The "Happiest Place on Earth"

The babies weren't smiling, so we kicked them out of the picture.

 

 

This year we took our family to Disneyland.  I will admit that we really didn't have any plans to take on such a grand endeavor, but as more and more family signed on for the trip, we didn't want our kids to miss out on all the fun. The only real hesitations we had revolved around budget and whether or not the twins were old enough to not be a pain in the butt (keep those two reasons in mind)

I think its always nice to pick out souvenirs to remember your trip together as a family.  That cost can add up quick but it's so worth it when you look back and remember your super fun vacation.  When we got to St. George, I saw the cutest water pump that I just had to have for the suburban.  Later that day in Barstow Jackie picked out a new transmission to remember our time in the high desert of California.  Seriously though it was a little bit of a shocker starting out the trip by rebuilding the suburban.  I honestly don't know what we would have done with out Mike and Shyrleen being everything from moral support, to cracker distributor, to guidance/financial counselors. We are in debt for all there help. Not to mention all the vehicle assistance we received from family. Mike B. who was selfless enough to drive the hour and a half back to Victorville and help haul our sorry butts to Disneyland, and everyone else who helped get the rest of our family from point A to B.

Other than the crappy start we had a lot of fun.  The kids rode everything, and we didn't have to worry about too many height restrictions.  Lindsay over came her fears and rode the Tower of Terror several times (yea peer pressure!) I did notice that as I'm getting older I seemed to have lost some tolerance for motion sickness.  I mean I can still ride everything once, but thank goodness the kids had Jackie otherwise they couldn't have rode California Screamin 12 times in a row.

I'm okay with slowing down. I was perfectly happy to push the babies around and check out the rest of the sites.  Bryn and Owen did decent. I hate to play favorites or point fingers, but since they can't read, I will say that Owen was a champ. He pretty well just kind of sat and hung out. Brynn had less patience. She really hates to sit still, especially when Jackie is in her line of sight.  But I guess she is only a year old so we'll let it slide this time.  We did have some pretty late nights, so the babies weren't the only tired souls. We even had one night where we came home and I went to get pizza, when I got back we literally couldn't do anything to wake the kids up to eat. I will admit Jackie tried to wake them harder than I did, but they wouldn't budge. I even waved a candy wrapper in front of Kade and Kalli's nose and nothing happened, scary.


Owen pretty well sums up the end of each day.



I think as whole we all had the most fun at the beach. Again I'm not putting labels on kids, I'm just saying Owen dove into the water and laughed and squealed and played in the sand, while Brynn screamed in terror of the water and cried and reached for Jackie the whole time. Other than Brynn's theatrics it was a really fun day.

 

 

 

 

She's happy if Moms got her.

 

 

 

 

 



 

All in all it was a successful family trip.  We had fun, and ate poorly, and definitely made some memories. The drive back was much less eventful (thankfully) and we all made it safe. The babies may have snapped a bit from being strapped down that long, but they'll bounce back.

 

 

 I guess we'll see how it goes in another 5 years when we've forgotten enough to try it all again.

 

 

a few more pics: