Dizzyland

*I say "Dizzyland" because that is what Gabe had been calling it for weeks.  We had been trying to prepare Gabe especially before taking him so far out of his comfort zone, and hearing him talk about "Dizzyland" is one of my new favorite memories.

We got to Disneyland on Monday.  It's about as excited as I've ever been in my life. :)  Marty was jumping up and down like a little kid all morning.  The night before I had laid out everyone's clothes (this day was RED day so I could keep track of them all a little easier).  That morning we had somewhat of a laid-back breakfast since the parks didn't open until 10.  We bought RideMax and had been plugging in what rides we wanted to do and thought we had the perfect line-up.  It was showing very minimal crowds, but Cars Land was closed so everyone else at California Adventure joined us at the Toy Story ride which we never got to try last time because we just couldn't stand the line.  So besides waiting FOREVER in line on our very first ride, it was super hot and we were having to teach the babies what a line is.  At that point I was a little worried and disappointed.  But that was the longest line we ever waited in the whole vacation so it all worked out great!  Most lines were between 5 and 15 minutes actually, although a few were longer.

I knew BandB would love it.

I was predicting Camille would love Disneyland with all of her heart but have a hard time in the lines.

I was most worried about Gabe being over-stimulated, over-whelmed, and maybe scared on the rides.  And tell me everything was too loud. :)  So I wasn't really surprised to see him "check-out" in his very first line.

So after the first ride?  BandB and Gabe loved it, Camille was nervous and unsure.  She rode with Grandma and never cried until she was getting off the ride and spotted me behind her.  But that was rare, after she got her feet wet she mostly loved them.  I shouldn't have worried about Gabe so much, he really did great at Disneyland (with the exception of a tantrum so epic we were all forced to leave early one day).

Sometimes Bryce drives us crazy when we take him places and he poops out way faster than we think he should (we've all seen what kind of crazy energy he has).  On the first day we indulged him and then soon realized how exhausting it is to carry around the younger three.

The Pixar parade was a definite highlight for me.  As I mentioned, it was pretty hot.  We thought we'd really like to sit in the shade and watch the parade but we were having a hard time finding a spot on the curb.  Then we spotted this little hot dog joint with a table right at the window.  I was worried that being so far away that we wouldn't get any love from the characters and dancers, but I was totally wrong.  They were all so cute, waving and spraying all of us with water and bubbles.  Sitting there with the breeze and eating our hot dogs with such a cool parade was soooo pleasant.

We got to Cars Land just in time to see the lights come on.  My little boys love this movie so much and I've been watching it for years.  It was just so magical to be there in Radiator Springs.  It looked exactly like the movie and was so charming with the neon lights everywhere.  And seeing the boys light up around all the cars was totally a highlight for me.  They are really the perfect age for it, too.

We spent quite a bit of time chilling at the Cozy Cone and eating churro bites while we used fastpasses and rider switch passes to go on Radiator Springs Racers - which knocked our socks off!!  I was shocked at how awesome that ride really was, it's totally my new favorite at California Adventure.  I got to ride with Bryce and didn't realize what a thrill ride it was and I found myself digging my fingers into his little arm, haha!  He does great with those kinds of rides and I think that's the best bonding he and I had on the whole vacation.  Unfortunately, Gabe wasn't tall enough.

Tuesday was blue day. :)  This day was INTENSE.  I had been warning my parents that on our Magic Morning (we got an hour in the park before it offically opened) we were going to go completely crazy running from ride to ride before the park filled up and promised them it would only be like that this one time.  So we left our house at like 5:30 in the morning, gave the kids nutella toast in the car (big mistake for Millie) and hoped for the best.  As soon as they unlocked the gates we ran, literally, to Peter Pan which is normally one of the longest lines at the park because it doesn't have a fastpass.  When we got to the ride we were in total chaos, "Leave the stroller!  Take my baby!  Leave Gabe and wish him luck, he's too slow!!" ;)  But we got about 8 normally busy rides done in an hour so thanks, Ridemax!

Hm.  Wonder why the babies look tired?  (I think Camille is saying, "Who is Disneyland REALLY for, Mom and Dad?")

Here is another of the absolute highlights.  When we came last time and Bryce was 18 months old, he loooved Winnie the Pooh.  He hugged and kissed the daylights out of the character.  So this time after we came off of the Winnie the Pooh ride we were supposed to be booking it somewhere but we saw the Pooh characters and just HAD to meet them.  I am so glad we did!  Camille, the baby who will go to almost no one, was not shy AT ALL.  The whole time we had been holding her in line she was squirming like crazy to get out of our arms, and the second we let her go she hit the ground running and just plowed into Tigger.  She giggled and squealed and hugged and kissed and hit and rubbed and laughed some more.  This is quite possibly my favorite picture from the trip:

It was the exact same thing with Pooh.  I kind of felt bad for the people that were in line behind us because as we started to leave she got away from us and ran strait back to Pooh.  Then after I retrieved Camille and started to walk away again, Pooh stopped us and stole her back and there was more hugging and loving and kissing.  I couldn't separate the two of them, and whoever the person was beneath that costume pretty much made my whole trip!

I also feel a little bad that Gabe loves Winnie the Pooh so much (he had a Winnie the Pooh nursery as a baby) but because he is mild Camille kind of stole the show.  But he got some love from the characters, too.

I have lots of pictures like this of Camille because sometimes it was a great distraction for her when we got desperate. 

 After Pooh Corner we headed over to Jedi Training.  Brynn said she'd rather do Jedi Training then meet the princesses and Daddy was just fine with that, although I was a little sad to see her growing up so fast.  Anyway, at that point it was getting pretty hot and everyone was wiped out.  So GandG and the babies and I enjoyed some ice water (Dizzyland gives it out free pretty much everywhere if you ask for it!) and our second round of churros courtesy of Grandpa, the churro king. :)

We had heard that the Jedi Trainers look for kids who are dressed up or who are really animated trying to get picked, so we put a hoodie on poor sweaty Bryce.  Brynn, being a natural born ham, didn't need much help getting picked. 

The show was way cooler than I was expecting!  I didn't know the floor would raise up and all those actors would be there.  BandB got a chance to have a lightsaber duel with Darth Vadar (Dark Vadar, if you ask Gabe), and got an official Jedi certificate.

Because we had gotten there so early that day, we went home in the afternoon for a little nap and some lunch and came back later to Bugs Land.  What I remember about this ride was having one of our longest lines for what was definitely our shortest ride. :)  But it was sweet.  BandB wanted to ride just the two of them.  Stuff like that makes my heart melt.

That night was the hardest part for me.  I was really disappointed that we didn't get to see the World of Color show last time so I was totally determined to see it.  Even though we were all pretty tired, I pushed for it but had no idea what I was getting myself into.  The whole thing was really flawed.  They know children are going to be there, but there are no seats.  There was plenty of room on the stairs, but the ushers only allowed us to stand on them, not sit.  So the kids couldn't see at ALL and so for the entire show we were stuck holding at least one kid, sometimes two, including the big kids.  I got new shoes and cortisone shots in my feet before we left, but by the end of that night my broken feet were about as bad as they've ever been.  The other reason that was so hard was because I knew I was going to have to take it easy the next morning.  But I didn't want Marty the Machine (I swear, NOTHING slows that guy down) and the big kids to have to miss out because of me.  So my parents and the babies and I tried to take it easy the next morning and just meet up with Marty at the park whenever we felt ready.  Because the babies had been up so late, I was hoping to get them down for a morning nap, but it was just NOT happening. So we made it there sometime after lunch only to realize we had forgotten the tickets!   Well, you would think Disneyland's employees had never had anyone ever make it to the park without their tickets with all the hoops they had us jumping through.  We rode a couple of rides, saw Disney Junior, went to the Aladdin show, and about two-thirds of the way through it my two-year-old had the meltdown of all meltdowns.  I had to run him out of the theater screaming bloody murder and it continued until well after the show had ended.  There was nothing any of us could do to help him.  Gabe is a mellow kid, but on those occasions he has a tantrum, he can go on for FOREVER.  Eventually we just gave up and took him home.  That was around 5:30 and I was SO frustrated at the feeling that I had basically wasted a day at Dizzyland, having only been there for a few hours.  But I just had to remind myself that I knew what I was getting into bringing two toddlers there.  Things won't always go according to plan.  The bathroom trips are more frequent, the stopping to rest is more frequent.  Trying to entertain them in lines is exhausting.  It would have felt fabulous to sleep in at some point.  You have to cart around 50 pounds of who-knows-what in the diaper bag and they are constantly throwing and/or losing stuff.  The double stroller is cumbersome. And you can't get them to eat that hot dog you just spent eight bucks on.  BUT.  I would take my toddlers again in a heart beat.  The frustrations just do. not. compare to the excitement/magic/enthusiasm/gratitude/bonding that you feel when you are with them!  I always say a baby brings something special to a family, and that holds up even at Disneyland.  Marty and I have talked about how much our thrills have changed since we've had kids.  Last California trip we skipped out on a day at Disneyland and just let GandG take BandB and we went to Six Flags.  I'm glad we did it and it was super fun and exciting, but we couldn't believe that the excitement of the thrill rides just didn't really hold up compared to what we'd just been experiencing with our kiddos at Disneyland.

So without further ado, here is yellow day!

King Triton's carousel.  I really don't care too much about carousels at Disneyland, but the kids sure do.  I always happen to get a lot of pictures on them because there is just plenty of time for it, I guess.

Waiting for a spectacular production of Aladdin.  I don't get my older kids to live theaters often enough. Hm.

Both of the Aprils fell asleep on Marty.

Every day got pretty hot by the early afternoon.  Thanks for the ice cream, Grandpa!  Would you believe Millie's shirt is still alive and well after that?  Marty and I left the kids with GandG to run and try out California Screamin.  I got plenty of thrill out of it, but Marty was hoping for more. :)  

Oh, Camille has Brynn's hair...

That's quite a grip...

Still reaching for it...

Just smile, everybody!

By the way, thank you to GandG for the adorable matching Mickey and Minnie shirts!

Millie loved Sully so much we had to go back a second time.  And that was the inspiration for her Halloween costume (more on that later).

The favorite ride all around was probably the grizzly rapid run where you are in a big raft.  Brynn especially loved it, and she told me later that the biggest reason was because we all got to sit in a big circle and talk to each other during the ride.  She's my social kid.

After each ride I would wait for Bryce to say, "That was AWE-sommmmmme!  Can we do it again?"  That's how I could tell which rides he really loved, or which he was less into, or which rides were too scary!

BandB were dying to take their grandparents on the rapids.  My mom wasn't too keen on getting wet, but I hadn't gotten very wet so I told her she would be fine.  I told her to just lean in and stand up when the raft was about to hit the water.  The babies couldn't go on it, so Marty and I took them to the Little Mermaid ride and met back up with my parents to find the my mom was probably the most drenched I have ever seen anybody come off of one of those rides.  Head to toe, hair dripping, sopping wet.  Heh heh, sorry mom...heh heh...heh?

Marty and I really wanted to go on Indiana Jones, so one day we stayed in the afternoon with just Brynn because she was the only kid tall enough for it.  Here we are that same afternoon waiting for Cruisin' California.  Brynnie must take after her dad because she just did NOT tucker out.  She was always up for one more ride, ready to walk, ready to run.  We'd all be dragging ourselves to the parking lot at the end of the day and she'd be skipping.  On the one hand Marty and I wanted to praise her up and down for being so tough, but on the other hand we didn't want her to realize she was being tough and not getting the same perks (rides in the stroller, piggy-backs) that her siblings were getting.  Now that we are home...Brynnie, that was so COOL!

The Nemo Subs - the absolute last thing we HAD to do.  It is one of our favorite memories from when Bryce was 18 months old.  Camille loved it to, but not as much as baby Bryce!

On our last night when it was time to go Marty and I yet again reacted more like kids than the kids did.  We ran to get our last churro (courtesty of Grandpa again!), ran to make it on Pirates of the Carribean once more, and then Marty ran off that ride to beg the Jungle Cruise people to take us on that one, too.  He made it just as they were closing the line and managed to persuade them.  And that jungle cruise was so fun!  By the time we got out, the park had already been closed for a while, and true to our inner-child, we said we were not going to leave until they made us. :)  So we wandered around for a little while until security caught up with us and we were kindly ushered toward the direction of the exit.

Then Marty asked me to take one last picture in front of the castle on the way out.  See you again in four years, Dizzyland!


A few other random memories:

• One day as we were driving home from Disneyland I told Gabe we were going home and he said, "To the Dizzy house?"  I told him yes and then he said quietly, "But I want to go to the Mommy house now."  I actually really liked that. :)
• Gabe was trying so hard to get me to understand something about jam. Finally I figured out that's what he thought the tram was called, so obviously we were referring to the "jams" for the rest of the trip.
• We lost Gabe once, just for a few minutes, but enough time to make my heart stop.  Of course we found him in the Buzz Lightyear souvenier shop (where else?), and instantly knowing we were looking for a blue shirt actually really helped.
• The house we rented was totally made for kids going to Disneyland and was so perfect...and I miss that house!  The first thing we did when we got there was to try on all the fun costumes in the closet.  Having an actual kitchen was amazing, too.  Before we left I mixed up a big batch of refrigerator muffins and brought those and chicken salad (of course).  We lived mostly on food that the kids are totally used to eating, and no vomiting on this trip, hooray!  We had lots of green smoothies, salads, fruit, and real meals which I think helped us a lot to be able to keep up.  Oh, but we still had plenty of "fun" food.... :)
• One thing that I've been sad about since we've been home is that I didn't push Brynn to go stand in line and meet the princesses.  She was adamant that she didn't care about seeing them and was way more interested in the Jedi stuff, and Camille doesn't care about princesses.  But after we got home I remembered that she spent half of her summer making color-coordinating  bracelets to give to the princesses at Disneyland.  If I had remembered her doing that I would have insisted.  But I'm guessing she went back to school after the summer and remembered that princesses aren't really cool in second grade.  Darn school, and darn getting older.   
• One of the favorite activities for the older kids was to go to the Animation Academy with Grandpa (the cartoon artist) and have an art lesson with a pro.  They went back to a second class and the teacher signed his art and gave it to Brynn saying, "That girl hasn't stopped smiling since she walked in here."  Brynn loves to draw, especially with Grandpa.  And Bryce surprised us - his abilities with a pencil have totally taken off since he started kindergarten.  
• While BandB were at the Animation Academy, I fell in love with my favorite room at California Adventure.  It's this huge, open room with couches all over and screens of various sizes covering every wall.  They are constantly broadcasting Disney music with different coordinating videos and images from the songs on the screens.  I love Disney music SO much and I kept wishing I could just live in that room.

Aunt Helen and a monsoon

My sister-in-law, Helen, came to visit us for a day last week!  She lives in Alaska but travels for work and had a conference in Phoenix.  So she booked her flight and hotel a day early so she could spend some time with us.  Two days before she came we had a pretty good monsoon that cut our power a couple times.  The night before she came, we had a historic monsoon that kept us up all night.  The lightening flashed every second, literally, for I don't even know how long, but it was bright in our room as often as it was dark.  The power went out again and I heard the boys screaming in their room.  Bryce is really afraid of the dark.  He can sleep through the fire alarm, babies climbing on his head, I can flip on his lights and put away laundry in his room or whatever, but the second his nightlight goes off he senses it and starts to cry.  So he was crying and I think Gabe was feeding off of him and was upset.  But it was understandable, it was actually kind of creepy to go from such pitch black to such bright flashes so intensely.  So I rounded up the candles and flashlights again and tried to get them back to sleep and head back myself.  I knew it rained most of the night, but I had no idea just how much.  

The next morning it was still raining and Marty headed off for work and to take BandB to school like he always does,  I didn't think much of it.  He called after he dropped them off to say how rainy it was and how bad some of the roads were.  I worried about it a little because I once caught myself in a bit of a flash flood.  It wasn't raining when I went to the store, when I came out it was, and by the time I was driving home it was the "dumping" kind of rain.  I didn't know the streets in QC very well yet at that time and I picked a bad one and I honestly was not being able to tell just how deep the water was.  The water came up so high on the car it really scared me, but somehow I made it up on the drier side and was fine.  But since then I've been able to see why you have to be careful.  ANYWAY.  When Marty got to school he called me again and said that his school was cancelled, they just wanted everyone to stay home and be safe.  So at that point I hopped online to see the news and the facebook feeds and everything.  This is what I saw:

I had friends with flooded basements, with water retention areas filling up to their front door, with landscaping that honestly looked like waterfalls.  So then I started worrying about Helen's plane coming in and whether I'd be able to get the kids later on in the day.  I almost went to pick them up early, just in case it got any worse but I'm glad I didn't.  By the time I went to get the kids it was still raining, but not as hard.  There was really only one street I saw that was pretty washed out, but I was always totally comfortable.  At that point it had become the wettest day on record, the governor declared a state of emergency, and there were even a few fatalities.  It was also being called a "slow moving disaster," because it took a while for this to happen:

Lots of people out of homes, and many more without power for days at a time (and it's still HOT here).  I really felt for what people in Mesa were going through, and was grateful we didn't get the worst of it.  

But I knew our chances of seeing Helen on Monday would be pretty slim.  Luckily for us, she rearranged her schedule and got out of some things Friday so that she could be here Thursday night and Friday morning before flying back out.  It was sooo good to be with her!

Ok, I love my brothers and everything, but I waited a long time for sisters so I actually loved having time to chill and chat just with her.  Thursday night we played apples to apples and got the kids down and chilled.  Then Friday morning we had a yummy breakfast of eggs benedict at the QC Olive Mill down the road.  We got to sit and enjoy the morning before it got too hot...and then I got the pleasure of chasing the babies around the olive tree grove when they decided they had had enough, haha!

Then we picked up the kids from school early so they could have a little more time with her before she had to take off.  And I was just hoping her travels would be a little smoother on the way home.  No floods or shuttle wrecks or crazy Pedro. ;)

Thanks for making it work, Helen!  We all love you so much and are so glad we could spend time with you!

Hello, September

Brynn went to a birthday party and I had some time on my hands, so I took advantage of having a girly-girl and had some fun with her hair.

Two things to note on the table.  One of them should be pretty obvious.  Marty caught her in the act when we got lazy about pushing the table and chairs against the wall and took a picture.  Also, there is Brynn's new prized possession, the My Little Pony she got with her little friend at the Build-a-Bear party.  I love those two little friends together, they are so much alike and so easy-going and kind with each other.

These next two pictures I didn't even know existed until Marty downloaded them onto the computer - he is so sentimental!  I guess Sunday is Camille's day for injuries.  I'm always telling Marty he doesn't know his own strength!  He loves to rough-house with the kids and they love it too.  So Sunday he was swinging Camille up and down, and because of Bryce's nurse-maid elbow issues he ALWAYS lifts the kids by their shoulders. And then of course this ONE time he swung Camille up by her hands, her arm popped out of socket.  So we very calmly (HA!) tried to decide if we attempt to pop it back in ourselves (last time we tried it with Bryce I just couldn't get it and made the swelling so much worse) or if we run her into urgent care.  Then we started thinking of friends who would know what they were doing.  Marty decided to look down the road to see if a good family friend of ours was having a family get-together, knowing they often do that on Sundays and one of their sons is a pediatrician.  It was the sweetest tender mercy; that friend's son just happened to be there and was able to be at our house and popping the elbow back in within five minutes.  We were so grateful for the way the whole thing turned out, and grateful for friends and selfless service (he was so sweet with Camille - he had her smiling and playing and then snuck the pop in before she had any idea what was going on!).

So anyway, it was getting late so after things calmed down I took the older three to put them down and Marty said he wanted to put Camille down.  I was listening to him squeeze her and sing to her and read books to her, like he had to make it up to her - and apparently he was taking pictures, too.  He's a tender daddy. :)

Stinker!!

Crazy hair day at school.  Brynn told me this year she wanted her hair to look like a doughnut!  We sprayed the heck out of it, and I was amazed at how many of the sprinkles were still up there when she got home!

Marty's birthday was SO fun this year!  It was on a Saturday (oh yeah!) and we had nothing whatsoever going on, which is super rare for Saturdays.    The night before we had gone out to dinner with the other teachers on Marty's faculty at Joe's Farm Grill, and I can't believe I haven't been there before, the patio is beautiful with such mature trees!  Anyway, they give you $10 to spend on your birthday, but it has to be the day of.  We mentioned that we had been to Liberty Market and Joe's BBQ, two places close by it that do the same thing on birthdays.  Then someone else mentioned that they had made "the grand loop" before and hit up all three.  Yep.  We had Saturday wide open and we DID IT.  It was awesome.  So here I go, a little embarrassed by it, but here are the freebies we hit up that day.

• We started out by Going back to Joe's Farm Grill and getting a pizza as somewhat of an appetizer.  We ordered ahead and just picked it up.
• Then we went bowling (psht, no freebies there!)
• Then we went picked up our order of a BBQ sampler at Joe's BBQ.
• We went across the street to Liberty Market for Dessert.
• After that, I really wanted to stop at Ross to get shoes for Bryce.  I had gotten more cortisone shots in my feet earlier in the week and hadn't been able to run any errands, so we were planning to run a few together really quickly.  Camille was asleep in the car, so Marty said he would just stay out in the car with her.  Well, Chick Fil A was in the same parking lot, so what's a birthday boy to do?  Hit them up on free ice cream, that's what! (By the way, Bryce was falling asleep in the cart and kept hitting his head on the sides as he went down, then Gabe threw up all over himself, me, and the cart not so we hightailed it out of there and got him home - just car sickness mixed with too much junk food, sorry Gabe).
• Later that night we got a free ticket to Jesterz, and free custard after at Nielsen's, but I'll elaborate on that later...

So yes, I'm part proud of all the freebies and part embarrassed by them - but the day was just so much FUN!

Bowling was totally ridiculous.  We forgot the stroller and Camille was even more of a monkey than usual, so we traded off chasing after her.  I got lots of strikes and spares - followed by five strait gutterballs!  It's cool though, because I still beat Marty who, for the first time ever, didn't break 100!  We will blame all the little crazies around us for Marty losing his focus. ;)

I do not like bowling.  I don't like stinky bowling allies, smelly shoes, and grimy finger holes in the balls.  But somehow in UT County that is like the go-to date, so I wound up bowling more than I cared to.  After Marty and I married I broke the bad news that I just flat-out didn't want to go bowling anymore.  So I've only been a few times since I've been married, and it's always been on Marty's birthday because he gets to request whatever he wants and I get to be a good sport, ha!  But of course, it's always fun, especially fun for the family.

In this picture: Brynn hamming it up, Bryce showing off his shoes, Gabe doing his thing, and Camille refusing to stay put, even for just the few seconds it takes to snap a picture.  These are my kids!

Oh dear.  I tried to help Gabe and wound up throwing him with the ball down the lane.  So after that it was Marty's job!  Here they are waiting...waiting...that ball will make it down the lane at some point... ;)

Bryce took it very seriously and had the most adorable stance and follow-through.  I didn't get a really great one on video, but here's one anyway...

That night we had planned to go with three other couples to Jesterz, an improv comedy club that is totally family friendly, but the night was a little stressful for me.  BYU was playing (they gave Marty a great Bday present!), but during a monsoon the power went out.  So he high-tailed it over to a friend's house to watch the game.  I told him it was fine, but then I spent the next hour trying to get everything ready for a baby-sitter (in the dark), scrambling around lighting candles in bathrooms for kids who were scared of the dark and the thunder, watching Gabe to make sure he wasn't going to throw up anymore, and feeling like I needed to call the baby-sitter and just cancel (I don't know how I'd feel about sending my teenager over to a house with five kids and no power).  But I didn't have a phone or a computer to even contact her with!  I had plugged mine in RIGHT before the power went out.  Of course.  It lasted about five minutes.  But just as it was starting to feel mighty warm in our house, the power came back on, Marty came home, and Gabe seemed fine.  So we went!

We had a lot of fun there.  This cast wasn't quite as funny as the last one we saw, but it was so enjoyable to be there laughing with good friends.  This is probably a ridiculous thing to say, but Marty and I love to laugh together.  We always have, so this type of thing is just so us.   A couple of "yellow" personality types have a lot of fun - they might not always get everything accomplished, but darned if they didn't have tons of fun trying!

Marty was once again the obnoxious birthday boy, and once again they pulled him up on stage to do a skit with them.  And he did great, he got the biggest laughs in the skit!  

After that we got custard at Nielsen's, which I can't believe I had never been to before.  And then all of us thirty-somethings were tired and headed home to wake up the baby-sitter who was a total trooper about how late it was.  Happy 33rd, Marty!!  Thanks for bringing me along on for the ride. ;)