California Vacation Part 1: Disneyland and Before

A week ago we returned from a wonderful Southern California vacation. It was almost all wonderful, anyway. I'll start with the one low-light and then I can just focus on good times the rest of the posts. We left on Saturday morning and as we were passing Payson (only about two hours into our drive), our air conditioner went out. It kept blowing air, but it wasn't cold anymore. We tried to check if it was a fuse or something else easy to repair, but to no avail. We decided to just press on until we got to my sister's house in Las Vegas for the night. Unfortunately that was a VERY HOT endeavor. It reached up to 102 degrees outside and if anything it was hotter in the car. We stopped a few times just to get the kids into a gas station to cool off and get an Icee. Little Liesel was soaked in sweat, poor thing. Anyway, sadly the air conditioning system was totally broken and needed to be entirely replaced, which we were able to have done while we were at the Beach House in Oceanside. Too bad it cost us $1,700. We'd had to replace an engine motor mount a couple days before we left, so that was another $400. It's just such a bummer when our car is a 2006 Honda with only 60,000 miles. LAME! That's enough on the low-light, now I'll try to forget it.

Well, we arrived in Vegas around five and was able to enjoy the evening in their house in air conditioned comfort. With our broken air, we decided to leave early on Sunday morning so we wouldn't be driving through the Mohave Desert in the heat of the day. Our plan worked and the hottest we got to was 86 degrees on Sunday. We stopped at a LDS chapel in Rancho Cucamonga to attend church. Afterwards we headed over to one of my mission companion's in Costa Mesa for lunch. I really wish I would have taken a photo with Mayra and her husband Gérman, but I regret that I didn't (The one in the corner is one from last April when she came to Utah). We ate on their beautiful patio and the boys loved the giant leaves of some of the plants. It was so much fun to see her! We spent Sunday and Monday nights at the Ramada Plaza a couple blocks from Disneyland. We woke up to a large breakfast buffet and then walked over to spend the day there at Disneyland.

It was fun to have my whole family there: my parents, siblings and our husbands and kids.

We decided to start off on the Peter Pan ride and then hang out in Fantasy Land.

It was great to have enough kids that nearly everyone could have a child in their car on every ride.

The green tea cup's goal was to twist as fast as possible and the pink tea cup's goal was to counteract so that they were as stationary as possible. Both cups achieved their goal well.

My dad gets motion sick and isn't into rides much, but enjoys It's a Small World. All the kids liked it too.

When we went to Disneyland years ago as a family, we took a photo here in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with our hands as eye patches. This is our re-creation of that silly photo.

My parents took care of our kids for a few hours in the middle of the day so Brad and I could go on Space Mountain, Indiana Jones and Thunder Mountain Railroad. Thanks!

The Buzz ride was one of everyone's favorites. If you look closely you can see that Brad is the best shot by far.

Brad and I lifted the boys on our shoulders so they could see the parade better.

Our crazy kids in Toon Town.

My nieces were able to meet a lot of princesses! We took the boys to Jedi training. Parker didn't get chosen to go up, but we enjoyed it anyway.

On Autopia, you can tell how much more seriously about driving Parker is than Jason.

Brad, Pete, my mom and the boys were able to cross the parade route, but they closed it off right as we got there, so the rest of us watched the parade again.

Liesel liked the music.

While we were watching the parade, everyone else went on the Roger Rabbit ride. Parker loved it, but Jason wasn't a fan. He didn't care for the Haunted House either, but the rest of the park he loved.

We went to Mickey's House and waited to meet him, but the line was going on forever, so we just gave up. Luckily the kids didn't mind.

As we were headed out we saw Pluto.

What a fun start to our vacation!