A California Vacation Part 6

So I was only going to have 5 posts of this vacation but last week when I went to post the last one it didn't save it and I was MAD! So I gave myself a week off and now I am here to finish up! One thing about this place is they go from Halloween to Christmas fast! We were lucky to see both. I thought that it was so funny to see Minney's house in pretty girl colors and Mickey's house in traditional reds, blues, greens, yellow! It hadn't snowed yet in California but Cinderella's Castle had some on it! It was really fun to see both seasons at Disneyland!Today was our day to hit the rest of the rides and now thinking back I don't think we did some! The boys like Dumbo! Mom can't go on any rides that go around and around and then if they go up in the air, then we are really asking for trouble!My parents came a little later on our last day! It was so much fun having them there to see the kids and how much fun they had! The kids loved riding rides with Grandpa and Grandma! On our way over to California Adventures we saw some of the characters and had to take some pictures! Here is Goofy!
We saw Mickey again! At one point Mickey gave Cooper a kiss on the head. Cooper was just smiling! It was really cute. He also played Peek a Boo with the kids!Every time we would leave seeing Mickey Cameron would say "crap I forgot to ask Mickey how he learned Magic!" It was cute! He must have been amazed when we watched Fantasmic! When we met Goofy there was a really nice lady that works with the characters. We asked her when Donald was coming out and she told us in 30 minutes so we decided to wait around for him. While we were waiting we saw Pluto too. I also thought that this was the perfect time to go and let the boys do some shopping. Cameron picked out a G-force spy thing where you put a fly in a room and it has a mic on it and then he puts in earphones and can listen to what is being said by the people he is spying on! Cooper picked out some plastic Star Wars guys. Then it was time to meet Donald Duck. Rachel was so excited and the lady that we talked to told Donald that we were waiting for him! He was cute when he was coming out he poked his fingers through the gate that he walked out of and then when he did Rachel went running to him!
I was so impressed at how nice the characters are to the kids! They love them and kiss them and make them feel so special! What a great place! After we met everyone but Daisy Duck! Opps! We headed over to California to ride the Tower of Terror! Cameron wanted me to ride it with him so bad. On our way there I saw a family that was trying to take a family photo with Goofy and this was a really big family around 20 people. So I asked the lady that was taking the picture if she wanted me to take the picture for her so they all could be in the picture, she said "sure" and I went to take the picture. All of a sudden Goofy comes walking over to me and starts trying to tell me that he will take the picture for me to get in the family picture. I told him that I didn't even know these people and for him to go get in the picture. He wouldn't listen he kept telling me to get in the picture. I was laughing and so was this family and my mom. My boys were just staring at me and Goofy wondering what in the heck was going on! Finally Goofy shows me the sign for the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors" so I said ok thinking I would win. Well Goofy won so I said best two out of three thinking that I would have to win the next too! Goofy started swaying side to side and got down lower, flipped his hat up and we played again. I won then he won the last one. So the family said just come and get in the picture so I said "ok" and gave my mom the camera to take the picture. Well Goofy said "no" to her with a shake of his finger and told her to get in the picture, she tried to tell him and as she was trying Goofy went and found a guy walking and asked him to take the picture. So there we are my mom and me in some families picture just laughing. That is something I won't ever forget and this family won't either! When we got to Tower of Terror the one lady that I was taking the picture for found me and asked me what my name was. I told her and she said that is so funny I just told my family that that was our new sister suzie before she even knew my name. I gave her my email address hoping that she will email me that picture! When we were getting on Tower of Terror Cameron kept telling me not to be scared. He would tell me the things to expect and would say thing like, "now mom when this happens....." I would just say "OK" and shake my head like I was really glad that he told me so I wasn't scared! We also went to the parade in California Adventures and Cooper loved that! He got to see all the guys from Toy Story and Monsters Inc and Cars he was in heaven! After that we went back to Disneyland and I wanted to get a picture of the kids infront of the "C" for California and for there names, of course! The one ride that I wanted to do before we left was Indiana Jones. Jared had gone on it the other day but I hadn't yet so me, Cameron, Lori, Ashley, and Jed went for it. It was our longest wait there so while we waited we took a couple of pictures!
Of course we are trying to be silly! Cameron was trying to show how big his eyes are! Jed was showing his scary face. We were doing the take the picture of yourself thing. In some of the pictures I looked like I had three chins so Ashley was kind enough to hide my necks for me in one picture! We had so much fun! We were so lucky to have been able to go and spend time with one another! To get to know each other better and to just make some wonderful memories that we will never forget!

A California Vacation Part 5

So if you think that I have overloaded this blog with pictures you haven't seen anything yet! Today was the day to get in as many photo opportunities as we could! We also were trying to hit everything else that we could since this was our last day! Today started out with some excitement! As we were on our way to eat breakfast with the characters we got a call from my sister in law Melanie that their car got broken into that night and they were trying to figure out what to do. They decided that Ned would wait for the cops and Bob swung by to get her and Abby to join us for the breakfast. If you haven't done the breakfast before, I suggest doing it! It cost a pretty penny but the food was great and the entertainment was better (you just need to invite Rachel when you go!) We got there and told the people that the others were coming and they were so nice to work with us! I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did when these kids got to meet some of the characters. At one point, once Bobs family and Melanie and Abby got there, Rachel and Abby almost tackled Minney Mouse to the ground. She finally got on her knees so she wouldn't fall on the floor. Tigger just held the kids hands and let them bounce and bounce. The fairy god mother from Cinderella was talking to Cameron and was concerned that he had lost his teeth. Cameron also had his hands in his sweatshirt and she then said "oh, no he has lost his hands too!" He then showed her and she acted relieved and said "oh good, I was worried that he had lost his hands and his teeth!" Cameron just laughed.

Rachel just loves Minney Mouse and at one point some other kids were trying to take a picture with Minney and I was trying to get Rachel out of the picture and Minney Mouse took her hand and put it in my face like "leave her alone she loves me so don't worry about it" I was like "okay Minney what ever you say". They were really cute with the kids. I think that Cameron and Cooper loved Chip the most!
The one thing that I will never forget is when Cooper saw Buzz for the first time on the ride Buzz Light Year. He was in shock with also a smile on his face! So I had to take a picture of him with Buzz! Cooper loved this ride and we went on it a couple of times a day while we were there. It wasn't until the last day that we figured out that we could email pictures to us of us on the ride. One point we were having a little friendly competition and everyone was out to beat eachother with the highest points. Cooper and I went back and I got over a million points! (Of course I was cheating since the ride stopped but it still let you keep shooting so I racked them up!
These are the pictures from the ride. One with Cameron and my Mom and the other with Cooper and me. Notice that the picture shows the total I got! Next we were off to Toon Town. We would ask the kids if they even knew what Toon town was all about and of course they didn't. I guess we need to find the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit so they can know! The kids had a blast here and Cooper loved the rollercoaster ride there. We took alot of the kids in the cars, of course and also as families. Some are of my little family and some of my sister family. Next we decided to take the kids to meet Mickey Mouse. His house was so much fun for the kids. They had to sit on all of his chairs and play the piano. When we saw the chicken we had to take a picture for Grandma Geri, since she just started raising chicken.
They thought that was so much fun to meet Mickey! We also decided since we didn't get a family picture with Minney that we better do that so we went over to Minneys house and also played in her house for a minute. After we met Minney we also met up with my brothers Ned and Bob and their families. As we were talking and deciding where to go next we started to round up the kids. All of a sudden someone said "were's Rachel?" and we all started to scatter. I remembering how much she loved Minney Mouse had the thought that she saw Minney going into her house and took off after her. I ran in there and sure enough she was hanging out with Minney. I ran out and yelled at Erin and then went back to take some pictures of our excitement!That little stinker! She just loves her so much!! HAHA
At one point in Toon Town Cameron said to me "hey mom take my picture here!" So of course I did and then he said "let me take your picture up there too!" So I let him of course. Then Cooper started to throw a fit and so yet another picture of me trying to make sure I am in the view of the camera!Just looking back at these pictures makes me want to go again!!Our family Christmas Card! I'm not sending one out this year so consider seeing this our Card to you! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A California Vacation Part 4

Today we went back to Disneyland and it was not busy at all. We only had 5-10 minute wait lines and so we never fastpast anything! At the beginning of the day Jared and Cameron went off with my sister and her family to ride the big kid rides, so Cooper and myself hung out with my brother Bob and his wife Erin and their two kids Rachel and Josh. We decided to head to California Adventures and do the Bugs Life stuff with the kids. This mom has a hard time with the round and round in circles and we went on a few there. Luckily I didn't get sick! We really took it easy this day, trying to get to as many rides as we could. We went on Nemo and that was really neat. Cooper loved the cars. I went with my Dad on Soaring over California and loved it! I took Cooper to the 3-D bugs movie and he held on tight. They squirt water at you and say its bugs juice and they also send a stinky smell around and say its from the stink bug. At the end they tell you to stay in your seats while the bugs leave and you feel like bugs are crawling under your bum. We took Cooper on Pirates of the Caribbean on Halloween and he liked it then but when we asked him if he wanted to go on it again he said no. We all met back up and did the fun rides in the center like Peter Pan and Snow White, Mr. Toads Wild Adventures. Those were fun and I think I liked Peter Pan the most out of those. These are some pictures of us all waiting in our short line.As we were waiting to see what everyone decided about if we were done for the day or not I took the boys pictures trying to pull out the sword in the stone. As you can see none of them could pull it out, better luck next time boys!

A California Vacation Part 3

Now we are off to Sea World! We had, again, a great time there. Sea World wasn't busy at all and so we took total advantage of it. We hit the sea lion first and that was fun to watch other people feed them! (the price for a six fish was crazy!)I couldn't believe how close the birds were to you! They didn't care all they wanted was for someone to hold a fish and they would come and take them right out of your hand!
Then we went to Shark Encounters. My sisters boy Jed was loving it. At one point I told Lori that I feel like I am watching the Discovery Channel and Jed is the narrator! He told us everything about sharks, he was definitely in his element! I couldn't believe how much he new but I shouldn't be surprised the kid looks forward to Discoveries Shark week every year!We then went to the Sea Lion Show! My sister Lori and I were laughing so hard at the pre show that Jared finally said "they should have more people like you in the audience!" That made us laugh harder! We thought that it was so funny that we almost went back for the afternoon show! The guy was so funny! The Sea Lions did various TV shows like Survivor, The View, and Dancing with the Stars.The kids loved the Sting Rays. They could touch them and the Rays would splash water on them!We also saw the Pink Flamingos and the Eels, Yuck!, Cooper was determined to see a turtle.They also loved touching the star fish!These are two of my favorite pictures of Sea World. The boys found these Shamu Santa hats and tried them on. Jake and Cameron had Jared take a picture of them behind the magnifying glass their heads look so big and they have tiny little bodies!We spent a ton of time trying to get to touch the dolphins and the only one that did was Curt, since he has the longest arms. They would stay just far enough away from you so you couldn't touch them. The dolphins were fun to watch. When we got there they were playing with the footballs and basketballs.
We hit the Shamu show, of course! At first when we decided to go Cameron and Jake wanted to sit in the splash zone and we told Cameron no. Jake after a few minutes came up and joined us in the no wet zone and he was glad he did! They would have been soaked! It was a neat show and I think the kids liked it!We told the kids that they could have a souvenir and they both picked a stuffed animal that they love! I also got a drive by picture of the San Diego Temple.Cameron wanted a penguin and Cooper wanted a polar bear. It was a perfect day at Sea World! Not to hot and not to cold. As we were leaving the fog started to roll in. The only place that it wasn't foggy was by the temple which I was glad because I wanted to see it!

A California Vacation Part 2

So I decided to break these up, easier for me! The next day was Sunday. Jared and I had talked about it and decided that we wanted to go to the beach that day. Try to rest, right? So as of now my parents are with us and so is my sister and her family. Today is the day that my younger brothers finally got there and we were all going to meet up and have a fun day at the beach. My brother Bob drove through the night to get there and then my other brother Ned flew in on Sunday. Before they got there we hung out at the pool. It was beautiful. Like a scene from a movie where they are at the pool and they are looking out to the ocean. (I didn't get a picture of this and am still mad that I didn't bring my camera) Then the all started to roll in! I have to say that the beach was my favorite! What a peaceful place! I really wish I lived near the ocean so I could go take daily walks on the beach! (another dream) The day was perfect but the water cold, but Cameron didn't care he went in! Cooper on the other hand got a little wet and found a little pond that had warm water in it, he was in heaven!The kids loved it and so did everyone else. A few pictures of some of the other family.At one point all of a sudden you see Jared come running and he goes flying in the water! Everyone started to laugh they couldn't believe that Jared would do that! He swam for a little while and when he came out he said that the water was so cold that his legs got numb!
This got everyone going and before you knew it all of the guys and older kids were in!The little kids loved every minute of it! They didn't care if the water was cold they were playing at the beach!While we were there Cameron said that he wanted to take back a sea shell for each one of the kids in his class so we started out on a sea shell hunt. We explored some rock that had some oysters like things on them and we saw a little crab. The kids loved it and had fun digging in the sand to find the shells. I didn't think we would find any but we did and Cameron was excited to take them to school when he got home.
I was there as you can see. I am the one that always has the camera, but Jared did take it from me for a minute and got a picture of me and some of the view of the beach we were on. We also saw some dolphins swimming next to a boat and some sea lions out in the water!The one thing that Cooper wanted to do at the beach is to build a sand castle. He was so excited to make one. He was so proud of his sand castle! At one point Rachel came and pushed it over so Aunt Erin was nice enough to help him make a new one! He also, like I said, played in this little water hole and was so happy!Cameron also decided to make a water hole, but he was making it to close to where the waves would come and make it go away. He kept digging and digging and wasn't having any luck so Uncle Curt came to the rescue and tried to help him!Her are a few more pictures!After the beach we went back to our condo and celebrated Josh turning "2". When I told Cooper that it was Josh's birthday he asked "is he free (three)?" I told him that he was now 2 and Cooper responded "Dang it" like being 2 was a bad thing! Happy Birthday Josh!!

A California Vacation!!

I don't blame any one who doesn't want to take the time to read and/or look because we will have picture/story overload!! We took our family to the wonderful most happy place on earth DISNEYLAND. Cameron had made a special chain link to count down to our vacation. If you can't read it it says "This is how many day's intell we go to Disneyland." We left on October 29th and started our long drive. We went half way on Thursday and stopped in Vegas, the city of sin, and yes I took my two boys to the city of sin!! It was horrible! When we got there I thought it would be fun to show the boys the strip and let them see the water show and how they make it look like a volcano explodes and all the other fun things to see, but when we got there I had the worst filling that I almost made Jared continue our drive! The boys were hungry and so we decided to go to McDonald's. While we were there a couple of homeless guys smiled at my boys and I almost lost it! After dinner we went straight back to the hotel and stayed there the rest of the night, that's right no site seeing or anything I was completely freaked out! We were up early that morning and ready to hit the trail early, I think we all just really wanted out of there and we were on the road. When we made it to California we had to head to the Newport area because that is where we stayed. It was beautiful! I could live there. Jared and I decided that we would have a BIG DREAM and when we became Billionaires we would by a vacation home there and go whenever we wanted, it's good to have dreams, right? That night Jared took Cameron to the LA Lakers game so that Cameron could see their favorite team in action. Curt and Jake went along for the fun and they all had a great time! While the boys were at the game my sister Lori, me and my Mom went to the store to get some food so we could eat dinners at night, cereal in the morning and make sandwiches for the day. We split up the things we were buying and since I was able to bring alot of the food for my family I didn't have as much to buy, but my sister on the other had flew and so she had to by a little more. When she went to check out they yelled her total
"$82.00!" I had heard the cashier yell something but didn't know what it was. When we left the store she asked me and my mom if we had heard the guy yell her total. We all thought that was odd and laughed! I guess spending $82 is a weird thing in Newport. When we got back from the store I decided to put Cooper in the tub but he wanted to get in the master suite bath tub. The thing was so big that he thought it was his own special swimming pool! He had a blast and I put some bubbles with it, the kid was in HEAVEN! The next day was our first day at Disneyland and it was also Halloween. We were excited to see and experience Disneyland at Halloween. We knew that we wouldn't get on to many rides that day because of how many people were there but we went with the flow of the day and had a great time. We were able to see alot of shows they do. I think everyone loved Aladdin and also Fantasmic. They had a special Firework show that night and it was really neat. All of the fireworks were in Halloween colors like purple, green and orange.We took Cooper on Buzz Light Year for his first ride ever and when he saw Buzz he was in SHOCK! It was so funny! Jared told Cooper if he goes on some rides he would buy him some cotton candy. After his first ride he said to Jared "I want cotton candy!" We held him off for another ride and then Jared got him some. He loved it! You can't go to Disneyland on Halloween and not go to the haunted house! This us waiting to go in!
Pictures of the scary pumpkins on the hill!
We decided to still get the boys costumes for Halloween, even though they really didn't wear them ahole lot! These pictures were taken while we waited 2 hours, that's right, 2 hours to watch Fantasmic! It was a wonderful show, but note to self, take cushions for bum the next time, OUCH!!

Disneyland wasn't too bad on Halloween until after California Adventures closed down and then everyone was there. You could hardly move to leave the place, it was crazy! It was fun to see and experience once! But we probably won't do Halloween again anytime soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

I just wanted to wish me a happy birthday. I sure hope 32 goes as great as the last 31 years have. My favorite thing about my birthday is my Dad, he starts to tell me all about the day that I was born. How when the doctor came and told him that there was two things wrong with me, that I had a birth mark on my face and that I had a hernia. My dad said to the doctor "is that all we will keep her." He also always tells me how he remembers feeding me my first bottle and how I opened my big eyes and looked right at him. I love to hear those stories from him. I also look forward to the numerous phone calls from family and friends and it makes me remember how very lucky I am to have such great family and friends. I am lucky Jared always makes me a treat for my birthday and this year is brownies and ice cream, a favorite of mine! When I was younger and I remember my mom getting presents from my little brothers and thinking how stupid those gifts are they are just a drawing or a colored picture, now when I get those from my kids I cherish them and now I know that my mom wasn't lying when she said that she loved those wonderful pictures. Birthdays are the greatest!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!