WE'RE MOVING!!!! TO OUR OWN HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a long awaited blog post!!!!!  I'm SO EXCITED to be posting it finally!!!  I wanted to document the miracles that led us to our new home.

During March, we were really gearing up and preparing ourselves financially, and vacationally (new word :) ), for the upcoming furlough.  I had pretty much written off any thoughts of getting a house until after October (which was really depressing, believe me!).  Which is why it was so strange that I thought to email myself via text on my phone, an address to a house hunting website, as we passed the billboard on the freeway.  I had passed this address a million times and thought, "I should check that one out", as I had never before.  But for some reason I thought to do it that time.  Then a week or so passed before I was at the computer to check my email and found it.  I was bored, so I looked at it.  I was so non-chalantly looking at the houses that fit our specs, and found a few that I liked.  I'm not sure why I thought to send the links to Nate, since we were "done looking for a while", but I did!  I even ended the link to one of the houses with "this is my new favorite house!"  I honestly didn't think Nate would even look at them.  As it's been somewhat depressing to look at houses we loved and have to pass them all by.  But for some reason, Nate opened the email and had time to look at them, and. did.  He too loved the one that I had, with the little stream in the backyard.  So he made a call to the realtor.  A little later, he asked me what I thought about that house, if I'd really want to live there.  Of course!!!  So he scheduled the walk through.  We were both pretty casual about it, not really thinking we could, but after one walk through the yard and then the house, we were sold!!!  It just felt like the perfect house for us!  We let the kids go through it and they were even more sold than we were :).  They especially loved the rope swing out by the stream.  It is a fun little novelty :).

We made the offer that night!!!  That's when the stress set in. Waiting has never been one of our strengths. We decided to involve the kids after a few days, and began praying for things to work out according to the Lord's Will. It's an interesting concept to teach our children that maybe what we want, and have wanted, and seems so perfect to us, may not be what Heavenly Father has planned for us. But we wanted them to know that praying about can help us to deal with and appreciate the outcome whether it's what we want or not. Anxious as we were, we survived! After almost two weeks we got the official word and could finally start plans for our new house and the move there!  We were SO EXCITED AND RELIEVED!!!

It had been so easy that it almost felt too good to be true, but I think it really is!  I have to admit I get nervous about crazy things wrecking it all, but overal, I'm hopeful and faithful that this is actually the house for us.  It really is a great house.  I love when things just fall together and work for our good.  It really is cool to think that in less than 3 weeks we will be in our own house!!!!

So to all of you who are SICK of hearing about me wanting a house of our own and being settled, you can celebrate!!  The day is finally here! (or will be shortly :) ).  I'm beyond excited!

We have been packing for a week now and plan to spend the first night possible in our new house, Monday the 29th. Since Nate works that day and the following, it will probably take us all week to move and clean.

Buds

The Sound of Music

I need all of my pictures on here, but until then....
For the past 4 months Kelly and Charity have been working on their school's production of The Sound of Music.  All of their hard work finally came to fruition on Friday, March 19th.  The day of their school performance.  I was lucky enough to be able to go.  Nate stayed home with Noah and Erika, I took Jack, and sat in the very back, but LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!  I was so proud of my girls!  As I mentioned before, Kelly got the part of Gretl, the youngest of the seven Vontrapp family children.  Charity got the part of Bertha, "the mean nun".  They did such an amazing job!  The whole thing was just so much fun, but I seriously almost cried watching it... it's just so neat to watch your kids participate in such a production.
We took the whole family, Grandpa Russ and Grandma Ruthie, Grandpa Hatch, Steve and Jauslin, and even Stephanie and Sophie to the first evening performance, on Thursday night.  We went out to Dairy Queen with Grandpa Hatch after to celebrate.
We brought Aunt Jen, Marshall and Evan, Aunt Heidi and John to the Friday night showing.
Then we brought Grandma Hatch and Simon, Sarah and her boys to the final showing, on the following Thursday night.
So LOTS of support!  I was glad I was able to watch it each time they performed.  I thought they got better with each one.
I'll have to have each of them describe this experience.  Sure was fun.

Too Long

I am sick about the length of time between my last posting and now.  It's been a whole month.  I've never gone that long without posting!!  Not in the 6 years I've had my blog.  So I'm stressed about where to start.  I decided to just post what I remember, when I do, so I will hopefully add to this post.

- St. Patrick's Day was on Sunday this year!  I was so unprepared.  I didn't even do anything fun for the kids!!  Luckily they all stepped up and did something for themselves with some gold coin candies we had laying around.  The big kids made a treasure hunt to find them.  I did put some green food coloring in the milk cups so that then I poured the milk in  it turned green (kinda weak, I know), so it wasn't a total loss.  But really... I've done better.

- At the end of March sometime, I don't remember what day, we were changing out our computer desk.  I had wanted to do my friend a favor and buy her desk that she was getting rid of, since she refused to take money from me.  It's not the best desk, it is fine, and I like it better than the one we had, but I wouldn't have taken it for free.  Then she refused to take my money for the desk afterall!!  So anyway, we were changing it out, and I STUPIDLY left the computer on while I moved the computer and printer and external hard drive.  I'm still sick about this.  As I lifted up the computer, the external hard drive fell off!!!  I remember thinking that was probably not good for it, but nothing could have prepared me for how devastating it would really be.  I finished the transplant and was happy with how things looked.  I guess I went a few days without using the computer because all of a sudden, I couldn't access the info on my external hard drive!!!  I took it to my Dad's to see if he could fix it and he can't.  I'm so broken up about it!  I have all of my pictures on it, plus 3 blog books and all of our home videos that are not already on DVDs.  It breaks my heart!!  I found out that it will be quite a bit of money to retreive the information and right now is not a good time to need extra money.  So it sits here, on my desk, just full of my memories.  I hope that we can afford to do it soon, and that it will actually be retreivable.  If it's not, I'll die.  In the meantime I have no room to upload pictures onto my computer, so the blog is going to be lifeless journal entries for a while.  Til I figure something else out.  I guess I'll probably buy a new external drive once we have a little extra.  The timing of all of this is just ridiculous!  I guess it's good that we had already decided to buy the house before it happened or we wouldn't have had the money to put down on the house.... so I guess it's good, but it's hard to think that now.  My Dad always told me to back up my data.  Guess I shoulda listened.  I guess I kind of thought that the external hard drive WAS backing it up :).  Kinda.  Well, and I'm too cheap.  So now I'll have to pay.  Anyway.  Kind of a pivotal moment in time for me.  I'm really sad about it.

- On April Fool's Day, which was during Spring Break so the kids were a little bummed that they weren't going to be able to play all their tricks on their teachers and stuff :).  But we did do lots of fun pranks.  The kids did all their little non-lies.  Everyone kept telling Charity that her dog had pooped or peed, or gotten out of the house and then topping it off with an "April Fools!!"  We all got each other a time or two.  When Nate got home though, this is the funny part, he had a package of Oreos "leftover from a party at work".  He set them on the table and let everyone eat them.  Nobody even said a word about them.  I even ate a few not really thinking much.  I'll admit, I thought they might be a little stale or something, but honestly, not noticeably bad.  THen after a while, Nate announced that he had scraped out the cream and filled half of them with toothpaste!!!!  I couldn't believe he'd done a prank!  I was so happy!!  Then I couldn't believe I'd fallen for it.  It was so crazy!  Then we found out he'd changed out a couple bags of chips as well, with spicy ones!!  Then he and I put saran wrap on the toilet, which I have no idea why that is even a prank, you can totally see it!  And I put mustard in the empty toothpaste container.  So we had some fun :).  It was a lot of fun to have Nate on board with me this year :)  I love him!

Charity's Family Party

Since we had been ON THE BEACH in CALIFORNIA! on Charity's birthday, we ended up having her family party a few days later, on Tuesday, March 12th.  She had lots of support from family, it was a fun party!

Kelly and Bradley gave Charity a show for her birthday, out on the trampoline!  So cute!  

And they both lived happily every after....

Monday morning, after we got back, the kids all left for school and the rest of us were left to enjoy the leftover magic.  Erika was still in Princess Land and Noah was her Prince :)  The camera was out :).... enjoy :)

Disneyland or Bust!!

Tuesday was our big packing day!  Erika was SUCH a big help!!  Jack was... not as helpful :) but look how cute they look together!  

I decided to try something new this time with packing.  I used the suitcases instead of the big duffle bag we stole from the Manwarings (well, just for the record, they did tell us to keep it, but I still feel like it's theirs).  I've always just piled everyone's stuff in that bag, but the last few times, it hasn't worked out as well.  We'd run out of space the last time.  So I propped the red suitcase up and laid all of the kids clothes in it, folded up, and stacked.  It was incredible how well it fit, and I was sure I got a picture, but apparently I didn't.  But it was really amazing!  I fit ALL of the kids' clothes for the whole four days in there.  Kelly came by later and removed her clothing to pack in her own bag, but they would have fit! 

I used a separate suitcase for Nate's and my clothes, the diapers, wipes, bathroom things, and towels.  I was SO proud of myself for making everything fit into two suitcases!  And we didn't have any extra floating around the car things!  I loved that especially.  Because sometimes we get overzealous and pack everything in the car too soon, then grab stuff as we're leaving and it just ends up all over the car.  So this was a highlight for me :)  I know, I'm a dork.  It's all good.

So Wednesday morning, we let the girls go up to the school at 8:15 before school starts, to do their Key Off.  Mrs. Hamblin had so generously offered to let the kids who are in the play come that morning.  That ended up being a really great thing for my girls and for our trip since that made it possible to leave in the morning instead of way after school!  They were done by 9:00 and we were packed and loaded into the car by 10:30.  

I don't have a lot to say about the drive there, except that we were a little nervous to drive all the way in one day, but our kids completely rid of us all nervousness within the first few hours!  We couldn't believe how well the drive went!!  Even Jack!  We stopped a few times and snacked a little on the way (there goes our no eating in the car rule) and stopped in Las Vegas for lunch.  Nate and I were in awe at how quickly the drive to Las Vegas felt, and how well the kids were doing.  We didn't want to jinx anything, but we couldn't help but tell the kids how awesome they were about every couple hours :).  

One cool thing that happened on our drive, was at Jack in the Box in Las Vegas.  I always have to swallow my pride before we drag our huge family into a restaurant or fast food place, simply because we usually get plenty of looks and even some comments about our family.  Depending on my mood, or the day, this can be detrimental to the meal.  This particular day, I was feeling really proud of my kids and loving the time we were spending together, so I went in there ready for anything :).  When we got in there, we did get a few looks, I assume because of how many kids we have (although, I'm sure there's plenty else to look at us for :) ).  Nobody said anything.  We sat down and this couple next to us started staring.  I just smiled back.  They started playing with and making faces for Jack.  I just smiled back.  Then the wife reached over and handed Jack a french fry.  I laughed, let him eat it, and then the conversation started :).  

Her name was Dolly, his name Greg.  They own a bakery called Wildflour in Milwaukee.  They were traveling for business, but planned on stopping in St. George to look at some real estate.  They want to move to St. George for retirement.  They mentioned that they liked how family oriented it was in St. George.  As far as I could tell, they were not LDS, but I was getting all anxious and wanting to share the Gospel with them through the whole conversation.  She went on to tell us that she was the second youngest of 14 kids and he had 7 brothers and sisters!  Together they had only been able to have 2.  She LOVED and I mean L O V E D the kids!!  She couldn't get enough of them!  Stared at them the whole time we ate.  Then she got up and went out to her car while Nate and her husband talked about the route we were taking and the weather they were about to hit in Utah.  She came back in with 2 bags of almond bark and a bag of cookies!  She said that was all they had left from their convention.  How cool is that!!  She was so sweet and so generous.  Then before they left she asked all the kids their names, and talked for a bit.  It was so fun.  They were just the coolest people on the planet!  I was so glad they had been there and we had been able to meet such neat people.  (after we got home, I couldn't help myself, I went on their website and sent her an email.  Hopefully she responds.)

So that was a fun little happening in Las Vegas.  And for the record, I think we got less comments and looks in Las Vegas and California together, than we do in Utah.  So it was a nice break :)

So on our way there, we stopped in Baker.  Where Nate and I had stopped on our honeymoon.  We had driven around Las Vegas for about an hour, looking for a hotel that we wanted to pay for, and hadn't been able to find one.  It was the weekend, so prices were through the roof.  So we drove on.  We got really tired pretty soon though and decided to stop in Baker.  The only Hotel open, that we could find, was this one:

The Royal Hawaiian Motel (this is not the place we stayed at on THIS trip :) )

We pulled up and Nate got out to go ask for their rates while I sat in the car.  It was really dark and the area seemed really shady, so I got a little nervous about letting him go in there alone.  Then after some time, Nate came back out with the guy, they went over to a different area and made a key for the room (yeah, that's weird).  Nate came back out to the car, said we had a room and it was fairly cheap, so we stayed.  This was the building we were in:

if I remember right, we were up on the second floor, just off of the stairs on the left.  What a DIVE that Motel was!!!  When you walked in the door, you were in the bathroom!  I don't even think there was a door to the toilet!  And it was SO HOT!!  There was no air conditioning, or not any that I can remember :).  So we were just sweating and hot and all night long!  The TV was ancient.  It had the turning nob, and when you turned it to change the channel, it looked like it was changing channels, but didn't really, so there was only one channel :).  It was HILARIOUS!!!  We kept laughing about everything and really just made the most of it.  We knew we were only there for the night and then back on the road in the morning, so it wasn't too big a deal, but it was hilarious!!  We knew it would be a good story for later.  

Ahhhhh memories.

So on our trip, we stopped to get some pictures of the Royal Hawaiian Motel :).   The kids thought we were crazy.  

Here's our happy faces when we were at a gas station just outside of Baker, before getting back on the freeway. 

Not too long after Baker, around 10:00, we arrived in Buena Park.  Found our hotel with a lot of help from Nate's phone!  It was so funny, as we were watching Wreck-It Ralph on Nate's phone (yes, his phone, I was holding it up in the air so that the kids in the back could see, and we had the sound going through the car stereo), all of a sudden, after thinking the navigation thing wasn't going to help us, we heard a voice telling us where to go!!  She kept interrupting the movie, but she got us to our hotel with very few re-routes!  We laughed.  

No pictures of the place we stayed, but it was really nice.  Called Buena Vista Inn and Suites.  We were in a family suite, so it was a two room place.  We had two full beds, a pull out and a sofa bed.  Nate and I shared a bed, with Jack on the floor next to me.  Charity and Erika shared another bed, Bradley was on the pull out, Luke and Noah on the sofa bed and by choice! Kelly was on the chair/ottoman.  We fit quite nicely and actually the whole time, I kept thinking, why do we think we need a house??  We fit just fine in that little hotel room!  

We ate some of our hot pockets and then went right to bed to dream about our adventures ahead.

We woke up bright and early, got ourselves out the door by 8:30 for the Continental Breakfast in the hotel lobby, and then got off to Disneyland.  We wanted to get there before the rides opened at 10:00 so that we could have the WHOLE day to play.  Disneyland was closing at 7:00 that day, so we knew we were limited.

We found Disneyland, sort of on accident... just kind of stumbled upon the parking garage, with a little help from Nate's phone.  We weren't even sure we were at the right place and when I asked the guy at the parking booth, the lady in there came out with a little certificate that said, "Parking Guest of the Day", waived the $15 parking fee, and then escorted us to our special FRONT ROW parking spot!!!  There are only two for "Guests of the day", we got the first one and another family showed up shortly after, for the second.  It was SO COOL!!!  We felt so special :).  We just knew this was a good sign :).

This is the big sign that was over our spot!

We rode the tram in, and the fun began!!

It was such a fun day!!  

I had looked on blogs the night before, for tips on taking kids to Disneyland.  So I felt pretty prepared, but at the same time, I was feeling really overwhelmed with all that I wanted to do and how little time we had.  I was a little nervous for how the day was going to go.  I made Nate download the app Charity Manwaring had recommended to get the line wait times, and that was somewhat useful.  But I really wish I had just not worried about any of it.  We had had plenty of time to do all that we needed to do.  There are a few rides we didn't go on, but those will be fun to go on next time.  Overall, it was such a low crowded day (2 out of 10 acutally!), that we were able to get on the rides with little wait.  I think the longest we waited was for Peter Pan, for probably a half hour or so.  The rest of the rides we walked on with only 5 or 10 minute waits.  It was awesome!  I have NEVER been there with that few people!  

We started in Fantasy Land.  Did all the cute little kid rides with Erika and Noah and Jack being able to ride with everyone.  Then we got bold and split up so that I could take Kelly, Bradley, and Luke on the Matterhorn, Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones.  Nate took Charity, Erika and Jack to Cartoon Land.  I think this was one of the few regrets that day.  I missed out on seeing Erika hug Minnie, and Nate missed out on seeing Luke's pastey white face before all the drops.  But we joined back up, did a few more of the rides in Fantasy Land, teacups, Alice in Wonderland, It's a Small World (which happened to be the perfect ride to nurse Jack on!).  We ran into our old friends from Eagle Mountain, the Clarks (talk about a SMALL WORLD!).  We headed on over to the submarine, where I proceeded to lose my favorite necklace.  Still makes me want to cry when I think about it.  I had put Erika on my shoulders because her feet were tired, and I assume it got pulled off then.  SUCH a bummer.  ugh.  

Anyway- Then we went on the Submarine/look for Nemo ride.  That ride didn't seem to be anyone's favorite, but I loved listening to Noah and Erika the most they have such cute conversations.  And they did love watching Nemo through the windows!

After that, and looking around for my necklace some more, we went over to the pavillions to eat some of our snacks.  While we were there, we decided to watch the "Jedi Training" that was starting in a few minutes.  Charity, Bradley AND Luke were all chosen out of quite a few kids, to go up and be the trainees!!  Pretty cool stuff!  I'm not sure any of them were overly excited about it, but I think they enjoyed the fact that they had been chosen out of such a large group.  

Luke fighting Darth Mal!!  

Guess we should watch Star Wars some time.

We almost missed the Buzz Lightyear ride because we were anxious to go to the Haunted House (which actually closed before we got there), but luckily we didn't!!  This was a favorite!!  You go around shooting lasers at targets and getting points and stuff the whole time.  It was a lot of fun for everyone!  And Jack and I got to ride with Nate on this one, so that was cool :)  The kids had all chosen each other to ride with!  Love that.

We made our way down to Frontier Land, Adventure Land, and Critter Country for a few more rides.  We went through the Tarzan Treehouse (crazy that they just redecorated and renamed that from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse... I was kind of sad that they'd changed it, but oh well :) gotta stick with the times) We split up a little so that the big kids could go on a few more rides.  Nate took everyone except Kelly, Erika, Jack and I on Splash Mountain.  I still can't believe Noah went on that and that he loved it! We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride.  Then the kids got to take Nate and Charity on Indiana Jones.  While Noah, Erika, Jack and I hit the Pirates of the Caribbean.  That was a highlight of my day.  Watching those two enjoy that ride together, feeling all cool, I loved it!  They were so excited to take the big kids on it too.  So we all went on it again.  I LOVED how the littles were showing the big kids around.  Noah made them think there was a big drop :). It was a lot of fun.  

I can't remember everything after that... it's all blurry... but we made our way to the center of the park and saw the parade, and this was one of my favorite parts of the day too!  The parade was something I wasn't sure if we would take the time to see because... well... I had an agenda :).  But when it was starting I realized how much fun it would be so we stopped and watched.  I wish we'd taken the time to get seats though because we ended up a little spread out and for the first half, I was holding Jack in my arms and Erika on my shoulders while Nate had a tired, half asleep, Noah in his arms.  The other kids were peeking between adults and kids in front of us (someone please tell me why adults want to stand in front of children?? It's mind boggling to me).  After a while, I realized I was going to drop someone, so I passed off Erika to Nate, and he juggled her on his shoulders and Noah in his arms.  So here's the fun part.  Erika was sitting on Nate's shoulders waving her hand frantically in the air, with gusto! trying to get the attention of each character, as they walked by.  I LOVED watching her excitement!  I never would have thought that could have made her so happy.  SO around the corner comes the one and only Rapunzel!!!!!  Erika had been wearing her little Rapunzel costume all day, she'd even waited in line to see her for a good 20 minutes before deciding it wasn't worth the 50 minute wait (yeah, that's a little insane!), and then never seeing her the whole day!  So you can imagine the magical moment when Rapunzel looked back towards Erika, noticed her waving, put her hand on her hip, pointed to Erika with a "hey, we're wearing the same dress!" look on her face, all happy to see one of "her" fans, and then blew her a kiss!!!  I seriously almost cried!!!  It was SO SWEET!!  And so special for Erika!  I know I sound like a dork, but it was seriously magical!  That's the only word to describe it!  Erika looked so pleased at that moment and was just so thrilled to have seen her.  Ahhh.  Just a sweet sweet day.  Almost makes you forget the fortune you drop at the door. Kidding.

The kids had been saving up their money for quite a while, so they all had plenty to spend in the gift shops before leaving.  I think we spent at least an hour and a half shopping for souvenirs.  Kelly had brought a lot and was looking for gifts for several different people, so sweet!  She'd come with Pocahontas in mind and was set on the doll she'd seen in a shop up by It's A Small World ride, so she was relieved to see the exact doll in the first store we went in.  It's really a cute doll!  Then she found some earrings for her friend too.  Charity didn't seem to know what to get, she took a while to find her stuffed baby Tigger, and then a stuffed Goffy too.  Bradley got a squishy skull.  Luke and Noah had picked out guns earlier in the day at the Buzz Lightyear ride, Luke's was the one Zurg uses, Noah's was just like the laser ones we'd used on the ride.  They had so much fun with those the next morning in the hotel.  I loved listening to them play!  Erika picked out a cute baby Lady stuffed animal, that came with a cute pink blanket.  The little kids all picked out lollipops too.  It was so fun to see what they picked out and watch them get all excited about having earned it themselves.  Nate did help them a little, we had told them we would match what they earned, so that was fun.  We got home pretty late, with our Arby's in tow.  Ate, and then CRASHED!!  We were all pretty wasted!  Such a fun day.

The next morning we were a little slower going.  We missed the free breakfast.  We didn't get to California Adventure Park as soon as we had liked, but we were there.  It was strange having to park too :).  None of us had been to Disney's California Adventure park, so this was a new one for all of us.  We made our way to the Bug's Life Land, saw a fun movie, met Flik.  That was a lot of fun.  They have really done a great job with that area. Everything is made out of giant small stuff :).  We loved walking through the giant cereal box.  The rides were all made out of cute things, one of them was a giant cool whip container with a pie tin on top.  Lukey seemed to get a kick out of the food box containers on one of the rides, you could choose between an animal cracker box, a chinese food box, applesauce... it was way cute.  

The Chew Chew Train ride, with the fat catepillar (can't remember his name) had a giant box of animal crackers and it actually smelled like them in the box as you drove through.  So cute!  And the giant watermelon dripped on ya.  They went all out on that whole area.  I loved it.  The kids seemed to like too.  That's where we spent a lot of the day.  

I think the most thrilling ride we went on was Mickey's Fun Wheel.  It's this giant ferris wheel with sliding baskets instead of just stationary swinging ones.  It was SO CRAZY!!!  We had totally talked the scared kids into going on it, thinking it would be fine and then after we all (yes, everyone was allowed to ride this one TOGETHER) got on it, we found out differently.  I hope they're not all psychologically damaged for life.  We were surprised with how scary it was!  Even for Nate and I.  Nate just laughed the whole time.  Charity hid her head, she was very brave.  Kelly had her eyes closed, and says she wasn't scared, but from the look on her face, I'd have to disagree.  Bradley kept his eyes open a lot of the ride, but he was white.  Luke sat there, stone-silent, with a very intense look on his face.  He was also very brave to try this ride even though he hadn't wanted to.  I felt SOOOOOOOO BAD that we had talked him into it.  Noah was scared, but closed his eyes as well.  Erika sat next to Nate, with his hand tightly over her eyes.  And I just held on to Jack for dear life!  I couldn't believe there was no bar or anything to hold us in our seats.  I was terrified.  I don't know how we survived, but we did!  With only a few tears.  But what a memory! :) HAHA!!  Nope, I don't think I'm to that point yet... doesn't quite feel right :).

We did love the Toy Story Ride a lot too.  That was the turning point for the day, after the rain had kind of slowed things down, and everyone was hungry and tired, we went on that ride, just me and the kids, and everyone seemed to cheer up after that.  Found out later that Jack could have gone on it, and when we went back to go on it with Nate and Jack, it broke down after about 20 minutes in line.  So that was a bummer, but what a cute ride it was!  We will definitely do that one when we go again.

Cars Land was adorable too!  Looked just like Radiator Springs!  We loved walking down the street and noticing the blinking yellow light at the end of the street.  The Radiator Springs ride was definitely our favorite!  I think that was one of our last rides that day, and the most talked about afterwards.  You ride through Radiator Springs!  Through the canyons and desert, and then through the little town.  Then at the end you race really fast against another car.  It's really cool.  Nate had taken everyone but Erika, Jack and I because Jack was too little to ride.  Thankfully we were able to get a stroller pass for me and Erika to be able to go on it after them.  She was ADORABLE on that ride!  She loved most of standing in line, talked the ENTIRE time, felt like I was hanging out with a talkative teenage girl actually, then she commented on all the cute little things we saw at the beginning of the ride and was just pleased with the whole thing until the racing part started!  It starts going fast and that's okay, but when you go over the little hill and come down fast, I think her tummy had just had enough so it did a little turn.  Her face went from thrilled to freaked out in a matter of milliseconds.  I felt SO BAD!  I leaned down to hug her and protect her as she screamed out, "THIS RIDE IS NOT FUN!!!" She was very unhappy with it after that.  I had a hard time convincing her that there was any of that ride that she did love.  So that was a bit of a bummer, but I still loved our little moment together :).  I had missed out on a lot of time with her during that trip simply because I love the bigger kid rides and Nate isn't all that into them.  So anyway.... It was a way fun place.

Nate picked a cool fishy, how cute is he!

We stumbled upon this parade and got a front row seat to watch all of our favorite Pixar characters come dancing by.  The kids LOVED this parade.  I think the older ones liked this one better than the one the night before.  And I'm surprised Erika's arm didn't fall off, she was waving it so hard!  

We did everything we could, but found out after we got back to Utah, that we had missed a whole section of this park.  I don't think we would have had time for it, but it definitely gives us something to look forward to next time.  We were so tired, but we did take an hour or so to shop again :).  Everyone had leftover money to spend.  And we needed presents for Charity's birthday the next day as well!  Kelly got Charity a cute bracelet, and then got herself a stuffed "Marie" the kitty from Aristocats.  Charity found some cute Minnie Mouse high heel slippers.  Erika got really attached to this little Minnie Mouse so that is what she got :).  Bradley found a cool flashlight.  Luke got his beloved Perry the Platypus.  Noah found a perfect Buzz Lightyear.  Nate got us a cool mug (tradition to get a mug on our trips) and magnet, and then we found a cute necklace and fancy pen for Charity's birthday presents.  We were all so happy!  But SO very tired!  We grabbed some food on our way "home".  Everybody crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

I'm still amazed that we spent two whole days at amusement parks and not only survived, but had a great time!  I always thought I would be going for the kids and that no matter how torturous it was, it would be worth it, but I think I had just as much fun, if not more than the kids.  So that was a pleasant surprise.  Makes me really want to go again soon.  

The next day, Saturday, was Charity's 11th birthday!! 

Our plan was to go to the beach.  

sidenote: The forecast wasn't looking too good for it, and a few people I'd talked to at the Radiator Springs Ride the day before had mentioned that "the beach is fun, just too cold to get in the water, this time of year".  So I let the kids wear shorts and t-shirts, but I didn't want them getting their hopes up about getting in the water, so I told them to leave their swimsuits back at the hotel.  What a dummy I was with the clothing choices this whole trip!!!  But anyway----

First things first- Charity found her sign we had stuck to the mirror with toothpaste (didn't come very prepared, although we did have some balloons in the diaper bag that helped create a nice birthday atmosphere), and opened her presents!  She seemed pleased with her Disney-ish presents :).  Not every birthday do you get to spend the whole week partying!

Then we hopped in the car and drove down to the coast, found an awesome beach, stopped and asked some surfer dude if it was a good spot for finding sea shells, and with his advice, headed down the coast to (a "better seashell beach") Huntington Beach.

The beach was Nate's favorite part of our trip, and definitely one of mine as well.  The beach was incredible!  Such a nice break from life! 

The kids had fun digging in the dirt, sticking their feet in the water, and then after a while, finally getting all the way in the water (you can bet I was hating my choice to leave the swimsuits back... and so were the kids).  The water was cold, but who cares!!  It was a fun beach because you could walk WAY out into the ocean with the water only reaching mid-calf.  It was fun to watch everyone experience a real beach for the first time.  I loved the recollection of all of my fond memories of the beach as a kid as well.  It was just such a neat experience.  Such a good time.  I said it there, I'll say it again, I think  my kids had just as much fun at the beach as they did at Disneyland.  :)  Kinda funny.  I loved it though.  I hope we can go back soon.

Trying to get a cool shot of the kids, right when we got there.... not sure which one I like best...

I had not planned on Jack getting wet!!!!  This was hilarious though!  Nobody really knew quite what was happening!

  

I kept telling them not to feed the seagulls... they didn't listen.  

Jack and I spent a lot of time sitting on the towel together.  While Nate ran up and down the shore with the kids, scouting out the very best seashells.  I was really impressed with some of the cool shells they found.  I don't remember finding such cool ones when I was little...

We were close to Seal Beach so there were some big ships out in the distance that we thought probably belonged to them.  Then there were some oil thingy-things out there as well.  Kinda cool.  You could see the oil in the water and in the sand though, which is just gross.  

Noah insisted that I let him bring his swimsuit, so he was well equipped for going out in the water, but I think he was the only one who didn't make it too far in the water :).  Funny stuff.  He had fun digging.  He also let Luke and Erika bury him in the sand :).

Luke was busy the WHOLE time we were there.  Digging, making moats, looking for sand crabs, and getting buried also.  He was so happy until the end when he got knocked over by a wave and fell in the water.  I loved that.

see what I mean...

we were all by ourselves until this couple came... not sure why they picked right by us on this big, empty beach... but whatever.  They were only there for a little bit.  I think they were the reason my kids got brave enough to go out in the water.

Charity loved the beach.  Looking for sand crabs, seashells, and seeing how far we can go out in the water. I was glad that it passed as a fun activity.  She got to celebrate her 11th brithday on the beach!  How could that be anything but the best!

Bradley was really happy on the beach as well.  It was such a nice relaxing time for everyone.  He was pretty brave, going out into the water pretty far.  That was a lot of fun.  He found a crab leg too!

Kelly enjoyed looking for seashells the most.  She was the one that found the sand crabs.  She had brought a box to keep the seashells in and was very pleased with what we went home with!  

This is the older three, Jack and I out in the ocean.  As far out as we could go without getting too soaked. 

This was right before we left.  They had gotten so comfortable in the water, they just sat down!  They were less than happy with their wet clothes afterward, but what fun we had!!!

Erika loved the beach!  She was so adorable with every part of it.  I loved watching her experience the beach.  

This was the pose she chose when I told her to stand up and pose cute for me :)  What a doll.

When we got home, we were wasted!  Some of us even looked a little sun kissed!  Luke and Noah and Erika broke out their lollipops from Disneyland.  Had to get pictures...

We watched TV, took some showers and then made reservations for Outback Steakhouse for a delicious birthday dinner to finish celebrating Charity's birthday! That was a fun dinner.

We were pretty quick to get up and get ready on Sunday morning.  We went down to the Lobby for the free breakfast, then packed up to drive home.  Again I was very impressed with how quickly we got it all done, and how much help everyone was.  I was relieved with how smoothly the WHOLE trip had gone.  The drive home was uneventful.  We only stopped a few times to go to the bathroom and eat. We got home in time to get in bed.

What an amazing trip that was!  I was so surprised with how well it went.  I had pictured our first trip to Disneyland being a lot more stressful.  I do think it helped that it was shorter :).  But really, no complaints here.  The things I would have done differently were things we really had little control over.  I honestly can't wait until the next time we can go!!