Back to School

Henry - 7th Grade

 William - 4th Grade and Tessa - 2nd Grade

Back to School!

The Abyss of Dentistry

William informed a neighbor that I took him to the Abyss of Dentistry.  I'm sure it feels like that to him.  And he only had to have one cavity filled.

Poor Tessa had to have two cavities filled and two more teeth pulled.  Bless her heart.  Her cute little mouth just isn't big enough for all her teeth to come in without a little help.  She did really well.  Well, kind of.  She resisted the nitrous oxide and then threw up all over the place after gagging on the numbing gel.  It was kind of disgusting.  Then she agreed to do the nitrous and didn't even flinch the rest of the time.  Not even when he pulled her teeth.  Magic stuff, I tell you.

Next up is Henry, who needs a cavity filled (I swear we brush our teeth around here) and two teeth pulled. His permanent teeth are coming in in front of and above the baby teeth and they need room to move into the right place.  He doesn't seem too upset about it - he is working on getting them loose and after seeing Tessa yesterday realizes that it won't be that bad.  He might even be able to get them to come out before his appointment in two weeks.  I have a feeling it won't be hard to talk him into using the nitrous oxide.

Then we don't have to go back until February.  Thank heavens.  Out of the abyss until then.

So Cal 2013

Another odd number year, another trip to Southern California for our little family.

Highlights:

1 - Three fun-filled days with the Royal's of Yucaipa, CA.  We played games, shopped, ate, and went to The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  The aquarium was a big hit with everyone, but I would say William enjoyed it the most.  Who knew he would get such a kick out of petting sharks and sting rays?  He was so wet, he might as well have gotten in the pool and swam with them.

2 - For the boys (including Uncle Philip), a Yankee win at the San Diego Padres.   They got to see one of their favorite players, Mariano Rivera, close it out for the Yankees.

3 - Disneyland!  We did three days at Disneyland and it was great.  The weather wasn't too hot at all (it felt hot, but was only about 80 or so during the day) and we were there early every morning to beat the crowds.  We rode everything we wanted to ride multiple times, including the new fun Radiator Springs Racers.  You have to plan ahead to ride this without a long wait, but I stood in line every morning to get Fast Passes and we were able to ride it with only a 15 minute wait instead of the posted standby line wait of 120-150 minutes.   The favorite consensus ride among our family is Star Tours.  We rode it multiple times and had a blast.  William was even the "Rebel Spy" on one time through!

4 - World of Color at Disney's California Adventure is amazing.  We saw it our last night at Disney and it was a great way to end the visit.  Again, you need to plan a bit to get a good spot but ours was good and we really enjoyed the show.

5 - Our new strategy to drive back over two days was great.   We drove from Anaheim to St. George on Friday and from St. George to Hyde Park on Saturday.  Lots less pressure for us to hurry home and a much more relaxed drive.

Lowlights (because of course, there are some during a 9 day family trip):

1 - So Cal traffic.  On the day of the Yankees game Jay, Philip and the boys went to a restaurant in the Pasadena area for lunch and then down to San Diego.  It took them over three hours to drive what should have taken half that.  They actually missed the first have of the first inning.  It was crazy.  Traffic was just busy most of the time - it made us really appreciate our Cache Valley traffic.

2 - Crowds at Disneyland - It was a summer visit and we expected crowds but it seemed even more crowded than our last visit.  It wasn't unbearable or anything and we had a great time, but we noticed by 11 am every day it was really crowded.  Thank goodness everyone in our family was on board with getting up early on vacation because it really paid off in terms of weather (overcast and cool) and the crowds.

3 -  Motion sickness - Tessa got car sick on our way home.  Bless her heart, she has learned her lesson not to eat Spicy Doritos in the car, that's for sure.  She was fine afterwards though and fine for the rest of the way home.  Jay suffered a bit on our first day at Disney - he made the mistake of riding California Screamin with Henry and had to sit out a few rides afterwards until he felt better.  

4 - The mountain of laundry after a 9 day road trip.  I even did two loads on the road but it still took me a while to catch up.  Sigh.  I hate doing laundry.

I'll post pictures when I get them organized and sorted.  We used Photopass Plus at Disneyland so I have over 100 pictures that were taken of our family, including Tessa's official picture with Ariel at Ariel's Grotto and all the ride pictures from Splash Mountain, California Screamin, and Radiator Springs Racers.  We get them all on a CD that is on it's way to our house as I type.            

Next up, school starts!  Yay!