Cruising the California Coast

For Christmas last year, my parents decided to simplify and do one big present for their kids.  They took us on a 4-day cruise in January, sans kids, and it was SO fun.  We missed Dave and Krista, but luckily everyone else was able to come.  We left out of Los Angeles, and stopped in Catalina and Ensenada.

Some of my memories of the cruise:

• Packing a little too lightly (we carried on all our luggage to save time at the airport).  The weather was actually quite nice compared to Utah in January, but I probably should have brought more long pants and an actual coat.
• Playing lots of funny rounds of Telestrations on the no-kids-allowed "Serenity" deck - we were probably not the most serene crowd, haha!  My favorite round: George Washington -> Shirley Temple -> sparkling cider.
• Free sushi every night at 5:00 p.m.
• Renting crappy bikes to explore Catalina.  Looking back it was fun, but my chain came unhooked every time I tried to switch gears, so I had to do the whole thing in the lowest gear, and I was in pretty wimpy shape!  Mike would have gladly traded bikes with me, except we couldn't get the seat on his bike to adjust lower.
• Shaunda sneakily putting cute signs on our stateroom doors.
• Ordering FREE room service!
• Every night at dinner I struggled with "morning" sickness, but the pregnancy was still a secret at that point, so I couldn't admit it.  Luckily seasickness was a good cover.  Our waiter was so nice to offer to bring me bland things like baked potatoes if my entree didn't agree with me.  
• Finding folded towel animals in our stateroom.
• We went to see a Newlywed-type game in the ship's theater, and my parents got picked to come up on stage as the longest-married couple in the room.  It was hilarious (and slightly embarrassing) to hear my parents answer some of those questions!  Before they started, the host took my dad aside and told him that some of his answers would be changed for the sake of comedy.  The very last question was something like "You haven't seen ugly until you've seen my wife's _________" and the host read out my dad's answer as "I haven't stayed married for 35 years by being stupid!"
• Conga line in the dining room.
• The BEST do-it-yourself excursion we could have hoped for in Ensenada.  The excursions offered through the ship were overpriced and didn't sound very cool.  Shaunda found out about a campground with a network of ziplines, Las Cañadas, several miles from the port, and we decided to try getting there and back ourselves.  I was worried about not making it back to the ship, or being taken advantage of by a shuttle driver, or finding the zip-lines to be rickety and dangerous, but everything turned out wonderful.  Our prayers were answered.  We found Manuel, a shuttle bus driver willing to drive us all there and back for a reasonable price.  He was so friendly and ended up spending the day joining us in our zip-line activity.  The zip lines were SO fun and thrilling, but I felt completely safe and in good hands with the instructors.
• Eating authentic fish tacos in Ensenada, and dragging Mike up and down the streets looking for the perfect souvenirs at a bargain price I could live with.  He should thank me for all the great opportunities I give him to work on patience. ;)

It was such a fun time, and we made great memories!  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Disneyland, Part Two

This is part two (find part one here).

The night before our first "official" day in Disneyland, Mike stayed in the hotel room with the kids while I spent a couple hours in the park with my sister Shaunda. I redeemed my free one-day pass from the Give-a-day,get-a-day volunteer promotion. The nice lady at the ticket window thought I was crazy to redeem it at 9pm, but it was so worth it! We saw Fantasmic! and fireworks, rode some roller coasters, and ate a yummy treat. Thanks Mike (and Dave) for letting us do that!


The rest of the week we spent in the parks. We probably would have just spent 3 days in the parks, but there was a promotion where you get 5 days for the price of 3 and we took advantage of it!

The first day, we wore our new tie dye shirts (I think they turned out better than the ones I made in 2007). We washed them in our hotel sink and wore them again on our last day there.

We ate a yummy lunch in New Orleans Square, and we told Lydia the restaurant was just like "Tiana's" on Princess and the Frog. Hey, whatever gets her to try a bite of gumbo!

We bought an autograph book and it turned out to be very fun getting signatures from characters. Lydia and Elise were good about trading off whose turn it was to hold the book.

We spent most of that day in Disneyland, and that evening we saw the new World of Color show. It was amazing! We took Shaunda's suggestion and ordered picnic dinners that came with World of Color fastpasses (tickets for a viewing location) without having to wait in line for them. The food was overpriced (big surprise...), but worth it to avoid the hassle. We had a "pixie dust" moment when we picked up the box lunches. Elise and Lydia's came with flashing light-up bracelets, but we didn't order a meal for Tyler because he didn't need a fastpass. I asked if I could possibly buy an additional bracelet for him, to avoid fighting, and the extremely nice cast member let him have one for free. Isn't that sweet?

Our second day we spent mostly at Disney's California Adventure.

The third day, we had a reservation for a Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto, so the kids dressed up in their princess and knight costumes.


The lunch was yummy (but again, overpriced!), and we got to meet Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, and Snow White.






We saw Billy Hill and the Hillbillies twice (Thursday and Friday), and it was so funny and enjoyable. The second time, we had reserved seats at the very front tables because my mom has a cousin with connections! We ordered a giant slice of chocolate cake to share, and Tyler really enjoyed himself.


Elise's favorite rides were all the roller coasters. She is tall enough to ride everything except Indiana Jones.

Lydia was just barely tall enough for the Matterhorn. She was willing to ride it a few times, but it wasn't really her idea of fun. Her favorite rides were Dumbo, and It's a Small World.

Tyler liked everything, except maybe the teacups. He was such a good sport. My dad helped me make a really cute harness to keep Tyler from wandering off, but we didn't even have to use it. He fell asleep in the stroller a couple times, but for the most part he did fine without naps. I had expected more meltdowns, but he was pretty easygoing.


Overall, I'm so glad we decided to take this trip. It is a sweet memory. I think our kids' favorite part of all was the togetherness; almost every minute of the trip they were within arm's reach of one or both parents. I am grateful for the ages they are at right now, because in a few years, who knows if they'll appreciate the togetherness quite so much. Lydia thinks it would be great to all live in one hotel room across from Disneyland permanently. The only drawback, she points out, is that it would take a REALLY long time to drive to see our grandparents, cousins, and friends.

Disneyland, Part One

We had such a fun time in Disneyland in September. We planned our trip to coincide with my siblings' trips, and it was the perfect kind of extended family vacation because we each planned our own itineraries, but we could get together with cousins and grandparents spontaneously without worrying about a schedule.

The kids were very easygoing about the road trip. They seriously didn't whine except for about 20 minutes, on the way home, after 10 hours straight in the car. I was whiny myself by that point!

Awesome distractions for the road:

• Portable DVD players with Disney movies, and our own home videos.
• Bendaroos
• AquaDoodle Travel'n'Doodle mats (Thanks for the suggestion, Trish!)

On the way down, we spent a night in Las Vegas. We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the strip to see the sights, and find a cheap prime rib dinner. We walked our feet off! All the way from the Bellagio water show (my favorite) to the M&M World store (where we made a custom mix with everyone's color choice), and ended up at the Excalibur buffet (not recommended!)



I'm glad my kids were little enough to be naive about some of the advertisements and things we saw. We kept having to say, "If you see anything that's not modest, look away." If I could rewind and do it again, we would have watched the water show, grabbed some fast food, and gone swimming in the hotel pool. I think that's what Mike suggested in the first place. I should have listened!
We found a church meeting the next morning, and hit the road again.

When we arrived in Anaheim, we checked into the Desert Inn and Suites (awesome location right by Disneyland) and went to Huntington beach.


The girls weren't so sure about the cold water and the waves, but they did their best to be brave about it. Tyler thought the ocean was great, as long as he was being held.


The seashells and sand castles were more fun.

Part 2 (Disneyland!) coming up...

Camping

I just wanted to post a few pictures of the 2-night campout we had in August. Mike's dad Jim reserved a site and invited anyone who wanted to come. I thought it was funny because I had always heard that Jim hates camping. Mike and his brothers tell a story of how they were supposed to go camping for Fathers and Sons, and they ended up at the Red Lion hotel, haha!

We had really great food like tin foil dinners (the first edible one I've ever made), Dutch oven desserts, and Reeses peanut butter cup smores (mmmm!). Elise and Lydia had so much fun getting covered in dirt with McKenna and Savannah. The adults had fun playing "Scum" and "Pandemic". Tyler and his baby cousins Jasper and Henry were great sports.

Edited to add: I don't want to forget this, however unpleasant it was, but Elise also threw up in the middle of the night on this trip. She woke up making gagging sounds in the tent a couple of times, and Mike helped her outside of the tent to throw up (I know, awesome dad skills, right?). The one humorous thing about it was that a little later she started to make a tiny cough sound in her sleep, and Mike immediately shot up and half-threw her out the door of the tent. Well that time was a false alarm, and she came back in with this confused/wounded look on her face as she asked, "Dad? Why did you do that?"

St. George Trip

My plan is to catch up my blog, so if you are reading this, you have to endure things that are almost 3 months past!

We went to St. George over the 4th of July weekend with my parents and a couple of my brothers. My uncle Carlton has a condo there that he graciously lets us use. We usually go in February but this year it was July. It was really warm, but it was fun. This was definitely Elise's idea of a vacation because she got to go swimming 3 whole times! A better mom than I would have taken her swimming all summer long to her heart's content, but it's kinda stressful with 3 kids (one of them a baby) and only 1 mom.
Other highlights of the trip:

We stopped in Historic Cove Fort on the way down. It was the perfect stop to stretch our legs, and I was able to feed Tyler while we sat in the dark watching a video about the site.

My parents tended all the kids while we went to the St. George Temple.

We took a tour around town, with tour guides dressed as early residents of St. George.

We saw dinosaur tracks at the Dinosaur Discovery museum. Well, most of us did. Lydia fell asleep during the educational movie.

We drove the route of the St. George Marathon, so Marianne could see the big hill (she is in training).

My mom and I stopped on the side of the road and painted pictures of the landscape with my mom's watercolors. Hers was serious art, in my opinion, even though she says she's out of practice. Mine was just for fun (but I wish I could remember where I put it). Elise and Lydia also made masterpieces with markers.

We celebrated my dad's birthday. My dad is awesome.

We ate at a horrible restaurant (all my fault, I picked it). I wish I could remember what it was called, but it was a hotel restaurant and the menu was overpriced and had so few choices it was almost funny. Lydia fell asleep before her food came out. Apparently she was very tired on this trip!

We sat on the driveway of the condo and lit fireworks. We didn't keep the kids up to see the actual firework show.

Eric caught a frog and tricked Elise into kissing it (he moved the frog just as I took the picture so she was actually kissing it instead of just pretending). Brothers!

Mother's Day in Green River

On Mother's Day weekend we drove down to Green River, Utah, and stayed in a KOA Kabin. It was a really cute bare-bones log cabin with a bunkbed and a double bed and that's it. Tyler slept in the pack'n'play. Actually "slept" isn't the best word for what Tyler did, compared to what he does at home. I am hoping our upcoming camping trips this summer are more restful. Other than that, we couldn't have asked for a better family trip.

Mike had his first Dutch oven cooking experience. It was a chocolate cakey thing which turned out really yummy, despite being cooked on an incline (oops!). We plan to do more Dutch oven experimenting in the near future. Right before we left home, we made our own charcoal starter out of a #10 can and it worked great.

That Saturday, we drove to Goblin Valley. It is an awesome place for kids to hike around and explore, as long as you keep an eye on them. There are boulders and "goblins" of all sizes and Elise and Lydia loved climbing on them. Lydia had no fear of falling, and time after time she would try to lower herself down from dangerously high ledges by simply sliding on her belly, feet first, the same way she climbs out of her 2-foot bed. Luckily we caught her each time, and nobody was injured.


My brother Dave and his family were there as well, and Elise and Lydia loved having their cousins to play with.

We also took a few scenic drives to some petroglyph panels at Nefertiti Rock and Black Dragon Canyon, and saw Crystal Geyser (well, we saw the pipe of Crystal Geyser, which didn't erupt or even bubble during the hour we spent there, darnit!).

DC Trip

Sometimes for work, Mike has to travel to Virginia, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, either for meetings that can't be conducted long distance, or to test his projects. We've always thought it would be fun if I could go along sometime, and I finally got the chance a couple weeks ago. We used a $99 companion airfare thing, and the company paid for car and hotel, plus a little of the food, so it was pretty affordable. Mike's mom and stepdad were wonderful about taking the girls for the 4 days.
Mike and his coworker, Ron, were needed at their company's main office in Virginia. It's close enough to Washington DC that Ron's wife Mary and I were able to take the bus and metro in to sightsee for the 2 days our husbands were working. Here are pics of some of the neat things I saw. I had only been to DC once before, and I was only 7 at the time.

The Washington Monument, on my first morning there. That day Mary and I also went to the National Art Gallery, the Native American History Museum, the cafeteria in the Department of Agriculture (a real find), and the Air and Space Museum.

This waterfall is part of the Native American History Museum. I should have taken some pictures of the exhibit we looked at. It was awesome, they had all these beaded and buckskin dresses and descriptions of how and why they were made.
That night after dinner, we got caught driving in the wettest rainstorm I've ever seen. The windshield wipers were on as fast as they could go, but it was impossible to see. When we got back to our hotel, the power was out. In the lobby they were passing out free glowsticks, sodas, and snacks.

On our second morning, we went to the National Arboretum. I took a picture of this flower because it's named Dahlia 'Classic Elise'. I thought she would like that. After the Arboretum, we went back to the Air and Space Museum to see a few more things (like the Wright Brothers exhibit - amazing stuff!), had lunch at that cafeteria again, and then went on a tour of the U.S. Capitol Building. Senator Hatch's office was kind enough to let us come on the private tour, on very short notice. As we were waiting for the tour to begin, the Senator himself came down the hallway and greeted us all. He doesn't shake hands, because he hurt his wrist, so he does "bones". How cool is that? Even if his wrist was not injured, it's an awesome idea for avoiding germs.On the tour (which was on Pioneer Day, incidentally) I got my picture taken with Brother Brigham.I also got to stand in the exact center of Washington DC!

After the tour, Mary and I went to the National Museum of Natural History, where we saw the Hope Diamond. I tried to take a picture of it, but that darn glass case made it difficult!

That evening, our husbands joined us and we saw a few more sights with them. Mary and I had already walked our feet off, but we decided to walk down the mall and see the Washington Monument, World War II memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Korean War Memorial.

Mike and I in front of the Smithsonian "Castle"Mary and I with President LincolnThe monuments were so beautiful after dark.On our last day, before our flight, we visited Arlington National Cemetery.The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is one of the things I remembered from when I was 7. It was neat to come back and learn about it from an adult perspective.Here is Mike in front of the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial (aka Iwo Jima Memorial). If he looks a little grumpy it's because I was trying to squeeze in this one last thing before heading to the airport, and he was sure I'd make us miss our flight. :)