Good Bye Cali

All good things must come to an end... Even when you're in the Happiest place on earth! I was so sad to see our trip coming to an end and of course the day flew by. Our goal for the last day was to get to everything we had missed so far. Nikki had these shirts made for us and I was kind of worried about what we would all look like wearing the same shirt, but it turned out we fit in with all the other family reunions. The first hurtle of the day was "finding Nemo" aka huge huge line. After the count down the gates were opened and we all ran to Nemo. The line was already forming, but we only had to wait 15 mins. We all loved it especially the boys. While we were in Tomorrowland the guys decided to go on space mountain. I did not have a good experience last time and ended up being sick for the rest of the day, so the ladies decided to go over to King Arthur Carousel with the boys. Our next stop was Toon Town. The boys loved going through all the houses and seeing all the characters. We went all the way through Mickey's house and into the backlot for a picture with the Man himself. The boys were not scared one bit and pictures turned out sooo cute. Next we thought we better get over to Cali Adventure and get a fast pass for Screamin. I LOVE roller coasters, but this one scared the crap out of me. My mom almost lost her glasses which would have been a disaster! She actually loved Screamin and hated tower of terror! I was the total opposite. I'm glad I can say I went, but never again. We tried to check everything out. We went to the Blue Sky Cellar which had all the things that are coming to disneyland. It was short and sweet. I was told by a friend that we had to go to the Animation Academy and I'm so glad that we did. While we were waiting for the next class we walked through the animation exhibits. Sooo amazing! Once our class started we all got a animators sheet and they taught us how to draw Mickey. By just using shapes we all (including the 4 year olds) had drawn a perfect mickey. It made the cutest Keepsake. We ended the day by shopping, getting our picture taken, and hitting a few last rides. On the Jungle Cruise our captain was especially funny and sang Casey Happy Birthday. Yep, that right Casey got to spend his birthday in Disney. He even got a gift card with $69 on it and a cute badge to wear all day. Yeah right, I was lucky to get him to wear it long enough that I could get his picture with it on! I told him he looked studly in it but he didn't buy it. That night we ate at Outback, Casey's choice, shopped for cheap T-shirt, and tried to run over a cement barrier (thanks Wyatt, my life flashed before my eyes!). To say the trip was fun is an understatement because it was fabulous and a well needed break from life! The ride home was not so fun and I got to pee in the scariest bathroom I've ever seen! I think I'm still trying to get rid of some of the virus I caught in that place....yuck! {Note to self} pee in Baker, Ca next time because once you cross the border there is no where else for a really long time unless you are willing to pee with the homeless living at all the close gas stations along the way!

California Adventure!!!!

Day 2

Once again the park didn't open until 10 am so we had plenty of time to get breakfast, get through security, and get a pretty good spot in line. We planned to head right for Soarin California as soon as the gates opened and it turned out to be an awesome plan. We walked right on and only had to wait 5 minutes to be seated! This was one of Casey's fav and the boys enjoyed it too! As soon as we got off we ran to Toy Story Mania which didn't have to bad of a wait. It only took us about 20 minutes and by the time we got off the wait was 45! I wish we would of had more time to go on it again because it was a blast even though Nikki Kicked my butt in points! By this point we were all starting to get hungry because we had tried to get by on the continental breakfast. We stopped by the bakery on the Pier and some how ended up on a bakery tour. As we walked in the door she handed us a piece of sour dough bread and told us to wait for the movie. We all looked around and asked "where do we buy stuff?" She put on her angry eyes and informed us it was on the other end and to leave before the tour started. I really though she was going to ask for our pieces of sour dough back but luckily I had taken a bite of mine! Our breakfast there was Wonderful! My mouth waters when I think of it... yummm! Next stop was Bug's Life 3D movie! I could of spent all day just looking at all the details in Bugs Land! I LOVE Pixar movies for that reason -attention to detail. The show of coarse scared the boys, but at this point what hadn't? We stayed in bug's land hoping to get a smile from one of the boys and we finally found something they loved....bumper bugs! We did it all including flicks flyers, Heimlich's ride(this was the worst thing we went on the whole trip..sooo boring), and the lady bug spinners. The boys loved all the rides and it made me smile to see them happy and not scared for once. We were all needing a little "wake-me-up" so we headed to Tower of Terror. We split up and let my mom, dad, Chad, and Jessica go on it first. I couldn't wait to see my mom's reaction. It turned out she hated the ride which totally surprised me since she had loved everything so far. Nikki started to back out of going when she saw how my mom liked it. I forced her on and had to chuckle every time I looked at her. We finally made it through to the elevator shaft and Nikki started hyperventilating. We got her in her seat and as the creepy bell boy asked "any questions", Nikki paused and as the doors started to shut she yelled "is it too late to get off?" And it turned out to be tooo late, the ride took off and she squealed the whole time. I pretty much just laughed at her the whole time. After it was over she said it wasn't as bad as she had worked it up to be. While waiting by the gift shop at tower of terror we had a few character sightings including stitch, minnie, donald, and Mr. Incredible. The lady working in the shop said there changing room was right by the gift shop. That is one thing that has change, you use to be able to walk disney and there was a character on every corner being swarmed by kids. Now they have them assigned spots and timed visits. So we felt good about being able to see as many as we did even though the boys were scared to death of them. While we were in the hollywood backlot we decided to hit the playhouse Disney show. There were several people in our group that said it was the most painful thing we had done all week, but I think the boys enjoyed it and it was a reason to sit down (even though it was on the floor!) It was getting late enough in the day that we felt like it would be OK to get wet on Grizzly Rapids. The boys were barely tall enough (thanks to the sketchers with the stacks) and the wait was not long. This has to be the Best river rafting ride I've ever been on! We all loved it. It wasn't too long after we got off that we noticed the ride was shut down and people were walking off. My dad over heard some people saying that someone had fell out of one of the rafts. It was never confirmed but we did see some paramedics by the ride. We ended the day by hitting the nature trail, jumpin jellyfish, and the parade. The parade was really cute and the boys loved it. We got there early so that we could have a good seat. The guys waited by the strollers while we shopped. My legs were so tired and there wasn't a really good place to sit so me and Nikki sat in the strollers while the boys sat by the guys on the ground. We had all piled our stuff on top of the strollers including drinks and treats. Chad was standing behind Nikki's stroller when she moved up a little and knocked one of the drinks off. Nikki immediately thought Chad had knocked it off because him and Jessica started to clean it up. She started teasing Chad saying that she had never saw him cleaning and so she pulled her video camera out and started taping him cleaning. My mom was sitting back from us and she could hear everyone commenting on how rude that girl was that spilled her drink and then taped that guy cleaning it up. My mom informed them that it was that girls little brother. Chad and Jessica had it all cleaned up by the time Nikki realize that it was her that had spilled. Nikki felt really bad and we joked about it all night! California closes before Disney so we decided to finish the day at Disney. We all started to get our tickets out so we could get into Disney when Nikki couldn't find hers or her drivers license. My dad bought our tickets on a military discount and they had printed our names on each one so they required a photo ID every time we got in with our tickets. We searched everything! She finally decided to go back into California Adventure and look in the lost and found. My mom's dentist had told her that he loved Disney because it's the only place you can leave expensive camera equipment unattended and you don't have to worry about anyone messing with it. Luckily it was true about people in Disney being honest because sure enough some good person had turned in her ticket to the lost and found with her license. Her ticket was a three day pass and if she would have lost it she would have had to buy another one for our last day. {sidenote} Nikki said that when she went to the lost and found they asked what she was looking for and when she told them her license they asked"what state?" They then pulled out a box full of licenses organized by state... yeah that many people have lost their license in Disney....too funny!

the happiest place on earth!!!

Day 1


After spending a day in Sea World we headed to Anaheim for 3 days of disney! To save money on rooms we decided to book a family suite with four queen beds and just have the boys sleep with us. When we checked in they gave us two joint rooms and one of them just happened to have a set of bunk beds too. How lucky is that? I think the boys were more excited about the bunk bed than actually going to disneyland! That night we ordered pizza and went to bed early. It was an off week so the park didn't open until 10 am so we had plenty of time to have breakfast at Denny's and wait for the gates to open. I got all excited when they did the count down to open the gates. We decided to start in Fantasyland and work the boys up to the big rides. This being a good plan didn't really pass with Gavyn who was scared too death of the storybook land canal boats. We loved Peterpan, dumbo (probably the longest wait in the whole park), Alice in wonderland, and Snow White. We made good time even though it was starting to get crowded. After lunch we headed over to Matterhorn which was luckily open (my last two visits it has been closed). I had forgot how much fun it was. When we got off matterhorn Cael spotted the Cars over at Autopia so we headed there. This was one of are longer waits and I wish I could say it was worth it, but Cael loved it. The gas pedal was so hard to push down that I had a cramp in my leg by the time I was done! I have no idea how all those little kids can drive them. Since we were in Tomorrowland we hurried and went on Buzz Lightyear which was Cael's favorite of the whole trip. Casey was itching to go on Splash Mountain and we were all in the mood for a little excitement. I was a little nervous to take the boys on it especially after the fairytale boat ride incident. We had to split into two boats so we separated the boys so they wouldn't get each other upset. As usual I couldn't get enough of this ride and we luck out that night to be able to walk on it 4 times in a row. I got sooo wet that I had to buy me some lounge pants to wear back to the hotel! Cael never did cry, but he wasn't real happy ether. The boys only went once the first day and I was so mad when we got the pictures back you couldn't see the boys in it. I wish someone would of told us to put them on the right side of the log so you can see them...but whatever. After checking with several workers we finally accepted the fact that Pirates was going to be down the whole time we were there. Sooo bummed! We also hit winnie the pooh while we were in critter country. The giant honey pots would hold 9 people...we had ten and did our best at squishing in. Nikki claims that at one time she lost feeling in her legs. We couldn't even get the bar down and laughed the whole ride. I wish I would have got a picture, but my camera was smashed in the middle and there were a lot of people gawking wondering why we didn't just take two honey pots! The first day went by really fast and the park closed at 8 which was fine since the boys had had enough by then anyway. On the way back to the room Nikki started going into convulsion over her needed some lobster gravy at Olive Garden. We had the GPS so we could find anything....right? No, we missed about 500 off ramps, almost wrecked a half a dozen times, saw many back roads, and asked for direction at least twice! The whole time I kept asking Nikki on the walky "do you have to eat Olive Garden?" "i'm craving that gravy, i'm craving the gravy" was her answer! It was 10pm by the time we finally sat down!
more pics @ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107341&id=1332408589&l=3bd783773e

Sea World 2009

After many months/years of begging Casey finally took me, I mean Cael, to California. We had been soo busy the weeks prior that I really don't think it hit me until we were in the car going down. Yes, i said it CAR. Casey was totally against driving but when I did our price break-down it was a huge difference. So me and my whole family (except baby girls) headed down on Saturday April 25 to San Diego at around 6:30 am. We made good time to Beaver where we had breakfast and fueled up. Between Beaver and Baker, Ca we stopped a lot. This was stressful for my dad who said he had never made this many stops before, but hey we had two 4 year-old boys. The only problem was that it wasn't them that had to stop it was all the adults. Casey whined a lot and made threats of paying a 1,000 dollars to fly next time. I'm telling ya the boys were the best riders. We soon made a pack that when we stopped Everyone went to the bathroom, Everyone got a drink, and Everyone stretched their legs! After that we sailed right along and beat the GPS prediction of arrival time. The boys did really good til the last half hour when Cael and Chad started fighting and calling names. We stayed in the Hampton by SeaWorld and I would highly recommend it. The beds were sooo comfy and I slept like a baby! We also lucked out and had a Denny's next door. We made it to the park in good time after a quick stop to Target for ponchos and Cael a new shirt. gotta love ketchup. The boys loved loved loved seeing the animals. Our first stop was the Believe show with Shamu. The boys didn't move through the entire thing. I got some really good pictures with my camera and it was good practice using the settings. Next stop was the ship wreck rapids. We all went on and started to get our poncho's on when Cael decides to test me. He refused to put the poncho on, which would have been fine except for the fact that he HATES to get wet and I knew it would lead to him whining the rest of the day. I kept asking him to put it on, he was acting like a total brat so I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of line and took him back to the stroller. He of course started screaming like he had been kidnapped. I made him sit in the stroller and watch everyone go on the ride without him. After that he never made another peep about have to wait to go on the rides or to wear a poncho. We also watched the Sea Lion Live show which was a lot cuter than the pirate one they use to do and the Dolphin show. We all about had a heart attack when the mom from the audience fell in the dolphin pool. I was so panicked that I didn't even get a picture. Casey said he still gets a stomach ache when he thinks about it! Anyway after she fell in all the trainers started yelling at her while she swam the long way across the pool. That's when I realized that she was one of the trainers. They totally got me, that girl should give up the marine biology and try acting! After the shows we decided to try the Wild Arctic ride. It's a lot like star tours or back to the future where you feel like you are riding in a helicopter looking at all the Arctic Animals when all of a sudden ice starts to give and you feel like your falling. Everyone got really quiet and then Gavyn yells "are we gonna die?" That place started laughing so hard. After the ride we got to see the polar bears which are my favorite. Atlantis was the last thing we went on because we knew we were going to get wet. It was the end of the day and there was no wait. It was so much fun and got me really excite to go to Disney the next day. My mom even liked it. Most of us went on it 4 times. Soo fun! By that time we were all tired and decided start heading to Anaheim. Bye Bye Shamu :) check out all pics at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107344&id=1332408589&l=15f1628c84

Easter 2009

The last couple of years we have went to Cherry Creak for Easter and I have to admit I like it so much better than Sand Mountain. The weather was perfect except for a few rain showers and kids had a ball! Nikki and the kids pulled out with us and they all had a good time playing in the sand and just getting dirty! Gavyn did ask everyday when they could go home, but I know he had a good time! On Thursday My mom and Dad made a surprise visit out to see us. My mom was on call so they camped out west, but still came out to see us. Chris, Jakoye and their girls also came out and rode for a day and we had a sloppy joe fest that night. We woke up the next morning to find Nikki & the kids were gone. Halle had gotten sick in the middle of the night and threw up all over their bedding. Kalee also was sick that night and when Linda called Chris that morning he said he too had been sick all night. Luckily it missed our trailer and we stayed healthy. On one of the rides Gavyn caught a lizard and loved it as long as it wasn't moving. Too funny. The boys went on a lot of rides with Casey & the gang while me and Nikki stayed back and looked after camp with the girls. Easter morning the bunny had brought Cael sponge bob Lego's and Kensie a new baby. We ended the trip we the annual egg hunt and roll. We always make such fun memories on this camp every

year and I can't wait til next!

Cael's first trip to the dentist...ugggh

What do they say..."a picture can says a thousand words". After a month of Cael complaining of a tooth ache he finally got in to see Dr. Sorensen (aka Doc Sorensen) for his first check-up. First mistake- waiting until my child was hurting to take him in. When we got there he was nervous, but soon got wrapped up in the video games and train set. Can I tell you how cute this office is, next time I'm bringing paint samples to match! So after a peaceful wait I soon heard "Cael". My heart dropped and I looked up to see a tear forming in Cael's eyes. Here we go. First stop X-rays (which were taken on a cow hide chair). This started the breakdown. After trying to reason with him I finally left to see if that would help..no, the poor assistant had to call for back-up to do X-RAYS! After a few minutes of screaming we headed to the exam chair. Second tantrum starts, the assistant Erica did such a good job and quickly pulled out the stickers. This worked good enough that he would lay back, but he was still screaming. Dr. Sorensen did the best check he could under the circumstances. We then went back on May 12 to have the four teeth crowned. This time was going to be much easier considering that he was going to try and sedate him. Let me say it again.. TRY. The little stinker fought the sedation and was awake during the whole thing. It took 2 parents, 3 assistants, and one calm dentist to get the job done. Dr. Sorensen numbed him good and felt that he couldn't feel anything and that he was just scared. He's been scared of everything else lately, so why not the dentist too. I mean I couldn't get mad... I absolutely HATE to go to the dentist. Anyway in the end he had two caps and two teeth pulled that were infected. We get to the car and of course he falls asleep, just an hour late:) Me and Casey were both exhaust and needed a nap too!

a chat with Cael

Casey: Cael don't do that the easter bunny is watching!
Cael: dad, he doesn't have his tv turned on!

Cael saying the prayer at dinner last night
"dear heavenly father, please bless food and we promise to be good-amen"