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.