::jan ca trip--even more disney::

This is long--lots of photos!



On the way up to our place we were staying in Malibu we stopped for the day at Disneyland (of course, where else?!)



I think this is the first time we've taken the classic sword in the stone photos--how can that be?
The kids look so cute here.

This was right before or after I lost my annual pass someplace in the park.  Argh.



This trip was especially fun because Kris got to come and do a bunch of the rides with the kids.  And it was a beautiful day.  And it really wasn't that busy in the park.



Here is my baby and I waiting for the guys to get off some ride in Cars Land.  We had a lot of fun just hanging out together.



She thinks I'm pretty funny.



We had the delicious coconut curry chicken that I like so much for lunch.  Sandy decided he wanted to use chopsticks after he got excited saying "Chopsticks!?  I've been there!" (We have a yummy Asian food place in Santa Fe that's called Chopstix).

He actually did great.  I was very impressed.  And he stuck to it--he kept trying even shen he was getting nothing at all.



And Kris got this fortune:



Hmmmmm....



Look Sandy actually got something!  He's so cute.

Here we are waiting for Max and Kris to ride on the big roller coaster that takes you upside down.  They have a nice waiting area in the shade where you can watch the roller coaster cars zip by.  Sandy danced around the whole time.



I told him to take a picture of me.  He took like 500.  None of them were very good.  And in most of them I'm saying either "Take the picture" or "Give me my camera back!"



At the very beginning of the day when we first walked into the park Sandy said "Do I get my double sided red light saber today?"  Kris and I were both like, "um, what?"  But he was convinced that should be his souvenir, and since we are pushovers he ended up getting "his" light saber at the end of the day.  And he was ecstatic.



Dad helped him build it.  He's never gotten one of the special ones that you build before.  You even have to put the "crystals" in the handle.  So exciting.



What a way to end a super fun day, right?



We left the park at about 4PM to head up to Malibu.  The kids were very happy.  For his souvenir Max picked out a few little prank items.  Rear view shades, and squirting nickel and the crown jewel of his collection a mustard bottle that squirts out a piece of string that looks like mustard.  It's startling.



Sandy was doing awesome jedi moves all the way back to the car.  In these photos the saber is taped so it doesn't extend.  When extended it's about as tall as Kris.  So crazy.





Max squirted the poor parking lot attendent with his trick mustard and scared him to death.  Luckily he was a super good sport and thought it was hilarious.  It made Max's night.

It was a great day.  The kids had a blast.  We're lucky to get to do so much fun stuff.

::jan ca trip--more more::

The next couple of days were kind of weird.  We had a lot of stuff to do for work and had to just stick around town close to a place where we could print and fax and do that sort of boring stuff.

We ate some good food, such as In & Out.  We drove in traffic a lot.  The boys and Kris went to a trampoline park for a few hours which was really fun.  Kris bought an old used short board from a guy on Craig's list and tried that a little bit.  He practiced surfing at T-street a few times and went a few other interesting places.



Basically we just hung out.  We sort of had fun and sort of just felt like we were treading water until we could get our stupid work stuff done.  Argh.



The kids were cute and sort of behaved though, so that was good.


I can't remember why Max made this drawing but I love it.  Especially the colors.  I have a hard time getting him to color his awesome creations.



And here we are driving in CA traffic some more.




Of course there's more to come, we weren't even close to done yet!!!!

::jan ca trip--more::

On Sunday we went to sacrament meeting later in the morning someplace in Orange County.  It was nice and then afterwards we headed down to San Clemente again.  We tried to stop by the Newport temple on the way down, but it seemed like it was closed so we just did a drive by.  It's super pretty.



The new place we were staying for the next few days was pretty nice.  There were enough beds for everybody and a little more room in the kitchen sitting room area.  Lucy especially loved this place because there was a big mirror all over one of the walls and she was so happy to talk to herself.



What can I say about the view?  It's incredible.  This is from the front balcony.  I could look at the ocean all day.  We're a good ways away from the beach--a big street, Amtrak tracks and other things are between us, but it basically looks like we're right there.  I was pleased.



Cupcakes after dinner.  Cute Sandy in footies.



Here's Lucy heading out towards the view--on the threshold of the balcony door.  She was excited at the prospect of escape and disappointed when I foiled her.



What's Max doing with the cupcakes?  Making a frankenstein?  Making a scary face?  All of the above?



And this is what happened after the sun actually set.  I want to eat it or roll in it or wear it or something.  So gorgeous.  Heart heart love beach sunsets.  And this was an extra scenic one.

More to come........always.......

::jan ca trip--run and more disney::

Here I am after I got up at 4:30 to get to the start of the 10K on time!  This is near the end when we were going through Cars Land.  I felt out of place without a fancy costume, but other than that I had a good time.  I didn't really get to train as much as I'd hoped, but I paced myself and didn't ever get too exhausted.



After the run I scooted straight back to the hotel on my tired legs and hopped in the shower so we could be ready to go and have some fun.  The Bryce and Nancy Randles drove down to spend a few morning hours with us going to Disneyland and we were supposed to meet them at the entrace around 10.  Well of course Lucy fell asleep just as I was finishing getting ready.
And of course once we made plans for me to sit with her and everyone else to get going she immediately woke up.


So off we went.  The cousins were very happy to be reunited.  Sandy was really serious about needing to immediately get on Star Tours, so we headed over to Tomorrowland.  We got a fast pass for Space Mountain--the next big and scary ride that Sandy was finally old enough to ride.  And psyched up to ride too I might add.



Lucy and Nancy and I hung out while everybody else did some Star Tours.



Yes, I do lots of Lucy-Mommy selfies.  I just can't help it.  She's so good at smiling and posing.



And she's such a perfect accessory.  She makes me look so good.



I got to go with the boys on Star Tours next and that was pretty fun.  We get to go to the park a lot, but with Lucy along I don't get to go with the big guys on the big stuff much.



We had fun.



Just an aside, thank goodness for the big water ball in Tomorrowland.  The kids could stay there pushing that thing around for hours--maybe even days--before they realize they're just pushing a big ball around and awake from their trance to ask why we're currently not riding a ride.



Sandy loved Space Mountain too.  He's a crazy guy.

After that we had a fun lunch together.



And that was the Disney day!  After that we all split.  The Randles for home and us to our hotel room.  Kris went on a surfing escapade and I tried to have the kids rest.  It almost worked.  Then I think we had hawaiian food at a really groaty place in Anaheim.



Just a classic CA sort of day.  Still, just the beginning of the trip.  This was a long one!

::jan ca trip--a little disney::

Part of the point of this California trip so that I could run a 10K at Disneyland.  So on Friday morning we drove up to Anaheim and got all registered for the event--which of course was a big pain and took forever--and checked into a family suite at a hotel across the street.

After we tried to rest for a while (we being Kris and I) and the kids bounced around us like beach balls we got ourselves together and went over to the park for just a little while.

Max really wanted to go on the Tower of Terror, and Kris agreed to accompany him.  When we got up to the gate we realized that Sandy was tall enough to ride.  And boy did he ever want to ride.  Much to Max's chagrin (I remember that feeling as the oldest sibling) Sandy got invited along on the scary ride and Lucy and I were left at the gate to hang out together.



We waited a long time but we were ok with it.  I was a little nervous about Sandy being scared, so I stuck around the exit.



He loved it.  He was so proud of himself for riding and they all had so much fun together.


After that we went over to Ghirardelli and shared a couple of hot fudge sundaes.  Mmmmm boy are those good.  We wanted to show Kris how good they were.

That was it for the park last night--again much to Max's chagrin--he had so many good ideas about what we could do next.  The kids and Kris went back to the hotel and I got to go browse the makeup store at Downtown Disney for a while.  It was really nice for me.

And when I came back this is what I found.  So sweet.  If only she'd stayed asleep for the rest of the night after that.......

::jan ca trip--san clemente part 1::

The first night after we arrived in California we stayed in a scenic little hotel in San Clemente, right by the water.  This hotel was so cute and the view was so great, but dang the hotel room was way too small!

The only good thing about the room was that there was a little closet that was just the right size for Sandy's little camping pad and Star Wars sleeping bag.  Oh, and the pillow that I brought that happened to have a Star Wars pillow case.  The last time we tried to get him to sleep in a closet (the last closet was HUGE) he was so mad about it.  He absolutely refused and was really offended.  This time with the "Star Wars bed" he was so happy, and once I got him lying down he even asked for me to "close the door of my room."



So anyway, everybody slept better that night.



Kris got up early and went out to try to do some surfing.

We had a great view, but I didn't get to watch much with all my kids running around the lawn.  I just had to try to keep them quiet since all the little units around us were filled with older people that probably wanted peace and quiet.

So I took the kids on a walk down the pier.



It was really gorgeous out there with the sun rising. Sandy was enjoying watching the SoCal Amtrak go by.  Evidently somebody taught him to cross his fingers when he sees a train go by.  So he did.  It wasn't me.



He's so cute.  And such a stinker.



The kids were driving me crazy on the pier though.  All they wanted to do was run screaming at seagulls and scare them away.  Again, there were a lot of old people trying to take quiet morning walks in the ocean air.  I figured they weren't that excited about running screaming boys.  So I was basically chasing them and shushing them the whole time.  Oh well.



And then of course when we got back they had bird poop all over the cuffs of their jacket sleeves from touching everything they possibly could.  Ew.

But they had fun and it kept them occupied for a while.  And I really enjoyed the view.


I could probably sit there and watch the waves forever.



We packed up and headed out to our next thing. It was just the beginning!

::january california road trip::

We usually try to take a family trip (usually we're hoping for a relaxing vacation, but that doesn't always happen so that's why I say trip) in the early part of the year, after the craziness of the office during Christmas break and the other holidays.

Anyway, a couple of years ago we went on a Disney cruise.  That was fun.  Last year we didn't really take a longer trip, just a few small ones over Jan & Feb.

This year we went to California for a few different things.

We drove.  It's always fun with littles.

We left on Wednesday night after work--late as always.  We drove to a town an hour outside of Phoenix.  We had a rough night.  We got in pretty late and we were hoping the kids would just go to sleep.  But Max and Sandy decided to have a big fight in the lovely hotel sized double bed they were sharing.  There was some fake snoring by Sandy, covers stealing by Max.  All the good stuff. Lots of crying.

Both boys ended up sleeping the whole night on the floor and of course Lucy got waked up.  It was a long night, not much rest.

In the morning we headed into Phoenix to the car dealership where we got our new car so we could get an additional key made in case we ever get locked out.  We thought it would take a few minutes but it ended up taking almost 3 hrs.

So we had to drive around Phoenix in a loaner car with all the kids stuffed in the back making up errands.

Sandy lost it at some point.



Bah!!! BAH!! BOOO HOOO!!!!
That's what happens when you fight all night instead of sleeping little kid!



So anyway, after we got the car back we made it to our place in California after dark.  Phew.

::little girl in a big dress::

This is Lucy's Christmas dress.  I loved this cute little dress so much when we found it at Target that I ended up building everybody's Christmas church outfits around it.



And when she finally wore it she looked SO cute.  And the skirt was so big and fluffy, and her little feet stuck out from under.



I just couldn't stop taking pictures of the cute little thing.







She's such a good sport and she has such adorable little fat legs.