OUR FIRST DISNEYLAND VACATION!!

I am trying to think of a more fun way of telling about our trip than the novel's I normally write, so I think I'll write Highlights and Lowlights of each day accompanied of course by mountains of pictures!

FRIDAY

Alexa, Jaq, Seth, Mason and Anna

Lots of driving for Dad

 Car RIDE...but happy with the final destination.

Crazy car face.

Met up with Tallie, Jim, and Gaven at the hotel after dinner

  

 Highlights:

Surprising the kids that they were going to Disneyland with their cousins

 Disney Scavenger Hunt to reveal the treasure and Mickey Mouse Pancakes

Kids did amazing on the 7.5 hr. drive

Only one bathroom break for the kids (2 for mom) all the way to CA

The elevator up to our hotel room (Seth ask's me "Does Disneyland have rides like this?)

Total excitement at the hotel and for this unknown adventure of Disneyland

Stayed at the Tropicana which is literally right across the street from the entrance

Only takes us 5 minutes to walk to Disneyland and Cal. Adventure

Lowlights:

Sick cousin Mason with a super high temperature and coughing all night

Not being able to play with cousins much cause they were sick

Left the beach toys home

Sadness for the kid that doesn't get to push the button on the elevator

The phrase "How much longer to Disneyland?"  as we approached St. George and about every 15 min afterwards

  

SATURDAY

Okay, I was excited (i'm not going to lie, I'd been looking forward to this probably more than my kids....well they didn't know about it till the day before so yes, definitely more than the kids and I LOVE VACATIONS and DISNEYLAND)  anyways, so I woke up early to find these two kids snuggled like this.

Jaq blow dries her hair for the first time.  She was fascinated by this blow dryer in the hotel room...?

THE infamous D-Land picture.  I swear Seth was WAY happier to be here than this picture shows

Our first Ride was The Buzz Light Year Ride.

 ...and only like a 5 min. wait!  (every time we saw this ride the rest of the time it was like 40 min or longer!)

Anna, Mason, and Seth waiting for Star Tours

 Waiting....and waiting....in line.

Mr. Tater Man himself.  Okay, why is there a Buzz Lightyear ride and a Toy Story ride?  Hum..... 

We found Jesse when we swapped over to California Adventure

Cute idea for pictures.  I saw a girl do kissy-fish face up against the plexi-glas and I about threw up.  Do you know how many people touch this thing?  More Hand Sanitizer Please.

Nap time and luckily she did.

Green army men. I love the little street shows they do. They are so fun.  These guys were great.

 Phineas and Ferb Dance Party...I'd never heard of them but my nieces and nephew LOVED it!

There was some splash park in Bugs Land and my kids seriously could have stayed there all day.  They loved getting wet and they did...trying to dry out their underware as they sat in a stroller the rest of the day was a little more challenging.

Okay, you're probably wondering what is with all the crazy poses from Seth?  I asked him, Seth what's why are you posing all crazy and he said "Mom, its my I'm-in-DISNEYLAND-pose!" Hilarious.  He seriously didn't JUST smile the whole day.   It was one crazy pose after another.

Okay, Heimlich's ride is for babies...literally. It was slow so we took lots of photos.

Jim, Tallie (my sis) and Gaven

Cordelle and Jaquelle

There's Krista, Alexa, Aaron and Zack (yea a ride he can go on)

.....and Mason and Anna

Flicks Flyers...yea, a ride I can go on being PREGO!

On Monsters Inc. Ride

Again with the street parades....so fun!  This was incredible!

Playing Duck, Duck Goose while we waited for Crush Interactive

Dinner at Tony Romas!

Souvenir for the day... Mickey and Minney!!  And man, did they love these more than I ever thought they would.  A very good purchase.  They hugged those and slept with them every night we were there.  Love it

California Adventure at night

Waiting for Night one of World of Color!

 

Everything looks cooler at night.

Highlights:

Listening to a little conversation of Seth and Jaq as they lay really close to each other in bed before they got up.  Seth says to Jaq, "Jaq, we get to go to Disneyland today.  Are you so excited?" Followed by more giggles. 

The smoothest day by far and it was a Saturday!

2 hours in D-Land where Seth finally got to ride the long awaited Star Tours Ride

Spent the rest of the Day in California Adventure

Seth loving Goofy's Flight School roller coaster (ended up riding it 3 times)

Fast Passes

Cordelle experiencing California Screaming

Cordelle experiencing the Disneyland "experience" with the kids for the first time

Street Shows - Green Army Men, Phineus and Ferb, Mickey's Live on Stage, Pixars Street show

Perfect weather...almost hot!

Fruit smoothies and churros

Seeing Sully from Monsters Inc scare people on the street

Grandma and Grandpa Mason got here!
Seeing The Incredibles at the Disney Pixar parade

Diner at Tony Romas

World of Color

Kids out within seconds after world of color

Best sleep of our lives

Lowlights:

Not enjoying Seth's excitement of Star Tours cause prego people are advised not to go on that ride and Cordelle gets super sick on rides like that. (Thank heavens he has a super cool Aunt that took him)

Toy Story ride broke down while in line (good thing we went back on Tuesday)

Cousins still fevery sick and coughing

Not getting great seats for world of color, trying to see over tall adults with kids on their shoulders

Trying to hold our kids for the 20 min show and then carrying a zonked out Jaq for 40 more minutes as we made our way back to the hotel (Seth was out in the stroller)

Probably used an entire bottle of hand sanitizer for my kids (Cordelle and I are both a little too OCD when it comes to public places)

SUNDAY

This was a rough day for us, so I didn't get too many great pictures, but here are a few of us building castles at the beach

Tallie made this hole at the ledge of the beach that connected with the top ledge and took turns pulling all the kids through from the top to the bottom.

Cordelle hung out with Seth once he fell into the ocean and was pretty cold.  He didn't really want to do much after that.  Not to mention he started getting a fever!

Mermaids!

Highlights:

Found a church close by in Anaheim

THE BEACH

jumping over waves with the kids

Sandcastles

Sunday family movie in the hotel

Tylenol and Ibprufen

Lowlights:

Well sure enough Seth caught the sickness and started shutting down at the beach

Seth fell in the water while jumping waves and couldn't get warm and didn't want to do anything else the rest of the day (turns out he had a high fever too)

Went to the wrong beach for a Sunday.  It was so crowded.

Since Seth was sick and miserable we cut the beach trip short and just went back to the hotel.

103+ temperature left most of us getting little sleep

A little bout of frustration that sometimes things don't go like you plan them to :) 

MONDAY

After the mere introduction to Minney the day before and the souvenir she got, Jaquelle was so excited to meet her in Toon Town Monday Morning.

Long wait, but for the girls....it was worth it!  Here's BELLE

TIANA or as Jaquelle calls her Jasmine, cause she's never seen Princess and the Frog before.

Ariel!  Not the closest looking Ariel to the real one but with that red of hair she could probably look like Rosie O'donnell and still pass as the Mermaid princess.

Jedi Training!  So Seth was still fevery and sick so his excitement wasn't all that I'd hoped it would be but he still LOVED this Jedi Training show and boy was it!  We saw Darth Vader and Darth Maul, storm troopers and a real Jedi.  SO FUN for him!

Jaq and Tigger

Family and Pooh!  (Notice poor Seth still shivering?  We had bribed him to go on Splash Mountain just moments before.

Ibprufen kicks in and he's not half bad.  Finally a smile on board the pirate ship in Frontier Land.

 The Jungle Cruise.  I always loved this ride.  Its fun entertaining and the kids get a kick out of it!

Just LOVE these things (sarcasm).  But the kids insisted and since Dad would've blown up chunks, it was up to me.

Thanks to Aunt Tallie, Jaq got to meet her favorite princess.  Thankfully someone wanted to wait the 45 min wait to see Rapunzel.

There she is!!  Jaq of course was ridiculously shy, but this Rapunzel was so sweet with her.  She sat and talked to her for like 5 minutes which in princess world at Disneyland is a LONG time. 

They compared long hair, which they brought around to their faces to make mustaches (which I of course got all on video).

My only regret is not getting Jaq's face when she ran back to us on cloud nine.  This place truly was magical for her.

I love that my kids love my mom so much.  Here's Jaq and Grannie Annie waiting for the Disney street parade.

No idea.

And Now the Disneyland Parade!!

Excitement for some princess floats!

The end. ( of the parade )

All the characters at the Fantasmic River Show!

Highlights

Waking up with the determination to make today a fun filled day (especially for Jaq) even if Seth was under the weather.

Jaq enjoying her first roller coaster (she's too short for almost everything else) in Toon Town.  She was in roller coaster heaven!

Meeting Minney and Princesses all day with Jaquelle

Bribing Seth with an R2D2 light up spinning toy to try out Splash Mountain (he didn't really like it, but enjoyed his bribe prize)

Seth getting some medicine and coming alive a bit to enjoy the pirate ship and The Jungle Cruise.

Peter Pan, Toads Wild Ride, and a short nap for me during Its a Small World (that is the longest ride in the whole park)

Delicious Pizza and Salad in the park.

THE PARADE!!  And watching Jaq during the parade.

Deciding at the last second to return back to the park with Jaquelle (we all left early so Seth could get some good rest) to meet up with the rest of my family for Fantasmic.

Getting an incredible view of the fireworks while trying to manuver the stroller at 8:45 at night through the crowded streets Disneyland.  Lucky for us, the through traffic was diverted to go right up by the castle where pyrotechnics and fireworks were being shot off so we got a great show on our walk back.

Getting to Fantasmic just in time.

Aunt Tallie scored front row seats right in front of the river for the show so I was able to record the whole show for Seth to see later!  

Lowlights

Seth and Dad were still asleep after a long night with high temperatures when it was time to go so we missed our early entry into Toon Town.

Poor Seth still wasn't 100% but was trying to be a trooper until it came time for more medicine which we religiously pumped him full of. 

Early night in for Dad and Seth so Seth could get some good rest which he needed and I think helped him a ton!

Thought this was funny.  I told Seth later that this was a picture of him "Forcing" Dad in his sleep.

Yea!! The smiles and crazy poses from Seth are back!

At this point, it was our last day so I just let the cousins play! (Jaq never did end up getting sick!)

Worth the wait.....Toy story ride was a hit!!

3D glasses always make for good pictures!

Cordelle loves the look of all these old school posters.  Graphic Design Nerd Alert.

Cute Pace Family in their 3D glasses

Anna and Seth

 Alexa and I

Jumpin' Jellyfish!!

Seth totally relaxing, hiding from the sun under his new Star Wars Mickey Hat.

Mom and Seth up on Paradise Pier Farris Wheel

On the very top!

Cordelle and Jaq

And my FAVORITE picture from the trip.  They are so cute!

Got Jaquelle to snatch this pic of us, just took a couple of tries to get all the fingers away from the camera window.

Cordelle was posing...but Jaq was not....oddly enough they had the exact same look on their face!

Jaquelle and Dad at Ariels Grotto

All of us at Ariel's Grotto

Grandpa, Anna, and Grannie waiting for World of Color to start

The boys playing starwars with all the glow sticks

Night 2 of World of Color

TUESDAY

Highlights:

Seth is feeling better and his temperature is down!!

The excitement is back and Seth returns to Star Tours for the 3rd time with Grandpa Mason

The Toy Story Ride is fixed and it was a HIT!!

Super Relaxed day mostly in California Adventure

Seth and Mom go on California Soarin'

Premiere seating to the play Aladdin with everyone there.  This show was fantastic!

Watching a carefree Jaq dance all over the boardwalk behind Paradise Pier totally oblivious of people watching and laughing at her.  What happened to my shy little girl?

Seth convinces Aunt Krista to take him on Goofy's Flight School again

Luckily they still honor fast passes 3 hours after the allotted time

Family ride on the huge Farris Wheel (cant remember the real name).  Of course we have to go on the outside non-spinning one for dad but it was nice and so cool way up on top.

Fancy dinner at Ariel's Grotto

Premium tickets to World of Color (this time we had fantastic seats right up front and saw so much more)

Lowlights:

Cordelle woke up sick :( and so we left without him.  I felt so bad for him. Luckily we were still in our first line for that lame Nemo ride by the time he met up with us.  Okay its not that lame but the 2nd time through it for me was enough :)

Ariel's Grotto dinner cost us more than all the other dinner's from the whole trip combined :)

Not many rides today....(but thats okay, I was overall happy with the whole day and trip)

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was really just driving and more driving....and it did seem longer coming home.  But we did stop in St. George and swam with Grannie in the pool at the condo they were staying at.  Then Grandpa took us out to cafe Rio.  It all came at just the right time.  Even though we only had an hour left to drive....we needed to get out.  Here's us at the pool.

a little randomness I dont want to forget

love this picture of Seth....cracks me up

Family Date night to DQ- Seth is the vanilla man and normally (not shown here) I can count on Jaq to represent with the chocolate!

Doesn't this bean bag look like a little nest for her.  Its like her own little egg!

I love this picture.  Cordelle's mom sent this to me.  It was actually from Christmas.  She snapped it as they were watching a movie together.  SOO Sweet.

I really can't tell you what good friends these two are.  They are always playing some kind of game together most of the time even if its a real game, they are making up their own rules usually working pretty well together.

We almost always have some sort of job chart. I know, I'm already THAT mom. Seth flies through these things, I'm almost considering making his twice as long as Jaq's.  Jaq as you can see gets a lot of strikes (which result in stickers being taken away) cause she has a harder time not listening and whining, but everyone does eventually earn their goals and I figure its good incentive for me to keep them motivated. 

Star Wars battles are constantly breaking out everywhere around the house. 

Along with the Millenium Falcon, Seth enjoy Star Wars Lego's for the upteenth time.

Snowy Family Sunday Afternoon

Yea, a door!!

"Are you kidding me mom?  I think I'm stuck"

Had to have a window now that we had the door.

You cant really see it in this picture, but I made King and Queen chairs right next to the "window" they look out to see if dad is going to throw a snowball at them.

In the Royal Chairs

Who said playground equipment is for the summer?

Pretty nice FORT if you ask me....and the shovel flag helps.

Not a snow day without this in my kitchen for a couple days after.

Angry Birds Night with Dad

What do you get when you mix this....

with this....

and a little of this...?

Answer:  One super fun night with Dad as the culprit.

Love Day

This year's Valentines Day was nice.  I had set up mailboxes for everyone in our family at the beginning of the month so the whole Valentines giving was way ingrained in their minds.  It was fun to see the kids get so excited to draw pictures or put little toys in each other's boxes (I should have taken pictures).  Anyways we also got invited to a neighborhood kid Valentine's Day party my friend Angela put together.  I'm so grateful for fun creative people who invite me to stuff so my kids have fun things to do here and there. Vday bags, frosting cookies, and then the ultimate exchange.  Whats not to love?  I don't know why, but I took some pictures of it!

I really wanted this love day to be about people I loved.  So I tried to just do better about making sure my kids and family knew I loved them.  Of course Cordelle got my attention too, but its fun to share Valentines Day with kids too you know?  Make that a focus instead of the lovey-dovey boyfriend/girlfriend husband/wife exclusivity.  I dont know, but I enjoyed the day even more this way.  We ended the day with a candle light dinner (heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's) and some Valentines Day Wipeout for the kids.  All in all, a great day.

Ahh February...thank you for saving us from boring January

Okay February is clearly my favorite month.  There are so many great holidays like Valentines Day, my birthday, and this year LEAP YEAR (which basically means another day of February!!).  I start off every February baring my testimony in Sacrament meeting which to a lot of you would not be fun, but I actually like to do it and it forces me to think about what really is important to me and to share it at least this once a year.  Sharing my testimony in Sacrament meeting just kind of gives me a spiritual boost for the month that i love.  I really should do it more, but it does make February special because its like my own little tradition, i have in my head.
  Anyways next comes my birthday on the 10th.  I dont know why but since I was a child, I have always thought you should just feel differently on your birthday. And I still do.  I know its different as an adult, but I still let myself be excited all day.  I think its fun to just allow the attention to come and just revel in it for one day.  Is that kiddish?  Cordelle stayed home from work and we totally got to hang out all morning which was so fun.  I took a leisurely long time getting ready and then met my basketball girls for lunch.  They were so sweet.  When we got home we packed up the kids and headed to Richfield which turned out to be a very nice drive.  Cordelle was able to get a really slick deal on the Marriott there and we were already needing to take a drive to Ephraim for youth conference preparation plans so we decided to make a weekend out of it and met my parents in Salina for dinner.  After dinner we stopped by my grandparents home they are trying to clean up to sale and helped my dad move some furniture and gather some really cool artwork of my grandma's that had been foolishly thrown into the dumpster out front. (yea, I dumpster dove on my bday.  But it was for a good cause) We went back to the hotel and swam with the kids and all crashed. 
   The next morning we drove to Ephraim, went on a very muddy hike with the kids to the center of Utah, visited some parks and other locations we are using for Youth Conference, got to visit my Grandma Mason in a nursing home and ate birthday cake Cordelle had stored in the trunk for dinner!  It was fun and I really enjoyed the whole trip.  Just should have taken some more pictures....the only ones I got were from the hike.  oh well.

It was muddy, thats why the pants are rolled.  Jaq was carried the whole way thats why her's were not. :)

Can you tell which child got a nap?

You really can see the Manti Temple off in the distance, its pretty cool.

He was a mess which is actually very out of character for him, guess the late night swimming kind of did him in.  How are we ever going to do Disneyland?

 

That and this

Hum...January.  I'd ask where it went, but lets be honest, January is the most boring month of the year so who's asking that?  After the new year's eve bash (see previous post) nothing happens in January except for a house with a stir crazy mom, kids that cry because their Christmas toys are becoming a thing of the past, and my overly cluttered Christmas cottage home gets stripped of its festivities leaving my small home to suddenly feel....empty.  So I patiently wait for February cause its my favorite month....but in the mean time....

                                  enjoy some of the randomness that does occur in our home.

I just have to post this picture, cause it will embarrass Cordelle and I think its so cute!  He was filming one day at work and they took some still shots and I liked this one the best.  My blue eyed man!! 

Jaq is still, well a struggle at times, and bed time is one of those time.  But after fighting with her to go to sleep and then finding the end result as this....it totally made it worth it.  Hey, what ever's comfortable sweetie.

Are we at Disneyland or something, you might ask?  NO.  We were passing through Gunnison Utah when we saw this gem at the Ford Dealership.  Are you kidding me?  Its a real truck someone turned into Mater!  We had to get out and take a picture with it. Did we take time to let Seth put on shoes? No again. With coolness like this, there is no time for trivial things like shoes (that, and we couldnt find them in the wonderland which is the car floor.... and it was cold). But Jimbo- who knew your hometown could be so cool?

Saw these sweet things on Pinterest and let me just say, they look way better in this picture than they did in real life.  They were a mess.  And they took FOREVER.  Oh minions! Goes to show you what can happen when you try to copy someone else's really cool idea.  Also helps to have icing equipment, the corner of a ziplock bag really does not make very straight lines.  Ahh well, it was for a scout auction so hopefully they got at least a nickel off of some of these guys!

This is down in the spare bedroom and I am actually working out on our elliptical cause we are space savers and double our spare bedroom as a workout room slash additional storage room slash staged nap room (did I really just write out the words "slash" instead of using the symbol / ?. So yes, this is totally staged and Jaq is NOT asleep.  But she put so much work into getting all her blankets, pillows, dolls and the camera and then begged me to take a picture of her because it was "cute" that I couldn't resist.  It is cute. And had she really been asleep so that I could have really enjoyed the peace and quiet my workout at home NEVER is, then it would have been even more cute.