It finally Came!!!!

After many months of stalking the Disney website, saving our pennies, and DVRing every Disney commercial, the day finally came and we left for California!!! A couple of months ago Nikki helped the kids make these fun count down chains. The kids loved taking off one everyday and sometimes Kensie would get so excited she would remove a week at a time.

The days before we left were filled with work, relief society activity that I was over, physical therapy (my stupid back), and a quick shopping trip the night before. Needless to say I was not even close to being ready to leave when we woke up this morning. To top it all off my dad called at 8:00am to tell us he was in Santaquin with the van and that he would be there in an hour to get us. We were not packed, the kids still needed to bath, I needed to bath, and I still needed to mop my kitchen floor (I can't stand to leave on vacation without my cleaning done). I started throwing things in the suitcase and Casey was running around crazy. They showed up right on time to get us and to their surprise we were not ready. It turned into a family effort and we quickly got things loaded. We left my driveway at 9:45 and headed to burger king for a quick breakfast and then we hit the road. The kids did AMAZING and hardly complained during the 9 hour drive to Ontario. I think it helped having all the kids together so they could entertain each other. We only made a few stops- rest area by Cedar City, Lunch with Wyatts Parents in Mesquite, and then a few quick bathroom breaks. We did much better this time compared to last years trip when we stopped close to 900 times. We were just crossing the border into Cali when I realized I forgot my Camera Battery Charger! Uggh. I love my Canon Rebel and had just purchased a new lens for the trip. The only bad thing about having a big camera is that you can only purchase the chargers online! I crossed my fingers and hoped that Best Buy or someplace would sell a knock-off charger that would fit my battery. We made it to the Fairfield in Ontario Cali at around 7:00pm. My mom's purse had broke on the way down and we were all needing something to eat so My parents, me, and Wyatt loaded up and headed for the Shopping plaza that we had past on the way to our hotel. When we checked into our hotel we had asked where a Target was and the nice lady gave us a paper with the exact instructions on how to get there. Our first mistake....Not reading the instructions and trusting the GPS. Instead of taking a quick trip around the corner to target, we spent 45 min following the GPS. We soon found ourselves at a target, but it was a Warehouse not a store. Now we had been driving all day, we were tired, hungry, and Casey kept calling every 5 min wondering where the food was. This caused some stress which resulted in some yelling, but we finally found a best buy with a Walmart across the street. I ran in an bought a charger that the man in the blue shirt assured me would work and then headed to Walmart. Now if you think our Walmart's are trashy you should spend some time in a Cali Walmart. I was scared to death of the creatures that occupied the already scummy store. I could not get out of there fast enough!!! The gang back at the hotel had requested pizza, but there was no pizza place in sight so we settled for Wendy's. Once again if you think our Wendy's is trashy spend some time in a Cali Wendy's. Not only was there a security guard cruising the parking lot we got the honor of waiting for our jr. Bacon with three hookers....yes hookers and the one looked like she was expecting!! Talk about culture shock. At this point in the trip I was ready to put my red sparkly shoes on and repeat "there's no place like home, there's no place like home." We finally made it back to the room to find that they had Casey's order wrong and the battery charger didn't work....Honestly! I just went to bed and hoped for better luck tomorrow. Here is the family wag. For Christmas my Parents rented this van so we could all go down together. It was so comfy and convenient having everyone together. I think I counted only a half dozen times we yelled at each other during the many hours of togetherness and 99% of the time it was over the stupid GPS so I think overall it worked out great and I would highly recommend it.
We did alot of this....which helped in entertaining the kids