Spring Break 2009

I'm finally making time to post about Spring Break. We had a fun, tiring time going to CA. The youth group had an awesome trip there, too, though theirs looked a little different than ours. Here's a little recap of the boys and I:

First, we stayed the night in Peoria with my mom and her friends, the Rinards. They took us out in the lake on their boat and the boys got to drive and sit on a pole.


Then we drove to Orange County, with a stop in Morongo to see my cousin Jenny and her husband Jon. The time was too short with them, but we were eager to be done driving!

Then we helped get the youth group settled at my parents' church. The Flagstaff kids were CRAZY about the orange grove next door to the church...I think they were giving out oranges to homeless people the rest of their trip! My parents, sister, the kids, and the youth group all went to Disneyland on Monday.

We loved the new additions to Small World, and I can't believe that I would say that riding it with Evan was one of my favorite parts of the trip. He and I went on it together while everyone else (including Sam!) rode the big, fast rides. Here is a photo from our 2nd time through it with grandma and grandpa:

There were soooo many people at Disneyland and I began to resent all the double strollers people were trying to push around through the crowds! Evan was brave enough to go on lots of rides. We rode the Disneyland Railroad twice...an attraction I haven't been on since the silly days of having an annual pass when we would do all kinds of random stuff. Tuesday we recovered from Disneyland and hung out with my sister...getting Chocolate Extreme Blizzards is one of our favorite traditions. We had a tailgate pizza party (just with the family) and enjoyed the warm night...Sam and Evan rode bikes and scooters with Grandpa. Sam's FAVORITE thing to do with Grandpa is race--Sam on his bike and Grandpa on an old razor scooter he dug out of the neighbor's trash. Wednesday, Grandma, Grandpa, and the boys and I were off to California Adventure. I sent Sam and G&G off on Grizzly Rapids first thing (I had the excuse of sitting it out due to pregnancy) and they were wet the rest of the day, I think!


Sam was too scared when Aunt Kendra tried to take him to the Bug's Life 3D show last time--they had to leave when he started crying (I mean come on, a spider shooting poison quills at the audience...what 3-year-old wouldn't be scared) but this time he was proud to watch it. Evan watched it too, and trembled on my lap the whole time but didn't cry. I felt a little like hyperventilating myself when the black widow spiders descended from the ceiling! I HATE black widows! Here is a picture of Sam's proud moment afterward:

We had so much fun at California Adventure...it always surprises me how much we love it because I am such a big Magic Kingdom fan. I think it appeals to Sam because of all the Pixar characters.

Thursday was another relaxed day at my parents...the boys sure love all their toys and the nice weather. Friday afternoon, we went back to Disneyland to meet my friend Tricia and to watch Fantasmic!--my absolute favorite thing at Disneyland.

Here's my mom and I eating our picnic dinner as we (well, mostly my mom) saved awesome seats for 3 hours before the show. Thanks, Mom!


Fantasmic! was amazing like always. I get a little emotional when I watch it. Sam was armed with his squirt gun to shoot the bad guys if he got scared, but afterwards he told me that he didn't even need to use it once! I think going to heaven is going to be like the final scenes of Fantasmic! (only much better, of course)--the hero vanquishes all the evil villians and you get to see all your favorite characters together at once. And there probably will be sights that put the fireworks to shame...but I'll keep enjoying the fireworks while I am here on earth. Disneyland's new fireworks show was pretty creative and fun--we loved it! Here is a picture of the boys passed out on the floor of my parent's front room while we were unloading the car that night...they were EXHAUSTED!

Here's some other pictures from our time...Grandma always does special things with the kids like make pancakes and play games.



We had a good trip back to Flagstaff except for our stop in Needles, my favorite town (not) where Sam sat on the floor of the McDonald's restroom with no pants on...eww! We were glad to get back to our house and regular routine and hear about Jeremy's trip. I'll have to post a few of their pictures here so that you can see some of the cool things they did. I have to go mop up the huge puddle--no, lake--on the bathroom floor that the boys have made during their bath as ignored them and wrote this.