Easter

I am so bad at remembering to dye Easter eggs, (one year we even did it Easter morning and the Easter Bunny happened to come while we were at church.) This year was definately no exception, especially with it being so early. We got around to dying our eggs at like 10 p.m. saturday night. Its a good thing we have late church. Our kids are still pretty young, so it wasnt anything extravagant, just single and double color eggs and one egg that happened to get into ALL of the dyes. They just loved being able to get in there and take charge of their own eggs themselves. And yes my kids are in their underclothes. I didn't want it staining any of their clothes, so we pretty much striped them down to avoid any big messes.

Fun Week

Saturday morning, we went to Kangaroo Zoo with our friends, Jeff and Mandie and their kids, Paige and Jason. Kangaroo Zoo is an indoor play center where they have lots of those blow-up jumpers and slides. These are my kids favorite things ever, so this place was heaven to them, especially with Paige there as she is my boys favorite person. So they played there for a while, and then we went out to eat at Mi Ranchito. It is mexican food (obviously from the name)and was pretty good. Jeremy got this HUGE platter of food, and he almost finished all of it *oink oink*. The rice there is so good, which I think is totally random. We split a fried ice cream (it was very big) and the kids really enjoyed that. They had chocolate syrup all over them- always a sign that they enjoyed themselves.

On tuesday, I got to have lunch with some of the women in the ward. It was so much fun. There are such neat women in our ward. They are all great examples to me. It was hosted at Heather's house, and Jeremy watched the girls for me since Kenadee had a little cough, and I didnt want to take a chance and accidentally get Heather sick before her surgery. So much fun! I love just being to get out with other women, and recharge!

Wednesday, we had our neighbors behind us, Marcelo, Jana, and their cute daughter, Carly over for dinner. Marcelo is a chef at Macaroni Grill, so I was a bit intimidated. I mean, we always have people over for dinner, and it is always good, but I have never had someone over who cooks for their job, and has any training. So we decided that since the weather is getting a little nicer we would have steak. You cant really go wrong with steak. We also grilled zucchini, and had twice baked potatoes- which in the middle of getting everything ready, I forgot they were in the oven, and were a little overdone, but still tasted good. We also had some of the homemade grape juice that I canned last fall. Marcelo made a super yummy salad, and dinner was a big hit. After dinner we played Mario Party on our wii. We had a ton of fun hanging out with them.

Thursday night I had a coaches meeting to get all the information and equipment I need for the spring soccer season. After that I went to Enrichment. There was a really good program on the Parable or the Ten Virgins, and a yummy dinner. Every table was decorated with a different set of place settings and a yummy cake. Unfortunately, I had brought Kenadee because I didnt have time to feed her before I left, and she wasn't very cooperative. I spent most of the program in the mothers room, listening in, and ate my dinner fast, and one of the sweet women in the ward held her for a few minutes so I could enjoy a little piece of cake. After that I just decided to leave since it was too much of a hassle, plus my feet were sore from walking her around for like 2 hours in high heels.

Jeremy has been crazy busy because the guy that he works for on the side went out of town, so he has been going back and forth from Provo, to American Fork, to Pleasant Grove, to Santaquin all week long trying to iron out kinks in the city systems. Although he is getting a little bit of a break today since his team at work is going out to play laser tag, as a farewell for his manager.

Money

So a couple weeks ago I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, and it was such a good book. Some of the things I had heard elsewhere, but the way he puts everything, and the step by step process makes me think that this could actually work for me. So we committed to follow his plan. Although right away there was a slight problem, you see we had already saved and budgeted for Disneyland, and there was no way we werent going to go- it being a family reunion and all, so we decided that we would still go, and as soon as we got back we would start implementing his plan. So we cut up all our credit cards- YIKES!!! Let me tell you that was hard for me! But it is a little ridiculous that we have paid off all of our credit cards 3 times. I am determined that we will never have to pay off a credit card again, because we wont have a balance on one. When we were first married, we were very good about only buying things we could pay cash for and it never even occured to us to get a card, but after we had the boys things were hard- You see, we were on birth control, so we werent even planning on getting pregnant, once we found out that I was, we figured that I would still work since I was a nanny, it would be fine to bring the baby, but then we found out it was twins and that changed everything. Jeremy was going to school full time and working 20 hours a week maximum at that time. I got put on bedrest 2 months early (as a precaution- not because I really needed to be) which meant I had to stop working. So since I was making more than him at the time this definately put a strain on us. He was bringing home about $900 a month and our rent was $600. Ouch! We went on housing assistance which helped us not have to move, but I think we still were paying like 400 month. Then we also had a $5000 maternity deductible for our insurance that we had to meet, which we couldn't, so we went on Medicaid. Well since we had insurance, medical bills kept going back and forth between the two, and things started to go to collections, so we opened a card and put it on there to stop it. Once we realized how easy it was to get stuff we needed- (and yes we did need diapers and food) by putting it on a credit card and being able to pay for it slowly- in payments we could afford, we kinda got hooked. Then once Jeremy got hired on at Novell and he was suddenly making all this money, instead of going back to paying cash for everything, we started to put stuff we didnt need on our cards- going out to dinner every night, fun toys, etc. We never had a problem paying way more than the monthly payment on the card, but we avoided it so we would have more money to spend.

Anyways, we decided that we are going to break the cycle. So we totaled up all of our debt- not counting our house, and have like 18000 to pay off. Wow that seems like a big number. But I guess when you factor in the fact that it includes our van, it doesnt seem as bad. Oh and we arent counting student loans either, since we pay less than 1% on those, we could put our money in any savings account and make more than that. So we have a check that we get once a month that is earmarked entirely for debt. This months payments are going to the $1000 for the emergency fund. Then for the debt snowball, we are paying off one of our cards, and making minimum payment on the other debts. We also have to get our garden in starting this month, so that we can save money this summer by not having to pay a premium for fresh produce (which we eat tons of). So a little detracted from paying off the debts now so we can pay on them more in a couple months. oh and back to being better at coupon shopping for me. Which up until now has really just been a hobby ( I love seeing how much I can save) I am going to actually have a budget for food, so that we can put even more to paying stuff off. If we are really good we can have everything paid off, a full emergency fund, pay more to our 401K, and pay off our house in less than 5 years. Although once we pay everything off and fill our emergency fund, we may want to pay cash for some fun things too, which will probably put off paying the house off as fast, but we will still make way more than the monthly payment. I will try to keep this up to date, and see how fast we can pay things off!

Digital Scrapbooking

So two of the fun girls in my spinning class had a little digital scrapbook class that my sister and I went to a few weeks ago. Since then I have been trying to get some pages done. Dont get me wrong I love paper scrapbooking, but it seems like the thing i love most is buying all the fun scrapbooking stuff and organizing it, and that is about as far as I get with it. I have about 4 years of pictures just sitting in my "to scrapbook" cabinet, or on my computer, and every time I think of how I really need to get them done, it just stresses me out. It seems like I just dont have the time to put all my sewing stuff away, get the right pictures out, design a layout for them, select the papers and embellishments, actually put it all together, and then clean up. Plus I have way too much stuff anyways. I put a moratorium on buying scrapbooking stuff (even using my gift cards) until I actually use up some of what I have. So I was excited when these girls said they could actually teach me to use my photoshop program my husband got for me like a year ago. Since then I have gotten a couple of pages done- I think I still like paper better, but this is something I can do while I am just sitting here feeding the baby or eating lunch or whatnot. Plus since I am spending more of my computer time being productive, I have been spending less time on Ebay which definitely saves us money! So here is my first page. It isnt exactly what I was picturing, but I think it is the first one I completely finished in over a year!

La Brea Tar Pits

After lunch, since our flight didn't leave until after 7 that evening, we debated what we wanted to do. The beach was suggested, but with 4 little kids getting sand everywhere, and not being able to give them baths before our flight, I thought that probably wasn't the best idea, even though I LOVE the beach. So we decided to take the kids to the La Brea tar pits. We get my phone out again, and this time we are dealing with downtown LA weekend traffic! I am so glad traffic here isn't that bad. So after Jeremy takes the wrong exit- not because of me or my phones directions BTW - just too many lane changes and freeway splits and whatnot. We finally get to the tar pits. Well after battling traffic, we only have about 45 minutes to spend there. So we go in to the museum, look at all the bones and animals and displays. Didn't have time for the movie, didn't have time to go into the courtyard. We make a mad dash to the actual pits. Well to my kids, this looks just like a dirty lake with statues in it- no big deal. You can smell the tar though- smells like someone just refinished a road right there, and can see bubbles breaking just under the surface water.
Of course my kids, being the runners they are, are going off the path, and trying to run all over the grass, and don't understand why I am trying to make them stay on the path. Jeremy doesn't understand either, until I show him all the spots where tar is just seeping out of the ground, somewhat hidden by the grass, at which point he makes sure that the kids stay on the path so we don't get tar all over the vehicle we rented.
We go down to where the statues are and take pictures. This is where we took pictures when we were little and my parents took us there. Heather and I got some pictures of just her and I- trying to recreate those pictures - 15 years later- too bad Clay and Whitney weren't there. I couldn't believe how tall the statue was of the sloth we were sitting on top of. It seemed like a long way down! -Yes I am afraid of heights- After our pictures, it was a mad dash to get everyone back into the van and start heading back to the rental car place.
Here is where my phone failed us. Not because it gave us the wrong directions, but because we had the wrong address. Luckily we weren't too far off, and we just called the place (3 times- we kept forgetting) and they gave us the right directions. At this point I am majorly stressed out since it is 6 and I wanted to be at the airport at 5, so we didn't have a repeat of the hectic-ness of our departure. So we get a shuttle from there all to ourselves, and the driver was so nice. We get there, and again check our bags with the skycaps to save ourselves time, at which point he is telling me they wont let Kenadee fly back because she wasn't on a ticket. Well she flew there no problems, and since we bought our tickets online, it didn't even give us an option of specifying that we had a lap child. So I am stressing even more at this point, head to the ticketing desk, there is no wait, and it was easy for them to just print me out a new ticket with the information on it- not the big hassle that I thought it would be. We go through security- and at least this time there wasn't a wait, but because we had to unload the laptops, cameras, and video cameras, liquids, shoes, belts, sweaters, stroller, carseats, whatnot, it still was a hassle. The x-ray machine at LAX was also apparently just a little bit smaller than the one at SLC, and it took some tricky maneuvering of the carseats and strollers to fit through the machine. Jeremy had gone through first so that all the kids could go through and he could start re-assembling things. But eventually everyone went through but Eric and me, but we were still loading, which is when we started having problems with things not fitting, and they wouldn't let Adelle go through without her parent, even though we were right there, one on each side of the screening. So Heather comes back through and they let her take Adelle across, but then she has to do the whole screening process again, and then Jeremy comes back through to help us, and he also has to re-empty his pockets, take off his belt, shoes, sweatshirt, hat, etc. The poor college student behind us, is stuck there for the entire time, but he was so nice, and helpful. Even helped us afterwards to get the stroller put back together, and carseat in it and whatnot.

We made it through security and headed to our gate, and I figured that I should probably change the girls diapers, and feed Kenadee. So Heather and I take them to the airport nursery. Well us adults needed to take care of business to, so I go first while Heather changes Kenadees diaper, and then when I get back, I start changing Adelles diaper, and then Heather goes, well I'm not sure what I was thinking, but it is really hard to change a toddlers diaper, when they are afraid they are going to fall off the changing table, and while you are holding a screaming infant in one arm. I just didn't want to have to change a diaper on the plane- tried it on the flight there- and it was really hard. After everyone took care of business, we got the kids Happy Meals for dinner, and adults California Pizza Kitchen Express. We get back to our seats, and I attempt to eat before we board the plane, since I have a feeling I wont have free arms to do that once we take off since Kenadee is so tired. Well midway through my dinner, Kenadee decides that since she has a fresh diaper on it is a perfect time to have a blowout. So just as they are letting us board the plane, instead of lining up, Jeremy and I are trying to deal with her mess, when I realize that the bag that has all the changes of clothes in it was checked before I could grab a couple of outfits out for her. So we just have to wrap her up good and board the plane. Once we are all settled onto the plane, she decides to have yet another blowout, and I cant get back to the bathroom, so I just have to sit her on napkins on my lap, and try not to get too grossed out while I wait for my chance to get into the bathroom. After that is taken care of, she only wanted to be held the entire plane ride, and fed constantly.

We hit a bunch of turbulence as we were starting to descend and oh- it was the worst I have ever felt in my life. The kids enjoyed it as it seemed like another Disneyland ride to them, as I am clutching Jeremy's hand and trying to not let the kids see the terror on my face- flying makes me nervous anyways, let alone when turbulence is that bad. We finally get on the ground, get our bags and head out to catch the shuttle out to the parking area.

Once we get to the parking area, our bags are unloaded and the guys head out to get the cars. Shortly after they left it of course starts snowing, so Heather and I have to load all the kids and bags into the enclosed shuttle stop, and wait for the guys. Then once they get there we have to try to latch all 4 carseats into our vehicle fast, get the kids in and load the car up. Jeremy and I had the hardest time keeping each other awake on the ride home, and we finally get home and just dump everything in the front room and head to bed. The kids even slept in their clothes because everyone was so tired- It was like 1 in the morning.

Leaving Day - Disneyland Trip part 7

So we wake up in the morning, go down to breakfast. We go through the line and want chocolate muffins and poppyseed muffins, there arent any left in the baskets, so we ask if there are anymore behind the counter, there are like 1 or 2 of each, and they say that is all they have left, so we take what we can get, and go sit down, well it took us longer to eat than usual since we were talking to everyone, and by the time we are almost ready to leave, all of a sudden more chocolate and poppyseed muffins appear- Wow Magic! or something. So we grab some for the road because they are so good.

Then we head to grandma and Grandpas room for family prayer and to say goodbye to everyone. After this my sisters watch my kids while Jeremy and I frantically shove our belongings into suitcases as fast as we can. Before we leave we head over with Dad to Downtown Disney for our souvenirs. First stop it the candy shop, and guess what they are sold out of Apple Pie Caramel Apples again, so our whole trip we only got 1, and I was planning on bringing home at least 5! Dang it!! We let the kids each pick out a treat (if they wanted more they had to use the Mickey Dollars they earned by helping out before our trip) They all picked the long stick swirly stick suckers, And Adelle chose a Minnie tin. Then we head to the Disney store where we tell the kids they each get 1 shirt, and one toy (we dont want to be here forever). The boys each get a mickey pirate shirt, and Adelle picks out a pink sparkely shirt with the Princesses on it. Cameron picked out a set of 3 cars that were all Buzz Lightyear themed. Ryan picked out a stuffed animal shark from Finding Nemo, and after much debate (do I want princess stickers, princess bracelets, a tinkerbell wand?) Adelle decides on a Tinkerbell baby doll. We grab a Minnie Mouse for Kenadee that is around the same size as the Mickey that Heather got her for Christmas, and Mom grabs Mickey ears for the boys and Minnie ears for Adelle.

After this we all head over to El Pollo Loco (I love this place, and wish they had them here) for lunch with Dad and some of my brothers and sisters and cousins (everyone else left for Vegas already.) The flan was so good, we ordered 2 to take back with us! After we eat we say Bye to everyone, and Heather and Eric pile into our van with us as we head to downtown LA.

Club 33 - Disneyland Trip part ... um like six or something???

So my Uncle comes up to us today and asks if we want to go to dinner at Club 33. I'm like yeah sure we would LIKE to. So he hands us 2 park hopper tickets that say club 33 on them. No WAY!!! I am SO excited about this as I have heard how exclusive this club is, and all the many myths and legends surrounding this place. So we ask Whitney to watch Kenadee for us and Kendall to watch our other kids. There were 10 or us going. Rick, Tracey, Jeff, Heather, Mom, Dad, Lamond, Robyne and us. Problem is none of us had planned on going anywhere nice so most of us didn't exactly bring clothes that fit the dress code. Amber to the rescue for the girls. You see when our boys were 5 months old and we took them to Disneyland we ended up having to go shopping because they threw up all over all their clothes and because for Jeremy and me- we didn't plan on it being as cold as it was. I really didn't want to repeat this so I definitely packed enough, which included 2 sweaters as well as the one I wore on the plane. So Mom and Tracey borrowed my sweaters, and I wore my clothes I wore on the plane which were- comfortable dress pants and a sweater. Jeremy had to borrow a polo shirt from Rick which happened to be from the Karate studio he goes to.

Our reservations were at 8:15, but we had to wait a little while until our table was ready, so we took pictures of all of us in front of the door while we were waiting. We get in and since it was our first time being there they talked to us about some of the myths surrounding the club, as well as about some of the furniture that was there. So we get to go up in a glass lift- (sure the stairs would have been quicker, but come on you have to ride the lift!) We sit down at this big table and first thing that happens is Robyne drops her butter knife on the ground. About 4 or 5 minutes later, she knocks Lamonds butter knife on the ground. About 5 minutes after that Heather knocks over her drink all over ricks plate. (In her defense there was a bump on the table there from where they put another table on top to make it bigger.) Tracey commented on how we seem like kids at their first Prom date. So Jeremy and I order the Vintner- a preset 5 course meal. Course one was basically a Caesar salad, with really good dressing and a toasted baguette
with olive taupenade on it. Second course was a jumbo prawn in a creamy sauce with truffles. Jeremy substituted this with the Creamy Butternut Squash Bisque. Course three for me was (I substituted this in) Chateaubriand with potato leek puree and vegetables (OK well 2 string beans, 2 wax beans, and 2 little cherry tomatoes), Jeremy had a strip steak, spinach, and a potato thing I think. Course 4 was a cheese course. There were 3 different cheeses- The first was like a sharp white cheddar on pepitas, second, some type of Brie on chopped nuts, and third, some other type of soft cheese on a bed of mini greens (which was my favorite). Then for dessert we had a Pistachio Mouse cake, with raspberry sauce and an Oatmeal Raisin cookie- which was so much better than and cookie I have ever had. Oh and we had their special fruit punch to drink. Which was fresh citrus juices blended together.

In the middle of dinner we hear what sounded like gunshots outside, it turned out to be the fireworks, so we got to go out onto the balcony to watch them. Which would have been great had there not been a huge tree in the way. My Dad in true Dad fashion took pictures of everything, so I will have to get some from him. He even sent my Mom into the bathroom with his camera because he had heard about the "Throne Room" I happened to be in there when my Mom came in, so I took the camera, and joking around took pictures of everything- especially the trash can from every angle!

It was such good food, and a really fun experience, especially with my Aunts and Uncles and Parents being there. It was also the most Jeremy and I have ever spent on dinner for just us 2 before. Although when you consider that we each got a park hopper ticket- it really wasn't bad at all- even though I left right after eating, and didn't really get to enjoy it.

So as soon as the dessert course was brought out, I get a text from Whitney that Kenadee woke up and is screaming her head off (she absolutely refuses to take a bottle), so as soon as dessert was over, I went back to the hotel, while Jeremy stayed with everyone else (no point in both of us missing out when I am the only one that can satisfy her.) They ended up riding space mountain 3 times in the hour they had until the park closed. I was completely out by the time Jeremy got back to the room, at around 12:30 that I barely rolled over, kissed him goodnight, and rolled back over and went back to sleep.

California Adventures Slide Show!

California Adventures - Disneyland Trip part five

OK so, Friday we went to California Adventures. We got to sleep in somewhat since it didn't open until 10 a.m. Well we ended up renting 2 strollers today for a total of 3 strollers since my Grandma wasn't renting a wheelchair and said she would push one. So that meant only 1 kiddo would have to walk- I ended up carrying Kenadee just about the whole day anyways. First we rode on Soaring Over California. I sat next to Cameron. (Ryan was in the row behind us next to his favorite uncle, Taylor.) Cameron got so scared when it started- I guess to a 5 year old it seems way to real, and thought he was going to fall out, he was clutching me for dear life! Finally I explained to him that we weren't that high off the ground and we weren't really flying and the look of terror eased somewhat from his face, but he did still clutch my hand. We decided after this that they probably still weren't ready for Tower of Terror, so we went to Monsters Inc, and then saw the Muppet's 3D show.

From there the baby brigade headed over to Bugs life land. We watched to 3D show there- Which IMO is the best one at both parks. Usually the best part of watching the movies is watching the little kidletts jump back when something looks like it is flying out at you, but this one was way more interactive. Then we let the kids ride all the rides there over and over. Kenadee didn't like the watermelon on the chew chew train- it misted her and made her mad. Jeremy decided that he wanted to go see the Aladdin show because a CM told him it was good.

So on our way over there we met up with almost all of the rest of the group (45 of them) and they ended up following us in to the show, even though some of the people had no idea what was going on. It ended up being a cute show and the kids loved it. Adelle was dancing and singing along to all the songs, and the boys really liked when the big elephant came in on the lower level.
From there we went to the Burger place by Soaring- for some reason this is like the only place in both parks that some of the people in my family will actually eat at. I split a chili cheese fry with my kids since they already had a ton of snacks and 1/2 a PB&J each (not to mention that we bought them a kids meal to split that we ended up giving away since they didn't eat it.) I was saving up for dinner!!

The boys all went over to the water ride after that- I wasn't about to get wet- all the little pre-teens in our group who had been riding that over and over looked like they were freezing- plus i didn't really want dirty water all over me. I went with the baby brigade over to the Bear playground thing, and left Kenadee with my Grandma and Mom since she was sleeping and took Dell and Sidney with me. FYI- not a good idea to take two small little girls through the long squirrel ropes part of the coarse. I had to keep pulling their feet out from between the ropes and we were clogging the line up behind us. They both really loved the slide though, and we even found one of the kids in our group there after he had gotten separated and he was screaming his head off. Although the CM just handed him over to me because I gave him a hug and he hugged me back- and let me tell you this kid will hug anyone back, and will just walk up to me or Jeremy (who he has only seen maybe 3 or 4 times in his entire life.) Kind of scared me! This is one of the reasons that we had the little backpack leashes for our kids- because no matter how many people are in our group, ultimately Jeremy and I are responsible for our kids, and since we have 4 very small children- 3 of which are runners (one cant walk yet)- We would rather deal with the nasty looks and comments we get then deal with the terror of loosing a child in a crowded and big place like that.

Anyways, from there we went to the "Undersea" carousel, and then left the park so I could give the kids their baths and get them in their pajamas while Jeremy went out and got them dinner.

Disneyland Slide Show!

Disneyland Day- Disneyland Trip part four

So after Adelles hair is done we head over to Disneylands gates to get in. Of course just about as soon as we get into line, Kenadee starts screaming her head off because she is tired and decides she wants to nurse. People start giving me the dirtiest looks because she is screaming. But there really wasnt anything I could do about it right there. Did they want me to just whip it out and start feeding her? I'm sorry but I am just not that type of person. Its a few minutes till we get in- just deal with it- or better yet move to another line!

So we get in and Jeremy heads to the stroller rental place and I head to City Hall to get Adelle a Birthday button. We meet up with the baby brigade. So it was Our family, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Robyne, her son Evan, Kearston and her son, Byron. We go over to Pirates because that is where everyone else is, and then hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on our way to Toon Town. The kids love exploring there and we get to meet Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Mickey. Then we went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and Buzz Astro Blasters while Jeremy and the boys did Star Tours. We met up with some of the other people in our group there and Heather watched the girls while Jeremy, Ryan, Cameron and I went on Space Mountain. Then it was lunch from the Bengal Barbeque- Grandma brought everyone PB&Js to save money- but Jer and PB just dont mix so I went and got him lunch. Ryan, Cameron and I went and rode Haunted Mansion, and the ride stopped 2 times while we were on it, one of which was kinda a scary part (at least for 5 year olds) and the boys didnt like being stuck there too much. At this point both girls were asleep, so we headed over to see if we could catch a Jedi Training Academy showing- (I made costumes for the boys for this in hopes that they would be picked) but it turns out that even though the schedule online for that day said the last show was at 6:30, when we got there the posting said the last show was at 4:40, so we missed it by and hour. By this time the boys are pretty grumpy and needed food in them. So we went over to see if we could get into Blue Bayou, and as soon as they call our name to be seated here comes my Mom asking if we wanted her to take the girls back to the Hotel. So instead of eating, my Mom was so great and took all of my kids back to the hotel and Jeremy and I got to hang out with my Dad and Brothers. We went and rode Indiana Jones and then Matterhorn, then caught a couple minutes of the parade while we waited for it to end so we could get across, then closed the park by riding Splash Mountain. I was the one who wanted to ride it and I ended up in front, and boy did I get wet!!!

As we were leaving we stopped by the candy store for an Apple Pie Carmel Apple, but they were sold out- BUMMER- those are my favorite!! So we went back to the hotel and I gave the kids baths while Jeremy and my Dad went to El Pollo Loco for dinner. Then we all turned in early. We were so exhausted from our fun day.

Adelle's Hair Appointment- Disneyland Trip part three

You know how when you are a kid and it is Christmas morning, you wake up with butterflies in your tummy at the crack of dawn all excited for the day, and no matter what you do you cant make yourself go back to sleep? Well that was totally me Thursday morning. Luckily I had two little bugs to join me, or I should say I joined them. I crawled into their bed with them and we sat there whispering so we wouldnt wake anyone else up.
There was a little bit of light filtering in through the cracks of the drapes and Cameron realized that he could change the shadows by moving his hands- so he says to me-
Cameron- Last night I saw a shooting star and I mad a wish and it came true.
-Me- Oh? What did you wish for?
-Cameron- Superhero Powers!
-Me- Oh wow- what are your powers?
-Cameron - I can make light.
At this point Ryan chirps in-
-Ryan- Yeah and my superhero powers is to swim really very super fast (as he is waving his arms super fast -like he is swimming.)
-Me- Oh Wow.
-Ryan- Now our whole family has super powers.
-Me- Oh do we? What is my super power?
-Ryan- Kissing.
(Well I am always giving their little cheeks smooches)
-Ryan- Or maybe its exercising. So then you can go super fast.
At this point Cameron starts talking about all the exercises they see me do- sittups, lifting weights, running. Then Ryan turns to me and says-
-Ryan- And Dads Superhero power is a secret. Shh!!

After a bit more snuggling I decide that everyone else in the room can wake up now, so I start getting ready. Our little sleepyhead Adelle was refusing to get up, and when Daddy said, "Don't you want to go to Disneyland?" She responded with, "No the water is too cold." So we had to explain to her that the beach and Disneyland are two very different things.

We all get ready and head down to breakfast, then to the parks. We hit a little snag when we tried to take our wagon in- I guess they dont allow wagons in the park anymore. This was a little annoying to me as we transported it all the way down here and we only brought our single stroller besides the wagon, which means I now have 3 small children who dont have something they can sit in. Last time we were at the park (a year and a half ago) you could even rent one from Disneyland. They suggested we rent 3 strollers- but Im not sure how they expected us to do that with only 2 adults??? So Jeremy takes the boys and the wagon back to the hotel (which upset them quite a bit as they thought they were not going to come back.) While I take Adelle to Club Libby Lu for her appointment. She got the little Princess makeover- I think it was "Pop Princess" This was so totally up her alley. She got eyeshadow on, her nails painted, and a cute updo that hid her mullet hair that she cut herself, and a little tiara.

The Beach Disneyland part two

We always go to Crystal Cove State Park. There isn't a ton of people here and the old little cottages are so cute. The water was pretty cold- it being February and all. The boys ran right out into the water following the other kids without even testing the temperature and Ryan gets knocked over by a wave first thing. They loved it though, and stayed in it most of the time. (Its a good thing we were with their Aunts and Uncles who didnt mind being out with them because there is no way I was going in.) Adelle hated it. She would chase the water after it receded and throw handfuls of sand at it, and then run screaming when the waves came back in and water started to approach where she was standing. It was Adelle against the ocean and she was trying her best to fill it up with sand. We explored the tide pools and showed the kids anemones and snails. Usually there are little crabs too but we didnt see any this time.

After a very long, exhausting day we went back to the hotel and took baths to get all the sand out of various uncomfortable parts. Jeremy went to the store to pick us up a case of water so we wouldnt have to pay $3 a bottle at the parks, and a Birthday Cake for Adelle.

Dinner was pizza in Grandmas room, and boy was it crowded. Then we sand Happy Birthday to Adelle and had cake.

Jeremy detests shopping so he took the kids back to the room for bed while I went with some of the adults to Downtown Disney to browse the stores. When I got back, they were all sound asleep, and Jeremy didnt even remember me getting in. We had a 2 queen bedroom. Jeremy and I in one bed, Cameron and Ryan in the other, Kenadee in a crib they provided, and Jeremy pushed the 2 armchairs together and that is where Adelle slept. Kenadee slept for 5 hours and then 4 hours, so it was the best night I had with her for a couple months.

Flight - Disneyland Trip part one

Every other year or so we have a Leavitt family reunion at Disneyland. We went last week, and it was so much fun, I cant wait to go back.

So after the mad rush to pack everything we got a few hours of sleep before we had to wake up and get ready for our flight Wednesday morning.
We left the house about 8 a.m. following Eric to his work to drop off his truck. After a quick stop for breakfast it was off to the airport. We got there a little later than I had hoped so we dropped off our check in luggage with the SkyCap guys, and Heather and I took the kids and our carry-ons to start heading through security while the guys parked our cars in the furthest parking lot available (aka cheapest.)
Now usually whenever we have gone to the airport to drop off or pick up someone, there has never been a line- This was not the case today however. The line was about an hour long and even then the guys just barely got there before our turn came to have to take practically everything off and everything out of bags so they could inspect it all. After about a half hour we finally made it through the security check point and it was a mad dash to our gate as the plane was supposed to leave in less than 5 minutes. we made it there in time for the final boarding call, and somewhat hectically got everyone and everything on the plane.
The flight was pretty uneventful, we got to see Las Vegas as we flew over it and show the boys that is where Grandma and Grandpa lives- they thought it was cool to see everything look so small. I had made the kids Disney coloring books that I put in 3 ring binders, bought cheapy little handheld games and downloaded a couple of shows onto my phone to keep them entertained. Adelle sat next to Heather and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (her favorite show) and Little Einsteins. Cameron sat next to Eric, and got to color and bug his Uncle the entire time. Ryan especially liked flying, every few minutes he would look up at Jeremy and say- "I love you Dad" "Thanks for flying on an airplane!" Kenadee was even pretty good and I only had to feed her 2 times to keep her from crying (it was nap time and she wanted to be nursed to sleep.)
After we arrived it took us a few tries of loading and unloading the elevator to get to the right floor. We then waited for awhile in the wrong section for our shuttle that took us to the rental car place. After missing the first shuttle because of this we finally called and asked where we were supposed to go and what shuttle we were looking for, and finally ended up in the right place like 45 minutes later.
We used Google Maps on my phone to give us step by step directions from LAX to Disneyland, and it was great! Easy to follow directions and being able to see the map and our current location on there saved us from getting lost, and was a big improvement on how we usually get to Disneyland- (10 car motorcade where the leading car doesnt really know where they are going and gets over at the last minute so they wont exit and by the time you realize it you have already taken the exit so they have to wait for you, and then because you are the last car and the person in front of you isnt very good at following you get lost and have to call the leading person to ask where to go, etc...)
We got to our hotel (Canturbury Inn) across from the Park, unpacked changed into warmer weather clothing (we came from around 30 degrees to around 75- big difference!) and went to the beach.