California Family Gathering

When my oldest brother's family (from Colorado( let us know they were planning a Disneyland trip over fall break, everyone wanted to join.  Brother #3 lives in Cali doing medical school and #2 lives in Arizona.  And we get to fly free.  Of course, my parents in Utah didn't want to be left out, so they drove into town, too.
Friday morning we headed to the airport SO early.   It is so hard to get out of DFW and I really dislike the early morning flight and having to wake kids up at 4 am, but those are the sacrifices we have to make.  We were getting there in great time, until we got to the shuttle.  The shuttle took 45 mins to get us to the airport and we had only planned 15 mins.  We were so late, and with construction and taking wrong turns in the airport we were getting later and later.  Checking bags was tricky because we were only 25 mins before the flight.  Security was a bear, but we got to skip the line because we had kids and strollers.  We were going so fast.  I literally ran for 5 mins... sprinting with a stroller and backpack. Up and down elevators and escalators, etc.  I got to the gate and the agents said they had been waiting for us.  I was so relieved to make it, but then, since Dave was a ways behind me, they wouldn't give us the tickets.  The let a few other stand-bys on and then Dave showed up just as they were boarding.  We were SO upset.  We knew flights for the rest of the weekend were super full, so all our anticipation and excitement was going down the drain as we tried to make new plans.  At one point, Dave was ready to go home. The kids were getting antsy and hungry (the plan was to eat on the airplane).  It was so depressing to be that tired and sweaty (from running) and not headed to our destination.   The next flight to Phx was open, but from Phx we couldn't think of a way to cali (rental cars were $600!!) and flights were full, full, full we decided to try for phx anyway and as a back up plan flying into LAX after a 5 hour layover, Dave taking the train to Santa Ana to get our car and coming back 1 hr to pick us up.  NOT a very good plan and it would take literally ALL DAY to get to Cali.  But we wanted to be with my family enough to make it worth it.   By the time we landed in phx, the next flight to Santa Ana had opened up with 6 seats and we only needed 5 WHEW!  We were so glad to be headed to our destination, but sad that we were going to miss Sea World (Where we have a season pass).

Once we got our car (upgraded to a minivan!!), we tried to think of something to do. We headed to a local pumpkin patch.  It was hot, but the kids got to run and move.  Jackson got a bloody nose and there was blood all over him, his clothes, shoes face and even several pumpkins!  He looked like a mess!

When then drove in to LA to go to the science center there (Its FREE and perfect for little ones!).  Luckily we weren't too annoyed at the LA traffic because all our kids took naps on the drive.  The museum was great, we wished we had more time there.  When it closed we walked through the rose garden and played hide and seek as a family.  It was beautiful and so fun to have our kids free to run and play (as opposed to the restrictions in airports and airplanes)  We then headed to Dave's uncles house in Corona.  We stopped for some Islands Hamburger.  Seriously, how does anyone live here? the traffic is horrible!  And this, coming from someone who lives in Dallas area. 

The next morning we took slow (even though our kids were up at 5 am cali time).  I went running on the major hills of Corona... such a great workout!  We drove into Newport to meet my family at the beach.  It was the PERFECT day to be on the beach.  The weather was warm, water was clear, sand was soft, etc, etc.  Not to mention being with my brothers, nieces nephews and mom and dad.  Such a perfect and relaxing day.  The only stress was the huge crash of the ocean.  I wished the waves didn't get so giant, but eventually the kids stayed up above where the waves crashed and I was able to relax (until I went into the water and had a panic attack every big wave.  How can I LOVE the ocean so much and still be so terrified of it?

Mariah didn't stop all day, buckets, sand, digging.  She was in her own world, with freedom to do what she wanted and she LOVED it.

Most of the boys got buried at some point.

Daddy and Jackson braving a wave.  Hallie got taken out by a wave earlier and that kept her away most of the day.  She still talks about the wave that knocked her down.

We spend Sunday going to church with Shane.  It seemed like mostly a student ward, so I actually felt old!  There were so many kids.  I forgot what a super big ward was.
We drove by the redlands temple.

We had a BBQ at Shane's apartment complex.  It was right by the pool so I was super anxious about one of the kids falling in. but eventually was able to relax and have fun.  The kids watched a movie in the 'theater' they had and we got to talk and have fun with siblings.  Since we never spent the night together, we never got kid-free time which is always more fun with my siblings, but the cousins had a  great time together.
 Monday we went to Disneyland.  It was our first trip with our kids and we wanted to make the most of it.  We got a bunch of food in the morning so we didn't have to worry about meals or leaving the park later.  Then we headed to the park early.  We arrive around 8:10 but with parking and shuttle and standing in line to get in, we didn't get in until 9 am (it opened at 9).  I raced to stand in line to get an Elsa and Anna showing.  Luckily, MaryAnn got to me right before we requested tickets, so her girls could go too.  Ryan and MaryAnn's family and our family stuck together all day and worked the system.  We would get a different fast pass on each of our passes, then one adult would ride with the boys and then the other adult and the boys and 3 year old girls would go again with a stroller pass.  It was awesome to not wait in line much (Esp. because Mariah is a total wanderer and hard to control in a line. )  Jackson and Dayton loved the big rides and the girls loved seeing the characters.  We felt bad we could never hook up with my other  brothers or my parents, but it worked out great that we both have kids the exact same ages.
Dave took the kids on the tea cups... I hate that ride!

I stood in line to get tickets to stand in line again to see Elsa and Anna, but the girls loved it and I think even the boys were pleased.  Mariah was having nothing of it and clung to me.  But Bree couldn't get enough of touching and talking to them.

How would it be to be the most popular princesses at Disneyland?

Space mountain... look at those boys faces!

On the submarine.  Mariah liked looking out the window and seeing the fish in the water.

The jungle tree house.

Jackson said his favorite was Splash mountain, which he rode several times (The ride broke earlier, so later there was absolutely no wait at all!  We rode 3-4 times in a row)

We watched a Beauty and the Beast play that was a perfect stop for our aching muscles.  Then we finally met up with my family and watched the parade together and ate all the snacks we could handle.

Seriously, my family is exploding!  My parents have 13 grandkids under 6! (only 11 were here!)  No wonder we couldn't all stay together!

I was shocked at how well everyone was doing with no naps and no breaks, but finally around 8:30 pm, both girls passed out.  Mariah woke up an hour later and I went alone with her on Dumbo and Buzz Lightyear.  I feel like she didn't get catered to because we were going on the bigger rides, so I tried to make up for it, but I think she was just zoned out.  We stayed until they kicked us out of the park and rode Buzz Lightyear several more times.  at 11:15 pm (this is 1:15 our time) we stopped at the shops and got souvenirs for everyone.  The girls woke up and were ornery.  Jackson had quite a hard time picking somethings, but once he decided, he curled up in the stroller and crashed (2 am our time).  Mariah got a Minnie Mouse baby with a blanket, Hallie got an Elsa barbie doll, and Jackson got a take-apart Olaf.  We also got a family ornament and a magnet for our collection.  Including souveniers, parking, tickets and food, we paid around $90 for the day trip (Thanks to the rewards from our disney credit card).

Still going strong at 11 pm!

On the way out of town, we had time to stop at the newport beach temple for a photo.  

Our ride home was so smooth.  The kids were so good, the layover easy.  On our long leg, we had gotten all middle seats.  Despite trying to switch around, we ended up with Jackson sitting alone between two men (and Dave in front and me behind him).  He was SO good.  He played quietly on his leap pad and then with the magazines and talked nicely with one man.  Mariah slept and slept and slept.  For 3 straight hours!  I was afraid she wouldn't go to sleep that night (she woke up at 7:30 pm our time)but she did.  I guess we really wore her our!  I wished every flight could be that way.  We are so glad we made it to the family get together.  I hope we do it again soon!  (oh how about Thanksgiving and Christmas?)

Conference in Virginia Oct 2014

This is becoming such a tradition that I need to label it with the date.  After being on the east coast for 4 days, we flew home, took care of business for 3 days and immediately flew back to DC.  Luckily, on American we can fly to the Dulles Airport which is so much closer to our family there.  We were dreading the flight since our last experience was awful.  It started out about that awful.   After Mariah kicked the seat in front of her many times (and I asked the lady to move to one of the other 50 empty seats on the flight and she spoke back in Mandarin and didn't move) and I was SO stressed trying to get her to sleep, she FINALLY fell asleep.  Jackson freaked out because he didn't pack (and I didn't enable) his favorite blankie.  He swore he would NEVER fall asleep on the whole trip just to show me how much he needed it.  After a huge tantrum and moving to the back of the plane he changed his mind and decided a blue blanket was close enough and fell asleep in my arms.  The last hour of the flight was GREAT!  I even slept.

We love being at Rich and Ashleys house.  They treat us so well and have such amazing food.  Friday night was filled with disappointment and sadness as we watched BYU lose and lose their quaterback.  So sad.  We went to bed really late and got up early for Volleyball for the boys and a long run for the girls.

We made yummy food and listened to talks from our prophet and other leaders.  It is always inspiring.  The kids were pretty good.  Jackson really looks forward to conference now that he earns $ to buy at the conference store and he likes to color and do other projects.  He actually listens too!
We ate lunch and then headed out to apple pick at a nearby orchard.  It was a neat experience.  The kids were afraid to eat the apples right off the tree... because they didn't look like the store apples.  I was glad we taught them how to do it.   We were also glad to have grandma and grandpa around.  They are serving a mission in the DC temple and we are luck enough to be able to visit them.

We had great food and the boys headed to the priesthood session in time for the moms to put the kids in baths and to bed.  I was so tired!  The boys came home with 7 Ben and Jerry's ice cream (so of course I had to try them all!)

 And we think our kids are scared of dogs... Mariah even warmed up a bit!
 

We spent Sunday going for a walk and then watching more and more conference.  The kids had a tougher time today, but still managed to let us listen to most of it.

We left for the airport as soon as the session was over.  luckily, there was no one sitting in front of Mariah and she could kick without me getting stressed about it.  She fell asleep within an hour and the kids all zonked out.


Jackson lost his first tooth waiting for the shuttle at the airport.  He has been so excited talking about and wondering about when and where he would lose it.  He was all smiles and excitement about losing it.  I can't believe we are at that stage already!

The SLOW Dallas process didn't get us home until nearly midnight!!   But it was a fun quick trip to see family

Maine in the Fall

We finally got to take a trip from Dallas. We were suppose to meet up with Dave's parents who are serving a mission at the DC temple, but they decided they needed more time to rest up.  Last minute we didn't know if we should still go, but our car trip bags were packed and our minds were set to head to New England in the Fall.  When we flights were looking worse and worse, we almost cancelled.  I tried every itinerary to Boston, upstate NY and Maine  I could think of.  I finally found one with a night in DC, so we hopped on a plane to DC.  The flight was ROUGH!  Mariah wants to walk and move and yelp.  It is so hard to get her and Hallie to not kick the seats in front of them (we like to get 2 rows so we can sit in front of our own kids and take the kicks).  It was a long flight, and we landed late and took a shuttle to a nearby hotel and crashed, knowing we had to get up really early.  The kids took a long time getting to sleep at the hotel and I was wondering if all the chaos was going to be worth it.

We accidentally slept in and I happen to wake up with only 5 mins to get ready to get to the shuttle.  I checked the flight... and it was totally full!!  I was so disappointed, so we spent the next hour (at 4 in the morning) looking for new options.  We thought of driving from DC (13 hours!) and looked at flights everywhere.  Dave finally wondered if we flew into Bangor, Maine (I had never even heard of this town).  He looked it up and sure enough, we did fly there and there were seats!!

 We decided to spend the day exploring DC.  We took the shuttle to the subway and then took whining and crying kids to the National Mall to have them whine and cry.  This is how it felt anyway.  We only brought a single stroller as we were not anticipating walking much.  We saw the Washington Monument and the Air and Space Smithsonian.  We met Dave's parents for Lunch at the National Art Gallery.

 We were exhausted and worn out of the kids by the time we took another subway ride, shuttle ride and did security again.  Luckily, Mariah managed a little nap in between traveling.  

As we were boarding it was announced that they were under weight restrictions and we were not going to get on!!  We had already checked 3 bags!  Dave plead our case of having 3 small lightweight kids and they relented and we got on.  I was almost in panic mode.  SO glad we made it!  It was a rough flight and we were SO happy the Bangor airport is TINY and the rental cars were SO close.  The kids were quiet and peaceful in the car with the things I had packed for our road trip.  Why oh Why are they so hard on flights?!?  Dave and I enjoyed the peace and quiet in the car and the beauty all around as we drove from Bangor to Portland stopping in Augusta for dinner.  It was amazing and the colors were stunning.   The kids were hard to get to sleep again, so we took baths, watched TV and prayed Mariah would go to sleep without a crib (she did.. . she was the easy one).


Sunday we woke up fairly early and had breakfast and got ready for church.  We spent 3 hours going to church in Cape Elizabeth town.  I love that the church is the same everywhere.  We felt loved and felt the spirit.  We ate lunch at the church and headed to the Portland lighthouse.  I realized that of all the beaches I've ever been to, I think this was the FIRST lighthouse I had ever seen!  It was gorgeous and amazing.  Words don't describe it.  The weather was almost hot! (Turns out this day broke records for heat all across Maine, but we didn't know any different)

We started our drive up the coast of Maine.  We stopped whenever there was something of interest to us, but mostly just ooh and aahed about the gorgeous New England Architecture, colors of the leaves, beautiful scenery and coast and quaint villages. The kids enjoyed the drive because they got "presents" ( $ store toys) and books on CD and music to listen to.  they didn't care about seeing much.  Hallie had a total melt down as we drove, so we moved her to the front row ($30 extra for a 7 seater car.... Best $ ever spent) within 3 minutes she was asleep.

We went to a state park with a beach.  All 3 kids were asleep as we pulled up, but we didn't want to wait it out (the Sun was going down) and wanted to get them out of the car.  Hallie had peed as she slept, so that was a fight to get new clothes on her.   Luckily, Dave took this one.  Traveling with kids is hard.  

We were not prepared for a true swimming beach, but people were in fact swimming and playing as if we were in Hawaii.  We just rock hopped and explored and let the kids play in the tide pools and sand.  It made us wish we could go to Hawaii (and soon!).

 The kids were bugging so people here and it was embarrassing.  Once again, Traveling with kids is hard.  This place was GORGEOUS.  It is called 5 islands and off the coast had 5 little tree covered islands with houses embedded in there.  We didn't have time to wait in the 50+ people line to get fresh out of the ocean lobster, but really wished we could.

 We made it about half way up the coast before the sun went down and we didn't want to miss anything, so we found a little dive right on the road and pulled off the spend the night.  (We were the ONLY people staying in the 20 room inn!  We had a bed for Mariah on the floor (which she fell off in the middle of the night). and the 2 kids share a bed.  It was tight, but it was a quick stop because we were off early in the morning for the rest of the Maine Coast, harbors, beaches, villiages.

 Then the crowning jewel, Bar Harbor and Acadia National park.  We ate Lobster finally in Bar Harbor (I wasn't a huge fan) and got kids meals for the kids (of which we ate most of it) Finally, Maine weather was back and we were COLD!

 We have found that National Parks never disappoint, but after our fantastic drive, I was thinking this might.  But I found it tranquil and beautiful.  I was disappointed that the clouds and fogged completely blocked our view from Cadillac Mountain, but it warmed up a little for a small hike around Jordan Lake.  The kids were in great moods and Hallie was running up the trail most of the way!

 We were cold and tired and hungry.  We opted for a hotel with an indoor pool and hot tub (at mom's request)  This was a great decision.  The kids were so happy to be moving and in a warm pool.  It was great (except poop in a swim diaper... traveling with Kids is hard!) We loved the queen beds instead of the double, and finally a crib for Mariah.  We may never stay at sub-par hotels again (and we may never travel again :) )

We were rested and ready to head home the next morning we took it slow and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and packed up for a stop-and-see drive back to the Bangor Airport (With a slight change to layover in Philly instead of DC).   Bangor Airport has so many fun things for kids... why don't the bigger airport provide these things?!?

Flights ... oh flights.  The kids made a mess on one flight and were crazy and disobedient on our layover.  Jackson and Dave were butting heads.  Everyone was tired and hungry and grouchy.  I sat with Mariah on the 2nd leg and she fell asleep (as did I) so I was rested a bit.  Getting home from the Dallas Airport is SUCH a long process and sometimes I hate that this is going to be our life now.  I headed straight to a meeting from the airport and Dave took the kids home.  I was worried because we were all worn out and tempers were thin.  But Jackson said something that melted Dave's heart.  He stayed in bed with Jackson until he fell asleep.  As difficult as this child can be, he always has a soft spot in our hearts.  I'm so glad that we have him.  

at 10 pm, I had to go back to the airport to pick up our luggage (the flight we opted not to take... that our luggage was on...was delayed for 6 hours!! thank heavens we went on the other flight that left on time!) I was exhausted by the time I got home and went to sleep knowing I would do laundry and pack everything back up to head back to DC in only 2 more days!

Oh how I LOVED Maine!!  Such a wonderful experience.  I'm so glad we got to go!