Catching up

I have found some time to catch up on things that need to be blogged.

On February 12th 2010 we headed south for 17 days of winter sun.... California.

Kirks parents bought a single wide trailer near Palm Dessert and Dessert Hot Springs and invited all of the family to come for a visit. So we packed up our girls and 4 1/2 month baby boy and caravanned with Kirks brother and sister's families. Kirk had a terrable head/sinus cold but still managed to get us safely to our first stop over in Provo for the night. The next morning we headed the rest of the way stopping at Cabela's and the Bass Pro Shop and of course potty breaks and Wendy's in St. George, to eat lunch.

We arrived at M and D's around 10pm and got settled into our sleeping quarters. We got to stay in Powelson's Arizona room which was a room off the house with 3 bunk beds and a shelving unit. It worked great for us.

In the next days we took a look around at all the neat flowers, trees, rock formations, we even had a humming bird in it's nest right next to our bunk house, and went to the Market. Took the kids swimming in the trailer parks pool (sadly "kids" can only swim from 10-11am and 2-3pm), they did have fun! Every night us adults would take turns going to the hot spring hot tubs. They actually have to cool the water down rather than heat it up. There were 3 BIG hot tubs at 3 different temps. It was nice and relaxing except that some old bitty got mad at us for not leaving on time! We left at 10pm (when you're suppose to) but she wanted us to be gone 10 minutes to. So she changed the clock ahead for the next day but we still stayed till 10. Seriously I hope when I get old I'm not a cow to people, trying to find wrong in everything. We also sent the guys and the kids off on a quading adventure in the sand dunes and then got ready for our next days adventure ... Disney Land!

We opted to buy 5 day hopper passes (hop between California Adventure and Disney Land) this year as they had a bit of a deal on so we split them up in the 2 weeks we were there. The first week we went 3 days the 2nd week we went used the remainder 2 days. We had a blast! It was nice to have that many days so you didn't feel rushed to see it all. Here are all the characters we met this year. Nevee was so excited to meet Princess Tiana and Jessie. Pacey was in heaven meeting Stitch and Max (Goofy's son) and Laina thought it was cool to meet both Chip and Dale! She even picked out chip and dale earrings, Pacey picked dangly tinker bell ones and Nevee chose minnie mouse.

They each we allowed to choose a "stuffy" too, Laina picked baby Bambi in a blankie, Pacey another Stitch and Nevee picked Minnie Mouse in a pink dress! We sure had a lot of fun and even more special we celebrated Nevee's 5th birthday there too!

Kirk went shopping on the 17th at Down Town Disney when it was open late with his brother and fam and sister and mom, I stayed with the tired kids in the hotel room (that was literally across the street from the Disney Land entrance). He found a cute Minnie Princess hat for her and his mom bought her some dangly pink minnie shaped earrings, and a cute little out fit while his Brothers fam got the matching necklace, all for her birthday the next day.

It was so exciting for her! She went to the Disney Land Office and got a "Happy Birthday" pin to wear (and every character or DL worker that passed her all made sure to say "Happy Birthday!"), she felt so special! She wore her hat and the Princess Tiana outfit I bought her. She even got a phone call from Goofy wishing her a Happy Day! We ate at Ihop that night, where she opened her gifts from her cousins and grandparents. On the week end back at the house I made her a cake. I don't think she'll ever forget this birthday and I don't think we can ever top it either!?

Before we took our fam back to DL we hit the beach! It was a bit windy but still sunny and a few of the kids braved the cold ocean. I was the creator of beautiful mermaids while the other built sand castles and collected sea shells. Pacey loves the beach and was off on her own so I didn't get a close up of her this time around.

We had a fabulous holiday and the kids only missed a week of school. It's hard and might even get harder when they are in older grades but this is the best time for our families to take long vacations. Work is slow in the winter for us so that's when we get to go. Most people ask how our summer is ... well it's just hangin' at the house or pool or spray park or lake near by as we just can't leave for longer than a weekend in this busy season. But our winter is always full of Adventure!