The Big D Vacation (part 2)

We spent basicly a whole week in California so there are tons of pictures for me to blog. Sorry, but I have to get this all done before we move.  Yes, I said move, to a house of our own, not renting but owning. I know you can't believe it, but more of that in my next blog.

  

 We started off the third and last day in California Adventures.

 The first few hours the boys went on big rides and we went to Bug Land with a few more photo opps.

 Then we all got together and went to Cars Land again.

 We stayed there almost all day riding the rides over and over again.  They really do kinda kick.

 Beckett really loves these guys.  I love the middle one he is like having a moment with McQueen.

 After Cars land and a quick couple of other rides, we ate dinner.  We did a character dinner.  Jason and I decided that Elleree was just at the right age for all the princesses at Ariel's Grotto.  She liked them enough, but didn't seem too impressed, for that matter neither were the rest of us.  So it was decided we didn't need to do that again.  That night we went to the World of Color.  Goodbye Disney.

 Next day the boys headed to Universal Studios.  

My aunt Carry came and drove me and the two munchkins to Ports of Call in San Pedro.  We used to go here when I was a kid and I haven't been in a million years.  It was funny to see things as an adult.  It always felt huge, but it is not actually that big.  Anyway it was a good relaxing day with no rushing to get anywhere and lots of resting.

 Our last day we spent at the beach.

 This is another thing I loved doing as a kid!  Now I love body surfing and playing in the water with my kids.  Elleree and Beckett didn't like it much.

 Jason is always a sport about playing with them in the sand.

They buried Truman and found lots of seashells.  I realized that I didn't get any pictures of Dillon at the beach I basically ROCK as a mom.

 We drove home that day and decided to drive all night and just push through until we got home.  About 3:00 a.m. as Jason says, an Elk hit us.  

It was pretty scary because we were all sleeping and all I heard was this huge Thud and Jason swore (which he never does) so I braced myself to flip, or smash into something.  All we did was stop.  I was so relived that it was just an Elk.  Jason was upset, but I was just happy no one was hurt and we could still drive the car. I don't even think it did that much damage.  Mostly I was upset about the smell.  Elk really, really stink and we had to smell it all the way home yuck!

The Big D Vacation (part 1)

We have been planing on taking the kids to Disneyland, for awhile now.  We finally realized it was one of those now or never kind of things.  We left Twin on September 30 and returned October 6.  It was a wonderful trip, even if we did have a few hiccups along the way. 

 The first day we stopped off in Vegas to visit some of my family.  We got to have dinner with my grandma and a few of my cousins. 

 As always my grandma cracks me up, but she is doing really well and I am glad of that.

 We headed out to Cali the next day.  About a half hour before we got to our hotel Beckett started throwing up.  Now we all know it would not be a vacation for us if one of our kids was not vomiting in the background. So our vacation had officially begun!

 Jason got us an awesome suite.  It was a little further from the Disney than we would have preferred, but whatever.  The bus rides to and from the park were an adventure.

 This made me laugh so hard.  Jason was picking up our tickets, so the kids and I were waiting near another window.  Pretty soon I see Beckett fishing out his "monies" out of his pocket.  He piled them all on the counter.

He then walked around the corner and pointed this picture. He wanted that.

 He never cared about the "Cars" cars that I had before, but we watched the movies for the 12 days of Disney, and he fell in love.  He couldn't get enough of them.

 We then headed to Downtown Disney and checked out the shops, and ate dinner.  The kids got some fun balloon shapes, and Beckett threw up in the bushes.  All in all a wonderful dinner.

 We had to stop at the Lego store.  They have some of the coolest structures.

 Who builds these things?

They have a fun play area for the kids.

 Next day we got up and headed to the park.  It took the kids (who am I kidding and me) awhile to get used to standing in line for everything.

 We stood in line to see Rapunzel, and Elleree decided that she didn't need to see any other princesses as long as we had to stand in line to see them.

It's hard because there are lots of rides that the boys didn't want to go on because they were for "little kids", but Elleree and Beckett couldn't ride on certain ones because they were not big enough.

 The day heated up to be a whooping 100 degrees, and we were melting.

 Surprising as it was though no one threw up.

Even when they exerted themselves.

 The best places to be were on the rides duh.  Not because they were fun, but because they have air conditioning.  Everyone was exhausted when we got back to the Hotel.

 The next morning we got an early start.  This gave us some photo opps.

Funniest thing happened while we were standing in line for one of the pictures, I looked over and saw some friends of ours that we knew in Idaho Falls.  It was so good to see someone you recognize, and they are a very cute family! Such a small world.

 Elleree and Beckett's favorate ride was the carisel.  Luckly the line was never very long, and they have one in both Disneyland and California Adventures.

We checked out Toon Town and Jason had to ride Splash mountain one more time before we headed over to California Adventures.

While they rode that ride we got to talk to Jack for a while.

There are even fewer rides that these two could ride in CA, so they spent lots of time like this.

 These pictures are to prove that I don't just put embarrassing pictures of my kids on here.  We decided to ride the Farris Wheel, no big deal right.  Wrong, I hate roller coasters, so if you are planing a vacation that has them and you need someone to just hang with your kids, I'm your woman.  So this Farris Wheel has seats that, well I don't know how to describe them.  They roll, it didn't seem to be a big deal from the ground.  It was a huge deal in the air.  Jason and the boys just laughed and us (Elleree and I) and took pictures.  When I saw them I had to admit it was kind of funny.

Beckett and Elleree loved these two rides.

 Our last stop of the day was Cars Land.  Beckett nearly died of the awesomeness.

 They have three rides there and all three were really fun.

When it is lit, it looks just like the movie.  I loved Cars land!  It was super cool!  

Then we headed back to the Hotel.

12 Days of Disney

Last time we went to Disneyland I did the 12 days of Disney and did a post for each day.  Not happening this time.  We did do the 12 days, but I am a slacker and didn't get pictures of all of them and we had a trip in the middle of it and the kids had school and and and......  So here are our 12 days of Disney.

Day 12 Sept. 19th:  Miracle/ playing hockey with Jason.  No pictures because I had to go to YW that night.

Day 11 Sept. 20th:  Snow White/eating caramel-ed apples. Eating and watching in the car on our way to Utah.

Day 10 Sept 21st:  Princess and the Frog/making and decorating frog, crocodile and mickey cookies.  Truman, Dillon and Jason went to Nebraska for a football game, so it was just Elleree and Beckett.  We were staying at my brother an sister in-laws in Utah, so Ali and Michelle helped us too.

Day 9 Sept 22nd:  Aladdin/magic "car"pet ride to IKEA.  Okay I am stretching it here, but I really could think of anything to do at someone else's house, so back off.

Day 8 Sept 23rd:  Tangled/Doing hair.  Jason did Elleree's hair because I was helping make dinner.  Ali did Beckett's for him.  The other two boys were not interested. 

 

Day 7 Sept 24th:  Pirates of the Caribbean III/make ship out of cardboard boxes.  Jason was a real help with this one.  He had a vision and made it happen with the kids.

Day 6 Sept 25th:  Atlantis/finding candy in popcorn.  This was one of those movies that was impossible to think of something to do. No pictures because, well it was lame!

Day 5 Sept. 26th:  Cars I/using chalk to draw a track and drive cars on them. Elleree was not a very happy participant in this particular activity. 

Day 4 Sept. 27th:  Dumbo/eating peanuts. No pictures, because who cares.

Day 3 Sept. 28th:  Pirates of the Caribbean IV/have a treasure hunt with candy coins at the end.

Day 2 Sept. 29th:  Toy Story III/play Disney trivia game.  We traveled to Las Vegas so this was something we could do in the car.
Day 1 Sept. 30th:  Cars II/play license plate game.  Traveled the rest of the way to Cali, and was easy to play in the car.