Disneyland

We had an AMAZING time at Disneyland.  It was worth every penny.  We got 3-day park hopper passes and were there from opening until closing every day.  We even went to Mickey's Halloween party on Tuesday night.  On Tuesday we were at Disneyland for 16 hours.  Over the course of 3 days we spent 38 hours at Disneyland!  The kids were troopers.  They had so much fun.  They have been begging to go back since we got home.  The other day Connor told me he wanted a toy for Christmas that cost $100.  I told him how the toy wouldn't last and would probably break and that it was expensive.  I suggested we take that amount of money and instead of spending it on a toy, we save it for our next trip to Disneyland.  He said, "REALLY?!  We can do that?!!"  :).

The Beach

I really need to get the rest of our trip blogged!  Here are a few photos of us at the beach in San Diego.  We went to La Jolla Shores and my favorite beach La Jolla Cove where there are seals and tide pools to explore.  We had a lot of fun even though it was overcast and the water was cold.

The Mormon Batallion

While in San Diego we went to the Mormon Batallion Museum.  They have totally redone it since I was a kid.  It is really nice and has a bunch of fun hands-on exhibits for the kids.  We were anxious to go there because Trent has an ancestor that was in the Mormon Batallion and we were excited to see if we could find out more about him.  We learned that he had donated ten dollars for a cannon they had displayed at the museum (the picture is below).  After the museum we walked around some of the fun shops in Old Town. 

Legoland

We weren't going to go to Legoland.  I heard that it wasn't that great and wasn't worth the money.  We know someone that lives near Legoland and she was selling some tickets she had for really cheap, so we decided we would try it out.  I am so glad we did.  We went from when it opened until closing time.  Our tickets also included the aquarium there which was pretty fun.

Below:
When we first saw this Lego family we thought they were a real family.  It was amazing to see all the things they made out of Legos.

Vacation!

We had such a great time on our vacation. The kids keep asking when we are going back. I'd love to go again. Everything went really well. We went on the trip with Trent's mom and our nephew Jake. My parents and my brother and his cute family met up with us later on in the trip. When planning this trip I really wanted to fly. With my skymiles rewards I had a buy one get one free flight. I watched the prices on tickets and was able to get tickets for a great price and got one flight free.

About an hour before we were suppose to leave for the airport the airlines called and offered us delta flight credit if we would take a flight the next day because the flight was overbooked. It was a little more then what I had spent on the tickets to begin with. I wanted to do it, but Trent pointed out that we already had a hotel for the night and our rental car booked and he wondered how the excited kids would take the news that were weren't going to leave until the next day.

When we got to the airport they were still overbooked and were offering more money in flight credits. It ended up that we got involuntarily bumped off the flight. Instead of giving us flight credits they wrote us out a check for more than double what I paid in tickets, shuttled us to a hotel in Salt Lake for the night, gave us toiletry bags with everything we needed including t-shirts and gave us $12 each in meal vouchers that we really didn't need because the hotel offered free breakfast. We let the kids spend their vouchers on whatever junk they wanted in the hotel gift shop. They thought it was pretty funny that they could buy all this stuff and we weren't saying "no". They didn't care that we were in Salt Lake and not in California. As long as we were in a hotel it didn't matter to them. It worked out awesome. They flew us to a better airport and we ended up getting a cheaper deal on the rental car and a bigger car. It was so fun. We are saving the money we earned for the next trip. I am so pathetic I can't wait for the next trip and we just got home less than a month ago. I've got the travel bug pretty bad.Owie enjoying the flight

We went to the San Diego Zoo. (Notice Leah strangling Owen?)

Yes we are one of those parents that puts their kids on a leash. If you know Owen you know that it is for his safety and our sanity. It worked out really well. I bought for the trip.

The Fam

Big 5

My beautiful little girl is 5 today!!!! I told her we were going to have to freeze her so she couldn't grow up anymore. Connor informed me that if I did that we wouldn't be able to go on our upcoming vacation. I guess I have to let her turn 5. We are so glad Leah is in our family and can't believe she is already 5. This is her version of smiling for the camera.

Holding hands with her big brother.

She has never been opposed to any messes. In fact I think she thinks it's fun.

"Baby Leah" the day she came home from the hospital.

Bye Bye Crib!

Here is a picture of Connor when he was Owen's age. He got into some vaseline and put it all over his hair and his bed.
You see the crib in the background? That crib was bought by my parents when they were expecting their first baby. It was used by all six of their children. When I was expecting Connor they said I could use it. It was a little beat up from six kids. I painted it white, had all the hardware chromed and bought a new crib mattress. All three of my kids have used it. That little crib has been through 9 kids so far! It is a special crib.

Owen being the explorer that he is, figured out how to climb out of the crib. The problem with that was that he didn't know how to get back in it when he was ready to fall asleep. We would find him in some funny situations asleep. One night I found him asleep on the wood floor, using the rug as a blanket.

This picture is one of my favorite ways I found him when he was suppose to be taking a nap. He had put on Leah's flower rain boots and was alseep standing up with his head on Leah's bed.

So you can see it was time to pack up the crib and put this little guy in a big boy bed :).

*Both of these pictures make my house look so messy! I swear it is clean today! :)

Broken Arm

Connor fell off the monkey bars at school and broke his arm. The orthopedic doctor said it was broken in two places. We feel pretty bad because we were unsure if it was broken and he didn't see a doctor until that night. I should've known when the first thing he wanted to do when he got home was to lay down with a blanket and then he wouldn't eat dinner because he thought he was gowing to throw up.

Here are the good and bad of breaking his arm:

Cons:
-It hurt.
-He can't ride his bike or play basketball.
-It takes longer to do things that use his hands.
-It is going to cost his parents some $.

Pros:
-He only has to wear the cast for 3 weeks.
-The cast is waterproof. He can even swim in it!
-His friends can sign it.
-He can easily earn rewards at school for wearing red on Fridays because of his cast color.

Princess Bike

Leah bought a cute little princess bike from her friend for $5. She was so excited about it and she begged us to teach her how to ride a bike. For Family Home Evening we headed to the nearby school. She didn't need very much help and was quite a natural. She was determined to learn and didn't get frustrated at all. She took off pretty quickly. The only thing she really needs to practice is how to brake :).

I love watching my kids learn something new like riding a bike or learning to swim. Leah sure is growing up! She starts Preschool tomorrow and she is very excited about it. She even laid out her outfit before she went to bed.

11 years on the 11th of 2011

Trent and I just celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. For our tenth anniversary we had big plans to go to Europe together. We had saved up enough frequent flier miles to go, but it didn't work out. Maybe some day. This year we talked about going somewhere in the states for a long weekend, but we decided on a cheaper option: a fun night in Park City!

We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria. It was AMAZING! Seriously. It was worth the splurge. I was excited to find out they would give me a cheaper rate than the lowest I found and free breakfast (We got eggs benedict and beignets. It was delicious!) It never hurts to call and see what you can negotiate :).

It was a fancy hotel with amazing service. Right when we got there they valeted (sp?) our car and when we got inside they offered us some bottled water while we checked in. They asked if they could make dinner reservations for us. They told them it was our anniversary and we got free dessert. They drove us in to main street for our dinner. It was a fun night.

It was nice we had people to watch our little ones while we enjoyed 24 hours of peace :). We are glad they had so much fun with family while we were gone. Trent and I have been married for eleven years now. Time flies.


I didn't bring my camera. I only think to bring it to take pictures of the kids. Here are a couple of photos from the web:

The Lobby
The Pool

You've had a Birthday! Shout Hooray!

Connor had a birthday this last weekend. Mix that with Pioneer Day celebrations and it turned into a birthday extravaganza weekend. The events included eating out, bowling, a parade, Ogden Treehouse Museum, Birthday party at Grandma's, fireworks, swimming and going to the Pioneer Museum. It almost felt like a vacation which was very nice.

Connor opening his presents

Kids bowl two free games every week so that made it more fun for the parents :).
Connor working on getting a strike

Connor's Aunt made him a really cool Star Wars quilt and matching body pillow. He LOVES it and so does Owen. He keeps taking it from Connor's room. This picture is of Connor after I showed him how I used to swaddle him when he was a baby. We used to call him our "Connor Asada" when he was all wrapped up like a burrito. It's hard to believe how fast those seven years have gone.

The Pioneer Museum was really neat and they had a bunch of activities going on to celebrate Pioneer Day. There was a lot to see there. (Notice Owen just sitting there? That is rare behavior that just HAD to be documented. He is usually always on the move.)