Look at all the loot! (this was about 1/4 of it...yikes!)

Kyler was a mad scientist, when it got dark his potion glowed! That's a frog in his pocket!

Mykenna was a vampire bat and Brooklyn was a fortune teller

Kade is Thomas #1

Kaleb is James #5

Halloween fun! This year Halloween came way to fast. But we had fun going door to door and asking for treats. Although the trains were totally cute, it was impossible for the twins to walk in and if you know our neighborhood, the houses aren't close together...lots of walking. The car ride door to door was also out because we couldn't get them in and out of the car. So overall, a 10 for costume cuteness, and a 2 for practicallity.

As I mentioned, this was my favorite part of Sea World this year. She was feeding the penguins their evening meal and we got to ask lots of questions and watch the cute little guys. Kaleb was very into too. It was late in the day, around 5 pm and notice that Kaleb has his hood on, it was chilly. She had been their caregiver for 6 years. She could tell them all apart and knew who had been feed and who hadn't. Yes, it was all very interesting.

I'd love to find the same picture we took of Mykenna so many years ago when we first visited Sea World and took a picture just like this one. She was terrified of them back then.

Kaleb looks lovingly at his seastar.

Miss Brooklyn had no fear of reaching in and grabbing her own!

Notice that Kyler is soaking wet from his rafting adventure, little did he know that he would be soaking wet the rest of the day.

Kade with a seastar at Sea World, unfortunately he threw a couple of them and I felt it best to leave before we were asked to!

Friday, March 20, 2009

DISNEYLAND
What a great way to start our blog.....with DISNEYLAND!!! We had a blast. Long gone are the memories of melt downs and sore feet and all that remains are smiles, laughing, and fun! What a blessing to be able to go with our family and share this adventure. With us there was my mom and dad and Kevin, Janell, and their two cutie pies Rylan and Asher. We set out on Thursday night with a flight to LA. We then went to our scary hotel (no wondering why it was so cheap). We woke up the next morning and headed over to the happiest place on Earth! We had our schedule in hand from RideMax so we started at Peter Pan in Fantasyland and tried to follow it as best as we could. We tried to switch off for the bigger rides where someone would stay with the twins, Rylan, and Asher. Unfortunately, it was usually Janell that got the shaft. It wasn't until Sunday when we got smart and started using the "Parent Pass".....sorry Janell! I think she only ended up missing out on Indiana Jones and California Screamin'. I guess we will be due for another trip next year where she gets to ride first on everything!

Brooklyn repeatedly mentioned Grandpa's facial expressions on Indiana Jones...that made it all worth it. Those are the kinds of memories she'll have for life, just what I was hoping for. The kids still sing the Tiki Room song, me included, so I'm assuming that that was a hit too. We love Disneyland it truly is the Happiest Place on Earth!

Mykenna's favorite rides were Space Mountain and she loved the big orange swing thing in California Adventure.

Brooklyn is an amusement park junkie....she wanted to do everything. She loves the big scary rides like Tower of Terror and California Screamin'

Kyler grew up alot this year. At the beginning he was scared to do everything, but by the end of our adventurer, California Screamin' was "AWESOME" as he stated it. I think his favorite memory will be becoming a Padawan through the Jedi Training, he was so into it!

Kaleb was our goer! On Sunday we stayed at the park until 1 am, he stayed awake the whole time. He got to go on the coaster in Toon Town 6 times in a row. He begged to ride the tea cups and just asked me the other day if we could go to the tea cups. The only thing he didn't like was the Bug's Life 3-D movie, it was too scary for him.

Kade loved the Rockets in Tomorrowland and of course Buzz Lightyear. I hate that there is a gift shop that you have to go through in order to exit. Everytime we would ride Buzz we ended up with a fit because he wanted something at the gift shop. He loved seeing all the characters and cried when we had to leave Mickey....really he did! But I know his all time favorite was playing in the water in Bug's Land with Grandma and Grandpa...soaked head to toe and the biggest smile you have ever seen.

Everyone left us on Sunday to fly back home to Utah...boo hoo! We were alone but carried on. Like I mentioned before, we closed down the park on Sunday night. We were in Disneyland until 1 am and then sadly walked back to our motel. The next morning we headed down to San Diego. I was sooo tired that I fell asleep most the drive and I know all 5 of the kids were out too. We woke up just before the San Diego temple exit. We tried to stop, but the temple is closed on Mondays so they don't let you in. We made it to our hotel (much much nicer) and decided to head down to Seaport Village. Funny thing happened, we ran into Dean and Alisa and their girls and Ruston and Damaris and their girls...it really is a small world after all! We had a good laugh, shared some ice cream and then made a plan to meet up on Tuesday at Sea World.

Tuesday morning we did go to Sea World. I gotta say I was disappointed. It was very costly for the amount of time that they were open. During this season they were only open from 10-5. Definitely not enough time to get everything in. But it was slow and we didn't have to fight for a seat at any of the shows and the 3 older kids rode the rafting ride 3 times in a row. They were drenched and stayed wet and miserable for the rest of the day. It was quite chilly. I got some great pictures of the twins holding the sea stars and we got to watch the outdoor penguins being feed. I found this the highlight because it was so up close and personal. I got to ask lots of questions and learned alot. We were all tired, it was still early, but 5 pm and Sea World was closing. We headed back to the hotel but not without stopping for our favorite Carne Asada burritos (nobody does them like they do them in San Diego) . We watched American Idol in the suite while the twins slept in the other room. It was actually quite nice.

On Wednesday we were suppose to go the Wild Animal Park but we were all missing Disneyland. We bought some discount tickets on Ebay and early Wednesday morning headed back to Anaheim and our beloved Disneyland. We made of list of everyone's favorite must do rides and started in California Adventure. We never stopped....we walked quickly and hit ride after ride. We wisely used the parent pass and left CA for Disney at around 3 pm. It was raining most of the day but we seemed to miss it. We would be on a ride when the rain was coming down so it didn't really effect us at all. The force was with us! Later that night we were on the train that takes you around the park and there was a serious downpour...we got a call from Ruston saying that they were leaving and heading back to the hotel. We just rode that train while it rained and then got off when it stopped and since so many people left we walked onto any ride we wanted to. Kade was an angel (we were so blessed) It was a great great day! We were able to ride every ride we wanted to. We skipped most of the small rides and because of the rain, the tea cups were not running, but other than that, wow what a day! Again we closed down the park and walked back to our very nice hotel this time, did some laundry, we were all exhausted.

We left on Thursday instead of Wednesday as planned and it was totally worth it. Can't wait to go back.