My oops

When I was creating posts last night I did Disneyland first, but then saved it to post later after day 2 and day 3...unfortunaltey it still posted it at the bottom. So to see Disney please scroll down past Hollywood.

Day 3 - The Hotel

Naps and swimming...need I say more!

Day 2 - Hollywood and the Beach

We went to a shopping center called Hollywood and Highland. They had an incredible view of he Hollywood sign. Not to shabby. Plus it was right on the walk of fame and next to the Chinese theater.

The kids really wanted a picture with the "Heaven Dogs" outside the theater. Mason couldn't take his eyes off of them.

We felt like it was very appropriate for them to have their picture taken with the Munchkin star.

The kids with Godzilla. After walking the stars we decided to drive down Santa Monica Blvd to the pier and have some time at the beach. Imagine our surprise when we drove past...

the LA Temple. Very pretty indeed.

At the Beach! Jaxson loved the water and mommy forgot to pack bathing suits. Oops. But it didn't stop him. At one point he even did a nose dive into the water. He was soaked and loved every second of it.

Trace and Kena enjoyed building sand castles.

Mason wasn't really sure how he felt about the sand. He started the afternoon sitting in the towel and crying when the sand got near him (which was awful because he kept dumping shovels full of it onto himself!) but eventually he warmed up to it, scooted off the towel and played. He cam home with enough sand in his diaper to make his own private beach in Mountain View!

Jaxson chasing waves. Did I mention he loved the water?

Day 4 - Disneyland

All of the best people are Mad!

Finally at Disneyland

We had to have mouse ears. Notice that Jaxson's have a box of popcorn between the ears. He loved them and we got comments on them ALL day!

I had to toss this one in because I love Kena's pose...

Meeting Tinkerbell. She was so cute and spunky and Kena loved her.

Irridessa was amazing and Kena warmed right up to her.

I loved the little fairy houses on the way to pixie hollow.

Kena wouldn't get on Dumbo so we got a picture of she and Mason on the Dumbo outside of the ride.

We rode Casey Jr. in the wild animal car. Very appropriate.

My little mousketeers on Minnie's couch.

Many of you know about our ordeal with Disneyland. About 2 days before we left for vacation our tickets were no where to be found. Disney's policy was you lost them, your problem. It was hard and awful and I cried for an entire day...and then we got a small miracle. My college mentor Margaret (who I've never met in person and only speak to once every two weeks) called for our weekly conversation. I was in the midst of the drama that we like to call Disneyland and I told her all about my problem and how we were going to just call it a wash and enjoy our vacation anyway. This was Thursday morning. By Thursday evening I had received a phone call from Margaret. She told me that she'd spoken to her husband and some other WGU mentors and they'd decided that they could stew over how awful it all was, or they could do something about it. They decided to do the later! We'd already replaced 2 days of our Disney trip with other parks, but she and those others bought our little family a day in Disneyland. I'm forever indebted to her for that and my hope is that someday I can pay it forward with an equally selfless act! Thanks Margaret. You are truly an amazing individual!

Family Vacation - Day 1

For those of you familiar with Fablehaven, apparently the Demon Prison isn't in the Bermuda Triangle...it's in Nevada!

Trace was very distraught that no P's were allowed in Vegas!

Jaxson playing in the small sprinkler watering the bushes on the temple grounds.

Trace was sure that this tree was a really big pineapple.

A pretty humming bird, just chillin' in a tree and getting out of the sun.

My eternal family! Plus a very pretty fountain.

The house of the Lord.

Yesterday we arrived in California, road weary and exhausted, but we had some fun getting here. We stopped in Las Vegas to visit the temple (and only got lost once!). I'd always had the impression that Vegas had a very plain looking temple, boy was I wrong. It's beautiful and we enjoyed walking around and exploring someplace new and beautiful. Please enjoy some of our pictures.

Hats!

Memorial Day

Fossil Butte
Strarting the hike.

Mason had the best seat in town!

Cute kiddos in the aspen grove.

This Memorial day we decided to spend the day out and about and enjoying eachothers company. We went to Fossil Butte which is a prehistoric lake, and looked at fossils and hiked. It was a blast and so beautiful! We spent a couple of hours enjoying the view and playing. Then we headed into Kemmerer and got some tasty burgers and played some more. *sigh* What a perfect day!

Family Movie Night

We've started a new tradition at our house, and we like to call it Family Movie Fridays. Every other Friday we have a big tasty dinner, then rent a movie we can watch together, eat popcorn and just generally enjoy each others company. This past week we watched "The Spy Next Door". The kids loved it and I must admit it was a little dull but I loved that they loved it!

Jax's best "spy" pose!
Kena the Spy

Stealth...his name is Stealth.

Mmm dinner!

And homemade rootbeer. So tasty! Notice the towels around the base of the cooler. Yeah thats right folks, apparently a gallon of rootbeer fits nicely in a gallon container, until you add dry ice. My bad!