Vacation Pictures - Part II (Disneyland)

Here are a few Disneyland pictures:

This is our view as we were opening the parks. We counted down from 10 to 1 and yelled, "Let the Magic Begin".

Jay and William rode the Astro Orbiters:


Enjoying the fountain at California Adventure:

One of our favorite rides was Soarin' Over California:

One of Tessa's favorite rides was Winnie the Pooh. Here she is by the honey pots.

Vacation Pictures - Part I (The Beach)

Henry checking out the waves:
Tessa didn't like the water too much, since it was really cold. She spent most of her time on the beach:

Henry, William, Emily and Sydney spent most of their time in the water, with Jay and Philip:

Jay tried to get Tessa to give it another try, but it was a no go:

William adopting his surfing stance:

Home Sweet Home

We made it back, safe and sound. We left Anaheim around 6:30 am on Saturday and pulled into our driveway around 7 pm, so 11 1/2 hours of travel. We stopped in St. George for lunch, in American Fork for Slurpees, and grabbed some dinner for the kids to eat in the car in Brigham City. It wasn't a bad drive - the kids were pretty good (although there was an iffy 45 minutes before we hit St. George when they were pretty antsy) and watched movies pretty much non-stop from St. George until we got home. Thank heavens for portable DVD players.

We had a great time at the baseball game on Friday night. The boys were disappointed that the Yankees lost, but it was an exciting game and Henry was thrilled to see some of his favorite players. Jay took them early to try and get a card or ball signed, but no dice. Oh well.

We have lots of pictures to share coming up, but I wanted to post a few family pictures that we took.

In front of the Redlands temple:

The kids at Newport Beach:

At Disneyland:

At California Adventure - Tessa insisted on having her picture made with "Ka-Chow":

It's late and the long day is catching up to me, so I'll post more later. It's good to be home.

The House of Mouse

Greetings from Disneyland! We've spent the better part of the last three days there and it was fantastic. The kids did really well and had a great time.

On Tuesday we drove straight from Philip and Carol's house to the park and arrived around noon. We stayed until about 4 pm and rode several rides, including the Disneyland Train (William loved this ride and requested it again on Wednesday), Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Matterhorn. Then we had Chinese food and checked into our hotel.

On Wednesday we were up and on the bus to Disneyland at 7 am. We were first in line and were picked to open the park at 8 am, which was really cool. They pick a family every day to go into the park ahead of everyone else and help them do a countdown before everyone gets in. They let you sign a guestbook and give you Honorary Citizen of Disneyland buttons. It was really fun and several people recognized us throughout the day just walking around the park as being the ones who opened the park. Anyway, we rode a ton of rides and then headed over to California Adventure around 11 am for some more fun. We left around 3:30 pm, came back to the hotel and swam, had dinner and went to bed.

On Thursday we had early morning access through Magic Morning, so we were there when they opened at 7 am. Again, we rode a bunch of rides and basically finished up at Disneyland before 10 am, so we headed over to California Adventure, where Tessa and I had our Princess Lunch at Ariel's Grotto at 11:30. It was a lot of fun and the look on her face was just priceless. We got pictures with Ariel (and I got sucked into buying the official photo of Tessa and Ariel), Aurora, Snow White, Belle, and Cinderella. After we finished lunch we met the boys and headed back to the hotel for naps. We ate dinner and headed back to Disneyland around 6:30 pm. We rode more rides and saw the fireworks at 9:30 and Fantasmic! at 10:30.

The kids actually did more rides than we thought they would. Henry and William both rode Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, which I think is the craziest ride since it is so dark. William absolutely loved Soarin over California (it was my favorite as well) and rode it a total of three times, which is funny considering he is always talking about how he is afraid of heights. Tessa's favorite ride seemed to be Winnie the Pooh (we rode it 4 times total I think, while we were waiting for the others to ride Splash Mountain) but she really didn't scared during anything, although some of the rides made her nervous. Indiana Jones was great and Henry got to ride it 4 times, twice with Jay and twice with me. Lucky kid.

Today Jay took the kids to see a movie (Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and get some lunch while I did some laundry and got us organized and packed up a bit. They are all taking naps this afternoon (the kids were all up before 7:30, despite not getting into bed before 11:30 last night) and we have tickets to the LA Angels vs NY Yankees game tonight. Jay is taking the boys at 5 pm so they can watch batting practice and hopefully get a few autographs from the Yankees (we have baseball cards and balls to get signed) and then I'll come a bit later with Tessa. We're not sure what time we're leaving on Saturday, but hopefully not too late, since we lose an hour coming home and we anticipate at least a 12 hour drive. Hopefully the kids will be so worn out after our busy week that they will be somewhat mellow. We have movies for them to watch, so we'll see.

I'll post pictures and videos when we get home. Our room internet connection doesn't work so I'm out in the business center posting this right now and I can't do photos from here. But we've got lots to share from our trip, including a really cute video of Tessa giving Belle a big hug and video of William "surfing" at the beach. Of course we won't forget the awesome pictures of Jay at the beach either. Can't forget that!

Surf's Up

Today we went to Newport Beach. We had a blast! We left around 10:00 am and got parked and organized by noon. It was a lovely 75 degrees and sunny with a light breeze. The kids had a lot of fun running into the surf, even though the water was freezing. I think Henry and his cousin Emily stayed in the water the entire time, just waiting for the waves to come in and playing in the surf. William loved the water and was much more adventurous than we thought he'd be. He would adopt a surfers stance in the sand and wait for the water to come in - that was his idea of surfing. Tessa found the water way too cold, so she spent most of the time on the beach with her me and her Aunt Carol. Tessa and William both had fun hunting for seashells. Before we left Jay and Philip took the kids for a walk on the pier. The kids say they saw a jellyfish (even though Philip says it might have just been a trash bag); William even saw a shark and a dolphin because "I can see through water so I know they were there." It's not worth bursting their bubbles, though, so we'll let them keep those delusions.

We left the beach around 3 pm and went to the famed In and Out Burger. Jay got his burger and fries "animal style", which looked fun. The kids all had burgers and fries and shakes. It was yummy and now we've had the In and Out experience. Honestly, we like Crown Burger in Salt Lake City a little better, but these were good too.

Tomorrow will be a little bittersweet, because we're ending our family visit but heading to Anaheim to start the Disneyland part of our vacation. We've had such a good time with Philip and Carol and Emily and Sydney. The kids have loved getting to know their cousins and they have played really well together. Hopefully we won't go another three years before we see them again.

The only bad thing today was that Jay lost his sunglasses in the ocean. They were a really nice pair that he got at a company retreat a while ago but they flew off when he got knocked over by a rogue wave. He's very distraught, as you can imagine. I consoled him by telling him that soon I'll be posting pictures of his awesome beach physique on the internet for all to see. Stay tuned!

The Best Laid Plans

Jay and I are meticulous planners. We err on the side of overthinking most things, but we would rather be over prepared. So when we were planning our trip to California, we decided to leave our house about 2:30 am. Jay is freakishly able to go to sleep at the drop of a hat so he was going to hit the hay around 9 pm and set the alarm for 2 am, thus getting him a solid 5 hours of sleep. Then we'd transfer the kids to the car and start driving. In our fantasies, they would sleep until about 7 am. We'd all yawn, smile at each other, and stop for breakfast in Cedar City, happy to be in each other's company and as well rested as you can be after spending half your night in the car.

Yeah, right.

It worked perfectly, until we actually put the kids in the car (at 2:20 am, 10 minutes ahead of schedule). They didn't go back to sleep. Not one of them. We figured that, at some point in time between 2:30 and 5:30 am, they were all asleep for maybe 30 minutes. William did the best and Henry and Tessa tied for the worst. The good thing was that they didn't talk. They whispered occasionally but were quiet. Quiet and awake. For the better part of the rest of the night.

By the time the sun came up sometime after 5 am they were awake and asking for food. So I distributed cereal and juice and we still stopped for breakfast at Cedar City around 7 am. They played at the playland at McDonald's for a while to shake things out and Jay and I kept saying, "I can't believe they didn't sleep."

Anyway, the rest of the drive was fine. We at lunch in Barstow and were at Philip and Carol's house by 1:30 PDT, making it almost exactly a 12 hour drive, counting a 1 hour stop for breakfast and about 30 minutes for lunch. The kids did fine. The picked at each other a little. They watched DVD's and looked out the window and read books. Tessa did stickers in her little scrapbook. She even fell asleep for a whopping nap of 30 minutes.

So far we're having a great time. We went to church with Philip and Carol today and drove over to see the Redlands Temple. We've played games and eaten ice cream. Tessa is loving hanging out with her girl cousins and they are so cute with her - reading her stories and helping her choose stickers.

Tomorrow we are heading to the beach. Lots of pictures to come.

Oh, and for the record, the kids get silly when they are tired. As in, crazy silly. And Henry has a hidden mean streak that comes out when he is up for the day at 2:30 am on Saturday and 6:30 am on Sunday. I am calling him a "mean drunk". So if anyone has any ideas about spiking his apple juice, think twice lest you catch the wrath of an angry Henry. Consider yourself warned.

Ballerina Girl and Biker Boy

Tessa has decided she wants to be a ballerina. I'm not sure why, but she sure talks about it alot. She really, really wants to take a ballet class. I'm using it as leverage for potty training. As in, "well, Tessa, only big girls who go in the potty can take a ballet class." So far it hasn't worked, but I continue to have high hopes. My only hope with potty training is to bribe her, apparently. In the meantime, she practices her ballet moves at home. Here is a performance preview:

In other news, Henry has learned how to ride a two wheeler. Yes, I know, he'll be 8 in a few weeks. But some of you may remember that when Henry was 4, he broke his arm by falling off his bike. By the time he was fully healed, it was winter and so he wasn't able to get back on a bike until spring and his interest and confidence really suffered. Fast forward a few years and Henry started to realize that all his buddies were riding bikes and that he was starting to miss out on some good times. With a little encouragement and a huge amount of help from our good friend Nicole, he took the leap and got back in the saddle, literally. He spent lots of time today riding around the cul-de-sac on his bike and even rode it over to a friend's house. We are thrilled and very proud of him for overcoming his fear. I honestly don't care if he rides a bike, but he's getting into prime bike-riding age, where it really becomes a fun thing to do with your friends and I don't want him to miss out on all the fun. So now we're thinking of getting him a new bike for his 8th birthday later this month, especially since William has decided he is interested after seeing how much fun Henry is having. We may end up having family bike rides yet.

On a final note, we hope you all have a Happy Independence Day. We are heading out to visit our California cousins in the morning (barely morning, as we're hoping to leave before 3 a.m.) and have lots of fun things planned. If I get ambitious, I'll blog from the road. We'll see. In the meantime, we have wonderful neighbors keeping an eye on our house and our garden while we are away. Our only regret is missing the annual "Cul-De-Sac of Fire" celebration, where all the neighbors get together and do fireworks on July 4th. Next year for sure!