Day 6-8 - The Beach!

After Disneyland we spent three days at Newport Beach. We went to the beach last year after Disneyland as well, but since Andy had just started his new job and couldn't get that much time off, he didn't go. He was excited to get to go this time. Skyler was hesitant at first, but once he remembered how fun the beach is, he had a blast.

Even Ally got to dip her feet and legs in the ocean.

Kylee doesn't care for the ocean very much, so she spends most of her time digging and building things in the sand.

Ally and I spent a lot of our time lounging under our umbrella because I was worried about sun-burning her.

Kylee somehow got TOASTED the first day, even though we put a ton of sunblock on her, so the second day she wore shorts to protect her red thighs.

If I tried to lay her out on a beach towel, she immediately crawled over and started digging in the sand. She really thought it was interesting. Once when the tide was out I dug a baby-sized hole and let the water seep up from below to make her own little baby swimming pool. She had a lot of fun splashing in there and getting muddy sand in her hands to squish.

Day 3-5 - Disneyland!

I didn't take as many pictures at Disneyland as I wish I would have, but here are some! Above is Andy with some of the kids on the teacup ride. I can't handle the spinning on that ride, so I waited on the side with Skyler and Ally, who had both fallen asleep (below). Kylee LOVES the teacups, so Andy took her on them a few times.

Last year Skyler was just a hair too short to ride on the Autopia cars, so this year we made sure to take him. He sat in the drivers seat and did his best to steer. After he got off with Andy, we did parent swap and I took him again. He was so excited and kept saying "I driving car! I driving car!" I wasn't so good at helping him steer, though, so sometimes our car jerked back and forth and then he kept shouting, "Uh oh! I crashing car, mommy! I crashing car!" I assured him we were fine, but he was pretty worried.

In Cars Land we saw Mater one night, and since Skyler LOVES Cars, he was super excited.

Skyler loved the two carousels - the "horsey" one in Disneland and the "fishy" one in California adventure. I lost track of how many times we rode. Ally was allowed to ride as well, so she went on them a lot, too. In the picture above you can see my mom and Bruce riding with us as well.

Riding the "choo choo".

Grandma Karen surprised us and showed up as well, so we had Grandma Roxy, Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Karen, plus Richie and Nikki and their family there. It was really fun.

One morning while Nikki took the girls to see the princesses, we went to Toon Town. While there, we saw Mickey Mouse.

By FAR Skyler's favorite ride was the tractor pull in Cars Land. I would estimate that between Andy and I, he rode that thing AT LEAST 30 times over the three days we were there. It never had a line, so you could just go over and over and over again. He was super excited every. single. time. It never got old. It was especially fun at night, when all the lights were on.

Of course we had to see Lightning McQueen as well!

I love how Ally is looking at Pooh like, "What the heck? This is weird."

I was a little worried about Ally since she's little, but we stayed open til close all three days, and she just fell asleep in her stroller when she was tired. She didn't have issues at all. Plus, there are A LOT of rides that babies can go on! She even went on Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.

Kylee was THRILLED to get to see Elsa and Anna.

One afternoon we sat down to watch the California Adventure parade. When Lightning McQueen was coming, Skyler was super excited. Andy got this picture (above) of him leaning forward to see better, and Nikki got this picture (below) of his face as he watched.

Vacation - Day 1 - Hoover Dam

In May we decided to take a trip to Disneyland this Fall, but we didn't tell Kylee. We kept it all a huge secret. We even packed the car, picked up her homework, etc. while she was busy elsewhere. We weren't sure how to tell her, but in 2nd grade they bring home poems every week that they have to read to as many people as possible during the week, so the night before we left, Andy thought it would be fun to write a poem and put it in the mailbox. It kind of worked out perfect because Kylee had been asking us for a couple of weeks if we could "do something fun one of these days" so on Friday after school I had her help me clean up the whole house with the understanding that on Saturday we could "do something fun."

We woke the kids up at 5 am to head out, and Kylee was just dozy enough to not notice that our whole car was packed with A LOT of stuff. She asked where we were going and we said, "Well, didn't you want to do something fun today?" She said, "Yes." On the way out of the neighborhood I said, "Oh, wait, Andy. Let's get the mail since we didn't get it yesterday." This happens a lot, so Kylee was not at all suspicious. In the mail there was an envelope addressed to her and Skyler. Inside was this poem. The funny thing was that after she read it the first time, she said, "Weird! I wonder who this is from? It sounds like they're going to Disneyland!" I had to prod her a little to figure out that it was for her and WE were going to Disneyland. I think it was just so far out of her realm of possibilities (and it was 5am) that she didn't realize it was talking about US.

We decided that since Andy had an extra day off we might as well split the drive into two days, so the first day we were planning to stop in Vegas. I asked Andy if we could go to Hoover Dam, and to my utter shock and amazement, he said YES (he's not much for sightseeing). I then googled free things to do near Hoover Dam and found this train tunnel hike. It recommended that you don't hike it from June-September, and also that you don't hike it from 11am-4pm (due to heat), so I figured heck - it's September and it's almost Noon - Let's go for it! We made sure the kids had hats and we brought a water bottle for each person. When we started out the sun was behind clouds so it wasn't too bad - only like 90 degrees. By the time we got through the last tunnel and headed back to the car it was HOT. I ended up using most of my water keeping Ally cool by dumping it on her hat and clothes every few minutes. When we reached the car the thermometer said 110. Obviously the car had been baking in the parking lot...but it was probably 100 out there. I guess that's why they have warnings! However, it was a cool hike. You go through these five old train tunnels, and in one of them we even heard/saw bats. In between the tunnels are beautiful views of Lake Mead.

I found out that the reason Andy wanted to go to Hoover Dam was to see the new bridge (I think it opened in 2010?). They had learned about it in his construction classes at BYU and he wanted to see it in real life. It was really huge. Way bigger than I imagined. 

This is the view of the bridge from on the dam. It was SO tall.

In this picture you can see how low the water was at Lake Mead. The white rock on the side was exposed at least 100 feet. This is the dam from the bridge. It looks small! That bridge is HUGE.

After we drove across the dam we walked on the bridge. Skyler was mesmerized by the water way down below. The bridge is 900 feet above the water. Basically, you could put a massive skyscraper underneath it.