The beginning of the best vacation ever... PART 1

We had the most amazing opportunity to take a family vacation to California this year. I have so much to write and tell about that I'll have to do it in 5 different posts- maybe more. :) It all started when my mom received a phone call from an old co-worker/friend. She had a whole week condo timeshare literally 2 blocks away from Disneyland that their family wasn't going to be able to use this year. UM, YES PLEASE. Only problem is that it was the following month. We really thought, pondered and wondered if we could really pull it off. Then we decided it would we dumb of us to NOT take advantage of it. Plus, we're crazy like that. So the planning begun. Its all we thought about for a whole month. We already had a trip planned to go to St. George but we originally had it planned for the week before. Luckily we were able to change things around. Everything just worked out perfectly. I made a countdown calender so the girls would be able to able to understand time better. It was exciting to put a Mickey sticker on each day.
We left in the afternoon on Sunday, October 10th. (10-10-10 cool huh!) Papa Don, Grammy & Dustin met us in Spanish Fork. From there we all crammed into their suburban. ALL 7 OF US! PLUS LUGGAGE!!! Well actually Papa Don had to buy 2 luggage racks so we could fit everything in. I blame it on the wheelchair. Oh, I haven't mentioned that yet??? Let me rewind a second. In that hectic month of planning before the trip, I fell down the stairs at the movie theater and broke my foot- in 2 different places! What a good picture to start with...
Classic Lindsie moment, right?!? I really didn't require a wheelchair but the boot that I had to wear was so big and heavy and considering how much walking we were doing I decided it was best. Plus apparently I'm kind of clumsy. :) SO back to the road trip... Brittany & I made up car activity packets, games, books, treats, and of course plenty of movies for the girls. They were troopers though! That's a long time to be in a car and they both did great the whole time!We arrived in St George just before 10pm and were all pretty exhausted but excited to be there. Thank goodness for Aunt Toot & Uncle Mike. They let us stay in their house again! Its perfect for us! That next day we met Grandpa Paul & Grandma Sandy at Bloomington Park for pizza, play time and fun visiting.

My mom (Grammy) kept awesome notes and printed us all a 6 page journal of the whole trip. She's such a great writer. Every time you see something in itialics in the next couple posts is from her entry. Thanks Momma!!!

Tarzan at Tuacahn... PART 2

Dustin = St George. Even though he doesn't live there anymore he still loves it there! He had been bugging all summer long to get us all back down there. He really wanted all of us to go see Tarzan at Tuacahn. We had heard such great things about it but I was worried that it would be one of those things that you have high expectations for and then get let down. Plus I worried about how a 2 year old would do. I WAS SO WRONG! We all LOVED it!!!
We left for Tuacahn around 4:40; we had make reservations to eat there (Golden Corral catered) before the play. That was a fun idea. We all enjoyed the food, and the preshow entertainment. The weather couldn’t have been better. We were on the second and third rows for the show and words cannot express how much we enjoyed it and how dang good the show was! FABULOUS! Kelsie and Kailee were right into it the whole time. Kels got pretty tired as the night wore on, but she was a trooper! She didn’t really fall asleep until Papa Don carried her out after the play was over. The two of them went to the car, while the rest of us stayed to meet the characters. This was a pretty special time for Kailee. There’s no doubt that her favorite was Kerchek. As he lifted her up for a picture, she planted a kiss right on his lips!! I think we were all kinda in shock, but it was too cute! Arrived back at Toot’s sleepy, but happy and in awe at 11:30 PM.

Brittany, Kailee & KalaBrittany, Kailee & Turk (he was my favorite)
Kailee & Kerchek (he wasn't expecting the kiss either) lol Grammy, Jane, Brittany, Kailee, Tarzan, Lindsie & Dustin
This was during the pre-show entertainment. Kels & Kailee really just wanted to join the kids on stage.





In a future post I'll talk about Kailee's birthday. Grammy gave her dance lessons (which she hasn't started yet). When I asked her about it she informed me that she doesn't need lessons cuz she already knows how to dance. This video is the proof...

Huntington Beach, CA... PART 3

We left St George at 8 am Tuesday morning. That's impressive for us. We all like our sleep especially in the mornings. Plus we got in late the night before. Times that by 7 sleepy people and it truly is a miracle we hit the road so early. The excitement of California was brewing though. We stopped for lunch in Barstow and then hit the road again to Anaheim. We got to the beautiful Dolphins Cove (where we stayed) around 3:30. We spent about an hour checking in and unloading. Then jumped in the car again.
Our maps and GPS told us that Huntington Beach was 14 miles away and I personally couldn’t wait! So we loaded back into the suburban, took Harbor Blvd. to Beach Blvd. and a half hour later we were there! It was a rush for me! Nothing else like that view and the smell of the beach. The sky was cloudy and grey (no surprise for October at the beach), but the ocean was beautiful and waves were big! We parked and walked/ran down to the water. I knew it was especially hard for Linds with her broken foot. Walking through the sand? Ouch. Carrying a two year old? Double ouch. We had a great time there. Dustin, smart in swim trunks, Kailee, Brittany and I couldn’t wait to get wet! The water felt surprisingly warm. Don chose not to get in. Kels was upset over getting sand in her sandals, and wasn’t fond of the water so much, so Linds carried her. At one point Brittany looked around for Kailee, and there she was making snow angels in the sand! Are we from Utah or what? It was fun to watch a couple of wanna be surfers, and Kelsie laughed at the many tiny birds hopping along the shoreline. We stayed there until the sun was pretty much set, although it was too cloudy for a beautiful view. I’m so super glad we went.

Disneyland... PART 4

It was so hard to sleep the night before Disneyland. We were all so excited. Brittany bought the girls matching Belle jammies. Wednesday & Thursday mornings we all got up bright and early. We designed an assembly line to get things moving. I was in charge of waking the girls up and getting them both dressed. Mom & Dustin were in charge of making breakfast and packing lunches and snacks. Brittany was on hair duty and Papa Don was the entertainment. It worked out really well! We got there early and had a blast!!!
The park wasn’t crowded at all, and we went to Fantasyland and rode most of the rides there. Dumbo first, Alice, Teacups, Small World (which Kelsie loved) then Princess Fantasy Faire (waited in long a long time – guess 30-40 min.) then went over to California Adventure to get ready for our Ariel’s Grotto lunch. We had a yummy lunch and got to see lots of princesses there. Kailee danced with Belle. Kels ate 24 dozen strawberries. Other rides, not in any order were: Nemo’s Submarine, Matterhorn, Soarin Over California, Splash Mountain, Gadgets Go Coaster, Pooh Bear ride, Tower of Terror (Brittany and Dustin), Indiana Jones, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Peter Pan. We also watched the Disney Playhouse show, World of Color, Minnie Mouse house, Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell, Muppets 3D, Celebrate-A Street Party. We met Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Tigger, Pooh and Eyore. No, we didn’t do all this in one day, but we did make it in two! Wednesday was and Early Entry day and WE DID IT! We were at the park between 6:30 and 7:00. It was so great and I was really proud of our family! We stayed until 9:00 the first day and until 9:30 the second. We ate breakfast at the condo and packed sandwiches for lunch. I think Dustin (and the rest of the family) had two dozen churros there – yum. It truly is a magical place and we loved every minute of it. Before we left the park, the girls needed to get their Minnie ears-hat complete with names and dates. The embroidery machine kept breaking on poor Kailee’s hat; I think they had to use three hats before they got it right! When they had Lindsie write down the name she wanted on hers, she put KELSINATOR on the paper. The girls said, “Sorry, only real, proper names.” So Linds just told her Kelsinator IS her REAL name! HA. That’ll teach em. The girls looked so cute in their ears, but man were they tired. We all were. I didn’t know if we could make it one more day, but the next day, Friday, we had a fun new adventure!

I'm pretty sure I took over 200 pictures those 2 days. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Minnie's house:
This was the first ride we went on. Put your hands up if you love Dumbo!!!Kailee has always loved Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Luckily enough she was the first princess we saw there. This picture is priceless...Kelsie likes all the princess movies so I thought she would be so excited to see them in real life. WRONG!!! She got so shy and hid her head in my shoulder every time they would try to talk to her. Silly girl!!!This was right after the princess fantasy faire on the first day. We hadn't even been at the park for 4 hours yet and they were both exhausted! While they slept, Brittany pulled out their surprise. She bought the Kelsie the Snow White shoes and Kailee got Cinderella's glass slippers. We ate lunch at Ariel's Grotto. It was delicious and fun because the girls got more one-on-one time with all the princesses. Obviously Kelsie was still not so thrilled...And then we saw Mickey!!!

Kels might not have like the princesses but Mickey was a whole other story. She ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug. It melted my heart!!! Then she liked Pooh too...This picture cracks me up because none of us planned it. My mom said cheese and this is what we did. Awesome.This was on Gadgets Go Coaster. I love Kelsie's face. You can tell she's a little scared. Maybe its because earlier I took her on the Matterhorn. It might have been too much. She didn't cry but towards the end she started screaming "I done, I done"!!!Oh, the castle...Kels even loved Goofy too! Honestly...

Sea World... PART 5

Friday we went to Sea World. I LOVE it there! I get emotional every time I see the whales. They are SO amazing! I wish I could swim with one. HAHA

It was an ‘overcasty’ day and a bit rainy, but we were pretty excited to go to Sea World. We did see lots of shows, the Sea Otters (w/Clyde), the Dolphins, Pets Rule, Shark Encounter, fed Dolphins, went on the famous Journey to Atlantis ride (it was my first time – it’s a dang fun ride), and of course the grand finale – Shamu. Poor Kelsie got so tired in the afternoon, and she fell asleep before we saw Shamu. Linds really tried her best to wake her up, but she was zonked. Poor thing missed the whale show. But the show was great. The girls each came away with a couple of stuffed animals – Shamu whales and dolphins! We traveled back to Anaheim after closing, and arrived about 9:30 that night. I think we were all glad we went, but were pretty tired!

Kailee said "I touched a rubber dolphin and fed him some slimy fish".

Even Papa Don got in on the action! :)

Kelsie wouldn't pet the dolphin. When I got home and told Larry about it he said "Good thing! That dolphin could have eaten her arm off." I don't think I've ever laughed so hard!

But she did love watching these. I forget what they are called. Some kind of dolphin. She kept calling them whales though...

Kelsie would have LOVED the Shamu show. I really did try to wake her up. :( Oh well, I guess I loved it enough for the both of us!

Saturday:

We packed up the next morning, checked out, took some pics by the pool and left Dolphin’s Cove around noon. We decided to stop at the Disney outlet store in Vegas for some last minute souvenirs! Then we went on to St. George where we stayed at Mike and Toots place again, then on to Spanish Fork the next day, where we parted ways. Brittany’s car was at the Western Ag branch, and we traded out the car seats and luggage, and went to our homes. We were surprised that the trip on the way home really didn’t feel that long. Especially from St. George to home. What a fantastic week!!!

I think by this time the girls were both SICK and TIRED of getting their pictures taken... We really did have an AMAZING/AWESOME/INCREDIBLY FUN vacation. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to go and for my mom and dad for making it happen!!