California - Day 5

Megan getting Flicks autograph in California Adventure park.

The Steenblik's with Flick.  I think Megan was fascinated by him.  They all liked getting his autograph, even Tyler.

Tony and Allie on the caterpillar ride.  She liked going on rides.

Josh and Tyler on the caterpillar ride.  I made Tyler ride with Josh, he he.

Josh and Tony bumping cars.

Tyler bumping cars all by himself.

Megan waiting for me to get in the bumper car so we could start bumping other cars.

Mom, Megan, Josh, and Tyler (and Nate and Landon photo bombing us) ready for my favorite ride, Woody's roundup.

Josh, Megan, and Tyler getting Pluto's autograph.

Josh, Tyler, Megan, and Pluto.

Now all of us with Pluto.  Well, no Tony.  He was on a Soarin' Over California when we saw Pluto.

We finished the night in Radiator Springs.  While the bigger kids and adults were riding the Cars ride Lydia and Megan were helping Mader clean his headlights.  They are so cute!

California - Day 4

Tyler at the Manta Ray pool.  He really liked petting them and did a good job.

Josh at the Manta Ray pool.  We even came back later this day and Josh played in the pool for like a half an hour and got his jacket all wet.  It smelt like fish.  Good thing I plan to do laundry.

Daddy and Allie at the Manta Ray pool.  She liked petting them too.

Tony showing the kids how to touch and feed the manta ray correctly.  Tyler was the only one who wanted to try and feed them and he did a good job.  Lots came over to eat his food.

Tyler's doing it!

Josh is doing it too!

Megan is almost as big as an adult female manta ray.

Megan and Josh watching the dolphins swim around.

Tyler, Allie, and Tony watching the dolphins swim and play with a ball.

Megan and I like to watch the Dolphin too.

Allie really liked watching the dolphin play with his ball.  He kept hitting it out to people.  It was really fun to watch.

Allie liked all the fishes and watching them swim around.

California - Day 3

Tony waiting for the train to come.

Josh is also waiting for the train, should be fun.

Allie is happy to be out of the stroller and to have a bottle.  She was supposed to go to sleep on the train, but she did not.  It was too much fun to sleep.

Tyler, Brennen, and Matt waiting for the train.  They look super excited.

Cortnie, Megan, and Gabe waiting for the train.  Gabe actually looks excited.

Grandma and Grandpa having a little too much fun by the train.

Our whole Steenblik group.  Probably can't see everyone, but they are all there.  So much fun!

Awe, the kids trying to pull out the sword in the stone.  You gotta try every time you go to Disneyland, it's tradition!

Better luck next time kids, keep on trying.

Josh is so cute on his horse.

There's Tyler.

Allie, Tony, and Megan on the horse.  One of Megan's favorite rides.

Allie really liked sitting on her own horse.  She's getting too big.

Matt, Lydia, Josh, Megan, and Tyler all in dumbo.  He's fun to play in while you wait for the train ride.

Tyler, Josh, Cora, Amy, Nate, Matt and Lydia - a bunch of monkeys in their cage.

Mom and Megan on the train ride.

Allie relaxing with Daddy on the train ride.  Nice and smooth ride.

Megan is having so much fun at Disneyland.  She LOVES it!

California - Day 2

Today has been more of a laid back day.  The kids all woke up pretty early, so we decided to get ready and go down for breakfast.  It didn't officially start until 7:00 am, so we had to wait a few minutes to get the hot food.
After breakfast we went back to our room where we let the kids play until it was time to get ready for church.  I forgot to bring my church clothes, so we decided to have me stay back at the hotel with Allie while the rest of the family went to church.  It was a good play because Allie went to sleep and took a really good nap while they were all at church.
She was still asleep when they got back so we all just hung out playing games and watching a show.  Allie woke up to us eating some popcorn and quickly joined in.  She sure loves popcorn.  The others went to Disneyland to pick up the tickets for tomorrow so while they were out we headed to the store to pick up some more of the things that I forgot to bring, i.e. toothbrushes for the kids.
After that we came back to the hotel and waited some more for the others.  We decided to just meet them over at the fair ground where they were having a swap meat.  It wasn't far from the hotel and we got there fast.  After parking we were off to join the others and start looking for some sweet deals.
The kids all got hats, except Allie because she kept taking them off her head.  Tony got some t-shirts, sun glasses, and a new wedding ring (his is a little small for him).  Grandma bought Tyler, Brennen, and Gabe skateboards as part of their Christmas presents.  They were very excited about them.

After all the shopping we just had to stop at Costco.  We bought a couple more snacks, you never can have too many, and then went back to the hotel where Nate and Amy's family had arrived.  The kids were so excited to see each other, it was adorable!
The hotel had some nachos, cheese, and fruit out for people so we ate some of that before having some subway sandwiches for dinner.  We just ate in our hotel rooms so we wouldn't have to go out for the night.

After we ate the kids just played in our room and watched a show.  Then I bathed the kids and we put them to bed.  Allie fell asleep first and then Megan.  Tyler and Josh were resistant about going to bed, claiming to not be tired.  But they have finally gone to sleep now.  Tomorrow we go to Disneyland and we are going to be so tired and our feet are going to really hurt, but man are we going to have fun. 

California - Day 1

We left our house early this morning to start this exciting journey to California.  We had the car all packed and woke up the kids and headed out.
Koda was already at the Kunzler's house so we didn't need to worry about him.  We are so lucky to have such amazing neighbors, though I fear we may have a hard time getting our dog back after this vacation.
We met up with Tony's parents and Tim and Suzanne's family in St. George at Nana's house.  We visited for about an hour and then headed back on the road.  We sure do love Nana.

We then drove to Las Vegas where we got gas and lunch.  After that fun we were back at it.  It was about then that Allie had enough time in the car and started crying/screaming off and on until we got to our hotel in California.  The other kids did really good.  Even Megan did good, much better then 3 months ago when we went to Oregon.

We checked into our nice room and got all our stuff brought up and put away.  They had some nachos and chips out for the guest, so we had some of that before it was pool time.  I forgot to bring swim diapers, but I lucked out and found that I had one in the car.  Good for me that I like to be prepared - usually.  So we all went swimming together.  The pool was a little chilly, but not too bad.  The kids all loved it and had no problem hopping right in and having tons of fun.  One bummer thing was that Megan and Tyler both cut them selves in the pool somewhere so we had to deal with that.  Megan's tip of her toe got sliced open and Tyler got a cut on the top of his foot.  Being the prepared person that I usually am, I had band-aids for them in the room.
They were all really tired after the long day so after showers they all went to sleep pretty fast.  We are excited for this fun week of Disneyland, Sea World, and Lego Land.  A big ole THANK YOU goes out to Tony's parents for sponsoring this awesome family vacation!

Josh Lost His First Tooth

Josh has had a loose tooth for a couple weeks now.  He also has had his new adult tooth growing in behind his baby teeth.  We were getting a little worried that we were going to have to get his tooth pulled because Josh didn't like wiggling it.  But luckily it got loose on it's own.
I wiggled it a little this morning a little too hard and it started bleeding so while I was cleaning up the blood I decided to try and pull it out.  One tug is all it took.  He said it didn't even hurt.  So exciting to see my kids having these new experiences.