Disneyland

We decided to take a family vacation. With Brett's knee, and the busy season of Valentine's Day, etc. and then the normal rigors of being a stay-at-home working mom, we needed a break. We loaded the kids up into the car early Thursday morning, still in their PJ's. We started driving, and about Beaver we said to the kids, "Do you know where we are going?' Dillan says, "Boondocks?" Alexis says, "Danny's?" Brett tells them to guess again, and eventually Dillan says, "California, maybe?" When we say "Yes!" He gets all excited. Then we told him about Disneyland, and he was pretty excited. He was not so thrilled he had to wait to drive there and get tickets.

The first few days we were in Anaheim we just played at the resort, and the beach. We went to Balboa Park beach, played on the pier. We also built a big sand castle as a family, but Derrick decided to climb on it.


While we were there, Lexi decided to feed some of her lunch to the seagulls. Pretty soon there were hundreds of seagulls around her. I kept trying to get a picture of it, but everytime I walked up most of them would fly away. My lens can't capture from very far away, so you are stuck with a retelling of it rather than seeing it.

We walked down the pier, and on the walk back, Lexi wanted to push the stroller with Derrick. When we were almost to the end, she let go, and since it is an incline, he went flying, Brett had to get back to his sprinter routes to catch it.

We played on a beach playground, and watched some kids smash the head of a bird, right on the water's edge so there was blood everywhere. Cool huh?

We had an awful dining experience at iHop. Big surprise there. I guess when you eat somewhere like that you can't expect great service. However, the manager was really great, and did rectify it. So, I guess it is rude of me to even mention it.

We spent the weekend in Ramona and enjoyed the Wild Animal Park, and catching up with old friends. We spent time with the Ashton family and enjoyed some of the delicious tacos that they make. Lexi ate a tub of blueberries, and had a blast playing makeup and dressups with the Ashton girls. All in all, she probably had the best time.

We had a great time at Disneyland. We had to start out with the Toy Story ride, because it is one of the kid's favorites. We did not spend much time looking for characters, as the kids enjoy the rides more. Lexi was less than an inch too short for most of the rides, so she had to sit out for most of the rides, which was too bad. She did however, love to see the princesses and female Disney characters, and they all loved her. Mrs. Incredible sat and talked with her forever, and then held her hand and walked all over the park with her. Jasmine just kept hugging her and talking to her, and telling her how great she is. It was really cute.

By the end of the day our feet really hurt. The next day we went to California Adventure and enjoyed those rides, but decided to cut the day short because, let's face it, two days all day with three small kids can be a bit much.

We drove home on Wednesday, and decided to stop over in St. George for the night. We got a condo, and grilled burgers and spent time laying around and watching the Olympics, then finished the drive home Thursday morning. Now we are home, and cleaning up after our trip and playing catch up. Bummer!

Getting skinny and wearing makeup

This morning Dillan had a few gems of funniness. He started out by telling me that, "If you want to get skinny mommy, you should swing." "Oh yeah, why is that?" "Because it is a great butt, hips, and thigh workout. And your tummy if you work real hard." I just laugh a little, then he says, "But you don't have to get skinny if you don't want to, I love you just how you are!" What a brat! He is too funny.

Then he says, "I know you hate winter mommy, but you are just going to have to get over it."
I say, "Oh yeah, how come?"
He says, "Cuz the hornhog saw its shadow."
I say, "The what?"
He says, "The HORNHOG." (All slow like that will help me understand.)
I say, "Do you mean the ground hog?"
He says, "Oh yeah, the groundhog saw its shadow, so now we have to stay bundled up longer, and your flowers might die."

Lastly, he is telling me a story about something Ryker (his cousin) used to do. He says, "He did that at his old house. Ya know, the one where Aunt Betsy had makeup?"
I say, "She doesn't have makeup anymore?"
He says, "She must not, or clothes either, cuz she is always in her pajamas."
Haha, I laughed for a while after that one.

Life is busy and good, still no word on when Brett will get his knee surgery, but he has an appointment on the 17th. We have family pictures later today, so we will see if I update this again later with a rant about how bad my kids are when I need them to behave. Oh well, gotta love it.