Disneyland!!

Long before we decided to move to Idaho we planned a trip to Disneyland for the second week of October. Our move worked out perfectly because Andy was scheduled to end work in NM on Sept. 27 but not start in Idaho until Oct. 14, so our trip week was still available. Driving from Idaho to LA is FAR and LONG, but...we made it!

The first day we went to Disneyland Kylee had a really bad stomach ache and ended up puking in a trash can (and then the bathroom) as soon as we entered the park. Right after she puked we found Pluto, so we got a photo. At least she managed to look happy! She felt poorly for the next couple of hours and didn't ride any rides, but then she recovered and was fine for the rest of the week, luckily!

The kids taught Colby the art of putting your hands up on every ride possible, and he had a blast! He was about 1/2 inch too short to try the big rides, but he loved all the rides he COULD do!

Andy doesn't love to get wet, so he skipped the river ride, but the rest of us rode it multiple times. Kylee went single-rider so that I could take the two little kids while Andy stayed off with Colby. We got SOAKED multiple times, and Skyler and Ally regretted it when their feet were wet for the rest of the day and their toes cracked from being so pruny...but that didn't stop them from wanting to go again!

At California Adventure we had never done the adventure trail that is near the river ride, so this time we tried it out. The little kids had a blast! Andy and Kylee were off on the Incredicoaster again (which they rode about 100 times).

One time Skyler and Kylee wanted me to go on Splash Mountain with them and they said we were all going to pretend to sleep. In the end I guess Skyler was just too scared to 'sleep'. Poor guy looks terrified!

Our rule is that the kids have to try each ride once and then if they don't love it they don't have to go again. Kylee went on Guardian's of the Galaxy (formerly Tower of Terror) with Andy, and then Skyler and Ally were supposed to go with me. They HATE this ride at Disney World, but they were willing to give it a shot since they haven't done the Disneyland one before. They actually call it "Tower of Terra"...they think it's MY ride! Anyway, they were both trembling like a leaf before we got on, and Skyler found an exit door he wanted to bolt through, but they hung in there. If you look closely at the photo above you can just barely see the tops of their heads on either side of me. They basically clenched their eyes shut and held onto my arms for dear life while ducking their heads down during the entire ride, but they survived! Woot woot!

On Wednesday and Thursday the Sugiyama family joined us at Disneyland and the kids had a blast going on rides with their cousins. We rode Big Thunder more times than we can even count (thanks to Max Passes and Rider Swaps we never even stood in line!).

Our hotel had two Queen beds and a set of bunk beds so everybody got their own spot to sleep with nobody on the floor. Every night when we got back from the park the kids crashed within minutes. They were so worn out!

On Friday we all went to Huntington Beach since it was close to our hotels. The water was colder than I was imagining it would be (I guess I'm used to the Gulf, and I was thinking the Pacific was supposed to be warmer -- but it was NOT!), but we had fun sitting in the sand. The babies kept chasing waves out and then running back in with the waves chasing them. Connie and I were a bit nervous that a big wave was just going to sweep them away, so we made the dads stand down there and be ready to rescue.

Andy felt that a warm beach was a good place to take a little nap after 4 days at Disneyland.

I tried to make a shark out of sand, but I couldn't get the body shape right, so he just turned into a fat fish.

The photo below of the babies makes me laugh. I'm not sure what they were doing, but it's just funny that they both are showing off their diaper bums!

Some of our kids apparently don't know what the word "smile" means...

All in all, it was a super fun trip and the kids are already asking when we can go again. It snowed in Idaho while we were gone, and the weather was really cold, so I was glad to get a week of warm sunshine again! Someday I just might have to retire to Florida where the weather is warm year-round.

Quick Trip to Utah

Andy left Carlsbad on Saturday, September 28, and the plan was for him to arrive around 6pm on Sunday. My friend Kristen was blessing her baby in Orem on the 29th morning, so I decided that the kids and I could make a super quick trip to Utah that weekend and be home before Andy arrived. I picked up Kylee from school on Friday afternoon and we headed down to my mom's house in Spanish Fork. When we were nearly to Pocatello I realized that I forgot to bring contacts for Kylee (she wears daily disposables), but it was too late to turn around. When we got to Spanish Fork we stopped off at Walmart just before their Vision Center closed, and asked if there was a possibility of buying just one box of contacts. Unfortunately, they need a physical copy of your prescription, which I did not have. Luckily the guy there took pity on us and gave us a free sample box that included a case and some solution and said it is not ideal, but would not be the end of the world if she wore the same pair three times. We arrived at grandma's later than planned because of having to stop, but the kids were excited to get to sleep on real beds!

On Saturday the weather claimed it was supposed to be really rainy, but in the morning it looked okay, so we decided to go to Jaker's pumpkin patch for a bit since it was their opening day. Evalina had stayed over on Friday night also, so she came with us. On the drive over there the clouds looked black and menacing really closely in the distance, but luckily they moved a different way and we actually had warm, sunny weather the whole time we were there.

The kiddos LOVED the slides...

...and the tractor ride. I was surprised at how non-crowed it was there. Probably because everybody thought it would rain so they didn't go!

The only bad things about this place were 1) now (three weeks later!) I'm STILL finding corn kernels every time I do laundry. Like maybe there were a bunch in someone's pockets or socks or something, and now they're stuck in every crack and crevice known to man in the washer and/or dryer?!? I don't know. Someday hopefully the corn will all be gone! and 2) I already had pretty bad allergies before we went, and being there made them SOOO bad. I ended up not going to see any other family members I had planned to see that afternoon because my eyes and nose were like faucets. It was insane! I had to stay indoors and hope to recover enough to safely drive to the baby shower and home the next morning.

It was super fun to see Kristen and her cutie baby. He's adorable! I'm so happy for her and Troy.

After the baby blessing we went to Kristen's house for brunch, and then headed directly home so that we could make it before Andy arrived. I was a little worried because there was snow in the forecast, so I hoped that we (and Andy!) would not run into bad roads. Luckily, we were fine. We hit quite a bit of rain on our way home, and we could see snow up a bit higher on some of the mountains, but it didn't snow on us. Andy hit some really nasty winds in Wyoming (he saw a semi that had blown over), but that was the worst of it for him. He actually even arrived a bit earlier than planned, so I was glad we made it home in time!

We unloaded the U-Haul on Monday (during which time it DID snow a little bit), and then spent the next couple of days trying to unpack and organize stuff before we left on our vacation. It was a little crazy since our basement isn't finished yet and we have way too much stuff for the 1400 sq. ft. we have upstairs, but our house has surprisingly decent closet space, so it wasn't as bad as I feared. We moved some of the furniture down to the unfinished basement to await a place down there. We didn't even come close to finishing the unpacking before it was time to leave on our trip, but we made good progress!

Moving to Idaho

We closed on our house in Idaho in the end of August, so Andy and I decided it would be best for the kids and I to go ahead and move up there so they could get started in school. The schools in Ammon started on Aug. 24 but then had a 4-day weekend for Labor Day, so we figured if we headed up that weekend they could start on Tuesday and would only have missed the first four days. When Connie found out we were headed up that weekend, she suggested we come a couple of days early and stop at her house so I could attend a Josh Groban concert with her that she had won tickets to on the radio. Going the Colorado way is only about 45 minutes longer total, and it's actually easier because Connie's house is approximately in the middle, so we decided to go for it. The concert was on Wednesday night, so we packed up and left that morning.

Josh Groban was great! It was a nice night at an outdoor amphitheater and despite a parking snafu that caused us to walk almost a mile to and from our car and climb up a ton of stairs...we had a lovely time! Sugi was nice enough to watch all the kiddos so that Connie and I could go, so that was awesome.

The next day we took the kiddos to Connie's library, and it was so cool! They had lots of things for kids to play with. There was this thing (below) on the wall where you could push a button to turn it on, and it would carry a ball up to the top and then send it down all the obstacles to the bottom. Skyler watched it For.E.Ver. He probably would have stayed there all day.

After a long day of playing, Colby was worn out, and fell asleep on Connie's living room floor!

On Friday Sugi was off work and we went to hike the Castle Rock. We've done this hike before, but it's been awhile. I made Colby walk the whole thing by himself and he did great until the very end. Coming back down he got slower and slower until finally when we were about 2 minutes away from the parking lot he gave up and asked me to carry him.

On Saturday we left to complete our drive to Idaho. Skyler and Colby slept for a good portion of the drive. I'm not sure how it worked out that my girls are always the ones who stay awake and the boys take naps at the drop of a hat!!

The kids started school on the Tuesday after Labor Day. I drove them the first day, but then they rode the bus starting on Day 2. Ally and Skyler go to the same school, and their bus stop is on the corner of our street. We're the second house in, so it's not far at all. However, on the second or third day of bus riding the other family who usually gets off our stop wasn't there, so in the afternoon Skyler missed his stop. When I realized it I called the school and they verified that YES, he was still on the bus. They said after they finished the route they'd swing back around and drop him off. When he arrived, he wasn't even worried! He said he hadn't even known he had missed the stop until the bus driver told him I called. Ah, well. Ally's Kindergarten is only 1/2 day, and the after-school bus drops her off right at our house, so luckily there is no way for her to get lost!

Kylee's bus stop is on the next corner down so it's a little bit more of a walk, but still not far. On her first day riding the bus home she got off at the wrong stop. Luckily I'd had her take her little cell phone that we have for emergencies/babysitting contact, so she called me. She was scared, but I got her to look at some street signs to figure out where she was and then I looked at Google Maps to find out how she could get home. It turned out she had just gotten off a few stops too early so she was about 1/2 mile away. I kept her on the phone and told her where to walk while I walked down to meet her, and it turned out fine.

With all the bigger kids in school Colby and I get to be best pals again this year. Without our stuff, though, it was tough to come up with things to do!

We played UNO about 500 million times in our first couple of weeks until Andy arrived with all the stuff.

Skyler came home from school on his 2nd or 3rd day with this note a girl in his class made. "Welcome to School. We are glad to have you." That's so sweet! Apparently she made it at home and brought it for him.

This is what camping out for a month looks like. Sleeping on the floor and watching t.v. on the computer!!

This one is just a random photo of two cute kiddos ready to leave for church.

Colby made up a new game to play with the UNO cards!

Our basement had some carpet squares leftover from when they re-carpeted the upstairs before we moved in, so the kids rolled them out to play on. They kept asking and asking if they could sleep in the basement, so I said they could do it on Friday night. It's COLD down there since there's no heat, but they really want to give it a try. When Friday night rolled around everyone chickened out except Skyler. I asked him, "Are you SURE you want to sleep down here alone?" (It seems a little creepy to me.) He really did. I think he slept down there Friday and Saturday nights, and then again the following weekend. Crazy kid!

One Saturday we went to the mall because I had some JCPenney and Children's Place rewards I needed to use. It turned out that it was KidZone day at JCPenney, which I had forgotten they even did. The kids got to make silly sunglasses. And yes, they all wore red shirts to match with each other that day on purpose.