Trip to California

We had a great trip to California. It seemed fast but it was more like a vacation since my mom and Maria kept the kids most of the time. The flight there was awesome. Lily sat with Jeff and was entertained the whole time and Ryan slept, which was wonderful. 

 He did get wake up for the landing and was excited to look out the window. 

The first night the kids were exhausted but they did pretty well at the Country Club for dinner. They never get juice so this was the highlight of the day for them.

Lily was so tired she had to rest under the table until we were ready to leave. 

And Ryan found a new friend: a doll that wasn't Lily's so she wasn't trying to take it away from him. 

We took Lily to Disneyland while Ryan stayed with my mom and Maria. Lily got to meet all her character friends (Winnie the pooh, tigger, mickey, Minnie, eeyore, and goofy, Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel). She wasn’t scared of any of them, just a little shy. But she wanted to give them all hugs and was very sweet. We had breakfast with the characters and then waited in line to see princesses so then we could enjoy the rest of the day knowing we had at least seen who she wanted to see. And then we still ended up seeing characters so she got lots of time with them.

Got out the door early, Lily was still tired, but she loved the neck pillow....came in handy for keeping her head warm. 

Breakfast with the characters, a GREAT way to start our day!

We saw Minnie just as we were leaving breakfast, Lily was in heaven. 

Lily had no fear and was excited to ride with her daddy.

 Waiting to see Rapunzel. We didn't realize it was supposed to be a comedy act with no singing by Rapunzel or Flynn (the singing was only done by the narrators), but after we got over that we could enjoy it for what it was and laugh.

Lily's friend she made in line, they were best buds.

So excited to meet her princesses, Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel.

 Her favorite rides were the carousel and the roller coaster in toon town. I thought she’d be scared but she loved being up high and going fast. She did NOT like rides that were in the dark, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Winnie the Pooh.  Pinocchio is just weird and even Winnie the Pooh has the weird heffalumps so I don’t quite get it.

 Lily was a little cold in the theater, but luckily she had daddy to keep her warm. This was a great show. Very professionally done with wonderful singing and dancing. 

 Mulan and Pocahontas

Lily was so excited about all the bubbles in the air

 Giant bubble dancers....weird yet cool.

Tiana

The best part for Lily was gathering all the streamers that fell from the ceiling. She couldn't help herself and had to pick up every one she saw on the ground. She'll either be a great groundskeeper or a hoarder someday.

Very happy with her collection. 

Meeting some more friends. 

 The Tarzan tree involves a lot of walking, probably not a favorite for a preschooler. 

 Great vaudeville type show of Beauty and the Beast. The narrators (two men) took on all the other parts besides Belle and were very funny with their lines and singing. 

Gaston has muscles made of melons. 

Lily is yelling "fie!" to Gaston.

 At the parade, it got cold!

 A nice family let Lily sit on the bench with them. 

The only souvenir Lily wanted were two ornaments, a Minnie Mouse, and Mouse ears that had a Mary Poppins theme. They now hang on our tree.

The next day Jeff and I had the ultrasound (Lily came too and her favorite part was talking on the office phone....and.....it's a boy and he has Jeff lips!!!), 

and then we were off for a kid free 24 hours. We visited Bryce and Becca Porter in Mission Viejo so that was a fun visit and Mission Viejo is very nice. We then went to our hotel, which was the Queen Mary, which is a big boat. 

It was a fun experience and is apparently haunted. We didn’t have any sightings, but it just had a haunted look to it. There was an ice sculpture and sledding nearby which was fun to do and we went to dinner at a nice restaurant in Long Beach.

I don't know how many times Jeff slid down, but it was a lot. 

Jeff went ice skating and tried to use the penguin so he wouldn't fall. He was told very sternly that those are only for little kids. 

View at breakfast.

Saturday we hung out at home for a bit then went to my friend Liz Chambers’ wedding reception

 and then the Valencia Stake Christmas Program. Nathan was in charge of media, Kirby Heyborne, narrates, and Richard Rich is the music coordinator. It was excellent and Jeff said the best he has heard. It brought a great spirit and would be such a wonderful missionary even to invite people to. Afterward we got to go to dinner with Nathan which was so much fun since we never get to talk with him. It was a very nice evening.

Meanwhile the Woodruffs were very helpful with kids since my parent’s ward Christmas party was that same night and Papa played Santa. I felt like we had so much together time on that trip that it really was like a vacation and it was in sunny CA so it was the perfect trip. And Maria was so helpful and even stayed the night while we were on the queen mary because my mom had some meat stuck and spent 3 ½ hours at Dr. Jack’s getting adjusted. It finally went down the night before we left. She never complained and had our kids the whole time so she was amazing.

Lily is doing her favorite thing, painting, while Granny Dot does her hair. 

My dad dressed up as Santa at the house so we could see Lily and Ryan’s reaction. They seemed okay at first but then didn’t love the idea. After my dad went upstairs Lily said, “Santa is Papa.” She wasn’t fooled.

The flight home was a bit of a nightmare, but the flight going out was perfect so I guess you can’t have it both ways.