The "Magic" Kingdom

I'm suing Disneyland. Their motto is "The Place Where Dreams Come True". During our recent trip, we spent all day at the park - from the time it opened until even after it closed (we had special passes that gave us an extra hour after closing time). And my dream DID NOT come true. When I left the park, I was NOT 20 pounds skinnier!

But, all of Olivia's dreams came true...



Seriously, we had a great vacation. Everyone travelled very well (thanks to our DVD players). We had been doing some intense "TV Training" with Will prior to leaving, and it paid off. He stayed nicely in his carseat and didn't even need the extra "chemical help" we'd brought. So, I guess you could say we had a "natural" roadtrip. Well, as natural as you can get while still consuming your own body weight in junk food. Ahh...road trips.


Here's some pictures:

We spent the first weekend in Utah with James' Aunt Claudia and Uncle Wayne. They were very gracious hosts - Thank you Thompsons! James and Coleman went to the conference centre for the priesthood session on Sat. night. What a great memory for the two of them.



After Utah we travelled to Los Angeles (stopping by Jack in the Box on the way), where some more of James' relatives allowed us to stay. This time it was his cousin Collette and her husband Shane:



We spent a long, hot, sunny day at Disney, with Collette and James' Aunt Nancy. Really, I love it there. It was so fun.




We were so tired at the end of that day, but it didn't stop us from hitting Universal Studios the next morning. Here's James and the kids in front of the fake Hollywood set.



After Universal, we walked up Rodeo Drive and had our favorite food - Baja Fresh. That was almost worth the drive in and of itself.

Thursday we spent shopping (What? US???) and going to the beach. The kids had a great time in the water and Will LOVED LOVED the sand. He kept throwing himself facedown into the sand, like he couldn't get enough of it. It was so funny. And everytime we turned our backs, he would stuff handfuls of the sand into his mouth.





That night we had a big family dinner with all of James' LA relatives. Here he is with his cousin Dan


Thank you Collette for being brave enough to have all of us stay with you. Your house is beautiful and it was so fun to get to know you better. One of the best parts of this whole trip was all the time we spent with extended family - you all need to come up here to visit!

After leaving Collette's we spent a couple of days in San Diego doing Legoland (which the kids loved almost as much as Disney) and the zoo (holy workout! Those hills almost did me in). We knew all the big kids would enjoy this trip, but Will was the unknown quantity. He loved it all though - except his one tantrum when he was miffed that he couldn't grab all the moving cars at the Legoland miniworld exhibit. He was a good little tourist, and when he got too tired, he just slept:




Other highlights:

- seeing Olivia's face when she saw the princesses and Dora (at Universal)
- watching Coleman ride a Legoland ride that spun him in circles and upside down
- In N Out burgers
- Barstow Outlets
- Aeropostale
- having James with us for 11 days - it was hard to see him go back to work
- never cooking
- eating out
- hot, sunny weather
- listening to conference while driving through northern Utah
- seeing the big kids enjoy everything
- the Terminator show at Universal
- the Simpson's ride at Universal
- family, family, family