Spring Break 2021 - Day 6: Anaheim to Auburn

We loaded up the car and checked out of our hotel room before starting our journey to Auburn.  The drive was good, and we had no problems.  We stopped at a restaurant on our way that was kind of fancy.  It was pricier than we thought it was going to be, so we shared a couple meals and got a couple kids meals.  It was a new experience that we will probably not repeat.  

After eating we got back on the road and got to Wendy's house in good time.  Julie's family was already there and swimming, so the kids quickly got on their suits and got into the pool.  

After swimming for a few hours, the kids got out of the pool, and we all had tacos that Uncle Gabe made.  It was a yummy dinner with great company.

After eating the older kids wanted to go to the high school and play some tennis so they filled up Jacob's car and left.  The rest of us went down to the garage to take the golf cart and four-wheeler out for a tour of the neighborhood.  We found Tyler in the playroom all by himself.  We asked why he didn't go to the high school with the other kids, and he said that they told him they didn't have room for him.  It turns out that Benje wanted to go with the older kids (because he thinks he's a teenager not an 8-year-old) and so that meant that there wasn't a seat in the car for Tyler.  

After finding this out Tony took Tyler over to the school himself.  That left Wendy, Julie, Josh, Allie, Megan, Kimball, and I to go on a ride.  Julie and I took the four-wheeler, and the others went on the golf cart.  It was so much fun and so beautiful. We met all of Wendy's animal friends and found the perfect spot to stop and see the sunset.  Wendy had us all make a wish when the sun went down.  It was a super pretty sunset and we all loved it. 

After our rides and playing at the school we all came back for some relaxation and conversation.  The kids loved snuggling Wendy's smaller doggies, Tink and Bell.  Josh especially loved picking them up and showing us that he picked them up.  It was pretty adorable.  It was a great day, and we were all happy to be there with family.

Spring Break 2021 - Day 5: Whale Watching

We got up early on Monday to get ready and drive down to the beach about 20 minutes away.  We had to check into our whale watching tour and hour before departure.  We found our parking place and then walked on the docks before we checked into our tour.  We had plenty of time before our boat departed so we walked around the board walk and looked in a couple stores before using the restroom and then getting in line for the boat.  

They let us on the boat, and we went up to the top deck and found us some seats.  They were benches that were looking inside the boat, not outside, but they were still good seats.  The view was beautiful and the homes in that area were crazy fancy.

Before we saw the whales we got to go through a huge pod of dolphins.  There were hundreds of dolphins swimming with the boats and all around us.  It was so awesome to see, and we all loved seeing them jump and swim in the waves of the boat.

Then the boat drove to where the whales had been spotted.  When they stopped the boat to watch the whales the boat started swaying.  The swaying really made Allie seasick.  She had to sit down and then she threw up.  Luckily, she made it in the garbage can that was right next to her.  She then spent the rest of the boat ride laying on Tony.

We did see three whales who were kind of playing with each other.  I wasn't feeling great myself, so I went back and forth of wanting to see the whales and wanting to sit down.  The problem with whales is that they come up for a minute and then go down for like five minutes.  But it was fun to see them when they came up for a that minute.  I then had a lay down on Tony too.  The three older kids were fine watching the whales and didn't get sick.

After a while we headed back to the docks.  After we were moving normally and after I was laying down for a while, I started feeling better.  Allie fell asleep on Tony.  Tony wasn't feeling good himself, so I had Allie lay on me while he walked around a little.  Allie felt a lot better after her little nap, so we bought a couple cups of popcorn and we all shared it.  Popcorn is always good to us.

We were going to go the beach after our tour, but since Allie got sick, she said she'd rather just go back to the hotel and go swimming there.  I asked what the other kids wanted to do, and they all agreed that they'd rather do the pool.  I was okay with that since that is a whole lot cleaner than playing in the sand.

We still had lots of leftovers at the hotel, so we ate lunch in our room before we went down to the pool.  I had some laundry to do so we got a load started before we went to the pool.  I had to wait for the person who was using the laundry room before me to finish before I could start our laundry (stupid Covid rules).  But I was able to set the timer on my phone and switch around the laundry while the kids were swimming. The kids loved the pool again and spent a couple hours down there playing.  It was fun watching them swim and still get the laundry done.

After swimming we got the kids all washed and in their jammies.  Tony and I decided we wanted to go back to Downtown Disney, so we fed the kids the rest of the leftovers and Tony and I walked down to Downtown Disney.  

I saw a necklace at the World of Disney when we were there on Saturday that I talked myself out of, but then I decided I really did want it.  So, we walked around the store and we couldn't find it where it was before.  So, I asked a worker and they said they moved it into a store in California Adventure.  Big bummer, so I wasn't able to get the necklace that I wanted.  We did get a couple things and then went to dinner at Tortilla Joe's.  I didn't want to leave the kids by themselves in the hotel room for too long by themselves, so we were happy to see no wait to get into Tortilla Joe's.  Tony and I shared a meal and it was really good.  It was nice to have a little time with just us.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel and found four well behaved children doing what they were supposed to in the hotel.  

They were rewarded with their fourth night of icy goodness from Joe's Italian Ice.  It was of course super good just like the other three nights.  I got us mostly packed so we wouldn't have much to do the next morning before checking out.  We all had a great time in Southern California, and we were ready for our next adventure of going to Northern California.

Spring Break 2021 - Day 4: Hiking in the Heat

We started off our Sunday by watching our wards sacrament on-line.  It was nice being able to enjoy our wards sacrament meeting even when we are in another state.  After the meeting we had sacrament in our room with bagels from breakfast.  What a blessing to be able to partake of the sacrament while in a hotel on vacation as well.  Usually, we would go to a local church but with Covid we didn't know what would be open, so we opted for on-line church.  The boys got to participate in Young Men's on-line as well.  It was fun to hear them talking with their leaders and fellow quorum members.  Technology is pretty darn awesome.

After their lesson was over, we drove to a really cool park that has tons of activities and a hiking trail that goes to a drove of Redwood trees.  We started off by going on the hike to see the Redwood trees.  They had a bunch of big trees all together that they had brought in about 15 years earlier.  It was cool to see, but it was already very hot that day.

After our hike we went to let the kids play on the playground and Tyler and Tony had their mitts and balls to play catch.  The girls went on the playground and quickly found out that it was way too hot to play on.  They had like three big playground that were all in direct sun. So, we got out a blanket from the car and some snacks and we watched Tony and Tyler play catch in the shade.  Once they were done playing catch, we left the park.

Tony wanted to go check out a swap meet that we have never been to.  It was huge with tons of vendors and tons of shoppers.  We parked and then walked around.  It was so hot, and we were all hungry.  The kids were not impressed and wanted to go.  We walked around and found some cute bows for the girl's hair, but that is about all that we got.  We looked at the food that was offered but none of it appealed to us all.  If it had just been Tony, Tyler and I we would have been fine, but the younger three aren't as adventurous.  It was just way too hot, and we weren't finding much for us, so we left.  We found a McDonald's that was close by and that made everyone happy.

We then drove back to the hotel to cool off and rest.  I wanted to go to the Walmart that had all the Disney stuff, so we left the boys at the hotel and took the girls to the store with us.  The boys don't enjoy shopping, so they were happy to stay in the hotel.  We found a couple things at Walmart that we wanted and then we headed back to the hotel.  First, we stopped at a yummy Italian restaurant and got takeout to take back to the hotel.  The food is good, and it is a good deal.  We had more than enough for dinner and plenty of leftovers for the next day.  We finished the day relaxing at the hotel with full bellies.

Spring Break 2021 - Day 3: Downtown Disney

We wanted to get to Downtown Disney early to beat the crowds.  It was a lovely walk down from our hotel to the park.  It was about 4 blocks away.  We had to wait for them to open the gates for about 15 minutes.  Then we got to go through temperature checks, doggie sniffs, and then security checks before we could walk towards all the stores.  

The first store that the boys wanted to go to was the new Star Wars store.  So, they went ahead of us girls quickly to get into line if it was needed.  Tony went with them, and they were able to get right into the store.  By the time us girls made our way to that store at the other end of the park there was already a line.  So, we decided we didn't really care about going in that store and moved on to different stores.

Us girls then went to the Dress Store and the Home Store to look at all the cute girly stuff.  Then when the boys were done, we went to the Lego Store and then the treats store.  It was fun seeing all the yummy treats and picking out what we wanted splurge on.

Then we went to World of Disney.  This is the main Disney store.  We walked all around and picked out our souvenirs.  It was so nice being in the store seeing all the awesome Disney stuff.  We spent so much money, and everyone got what wanted and left happy.  We decided that was all that we wanted to do there, so we headed back to the hotel for lunch.  It wasn't the same as going into the park, but it was nice to be close and enjoy the music and atmosphere.   

After lunch we let the kids go to the pool and play for a few hours.  After we washed up and then hung out in our room for the rest of the night.  Such a fun day.

Spring Break 2021 - Day 2: Las Vegas to Anaheim

We woke up to see Tyler totally snuggling Josh while they slept.  Poor Josh was totally squished under Tyler, but he didn't seem to mind too much.  Josh is super easy going.  I am so glad that they love each other so much.

We got dressed for the day and went down to get some breakfast.  They had some different options so that was very nice.  After eating we packed up the car and started our journey to California.  The drive was super smooth with no problems.  We stopped to get gas and lunch.  We went to a local restaurant that was pretty busy.  We luckily got a seat pretty quick, and we all ate our fill. 

After eating we drove to our hotel in Anaheim.  We got all checked in and unloaded our car into our hotel room.  We got a room that has a full kitchen, two queen beds, and a sofa bed.  It was the perfect size for our family.  

This hotel only offered us a boxed breakfast with the same food every day, so we wanted to go to Costco and Walmart to pick up a few things for us to have in our room to eat besides what they provided.

After shopping we came back to the hotel and let the kid's swim.  They love swimming so much so our goal this vacation was to let them swim every day, except Sunday.

We then got some dinner and relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the night. Tony did go to Joe's and got us all some Italian Ice.  It is Tony's favorite place and we made sure to enjoy it as much as we could while we were there.

Spring Break 2021 - Day 1: Driving to Las Vegas

We started the day by loading the car and then heading south.  We decided to stop at a doughnut shop on the way out of town.  Tony picked a variety of doughnuts that we all tried.  They were all yummy.  We drove down to St. George without any problems or needing to stop.  We stopped at Costco and got gas before walking around the store.  Then we went to a restaurant close by for lunch.  It was a pretty good restaurant.  

We then continued on our journey to Las Vegas.  The drive was good, and we got into our hotel just in time to check into our room.  

The weather wasn't super warm but warmer than we were used to but very windy.  We all got on our swimsuits and headed down to the pool.  They said the pool was heated so I was optimistic.  I only got halfway into the pool before I gave up.  It was just way too cold and windy.   Tony agreed and only put his feet in before getting out to "supervise" the swimming activities.

The kids had no problem jumping right in and having a wonderful time.  We enjoyed the swimming pool area for a while before going back into our hotel room to get showered.  We decided to just have Tony pick up some dinner and bring it back to our hotel room.  We tried a local pizza place, and it was pretty good.  We enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing in our hotel room before going to bed.  

Oh the Random Fun!

 

Tony brought home an old cash register from work.  I thought it would be a small one, but it was huge with a computer attached.  The girls loved it and loved that it even printed its own receipts.  What we do for our children.

While Tony was changing the oil in the car Allie wanted to watch so she got out her chair and watched while enjoying her yogurt drink.  It was adorable.

Tyler's 14th Birthday

 

My baby turned 14 years old.  He is growing like a weed and even has some whiskers on his upper lip that have needed to be shaved off.  We took him to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday.  I love that he isn't too cool for his family and doing goofy things.  He has a strong testimony, loves playing baseball, and is loving his coding class.  He will be in high school next year and I just can't believe it.  We love Tyler so much and we're so thankful that he's our boy!

Fun Trampoline Park with Cousins

 

Wendy came to town with Benje and we took all the kids to the trampoline park with Julie's family.  It was tons of fun having the kids bounce all around and play on the playground.  The kids love playing with their cousins and had a great time together!

My Little Priesthood Holders

We got Tyler's old suit resized to fit Josh and Tyler got a new suit and they both look very good.  It makes this mama's heart happy to see my two boys passing the sacrament in their new suits.  I am a lucky mama.