The big news in February is that we went to Disneyland. A few months ago Mike's brother, Brian, invited us to go with his family. Mike said he couldn't go because of tax season, but since the boy were free at the parks, I decided, what the hey, how hard can it be to go on vacation with 2 two year olds? The answer is, kind of hard. Ha. But seriously I didn't' have anything else going on and Brian and Pam said their kids could help, so I decided to go. Since we were staying in the timeshare Mike's parents own, we decided to invite them too. :-) I know nice of us huh!?! The trip was a lot of fun, a little stressful, but fun. Brian and Pam's family along with Jim and Karin, were super helpful with the boys and besides some missed naps, which made them ornery, they did quite well. Mike was able to talk to his boss, who said as long as he put in his 60 hours before he left, he could go, so we booked him a ticket to fly to California for Thursday night. I drove with the boys, which was the one part of the trip I'm not sure I would do again. We drove to St. George Saturday night and then the rest of the way on Sunday to break it up a little bit, but I was still bored, tired of driving and asking "are we there yet?" the last bit of the trip. (Quick Story: We stayed at the condo in St. George. While I was unloading the car the boys kept running out in the road, so I put them inside the house. I was out there a while organizing and getting everything we would need for the night. When I went to take all the stuff in the house, guess who had locked me out. That's right Owen an Caleb. And guess where my keys were, inside on the table. I had them come over to the door and tried to get them to unlock it, but to no avail. I finally broke down and called a lock smith. $60 later and just in time, because when I was able to go in, the boys had climbed onto the counter and were playing with the knives. Can you say trouble!)
We spent three days in Disneyland, one day at Seaworld and then the other two days we just took it easy. We stayed at the Newport Coast Villas. It seemed like the boys had a good time. They seemed to enjoy most of the rides and as long as the lines weren't too long and we had some snacks, they were ok there too. Our first day we spent most of our time at California Adventure. Some of the rides the boys liked were the Carousel and Toy Story Mania. I think one of their favorite things was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Stage Show, the loved watching all the characters. (Probably because it is just like TV and they are little TV addicts. Side Note: Whenever Caleb wakes up in the morning or from a nap, usually the first thing is says is "Elmo", in that he wants to watch Elmo. Not "Hi" or "Let's play", no it is "Elmo". I probably need to cut back on their TV time.) Anyway, I was brave and went on the roller coaster, Screamin Over California. It made me a little nauseas the rest of the day but I did it. :-) I think the boys favorite part about the parks were exploring, touching and climbing on everything they could. They loved Toontown and climbing on the cars and sticking their hands in the fountains. Our Second day was spent in Disneyland, we rode on the train and went on Small World. We came home a little early this day, because the boys were starting to break down around 3:00. They wouldn't nap in their stroller, which made it hard, but they took a power nap in the car on the way home, so when we reached the hotel, they were good to go. We spent the afternoon exploring the grounds of the Villas. We played in a little park they had and went to see the fishes and played in the kids area where they had legos and trains and cars.
We spent part of one of our 'free' days at the beach. The boys had a good time running around and getting all sandy. Owen almost got attacked by the seagulls when he was eating his bag of chips.
Thursday night arrived and Mike is going to be here soon. But no, he calls me at 9:45, when he should be on the plane and tells me he missed his flight. After a small breakdown by me and trying to talk to Delta, which by the way they were absolutely NO help at all, he was on a flight for the morning. He arrived around 10am at the LA airport, so we picked him up and then drove to his first day at Disneyland. He loved it. He wished he could have stayed another day. We had park hopper tickets, but he only wanted to go to Disneyland. We went on all the old favorites: Pirates, Haunted Mansion (which was his favorite), Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and a few others the boys liked, like Autopia and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I was sooo happy to have him there and the boys were too. It was fun to be able to hang out in Disneyland together as a family.
Our finally day was spent at Seaworld. We thought the boys were going to like it a lot, because of all the animals, but they didn't seem as excited as I thought they would.. However, Mike and I had been to Seaworld about 7 years earlier and we loved it, and this time was no exception, it was great. They do such a great job with the shows. It was cool to see Shamu, the dolphins and all the sea animals.
My good friend Katie J, lives 5 minutes away from San Diego, so afterwards we stopped by her house and went to dinner. We met at Dixie and have been friends ever since. She always visits me when she is in UT and I'm glad we could return the favor. It was fun seeing her and catching up a little bit and she was even good to put up with Owen crying in the car the whole time from her house to the restaurant. :-)
Sunday we drove home. It was long and boring. (Hopefully not at all like this post.) :-)
A few tips on Disneyland. February is a great time to go. Most of the lines were 10 minutes or less. If you want to spend lots of time at the beach it was a little cold for that, but the weather at the parks was great. During the days the temperature was in the low 70's so you didn't get too hot.
Hopefully the boys will remember some of this trip, if not, I'm sure we will return again soon.
The rest of February was spent going to Young Women's activities and Young Women's meetings. I was called at 2nd counselor. And for Mike it was spent working.
