Goodbye Cali

Our last day in California was spent at the beach again.  Unfortunately it was overcast again but that never stops the kids from playing.  The older ones ran down to the water while we chatted with Colby and Erianne's friends Jake and Jane Gibb.  Jake played volleyball in the London Olympics this last summer, I should've got his autograph. :)  The kids later tried playing volleyball with the dad's, they had fun trying. :)

We hung out at the pool again after the beach and that night took the kids to Macaroni Grill for one last family dinner out.  We were all pretty tired but we packed up and loaded up the car so Mark and the kids could leave early the next morning.  About 4:30 am they were on the road and I went back to bed for a couple hours before catching my flight.  Mark said this drive was a lot better, the 3 hours they were asleep in the morning really helped out.  They beat most of the snow storm home thankfully and arrived a couple hours after me.  What a great husband, and a great vacation!  I crashed that weekend though, everything caught up to me and I felt like I could've slept for days.  It was nice to have the weekend to catch up before the week started though.

Disney Day 3

We decided to do three straight days, we've never done that before but we thought it sounded nice to have a day to relax before heading back.  I surprisingly felt pretty good, not too tired for being pregnant the first two days.  The third day we were all hurting by the time we left the park that night.  Our kids are troopers and don't seem to complain of being tired too much, especially Charlie since he didn't get to take turns in the double stroller.  His feet were finally hurting him walking out of the park that night, mine were killing too but we had another great day.  

All the girls (and Jared with his girls)  went to lunch at Ariel's Grotto.  Leila and Kenya loved it.  Leila was mesmerized by all the princesses as they came out to our table and became quite shy when she walked up to them but as they were leaving or coming she would say their names "wook mom, it's Snow White!" Or "It's I Know you! (Aurora), it's Beast! (Belle), it's Cindalella!"  She sings "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty all the time.  Reminds me of Kenya singing "Someday My Prince Will Come" at about that same age.  It's so cute.  

 After we got a group shot Leila wouldn't leave her side so I snapped one of just the two of them.

 

Emerson was really excited at first but then she turned and didn't want to see any of the princesses.  Erianne was less than thrilled with her, finally on the last one Belle Eri held her and talked to her with her which she was happier about.  I love how Leila is holding her hand in this one. 

 The food and desserts were all really good, they better have been for the price we paid!  It was a fun memory with my girls.

 

Passing the time in line and waiting for others to come off rides.  We also went to the Aladdin play this day which is always entertaining.  The genie never disappoints.  The lines were practically none existent on most rides, I think some of the kids rode the Tower of Terror 6 times.  Kenya claims that was her favorite ride this time.

We ended the night scrambling to find the kids souvenirs that I kept putting off and saying we'd wait until the last day to buy something. Charlie is so indecisive (unfortunately he gets that from me) and couldn't find something that he wanted and that I approved of.  Kenya on the other hand knew exactly what she wanted (the white kitty from Aristocats with a big huge extra long tail) and the store we saw it in was closed, so Mark ran up to another store that it was spotted at while I ran over to the Star Wars store with Charlie in hopes of finding something there before everything closed down. He thankfully settled quickly on building his own light saber, a double sided red one.  We met up with Mark and Kenya who thankfully found the kitty at the other store and said our goodbyes to Disneyland, until next time!

Day Two- Disneyland

We met up with Jared and Colby and their families for our second day at Disney.  The girls stood in line to see the princesses and the boys (Knox and Charlie) got picked to be Jedi's and fight Darth Vader and Darth Maul.

 It wouldn't be a trip to Disneyland without a picture with Mickey and Minnie.  

 Leila loved most of the characters, sometimes she was a little timid but mostly she really loved seeing them.

 Charlie is getting a little bored with Space Mountain looks like. :)  We went to the parade at Disney that night, it was a new one so that was fun to see, I love watching the kids dance and wave in awe to all the characters in the parade.

The shuttle on the way home was completely packed and these two were completely exhuasted.  Leila got a new pillow pet, Lady, in hopes of replacing her raggedy old white bunny pillow.  It hasn't worked very well though.  Another successful, fun day.

California Adventure

Our first day at Disney we spent with just our little family.  We got there a couple days before my brothers arrived so we took a day at Disney by ourselves, which was actually pretty nice.  We were on our own schedule and did our own thing.  It helped that it was a really nice day, not a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees.  We spent the whole day in California Adventure, the last time we were there it was under major construction so it was fun to see what they had done and Cars Land was new to us this time, lots of fun!

Cars Land.  I had to get in line for a fast pass for the new cars ride right away when the park opened.  It was worth it though.  Leila was dancing everywhere to the music playing.

 The Ariel ride was Leila's absolute favorite.  After we'd walk off she'd say "again!"  She was mesmerized during the ride and loved the end where Ariel and Eric wave to you.  Here she is waving back.

 I rode just about every ride 30 weeks pregnant.  I didn't go on the really big coaster, California Screaming but that was about it.  No one stopped me so I just went ahead and was fine.  These pics are Tower of Terror and the new Cars ride.

 Cars Land at night.  That red rock was pretty amazing, felt and looked just like Southern Utah.

 They had a blast at the parade dancing and waving.

 

Leila loved the carousel and fell asleep on our way out of the park that night.  It closed at 8:00 every night so we didn't get to stay that long, but we were ready to go by then anyway.

Day one of Disney down, two more to go!

California

Awww, California...every February I just need to get out of Utah.  It's becoming a necessity.  Wether it's with my kids or without I hope to be able to do something every year.  This year my brother Jared wanted to take his girls to Disneyland, we found an amazing deal on a timeshare that Jared and Mark's work has and where we've stayed at before so we just couldn't pass it up.  I was a little nervous trying to do Disney 30-31 weeks pregnant but wasn't about to miss out either.  I mentioned to Mark that I thought we'd have to break up the drive though because I have a hard time sitting for a long time.  My tailbone starts to hurt really bad and it's just uncomfortable, plus stopping for me to go to the bathroom every couple hours.  Mark did not like that idea.  He is a nazi road trip driver and likes to get there as fast as he can.  He mentioned that maybe I should just fly and I of course was not going to object.  My mom was nice enough to even book me a flight with her sky miles.  Mark left Friday morning and I flew out that night, a whole day to myself was a little extra bonus which I took advantage of and got a massage.  It was wonderful.  I was definitely having some anxiety though with them driving, me flying, and us not all traveling together.  Grateful we all got there safely and Mark in record time. 9 hours 45 minutes, with some traffic. :) 

Our first day we headed to the beach.  It was warm but cloudy, anything felt good though compared to what we were use to back home.  Charlie still got in the ocean while the girls were a little more timid and played mostly in the sand.

After the beach we went back to the hotel and headed to the pool.  Leila had fun with the bubbles in the hot tub.

We spent the next day doing the same thing, beach then pool.  This day the sun was shining a little bit more, Kenya got brave and went into the ocean with Charlie to get hit by some waves.

She came back for Leila's floaties and her goggles but didn't make it very far.  She was freezing so I wrapped her up in her towel and her and Leila laid down and caught some sun rays with me.

 They had a lot of fun jumping off this little ridge.

Little beach bums.  Another great day.

January

      We've all fought off some colds this month, which I'm not complaining about since it's been such a terrible flu year and so far (knock on wood) we have avoided this.  We don't get the flu shot around here just lots of supplements and oils which have seemed to help out.  This pic is of me and Leila taking an easy afternoon after her nap on my bed.  Yeah, that means it was a really easy afternoon since I was on my bed the whole time she was napping too.  I almost always feel tired these days, especially in the afternoon and was fighting off a cold.

 Leila came into my bathroom to show me her masterpiece "Wook mom!"  Luckily her clothes were off.  She is usually the first one awake these days. We've had a new rule around here where the kids don't get to watch TV in the morning before school so they can get all their stuff done but gets the ipad and is the exception to the rule so we can go back to bed for a bit.

 This is Charlie and Kenya sleeping at Snowbird.  I put a big pillow in between them but when I checked on them they had switched places and crossed the pillow barrier. :)  Leila is sleeping in "Kenya's bed" as she calls it, the bottom bunk in Kenya's room now.  She still takes naps in her crib so we haven't fully transitioned her to sharing a room.  I better get on that though.  I'm running out of time.   She's doing pretty well sleeping in a big bed, just a couple times we've had to stick her in her crib because she keeps coming out.

 I had to get the three hour glucose test done because I came back too high on the 1 hour test.  This meant drawing my blood four different times over three hours.  It was fun.  Luckily my doctors office has nice comfy chairs and I got to work on some blurb books for my kids so that was kind of nice.  The test came back fine.  They said my blood sugar was even on the low end.  I don't know what happened that first time.  

-We woke up one Sunday afternoon to the kids zoo they made.  They drew all those cute animal pictures and placed all of their stuffed animals all over the house.  They were pretty proud.  

-My green smoothie.  I was again trying to fight off a cold and loading up on fruits and veggies.  I should drink it every day but I'm lazy and usually just put spinach in my protein shake.

 -We finally had some snow and the air cleared up for a few days.  It felt so bright outside!
-I had a little overnighter with some of my friends from high school.  We stayed downtown, shopped, ate, and talked.  The usual little get away expectations. :)  It was fun.
-I got "tagged" and did a 5 things about me on instagram.  Instagram is like the new world of blogging, but this is more like journaling for me so I still do it.  I'll have to re-write what I wrote on there...