California Vacay: Downtown Disney

The next morning we headed towards California. Our lunch stop was in Barstow. We took the kids to “The World’s Busiest McDonald’s”. Don’t ask me why. No, it was fine. It was just a glorified McDonald’s set inside some fake train cars with a gift shop. The only reason it’s the busiest in the world is because a million tour busses stop here on their Route 66 tour. Rob and I picked up hamburgers from next door…

We finally made it to the Anaheim Marriott Suites (Rob’s aunt works for Marriott and so we get a gracious family discount on many Marriott brand hotels. Thanks, Stacy!). The location was perfect (2 miles to Disney) and as soon as we stepped outside and felt the warm, humid air, the excitement really started to build for the real part of our vacation to begin.

First we headed to our room and let the kids get crazy for a while. Then, during the craziness, Caroline fell and hit her head on the corner of the armoire and got a gigantic goose egg on her forehead. Huge. Enormous. It turned red, then purple. It stayed that way all week. She felt terrible for a little while so I rested with her while Rob and the kids headed to the freezing outdoor swimming pool for a quick 10 minutes.

By now it was time for dinner and I decided that we should head to Downtown Disney. By this point we were all so excited to do anything Disney related that we could barely stand it. We were able to park very close to the entrance and then enjoyed our evening in the bustling area. We shared a pizza, played in the Lego store and the Disney Store,

 

listened to live music, watched the dancing fountain,

 

ate treats, and walked around just as happy as could be.

 

Madeleine was so excited she hugged just about every lamp post we came across.

           

  It was a fun night in preparation for the big day.

California Vacay: The Decision and Drive

You may remember me mentioning a trip to NYC that Rob and I had planned. I got an amazing ticket price, babysitting was all set up, and we were anxiously awaiting for the time to arrive. So what was the problem??

Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m the first person ready to travel anywhere, anytime. But this time it just wasn’t sitting well with me. Something wasn’t right. I decided to take my feelings seriously when there was an issue with our airline tickets and I had to call to straighten it out. The whole time I was on the phone with the agent, I kept hoping she would say the tickets wouldn’t be valid so we couldn’t go. Then that night as I was reading the scriptures I felt, yet again, that it just wasn’t the right time for Rob and I to go. As soon as I made that choice and started thinking about taking the whole family to Disneyland and the beach instead, I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

Who knows if there was a “bigger” reason for us to change plans, but we had such a fun and memorable time all together!

On the first day of our drive we stopped for a picnic lunch and Easter egg hunt at Discovery Park in Cedar City. It’s a huge wooden playground with mazes and play structures and all sorts of good stuff. The kids had a great time.

Then I hid the eggs in a little woodsy patch close by and the kids searched. Caroline caught on pretty quickly. (In this picture, I cropped out a guy totally looking at my butt!)

                  

Nate searched enthusiastically.

Madeleine got discouraged. Haha.

Then the kids counted and ate their booty…

   

 

and watched a large kite being flown overhead.

 

It even swooped down and came within an inch of slamming into Rob.

After this, we drove on to Las Vegas. We stayed a few blocks off of the strip and the hotel had a shuttle to the Fashion Show Mall next to Treasure Island. We decided to eat in the food court and walked down to see the pirate show. Boy. I think I said this last time, but I’ll say it again and I mean it. We are never driving or walking around in Vegas again! It’s bad enough when you are an adult but I sure felt terrible exposing my innocent children to that filth. The pirate show is now a show full of nasty women, gross dancing, and sex jokes. We left after just a minute. We had to squeeze ourselves through the tight mass of people who had gathered to ogle. We walked around for a few minutes and further exposed my children to more filth. Then, as we were about to board an elevator to cross the street, Nate ran ahead and in a dark corner by the door, slipped and fell into a puddle of WHO KNOWS WHAT!  It could’ve been ANYTHING. Nate said some splashed on his face and he licked it and it wasn’t water. EEEK!!! Also, if you want to shoot a machine gun with “gorgeous” topless women, I saw a few huge ads for it there. Dumb…

Anyway, our hotel was really nice (Springhill Suites Convention Center) and we found out we are capable of all sleeping in the same room together. Good to know!

A Pink Party for a Princess

Madeleine recently turned 4 years old! She decided to have a pink princess party. Sure, it’s a little cliché, but I figured it’s her birthday and she’s only 4 once and may not be into princesses or pink for much longer.

 

All day she kept telling me, “It’s my birthday so I get to do whatever I want.” Why, yes it is and yes you do! I use the same excuse on my birthday, too!

All the girls were too cute in their princess dresses. I made ribbon streamers for them to dance with and twirl around.

 

She requested pink food, of course, so on the menu was strawberry milk, strawberry whoppers, and pink cupcakes with pink sprinkles.

 

 

         

         

Then I had my sister come and give the princesses a manicure.

 

 

Madeleine and I are so happy her party went so well. Thanks to all the little girls who came and had fun and brought lots of gifts!!

 

Madeleine’s family birthday was celebrated at each of her grandparent’s homes. She received a jumping game, My Little Ponies, a Madeline doll, a backpack full of art supplies, Gerald and Piggie stuffed animals (her favorite books), a Strawberry Shortcake waterslide bath toy and some other things that have slipped my mind but are no less important .

Madeleine can’t wait until next year!

Family and party guests are welcome to view or download more pictures here.

Babe in Snowland

We waited all winter for snow and finally got some in March. Rob and I took the older kids sledding but Caroline felt left out so we took her to the backyard for her first experience in deep snow.

She didn’t love walking in it, mainly because she couldn’t.

 

She didn’t want to play, just eat and eat and eat.

 

 

I like these pictures because she looks like me when I was little. I wish I had a scanner so I could put in an old picture of me, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

A Birthday Party and Another Birthday Party

In December, Nate turned the big zero six. I decided to throw him a surprise party (Okay, I stole the idea from my neighbor who threw her six-year-old a surprise party just a few days before). Nate already knew about his friend birthday party coming up but he didn’t know about the family party we had planned.

The night before, Rob and I stayed up and made this beauty out of his favorite candy, skittles.

The day of, Rob took Nate on a little photowalk to the park while family gathered. Here is what happened when he walked in the door.

Then, a few days later, his friend party had been planned to take place. Nate had handed out the invitations to some kids at school without me ever getting a chance to meet the parents or anything. So I had no idea who these kids were and had no idea how to get a hold of the mothers.

Well, birthday party morning came and Nate was sick. Not just a little sick, but a lot sick. I had to call the moms I knew and cancel the party. Then I had to ask around to other moms to find out last names of the random kids Nate invited and looked online to find phone numbers. I actually got a hold of all the mothers! I was shocked, relieved, and yes, annoyed. Since the party was so close to Christmas, we had to move the party to the week following Christmas.

The day of the rescheduled party came and I tried to remind the moms of it but still only 1/2 the kids made it . Nate was quite bummed, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

Don’t tell Nate, but even besides the low attendance, this party didn’t exactly turn out to be a riot. Rob and I had all kinds of silly, messy games to play and most of the boys didn’t want anything to do with getting messy. They just sat there. Lame.

Nate also decided he wanted a red oreo cake. Okaaaay. So I did red frosting and the entire cake was covered in whole oreo cookies. Well, I’m not sure why, but none of the boys liked it and they made sure to tell me.

The other totally cool thing we did was set up the entire living room with hotwheels trick tracks. It was awesome!! Annnnd….none of the guests wanted to play with them. At all. They kept telling me they wanted to watch a movie. What is it with these kids?

Next year, Nate’s inviting just a couple friends and we’re going to Chuck-E-Cheese.

Regardless of how the party went, we sure love our growing kid. He makes us feel so much love every day.

(More videos of him opening presents are here).