DAY 1-
Saturday was our packing day. We all worked our little patooties off to get the house sparkling clean for mom. It was a lot of work, but we did so good at staying happy. I had to catch up the laundry from girls camp the day before and we needed to wait for Kelly's lax clinic to get done- she and Erika were both there. It was pretty amazing to be getting out the door so close to our projected time, a first for us. We had to make a few stops, but off we went!
The drive was long, but pretty uneventful. We did stop in Scipio at the little petting zoo/gas station for one of our rest stops- always a treat! We were surprised to see how much the place has grown. Grateful to Andrea for reminding me of it!
When we were driving through Las Vegas we had the privilege of watching a plane land right over our heads- pretty exciting.
Some of the highlights:
The drawing game- we had played this game at girls camp and I thought it could be fun with the kids in the car- turned out to be a really fun time. I passed out the index cards, gave the kids a few random instructions for them to draw- can't repeat it- and then I would judge which one fit the description best. Lots of fun! We played that for a couple hours.
We had a nice discussion about butte's and plateaus as we drove through the red sand in Southern Utah and Nevada. We decided that a butte is PART of a plateau or once was.
When it got dark and we were able to see the stars, Nate asked Noah to look at the one star in front of us and asked him what star it was- his guess: The Southwest Star. HAHAHA! We got a good laugh about that. He had noticed the direction we were heading and gave it his best :).
We learned just how annoying our van is to park at our hotel when it took us nearly 45 minutes to get in a spot. We didn't clear the parking garage. Not as much of a highlight as just a lesson in life. And actually we handled it pretty well, considering it was close to 1:00am.
Not a highlight either, but as we were all getting comfortable in our new sleeping arrangements, Molly puked all over Erika and their bed. So sad. So gross. And so not fun! We were pretty sure it was from not eating all day... and all the driving. Poor girl. Hopefully, day 2 will be more fun :).
DAY 2
Sunday we had plans to recover from Saturday :). The kids were very insistent that we go to church, which we were grateful for their motivation. We got ready quickly and with one bathroom, living out of suitcases was not an easy task, but we made it to the Anaheim 4th ward on time! This was such a cool ward! So SO welcoming and made us just feel like we were in our own ward. I loved the talks and loved the Spirit there. It was great. The kids were excited about going to their classes, so we slowly found them all. Everyone went to their classes just fine, except for Molly. I stayed in there with her for a while, but felt kind of like I was in the way so I left. Lucky for Molly, I asked Nate to check on her in between classes, and she was not doing well! She had been standing by the door the ENTIRE time. Not talking to anyone, not doing anything really. So Nate took her with him to Priesthood. I felt so bad for leaving her there. Relief Society was awesome though. I was glad I could help and played the piano for the opening and closing songs. Pretty awesome. I'm glad I have that talent. Everyone seemed to have a good time in their classes, we went back to the hotel to veg.
Some highlights that day:
The Newport Beach Temple! I love this temple. It's nestled in the prettiest little canyon. It is so unique and fits the area so well. We drove over to look at it again. It was closed of course, so we could only get pictures from outside the gate, but it really is so beautiful. We were excitedly planning our baptism trip we were going to make Wednesday.
I think it was Noah, when someone said, "The moon looks like a toenail", he said, "Says the toenail" We all got a good laugh out of that :).
From the car to the temple, Nate and Molly found a cute little ant trail. She was pretty fascinated with that. The kids helped her think it was awesome :).
The girls loved the store sign that said, "NORMS" is regular writing and then in fancy writing "we never close". Funny girls.
There was a store called "The 99 Cent Store". Sounded awesome :).
This day was when Molly started her "Don't copy me, don't copy me" song. We all loved that. Sounds a little like the Don't laugh at me song, but with those words over and over again instead.
Luke said to Molly, "Do you have a poop diaper?" and Molly responded, "No, I pee." Luke laughed.
When we were back in the hotel Luke said to Molly, "Let's see who can fall asleep the fastest." So Molly ran to the other room and back and says, "I win!!"
Not sure why this is a highlight, or what it even has to do with anything, but it's in my notes- Placentia is Spanish for placenta.
DAY 3- MONDAY
One of our favorite things on vacation is the free breakfast buffet every morning :). My favorite for sure!
This was our beach day! We drove an hour to the Redondo Beach with the recommendation of Lindsey Cutler. It was a great beach! I loved being able to park pretty close to the beach, not a long drawn out walk carrying all the gear. The bathrooms were fairly close too, which was really nice. It had a cute little pier with fun little shops. We spent about three hours on the beach before deciding we were all going to be fried if we didn't pack up and go.
Kelly was really glad she didn't let the sand and salt water get to her and ended up having a really good time in the water with everyone! I was proud of her!
These two friends had a lot of fun together.
We never get to see much of Brad when we're at the beach/lake/any water- he's always way out there enjoying it to it's fullest!
It was so fun to see everyone getting in the water and having so much fun together!
Jack really loved the ocean! He got pretty brave!
Luke was so much fun with Molly and Jack and making the sandcastles!
Kelly
I think this was when she got her tan lines from her capris :).
Jack played so hard! Time for a nap!
Then we made our way over to the pier and looked around a little. None of us know how to commit to souvenirs when we're on these trips. We always think we're going to find something better :).
We saw/heard a sea lion off the side- he was all by himself, but he put on a great show for these tourists :).
Same with this crane?! Amazing right??
After the pier we headed out to the Las Angeles Temple! What a beautiful temple that one is! So BIG!! We were able to go in and experience some of the fun things in the visitor center. Then we walked around the temple getting pictures and marveling at the beauty. The location of this temple was very interesting. It sits on a hill above the dirty, grimey, East LA. Quite the contrast really.
These were some cool to scale models of some of the temples- interesting to see how much larger this one is!
After the temple we slowly (traffic was INSANE!! How could anyone want to live there?) made our way to the Dodgers stadium! I was really excited to see the Dodgers play! They were my favorite team when I was little. We're not huge baseball fans, but it's always fun to be at a game. I think we were all a little tired though too, from sitting in the sun all day, but I think it was a good time. We left a little before the game ended- missing the fact that the Giants beat us... frowny face. But we needed to beat the crowd and get home to get to bed!
That night, just after falling asleep, Jack came to me, announced that he was feeling like he was going to throw up, and then proceeded to throw up all over the floor. So sad. Coulda been the popcorn at the game, coulda been the long day in the sun, but now we were starting to think we had an actual bug we were dealing with. I said a lot of prayers that night that everyone would be okay at Disneyland the next day.
Highlights from Monday:
When we went through the gate at the Dodgers stadium, they handed the kids a pack of baseball cards. They opened it and gave one to Jack. He then became very obsessed with the guy on his card! He was aware of where he was at all times! He had reddish hair and a big beard so it wasn't hard. It was so cute though, that he cared so much about him. I was so worried when Jack was out going to the bathroom, during this guy's homerun, but luckily, he and Nate watched it while they were out. Fun stuff.
Molly was adorably cheering "Let's go Dodgers!" chanting it over and over at the game- So cute!
I was really impressed with everyone's ability to change close in the car at the beach. Including my own! Who knew I could still do that :).
Erika found a really cool big black shell. She loved it! Seashells are the coolest.
DAY 4- TUESDAY
This was our Disneyland day! We decided to let the kids sleep in a little. We were slow getting out the door, but got to Disneyland just as it was opening (we thought it opened an hour earlier). We did have to wait in line for quite a while before going in. This was the start of a long day of waiting in lines :). That was the only downside. We were able to hit all of our favorite rides though! We made sure to go to Indiana Jones first. We split up for a few rides so that the big kids could go on Splash Mountain and Space Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad. We all visited Tinkerbell with Molly. That was a highlight. It was a fun day! We found the coolest spot, all on our own, very close to the place where they were letting off the fireworks, to watch them. That was pretty cool! And loud! Too loud for Molly and Charity. But very cool! We went on a few more rides and then we found out it was closed! Sooner than we'd planned, but it was okay because we were so tired.
This is such a cool ride!
Molly with the big Baymax- I still can't believe she chose the smaller one! HA!
The girls with Tink
The boys with her
Molly bravely giving her a high five, but only if Tink covers her eyes! HA!!
Who doesn't love the tea cups!
Molly went from wanting to go on Dumbo to REALLY not wanting to- even crying once we got in and buckled! Lucky for me she changed her mind back again while we were riding :). Could have been bad.
Waiting in line for Big Thunder Railroad- too bad we didn't know we could get more fast passes!
Here's Luke, Charity, Erika and Noah on Splash Mt.
Jack, me, Brad and Kelly- poor Jackie didn't love this one either!
Our kids are so shy they won't even smile for a picture on my phone taken by a stranger! Oh well- still cute!
Toon Town was a lot of fun!
Molly and me in our RED car!
Highlights:
Noah loved Splash Mt, Space Mt., and Indiana Jones.
Luke loved Splash Mt.
There were some cute little birds by us when we were eating lunch- Molly loved that. Poor little tired, probably sick, Jack made himself a bed on two hard chairs, with his head basically under the table and fell asleep during lunch. Poor little guy!
Nate and Molly went on Pirates of the Caribbean without us and when they were telling us about it she says, "two kitties, two doggies!" They also got to see the parade and went on the Pinnochio ride on the boat through the whale's mouth. Fun stuff!!
Kelly made sure to thank us throughout the day for the fun she was having and when I asked her what the highlights were said, "We've been having a blast, that's all that matters!"
Charity said something I wish I'd listened to. She said, "We don't want to split up- that defeats the purpose of being here!"
Charity loved Splash Mt. and Big Thunder Railroad
We got to see Mikey and Sulley walking past us as we were walking to the Autopia ride! Pretty awesome!
One of the funnest moments there was when Molly saw the Baymax stuffed animals. Her face was priceless!! She loves that "wobot"!
The kids got a good laugh out of the sign that said, "Pooh corner".
Erika liked Space Mt.
When the Space Mt. ride was over I asked Jack if he liked it and he said, "That was a little too scary for me". Very calmly, but definitely not his favorite ride. Cute kid.
Kelly made a fool of herself falling off the car in toon town while posing for pictures :). Not really, cuz nobody saw, but she thought it was pretty funny.
On our way back to the hotel there was an injured vet making balloon stuff for kids. He gave our kids swords and Molly got some kind of animal. It was cool. Charity really wanted to donate some money to him.
DAY 5- WEDNESDAY
I haven't mentioned our strange location in our hotel. We were in the room just below the work out room! NOrmally this is probably not a big deal, but there was a guy staying there who got up BEFORE the crack of dawn and did some pretty serious working out! It sounded like he was throwing the weights around!! It was SO LOUD in our room! It was fine the first morning, but all of the other mornings we were there, it was pretty unbearable! A couple times, Nate called the office and asked them to talk to the guy, a couple times, he went up and told the guy to just not drop the weights... we were pretty patient and the hotel did offer to let us move to a different room (which happened to be under the pool and too much effort to pull that off) so we declined. But Wednesday, we woke up to some pretty crazy, loud noise coming from the ceiling and when Nate went up to see what it was- someone was up there dribbling a basketball!!! It's funny now, but in the moment was a little more than we wanted to deal with. There was also a jackhammer going on outside!! Kinda funny really.
This was our temple day! Me and the older four got to go do baptisms at the Newport Beach Temple. I haven't mentioned that Clint- Luke's very best friend- was there in California the same time as us and not just in California but in the exact same hotel as us!!! Pretty incredible right?! So we arranged with them sort of to go to the temple together. Unfortunately they weren't able to get there on time. But we did run into them toward the end. This temple is a small one! It was so pretty, but so small! We were treated like royalty though- of course- the whole time we were there. There was this sweet Hispanic lady who when she found out I didn't have family names went and got me some from her ward file so that I could do the baptisms with my kids! So sweet! It really was a special experience. I love being in the temple with my kids and even more so when we are on vacation. They are so good and have such strong testimonies to sacrifice vacation time for this. I was so proud of them. They wouldn't have had it any other way too.
While we were gone Nate and the littles made their way around the neighborhood. We found them at a little restaurant. I'm glad they were able to explore a little. They had found a Swedish candy store and some fun souvenir shops.
After a little resting in the hotel room, we all walked over to the shopping center Nate had discovered and tried out a new restaurant. It was called Grassroots. They had really yummy food! I loved the ribs I got. The place was really fun, even the bathrooms were original and pretty cool looking- once we realized the sinks were not urinals out in the open- HA! They had mason bottles for everything including- much to our dismay- CHEESECAKES!! Kinda weird to see them in a restaurant when that was something we thought we'd do that in our restaurant someday as a new idea :). But still- a very cool restaurant.
took this pic for my dad
I didn't get the hold your breath memo
After dinner we made our way up to the pool! While everyone swam I did laundry (still hadn't washed some things from while I was at girls camp, so it was a must), and held Molly. She was not loving the pool. It was not super toddler friendly. But we loved watching the fireworks from the roof of our hotel while we were up there swimming! SO cool! Nate picked a good one! Also, to make it even sweeter- the Sanders were up there with us! Swimming, and doing laundry :). Pretty fun that Luke got to play with his best friend on our family vacation :).
DAY 6- THURSDAY
This was our California Adventure day! This is the thing that ended up being everyone's favorite on the trip. We did have a lot of fun there, the lines seemed easier, and it wasn't as hot as Tuesday. I think this one is less sentimental and more geared for little kids. It was a lot of fun!
We were all anxious to go on the rides that we'd missed the last time we came here. But we did go get our fast passes for Cars first. Bug's Life Land was a LOT of fun for Molly- well, everyone for that matter. They loved showing things to her and Jack and we all rode all the cute little rides together. It was a great way to start the day.
Jack didn't love the Cars ride. Which was a total bummer because I had built it up so much! But he was very anxious to go on the Ferris Wheel for some reason- he begged and begged! We finally made our way over there in the afternoon- he LOVED it! Actually everyone did! Minus Charity. But it was a much better experience than we had last time we went. I still don't think it was swinging as much as it did then. It was fun to redeem ourselves though :).
The Tower of Terror (or Guardians of the Galaxy Breakout mission as it's called now) did not disappoint! No wonder people were disappointed when we said we missed that one last time. Same with California Soarin'! That was amazing! Poor Jackie didn't love it the first time- took some convincing for him to stop screaming and yelling at me. I don't think he knew it was just a screen with a video- once he believed me that he was safe, he was able to enjoy it a little and even went on it with Nate for the switch rider turn. I was proud of him for facing his fears.
While Nate and the big kids were on Goofy's Wild Ride, Molly, Jack and I went on The Little Mermaid Ride! We actually went on it about four times with it breaking down occasionally while we were on the ride and then finally them closing the ride, so the big kids didn't even get to go on it. Molly loved it :). She points to the Little Mermaid everywhere and says, "memuh dat wide! we wen on dat!"
We got to see the parade- and from a special spot that one of the employees found for us- in California Adventure. This was the Paint the Night Parade that everyone recommended- it was awesome! I'm always so impressed with how they can make each little kid feel like the whole parade is for them! They kept looking right at Molly and Jack! So COOL!! I loved the parade. We were sad that the place closed right after the parade and thought we were going to be able to go on a few more rides, but we were wrong. It was time to make a mad dash through the souvenir shops for the last few kids to get theirs! What a miracle when they had Luke's hat in the back of the store we were in- we thought we'd missed the chance since the store we saw them at was closed. But in true magical Disney form- they got us one! That was cool.
I said to Molly, "Did you poop?" and she said, "No, I pee two times and I too lotsa times." HAHA!
We were horrible and didn't wait in ANY lines to see characters. I know that makes us bad parents, but we did get to see the characters and I snapped a few pictures :). Hopefully that makes up for it a little.
Jack picked me to ride with on almost every ride!
So sentimental! I loved the Monsters Inc. ride!!! Brings back so many fond memories with the girls and Grandpa!
Lunch time :).
While Dad and the big kids went on Cars- we went on the tractor one a few times :).
You can see me and Brad in the back- Erika too :).
DAY 7- FRIDAY
This was our drive home day! This was a sad day, but I think we were also anxious to get home. We loaded up the car pretty quickly (but still not as soon as we had hoped). Then witnessed a full on brawl on the side of the road as we were turning into the souvenir shop (to get some more cheap souvenirs :)). Turned out to be pretty crazy. The crazy guy that had been punched out was screaming and actually came into the gift shop (I was in there, the kids and Nate in the car just in case things got crazy again) and asked for a box cutter/razor blade!!! He had blood dripping from his head! Luckily, the owners didn't give him a box cutter!! Kinda creepy. Glad the police showed up. So that was pretty thrilling. Gave us all something to talk about. It's amazing to me how much someone in his state just seems possessed. And maybe not physically possessed, but just not in his right mind. Someone else is controlling his actions. So sad.
The drive home was fairly uneventful. We did make a detour up to the Las Vegas temple- I just love this one! It was so hot and we were so behind schedule that we just drove around it. Stayed in the car. But look how cool it is! Always reminds us of our night when Nate was working in Vegas and I went with him and played with Nancy all day. We had a nice time talking and walking around this temple. Good times.
I forced the kids to answer my huge questionnaire- took a few hours!- as per tradition. There was little to no fighting all the way home- it was really nice! We got home around midnight- everyone went to bed! Vacation over. Time to get ready for school to start!
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