A Day at the Beach…

February 19, 2011 | Updates

November 4th - We spent at Huntington Beach. Honestly, this day was right up there with the days at Disneyland. The weather was PERFECT! The high was 90 that day. The wind was warm. The sun was warm. The water was a little chilly, but the kids didn’t mind. The sand was soft and warm under our feet. And the picture opportunities…endless. I could have stayed there for AGES! We spent the day on the beach and walked the long pier that evening to eat dinner in the cafe there. Seashells, sun, sand, warm breezes, good food…it was my kind of day.

This is going to be picture overkill, but here goes…

The waves…

So fun!!!

The cutest feet in the world…just chilling on the beach.

Finding the right seashell…

Building sand castles…

Letting your brothers make you into a mermaid!

A picture of me??? (Come on, look close, you can find me.)

Taking a break from surfing (or at least trying to surf).

Me again!

Seaweed whips…

Dipping their Sea World toys in the ocean…

Tiny boy…big world…

Samuel enjoying the ocean breeze… (oh, look, me again!) Don’t worry. I’m not infatuated with myself. I just realized when I got home that there were no pictures of me this day. I guess that’s what happens when you’re the photographer :).

Castle builders…

A gorgeous sunset…

The whole gang! (Thanks, Kelsey, for being the photographer.)

We love it here!

Even Samuel appreciates this beauty.

The trip’s only halfway over. More later…

Our California Trip Continued…

February 14, 2011 | Updates

November 2nd - We got up early and headed to California Adventure where our incredible cousin scored us guest tickets for the day. (He seriously went way out of his way to get us in!) I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful California Adventure was. The kids were thrilled and there were NO LINES! Plus, everything was so accessible for Samuel and he LOVED the rides as well.

Waiting for the gates to open…

Enjoying a “Bug’s Life” ride…

Samuel got his picture taken with his favorite movie characters…the cast of “Cars”!

And we ended up in just the right place to conveniently watch a parade of all our favorite Pixar characters late that afternoon.

My favorite ride was by far and away, the TOWER of TERROR! Whew! It was fannnnntassssticccc!

The lines were so short that we were pretty well done with California Adventure by about 4 in the afternoon - and we even rode most of the rides TWICE. (We usually waited about 5 minutes per ride!) So, we headed over to Disneyland with our Park Hopper tickets. We got to ride quite a few rides there while waiting for the World of Color light show to begin that evening.

Getting our picture taken with Mickey…

Getting a few tips from the “Toy Story” soldiers…

Meeting Jessi…

Riding the carousel and then the ferris wheel…

The World of Color light show ended our day. It was pretty spectacular.

November 3rd - We spent at the beach. But I’ll post about that in a separate post because there are a TON of pictures to go with it.

November 4th - Up early and we headed back to finish up Disneyland. Again, a WONDERFUL day. The accessibility at Disneyland blew me away. Every ride was accessible to Samuel and everyone was completely accomodating. His favorite ride, though, was the Toy Story ride. We went on it twice. And he laughed all the way through it. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to watch him enjoy the “normal” things that children enjoy. And it wasn’t too shabby watching my other kids have the time of their lives either!

Fun at Mickey’s house…

What?! He can play this…um….contraption…

The infamous Disneyland photo (taken way too late in the day - oh well)…

Waiting for a turn on the roller coasters. (Since the lines were so short, we could send everyone except one of us (and Samuel) to ride the roller coaster rides and then we could all turn around and ride again while someone else stayed with Samuel. Most of the rides, though, Samuel just went with us!)

And did I mention that Samuel LOVED the rides!!!!

Both days at California Adventure and Disneyland were completely exhausting, but in the very BEST sort of way!

More later…

I might be back…

February 7, 2011 | Updates

but don’t count on it. I think it’s taken me two months to recover from the activities of November and December. But I’m going to try and share some of it with you so that we can get back on track.

Exactly 6 days after Tanner’s farewell, we left (as a family) for a trip to California. Tanner had a little over 2 weeks between his farewell and his departure date and I had scheduled ABR in California nearly a year in advance. And, if you’re driving your entire family all the way to California, you certainly can’t miss seeing Disneyland. So, we decided to make it all fit…somehow.

October 30th - We drove to Las Vegas to stay with family. It’s a 6-7 hour trip if you don’t make any stops. I don’t remember how long it took us, but it was long enough. We had to loosely band Samuel’s right arm to the strap on his carseat so that Kelsey (his aid) could sit next to him for the trip without him wacking her the whole way :).

October 31st - The kids got the impromptu chance to trick-or-treat with their cousins in Vegas. (Thanks heavens Aunt Tiff saved Halloween costumes from prior years and Nathan brought his Superman pajamas along!) I’m not sure that any of them are dressed as anything in particular, but it was enough to pass for candy!

November 1st - We drove to San Diego and spent the day at Sea World. (Again, another long drive that started at like 4 am.) The kids had a great time once we got there, though. We watched several of the shows and got completely drenched doing so (except Samuel because the sunshade on his stroller is AWESOME and kept him completely dry).  We even got to ride some rides. The park wasn’t crowded at all, which was VERY nice.

Nathan took his first roller coaster ride. The picture of it is priceless. He’s scared out of his mind and we can’t stop laughing. He was seriously holding his breath the whole time!

Samuel even got to ride the kid rides. He may have like the teacup ride so much that I let him ride it twice in a row. And, apparently, after 5 1/2 years, his vestibular system has kicked back in and he got sick from the spinning and actually threw up on me! Yahoo! I know that’s a little bit of a crazy reaction, but that really is an improvement and a good thing. (Ignore me in this picture. This is true motherly love to put this up. He’s just so cute in it and I’m just trying to keep from throwing up myself because my vestibular system is entirely intact and I HATE spinning :).

And did I mention that the weather was WONDERFUL there?!  (I’m so a sunshine girl.) Check out the sunrays in this picture.

We all had a great time!

After a seriously long day, we did the most crazy thing we could think of and drove another hour to Anaheim. After a few issues with hotel rooms and a lot of unpacking, we ended up dropping into bed at about midnight.

To be continued…

So…where did we leave off???

December 14, 2010 | Updates

I knew before the end of October even hit that I was going to be completely swamped with one thing after another. And you know what? I was right :). And it still hasn’t died down since Christmas is in like 12 days and I have hardly any shopping done. Scary. Seriously. But it will all work out somehow.

In the meantime, I think we left off at Tanner’s farewell. It went fantastically. I mean, except for that fact that 100 people just don’t fit in my house. But we did what we could and all squished together like we loved each other :). We did set up tables in the garage and tables out on the back porch. It had been such nice weather the entire month that I hoped and hoped it would hold out. But it didn’t. A few days before the big event, it started to rain and it drizzled most of the day of the farewell. I bought 50 lbs of picnic roasts and made up a ton of pulled pork sandwiches. And then everyone brought salads and desserts to help create quite the feast. (That’s what I love about LDS potluck…you just give a shout out for salads and desserts and everyone pulls through!)

Tanner did great on his talk in church. He looked so old to me sitting on the stand in his suit. I’ll never forget is dark suit and blonde hair. It reminded me of when he was just 2 years old and we took him to the temple to be sealed together for all eternity. He was much smaller then :), but he was just as handsome and had those same blonde locks. By the time I made it out of the church and back to our house, nearly everyone else was there. Getting the kitchen cleared out enough to even be able to move in it was quite the feat. But the food was soon out and as everyone dished up their plates, the crowd died down.

Hours later, when everything was cleaned up and put away, I dropped onto the couch and fell instantly asleep. It was a busy, busy day, but in such a good way. We had family and friends from everywhere. Many came from right in the valley. Many drove from as far away as Montana. And my brother even flew in from New York. The only sad part was that everyone couldn’t stay longer.

There were so many pictures that there was no way to post them all here so I made a slide show through one true media. Most of the pictures were taken after things had died down and I actually had time to pick up the camera, so if I missed getting you in a picture, I apologize. Anyway, enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Thanksgiving…

November 24, 2010 | Updates

Here’s to wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! I know I’ll be too busy to post on that day, so I thought I’d wish you all one early. Oh, and I can hardly wait to tell you all about the Mother’s of Near-Drowning Children Retreat I attended. It was incredible!

Happy Turkey Day!

Me at the retreat with 11 other moms who know exactly how I feel. Needless to say, we were all instant friends!