Our Vacation: The rest

After Disneyland, we spent the rest of the week hanging out at the resort & going to the beach! The kids loved playing in the much warmer ocean than the Oregon Coast!

Ryan was lucky enough to go to Disneyland for a second day. When my mom, sister & her family were going, my dad was sick and decided not to go, so GranDee invited Ryan to go. He loved going again, but didn't like many of the rides! We've got to work on that!!!!

We had a great time on vacation & the boys were awesome. They even did a great job in the car both to & from California. Overall it was a great trip, but after 10 days we were ready to come home!


The kids playing at the beach.

Dylan (our nephew) looking

Vacation: Day 5

DISNEYLAND, the best day of our trip!

WARNING: This may be a long post with LOTS of pictures; you have been warned!

Neither Matt nor I have been in a very very long time & we were excited to go. Both the boys were excited to go. In fact, for the past several days, anytime we got in the car he asked if we were going to Disneyland.

We thought it would be fun to go with Nicole, Curtis & their boy, that way the boys would have another little friend to play with all day.

The morning started off with breakfast at the hotel Nicole was staying at. Afterward, we drove to Disneyland. There were very few cars there, & we got really excited. After getting all the goods we would need for the day we started our adventures.

First stop, the parking lot tram. Nicole's boy loved this. She said he would ride it all day if they would let him. Ryan enjoyed it, & Nathan put up with it!

We decided it was silly to make the boys stand in line while Matt bought our tickets to Disneyland, so Nicole & I took the boys over to the entrance of California Adventure & took their pictures with each of the giant letters in "CALIFORNIA". It sprinkled a few times off & on while we did this, but the boys didn't seem to mind at all.


Just as we went into our first ride, it started to rain. That seemed to be the curse for the morning. It rained off & on all morning. But it didn't stop up from having fun!

The first ride of the day, Buzz Lightyear. We walked in & Ryan thought it was cool to see a life size Buzz. Once we were on the ride, neither child liked it too much. It was quite noisy, which scares Nathan. Why Ryan didn't like it...who knows!

Next was Star Tours. Nicole stayed with the two little ones, while Curtis, Matt, Ryan & I went on the ride. The closer we got to the ride, the more scared Ryan became. We were going to have him sit on my lap, but alas, the rules stated otherwise. So Ryan sat between Matt & I with white knuckles for the whole ride. He said it really didn't like it, but it couldn't stop talking about it ALL day.

We soon discovered that any ride we took Nathan on, he didn't like. We figure between the noise and the dark, not to mention he has never been on any rides before, he hated just about everything we went on.

I think Ryan's favorite rides were, The Finding Nemo Submarine, Winnie the Pooh & Alice in Wonderland. As for Nathan is favorite part was seeing the different characters. Unfortunately do to the weather, we didn't get to see too many, and it was all in the afternoon after the rain had stopped.



It was great going with some friends that have a little boy that couldn't go on the rides either, so we would take turn watching the kids and going on the rides.

Can you believe that neither boy liked Pirates of the Carribean, despite liking the movie? The only thing Ryan didn't like were the drops at the beginning of the ride.

The best part of the day was when we finally go to see Mickey Mouse! For those of you that don't know, Mickey is Nathan's favorite character in the whole world. He has 5 different plush ones at home, plus a blanket & 3 shirts that are all Mickey. All day, Nathan wanted to see Mickey. We finally got to see him after a little bit of a wait. When we got into Mickey's stage, (he was filming the Sorcer's Apprentice), we were the first ones to get to see him. Matt put Nathan on the floor & off he ran to give Mickey a huge hug. I was shooting a ton of pictures from one angle as Nicole was shooting from another angle. Nathan got to spend several minutes with Mickey & the ushers were really nice to let him spend as much time with Mickey as he wanted. Just seeing his face when he got to see Mickey was worth all the tears and "I'm Scared" on every ride.




We also got to see Minnie, Pluto, Tigger, & Goofy. Later in the day we were able to see four of the Disney Princesses, Auroa, Cinderella, Ariel, & Belle. Ryan would have nothing to do with the princesses, but Nathan loved them.


As the day drew to a close Matt & I went on the new Indiana Jones Ride while Nicole & Curtis watched the boys. When we got done we switched places with them. While Nicole & Curtis when on the ride, Matt took our boys to go on Alice in Wonderland. They loved it! It seemed like forever before Nicole & Curtis came back. Low & behold, they got stuck on the ride for 10 minutes! Apparently a few other people on the ride with them go stuck on the same ride for 30 minutes last time they rode it! Hmm...glad that wasn't us!

We got front row seats to see "Fantasmik" thanks to Nicole & Curtis. We were a little nervous about the noise for the boys, but we had borrowed "earphones" from our friends in Vegas. Matt decided to take Nathan farther back so he wouldn't be so scared. After the show, Matt said that Nathan fell asleep 2 minutes before it started & he slept through the whole thing.

We ended the day with a ride on "Thunder Mountain Railroad" and a visit to the souveniour shop. Nathan got a Mickey Mouse ball, Matt a Mickey Mouse Tie, Mom a Mickey Mouse bag & Ryan, despite his severe dislike for Star Tours, got the Transporter toy that you sit in during the ride!

After a long & tiring day, we headed back to the resort at 10:15pm or so. We were not even out of the parking lot and Ryan was asleep. Not much later, Nathan followed suit.

We had a great time and would have loved to go back a second day, but it is way to expensive, so we'll settle for another day in a few years!

Vacation: Day 4

Day 4 of our vacation was on Sunday. We decided to go to church in the morning & hang out the rest of the day.

As we drove to church, which was only a few miles from the resort we stayed at, we noticed a statue of the Angel Moroni that seemed to be getting closer & closer. We soon realized that there was a temple in Newport Beach. We were excited to see the temple & show it to the boys. It is a small temple, but was gorgeous.

After church, we just hung out, played games & spent time with the family. Our good friends, Nicole & Curtis (who also happen to live a few doors down from us), were also down by Disneyland for a few days, so we had them over for dinner Sunday night. It was fun to see them, & to watch their boy be so excited to play with all the kids.

One thing happened that night that was funny. Nicole & I are visiting teaching companions & we hadn't reported our visits for January before either family left for CA. Sunday night, Nicole gets a call on his cell phone & it is our VT supervisor. She had asked to talk to Nicole & Curtis as he handed the phone to Nicole he told her he thought it was our VT supervisor. After Nicole hung up, Curtis made the comment that our VT supervisor could have talked to either of us. We thought it as pretty funny, that both Nicole & I were out of town, but she could have talked to either of us, because we were in the same room.

Our Vacation: Days 1-3

Las Vegas, our first stop. We decided not to subject the boys, nor ourselves to the hideous 10-11 hour drive from home to Newport Beach in one day. Luckily we have some friends that live in Las Vegas, that more more than happy to lend us a bed for a few nights. We arrived in Vegas around 4:30pm at our friends Kenny & Melissa's home. I went to high school with Kenny & he was one of my best friends. In fact, had it not been for him & my other 4 friends, all guys, I would have hated my junior & senior years of high school.

After our long drive, the boys were more than ready to get out of the car and play. Kenny & Melissa have two boys that are roughly the same age as ours, so it was great. The boys played really well together, which allowed the adults to catch up & for Matt to get to know Kenny & Melissa.

Unfortunately, both Kenny & Melissa had to work on Friday, so we watched their youngest, Kale, for the day. The boys had a blast together. We took them to a park & let them run hog wild. After that, they all took a much needed nap. In the evening we went to a church event with them & then Kenny & Kale took us to the strip to see the water show & atrium at the Belagio.

Now, if any of you now Nathan, you know he is terrified of loud noises...lucky for us, Kenny had some headphone that he for his boys & let us borrow them.



They worked wonders for Ryan, but Nathan still hated the show & cried through the entire thing. We think it was due to the sudden movement of the water shooting up into the air. Matt ended up holding both boys during the second water show, because they both needed dad...and mom would not do!




Kenny has always been the crazy one of us from high school. His boys are following right in their dad's footsteps. In order to keep Kale from running off,...which he likes to do...like his dad, Kenny put a leash around his waist. Ryan kept asking for one too, but instead he settled for pulling Kale around & keeping Kale from wandering off.



In between the two shows we went inside the atrium. The display was an oriental theme. It was amazing to see the neat things that were done with plants as well as seeing some very interesting flowers.


Kenny, Kale & the Kelley
boys in the Belagio atrium in
front of a water buffalo made
from plants.


This statue welcomed us into the atrium.



I've never been to France, but I can say I've seen the Eiffel Tower, Las Vegas style!

The next day, Saturday, Kenny got called into work before we had woken up. So we spent the morning with Melissa & the boys. After a yummy lunch with Melissa & the boys & in the pouring rain, we set out once again on the road to California.

We Made it...

Home that is. We are finally back from our 10 day vacation. It was a bunch of fun. I will write more later...we have a crazy week in front of us, and I have to clean after being gone. So until a later date... hopefully soon, this will have to satisfy your curiosity.

Vaction here we are!

Well, I won't post for a while...we are on a much needed vacation! Currently we are in Vegas at one of my high-school buddies & are getting ready to go to California for a week!

Our last few weeks have been crazy. Ryan turned 5!!!! Christa has been sick for 2 weeks, & we are refinancing the house. Needless to say we have been crazy busy!

We are taking the boys to Disneyland on Monday, & they are really excited.

I will post pics from our adventures when we get home. But now this, it will be a long, yet fun post.

See ya soon!

Update...Finally

My name is Christa & I am a blog slacker! I have tell me to update the blog...so here it is. It may be a long post, it has been a month you know! Consider yourself warned!

December has been a month filled with fun & adventures. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we started our Christmas decorating. The boys had a ton of fun helping out this year, putting the ornaments on the tree. Each morning when the boys got up the first thing they did was turn on the tree. So we enjoyed our tree fully (day in & day out).

A week before Christmas the boys & I went grocery shopping with GranDee & Papa for all the food for Christmas that we would need. We went to Costco in Sandy, & ran into some people from California that my parents knew. As we were chatting with them, Ryan & Nathan were playing. Ryan was sitting in the cart & Nathan would have nothing to do with the cart. Anyway, Nathan was putting his head between Ryan's feet. At some point Nathan fell & had a fight with the shopping cart. I hate to admit it, but the shopping cart won, & Nathan had a good big black eye for the next week and a half!

This was the year for all my siblings & their families to have Christmas with us. We did Christmas Eve at our house & had a lot of fun. Christmas was then spent at my sister's house. We didn't have to worry about a white Christmas this year. The two weeks leading up to Christmas it snowed & snowed & snowed. It even snowed Christmas day! We spent the day playing games & the Wii at my sister's in Riverton. Around 3:30, we started thinking about dinner when all of a sudden the power went out. We had no power for 4 hours! My handy brother-in-law rigged up his generator so that we had light in the kithcen. We only used that for 30 minutes or so, before the power was back on.

Due to the weather, we decided to spend the night in Riverton. The next day we spent sledding, & playing more games. Oh, I forgot to mention my birthday. It was great! I got a Wii Fit from my family! What a great surprise.

New Years was again spent at my sister's house. We ate, played & watched a movie. Even my cute kids stayed up unitl midnight! Nathan got scared by the fog horn my brother-in-law set off & it took Matt a good 45 minutes to calm him down. Of course our kids were up by 8am!

We have spent the past few weeks working on re-fianancing the house. The rates are down & we figured we wold see what we could get.

One of the things Matt & I got for Christmas was season tickets to the Hale Center Theater in West Valley. We got them from my parents. Well last week was the first play, "Cash on Delivery". It is a great comedy & clean! It was a blast. We are looking forward to seeing many more plays this year with my parents.

Ryan will be five next week! I can't believe it! So we will be celebrating that & then the following week, we leave for California & Disneyland!

A Natural

Today, after we had several inches of snow fall & since I was feeling much better after being sick all week, I took Ryan & we went outside to try his skis for the first time. He has "skated" through the house with them on several times, but never on the snow before.

I must admit, I was a bit nervous, since he is my cautious child & often doesn't like to try new things. Much to my surprise, he is a natural. I had him walk on our grass & down our driveway. He did a great job, so we moved to a bit steeper driveway next door, (thanks Amanda!). He did great down that, so we moved to another driveway across the street from us that has an even steeper driveway. He went down like a pro.! I will post pictures later...but watch out skiers here come Ryan!