CaliforniaTrip day #5 and #6

 On Wednesday and Thursday we headed back to Disneyland again. It was two extremely hot days, I think the temperature hit the upper 90's. The crowds weren't too bad and we were able to hit most of our favorite rides.  First, we headed over to California Adventures.

This is us riding on Mickeys Fun Wheel one of our favorite rides.  

 Then we headed over to Toys Story Mania. Which is a new ride that was very fun to play the games and get points.  

After hitting a bunch of rides over there, we went back over to the Disneyland Park.

While we were there Isabella got the chance to meet her very favorite Princess - 'Tangled" (Bella thinks her name is Tangled).  She was so excited! She was very cute, she wanted to make sure Alivia saw her too and knew who she was.  The first thing she said after words was "She Talked!" I think since all the other characters she has met so far didn't talk so she was so surprised.

 At Toon Town

The Boys favorite ride was the Indiana Jones Ride.  Bella's favorite ride was The Buzz Lightyear ride. She just loved how you get to shoot the targets and get points.

 My favorite ride is the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Erek got to ride it with the 3 kids. Logan and Jaycob didn't like it, too scary! But Bella loved it. Erek was so worried and was holding her down the whole time. The next day Bella said she wants to go on the ride that drops! So the very last ride of our whole trip was for me to ride the Tower of Terror, but no one wanted to ride with me. Then, Bella said she would go and I talked Amber, Jaycob and Drew into coming too. They definitely weren't there by choice, they did it for me. I also held Bella tight while on the elevator and it was so fun. I love it.  Erek said his favorite ride was Space Mountain, we got fast passes and then a rider swap pass and so each of us were able to take all the kids on it and not have to wait in line. Those fast passes are the best thing!

On Thursday night the Vesters met us at Disneyland and we went to Downtown Disneyland for Dinner. We eat at the House of Blues, the food was pretty good. It was fun to hang out with everyone one last time before we head home in the morning. 

It was such a fabulous trip, we all had a wonderful time. We want to thank the Vesters for letting us stay and play with them. We hope that we can come back son and visit again.

CaliforniaTrip day #3 and #4

 Monday, the day I have been so excited about.... DISNEYLAND! We bought 3 day park hopper passes on line and so on Monday we headed to the park. Adam was able to take the day off work and he keep the kids home from school so they could come along with us.  Amber had a big test on Tuesday so she stayed home to study.

It was really busy that day (Columbus Day) and it was really long lines. but as the day went on we still got a bunch of really fun rides in. We spent most of the day over at Disneyland and then headed to California Adventures that evening.

 Jerrod . Jaycob . Logan

 Sammy . Adam . Alivia .  Erek . Bella

 Gideon .  Tigger . Bella

 Our little family

Adam took the older boy to go ride Indiana Jones and we stayed with the younger ones to meet Tigger and Pooh. It was funny the few comments I got from people telling me I was brave to have so many little kids so close together.  

 Drew .  Jaycob . Jerrod . Logan

Gideon

This is waiting in the line to go in the Haunted Mansion or Jack's House (Nightmare Before Christmas) My kids have never seen the movie and so they didn't know what to expect. I think it was a little scary to them. 

 Bella

 My boys

 Everyone on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

The next day, Tuesday, we decide to take a break from the parks and just have a quite day. We went out for breakfast that morning at a little cafe around the corner. These kids ordered the biggest breakfasts ever. Logan got 3 pancakes as big as a plate. Bella got a pancake the shape of Mickey Mouse and Jaycob ordered french toast. It was really yummy but cost a ton. They don't order the same kids meals anymore.

After Breakfast we drove to the largest outlet mall ever. It was huge. I really wanted to shop but with 4 kids it really isn't an option. So we headed to the Disney outlet store where Bella got her souvenir of a Tangled barbie doll and little Tangled action figures. Tangled is her favorite movie and Princess. We also hit the Lego outlet store where the boys each got a Lego set for their souvenirs.
That evening we all had a Bar-B-Que by in the back yard.

CaliforniaTrip day #2

 On Sunday we headed to the Beach! The Vesters came too and it was so fun, Amber was able to spend the day with us and not study until that evening so it was really fun to hang out with her for the day.
We took a round about way to get there, driving up the Pacific Coast Highway, but we eventually made it to Newport Beach. It was a perfect day out, the weather was about 75 degrees and the water was not to cold at all. It was so fun. The kids really loved playing in all the sand and water. Jaycob were really brave to go out pretty far. Erek was so worry that Jaycob would be washed out to sea that he went out with him but they had a blast getting knocked around by the big waves. Jaycob and Erek loved riding the Boogie Board, they even got me out on it. I'm sure that was pretty comical. Unfortunately, A big wave came and took Erek's sunglasses, and he some how bruised his too. He told all the kids that he kicked a shark, I think the younger ones believed him, Silly Dad!
Logan and Bella had a blast playing in the sand and in the shallow waves. They were really in heaven! All running around and getting really dirty. We had such a fun time at the beach, we thought about going back another day on our trip but just never made it.

This is Gideon He was so funny, every time I got my camera out he wanted me to take a silly picture for him to see.

CaliforniaTrip day #1

I have been begging for a trip to California for quite some time now. Since, I am still on my maternity leave from work and Erek had Fall break coming up I convinced him that it was the most perfect time to go. We have our great friends that live out there and they keep asking when we are coming, they are so awesome to open their house and let us stay there for the week.

So we came up with a plan to keep it as a surprise from the kids. We emailed their teachers at school and packed and planned everything with out them knowing a single bit. We decided to pick them up from school Friday afternoon and just drive straight to California. At first they were asking questions of "where are we going?" We told them we had to go to the storage unit and then to see my sister in Provo. They were pretty content with these answers. Even though I don't think Jaycob believed us. So we just drove and drove, about Nephi they still weren't asking any questions and so we decided that we couldn't take it any more and spilled the news. They were definitely surprised and a little shocked at the same time. We got some lunch and got back on the road again. We had the boys teachers send some homework so the kids worked on it in the car on the way out there and got most all of it done.

 In the car doing homework / playing DS and watching movies as we drive.

We arrived at about midnight and just headed to bed once we got there. We were pretty tired. The Vester kids were all asleep and so we knew they would be really excited to see them in the morning. Amber had to study all day so she wasn't able to hang out with us too much. We really had fun just chilling in California.They have a nice house with 4 bedrooms and a pool in the back yard, so as soon as the kids woke up they wanted to go swimming. It is not a heated pool, we tried to get them to wait until it got warmer out, but gave in about 11 am. It was cold and they didn't want to get in it too much but they still had a blast. 

 After we went swimming we watched the Utah football game, didn't go so well. Then we decided it was time to get out of the house. The kids wanted to go for a bike ride so I drove the little ones and the dads took the bigger boys on bikes a few blocks away to get some frozen yogurt.

 This is one of the many reasons why we love the Vesters - all of our kids are all the same age. They have best friends and we have missed them so very much.

 giddeon . bella

 logan . jerrod

 jaycob . drew