California

We finally made it to Disneyland with the kids--and, holy cow, was it fun! I think the best area for the kids was Woody's Round-up, which is right next to a petting area. Walker LOVES the goats--he would've been happy spending the entire two days in the petting coral playing with all the animals! Indi was pretty brave with the goats, though, one ran past her and scared her so badly that she let out a great big holler!



Remington made it up on stage during the Woody Show. As you can imagine, he thought it was AWESOME!!!



We survived our trip by giving the kids suckers whenever the "need" (aka: crying, tantrums, fits of rage) arose. It was a miracle worker!


The best part of Disneyland was being with the Beyers family on the second day. Our kids LOVED them and we needed the suckers far less on day 2! So, while Alyse and Yvonne were holding Indi and Walker, and Ben was hanging out with Remington, Ry and I were able to relax a little more. Lots of good fun!


Can't tell about Disneyland without including our "poop" story! It was the first day, about 3:00 in the afternoon, and we were in line for a ride on the airplanes. Right before they opened the gate for us to get in our plane, I smell some poop coming from child #3. I check his pants, and sure enough, he's got a load! Not wanting to stand in line again, I decide to go ahead with the ride and change him after (the ride is only a couple of minutes long.) So, Ryan and Rem get in one plane, and Indi, Walker and I are in another. About 15 seconds after we start moving, I notice that there is more moving in our seat than what is optimal. Brown goop (aka: poop) is FLOWING out of Walker's diaper and landing directly in front of Indi. I pulled Indi back towards me and hold Walker as far away as possible, all the while Indi is screaming, "He's touching me! Walker is getting poop on me!" Finally the ride is over. Ryan came running over and grabs Walker. Before Indi and I can get out, there is a family waiting to jump in our plane. Oh great--now I had to explain to them that they really didn't want to get in THIS plane. After a quick glance, they moved on to the next. Then I had to go get a worker and explain that some sanitation was required in our plane (there was a HUGE pile of poop sitting on the seat!) Where is the paper bag to put over your head when you need one? Next time you go on a ride at an amusement park, make sure you bring hand sanitizer because you never know what happened in your seat!

Don't worry, the stories not over. So, now Walker has poop EVERYWHERE! We are desperately searching for a bathroom. It took atleast 20 minutes to find one, Walker's clothes are unsalvageable and we have nothing else to put him. So, what to do? We take off his clothes and he starts wandering Disneyland looking like a little white trash baby! Needless to say, photographers were everwhere taking pictures of him and we expect to see him on the cover of the National Disneyland Magazine (not really). We had to go buy him something to wear, and the only thing we could find was an $18 dollar ONSIE. Now, that may not be that much to you, but I shop for my kids at the Old Navy clearance rack!

After Disneyland, we went to Newport Beach, which is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!! I want to live there someday! We had lots of fun skimboarding, and just standing on the board in the sand!



We also rented a big family bike and pedaled around for an hour! I thought it was a blast, and now I want to get one of these "family bikes" for us to use in our neighborhood--wouldn't that be awesome?



Nothing entertains as easily as the beach with the waves! We could've spent a week there and still not gotten our fill!



On Sunday we attended sacrament meeting and the ward building we visited just happened to be next to the beautiful Newport Beach Temple!


What a fun trip! It wasn't nearly long enough! There are so many things we want to go back for and so many people that we need to meet up with! (For all of you in CA, I didn't realize how close it was to LA-- Next time let's get together!)