  We finally decided to leave because we feared bad sunburns if we stayed any longer.

We came back to the house and had showers.  Everyone except Sarah’s family had already headed to Disneyland for the rest of the day.  Sarah’s family and I stayed at the house and ate, cleaned, and chatted while the kids played.

This next picture documents the beginning of our cheese ball crisis.  My Dad bought that huge container of cheese balls and the kids (with the help of the adults) had no trouble finishing it off in no time.  We may or may not have gone straight to the store to get two more containers to last the rest of the week.

One of our best ideas this trip was to bring our crockpots.  Theoretically, my mom, sister, and I would each take a day and crockpot a meal.  That way, in the evening when we were done with our fun, we could come home to a nice meal that didn’t cost a fortune.  In reality, my mom and Sarah were the ones who did most of the cooking since I ended up staying out late almost every night playing.  Way to go Sarah and my Mom (and Dad)!  We really loved coming home to delicious dinners!

This evening we had Sarah’s barbecue chicken salad:

The kids were playing so well together we hesitated to check on them and ruin the magic:

My girls were dying for another swim day so we fired up the hot tub that evening:

And this marks the end of our relaxing vacation days…

The next day of our vacation was Sunday. We woke up and found all the kids playing in the house’s toy room:

Dallas was against visiting Disneyland on Sunday, so we joined my parents for sacrament meeting in the local Disneyland ward:

After that, my parents met up with my siblings at Disneyland.  It was the only day my brother Abe could go, so off they went to spend time with him and his family.

While we didn’t go to Disneyland with everyone else, we still wore our matching Mickey shirts:

A friend told me about the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in San Diego.  Dallas and I thought that would be a fun thing to do.  We drove down to San Diego to see what it was all about.

We had a quick cracker snack before going inside:

The quick cracker snack ended up being not-so-quick and we just missed the start of a tour so we killed time driving ox carts:

And sitting in rocking chairs:

The tour started and it was so fun.  This visitors’ center did an impressive job incorporating media into the presentation and the kids loved it.  We sat on logs and played musical instruments with the Mormon Battalion volunteers:

We located one of my ancestors who was in the Battalion:

I hesitate to show the next few pictures because my siblings will see how much fun we had and will all wish they had foregone Disneyland in exchange for this excitement.

We panned for gold:

Brooke found her two pieces:

Spencer thought the water spout was more fun:

Meanwhile, Caroline stayed at her station patiently finding all the nuggets of gold she could:

Spencer and Brooke made bricks:

Finally Caroline finished panning and was ready to show off her nice pile of gold:

The Mormon Battalion Historic Site, aka The Happiest Place on Earth.  Look at those smiles:

We were close to La Jolla beach so we stopped to look at the sea lions.  Here are the kids experiencing the beach for the first time:

We finally spotted the sea lions (after realizing they were the lumps on the rocks):

Then we headed back to Belle’s Castle.  We put the kids to bed, hung out with the adults, and planned our next day of fun:

We just got back from Disneyland!  We had the best time…and now I’m having the worst time wanting to get back to real life.  Yesterday I actually forgot I needed to cook dinner.  Completely forgot.  I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince myself that clean underwear is totally overrated and that I could put off doing laundry for another day.  In an effort to further procrastinate my reentry into reality, I will ignore the items that still need unpacking and putting away and will instead look through all the pictures we took and relive each day.  Here we go!

The kids are all settled in their spots ready for our drive:

We made it to Grandma Golden’s house in Las Vegas that afternoon.  The girls got right to work discovering all of Grandma’s fun toys:

We love Grandma Golden!

After spending the night at Grandma’s, we decided to take the kids to the Strip to see the lions at MGM and the water show at the Bellagio.

Did you know the lions are no longer at MGM?  We didn’t.  Grrr.

Also, did you know the fountain show doesn’t run in the morning?  We didn’t.  Grrr.

The one saving grace was the M&M store:

We got to see the free 3-D M&M movie there:

After our little Vegas detour, we headed straight to Anaheim.  We have been planning this trip for MONTHS.  My brother said he was going and invited my sister.  She invited me.  Then we decided to call it a family reunion to pressure my other two brothers and my parents to join us there.  It worked!  My parents even had the great idea of renting a house instead of a hotel so we could have a full kitchen and put the kids to bed at night and the adults would have a place to congregate and talk and play.  It was a beautiful thing.  Here’s the house – Belle’s Castle:

The house was perfect.  I think that picture is a little deceptive because it makes the house look kind of ordinary and not nearly as big and luxurious as it felt once you were inside it.

The girls got to sleep in the Peter Pan room:

We got right to work trying out the pool and hot tub:

Then we put the kids to bed and relaxed a bit before our adventures the following day…