Vacation

I went to Disneyland when I was about 6. I don't remember much about it. In fact I only have 3 distinct memories. It is a small world, the Matterhorn and throwing up on the beach. That is it - so it is likely that Ryan and Rachel won't remember much of our vacation either. That may be a good thing. Not that we didn't have fun, it was wonderful. We all really enjoyed it. But there were a few things I wouldn't mind if they forgot. Things like the red glowing eyes of the abominable snowman, the ghosts in the haunted mansions and pretty much the whole tower of terror experience. But there are more things I hope they never forget, things like the thrill of going 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds, the slight feeling of dread and exhilaration when you crest a hill look straight down and plunge into a pool of water, or the power of the ocean, and the magnificence of a Killer Whale rising out of the water. But most of all I hope they never forget the sound of their Mom laughing, the feel of Daddy chasing them down, throwing them in the ocean and then jumping in after them and hugging them tight. I hope they don't forget how much their parents love to play with them, laugh with them and hold them tight.

Anyway so here is our vacation in a nutshell. The drive down was better than expected. No throwing up, no wet pants, no blood, not much fighting and not much whining. So I was happy about that. We arrived in Anaheim about 2:30 and got all checked into our hotel, which was also better than expected. Then we went to Newport beach and played on the beach. It was fun. I think it was the first time Rachel walked in sand and she loved it. She couldn't stop laughing at and looking at her feet with the sand coming between her toes. She ran straight for the water and promptly fell down in it. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it would have been warmer. So I had to strip her down and she ran around in her underwear the rest of the afternoon. The kids all had a lot of fun, so did I. I absolutely love the beach.



We ate dinner and "In and Out Burger" because Rick had never been there and wanted to try it. We ate out our first day and our last and that is it - I was pretty impressed with myself for that. I brought all the rest of our food and cooked it in a hotel room with a fridge, microwave and a crock pot I had brought. I just kept praying housekeeping wouldn't object to us cooking in our room. In fact I was so nervous about this that I decided not to have maid service so I put the Do Not Disturb sign up. Well Rick had to go back for something and took it down - so the maids came. They didn't kick us out so I guess they didn't care. I love maids - you leave with the room looking like a cyclone hit in, and come back and presto chango the room is all in order, beds made - clothes and things neatly folded and put away. What I wouldn't give for a home with maid service. I used to think polygamy might not be that bad of an idea. I could deal with a second wife who's main job was to cook, clean and do whatever I told her and be my best friend all at the same time. But since sharing a husband doesn't thrill me I decided what I really need is an Alice. Okay back to Disneyland.



Sunday we went to church and we actually found the church with no problems and it started right when we thought it would. It would have been a great experience except I felt extremely uncomfortable and guilty the whole time. Because I am a bit on the lazy side I didn't bring our regular church clothes. I did bring khakis for the boys but they just wore a polo shirt and flip flops, Anna and Rachel wore flip flops and sundresses. I wore a tee shirt, denim skirt and flip flops (like 2 dollar men's flip flops) Rick wore khakis and a button down and white tennis shoes. The white tennis shoes looked horrendous, I was so embarrassed by them and then felt bad for being so humiliated for such a silly thing like shoes. I even asked him to please not wear them but he did anyway - I was livid but I knew I shouldn't be so I tried hard to hide it. The whole time we sat there the words of Sister someone, (I forgot who), who gave a talk in General women's conference that started out with something like this, "Girls these days don't even know what an iron is for and they dress like they are going to the beach for church." That is exactly what I did and I felt so out of place and almost evil. To be honest I don't think it makes much difference what you wear to church as long as you go and wear the best you have. I think the clothes you wear show respect and reverence for what you hold sacred. Well we didn't wear the best we had, I was simply to lazy to bring it - and I felt very disrespectful. I knew and believed better and was to lazy to keep my personal commitments is what it boiled down to.



Anyway I might not have felt so guilty for looking like beach trash except that I felt like everyone stared at us the whole time. I think this was mostly due to Rachel's behavior. She was awful and very distracting. All the other kids were better than Rachel but not on their best behavior either. The only thing that saved us was the little boy behind us was also very naughty so he took some of the blame for all the ruckus our two rows were causing. Anyway that was church. We came back, had dinner and then went to the Newport Beach Temple. It was beautiful. I was really impressed with it. It was fun to walk around and take pictures. They kids found some rabbits they chased around. I had a hard time keeping them out of the bushes as they were rabbit hunting, so we packed up and left.

Monday through Wednesday we went to Disneyland. It was great fun. The kids had a blast and it was fun to watch how excited they were. It was apparently not very busy and we had perfect weather. We rode every ride there except for Roger toon town or something and Pirates of Carri bean (because it was closed). We also went to California adventure which I think my older boys actually liked better. Rick and Taylor and Dallin loved Screamin which the rode like 10 times. We all liked, (except maybe Ryan who declined a second ride) the tower of terror. Rachel could ride quite a few rides but not all. Our general rule was if your big enough, your riding. I thought, (maybe I was wrong here), that we came all the way to Disneyland we might as well get our moneys worth and do all there was to do. So if it was scary I just covered their eyes. This worked pretty well to keep the ghosts at bay during the day, but at night when the lights went out somehow it wasn't enough to quiet the fears. One of the few roller coasters Rachel could ride was the Matterhorn. I really like it so we rode it several times. Rachel didn't like it so she cried, a lot, but since I didn't want to sit out, she got to ride. She got so she knew that as soon as we sat down in the little car she wrapped her arms under mine and put her hands over her eyes. It was a bit embarrassing when the seat belt checker comes around to make sure we are all secure, I probably looked like an awful mom sitting there with my 2 year old screaming, that she wants out and covering her face with both her hands. But I wanted to ride. Anyway she lived, plus we don't want to raise any wimpy kids.

Ryan usually goes to sleep with the light on. That is all fine and good when we are home because he has his own room. But with all seven of us are in a hotel room and all of us utterly exhausted sleeping with the light on wasn't too popular. He did good the first couple of nights, I think he was so tired that he was asleep before he could realize it was dark. But for some reason every night after riding the tower of terror was a bit rough. I ended up laying by him until he fell asleep and as long as he cuddled up against me with a death grip on my hands he was ok. This is not to comfortable of a way to sleep especially when it was hot but being so tired you can't see straight has its advantages. Once asleep we all slept hard every night.

Thursday we went to Lego Land. Which was fun, Taylor was getting a bit old for it and Rachel a bit young but everyone else really enjoyed it. They had some fun little rides and amazing Lego structures. They had a fire fighting ride thing where you get in teams of 4 and man a fire engine. It is a race to see who can get their fire engine over to the burning building first. You have to pump up and down on this bar that makes it go. Once to the building you have to spray water into the "fire" until it goes out then race back. Well we all decided to do it. Rick immediately formed his team. He and the three oldest kids. I told him that wasn't' too fair so we divided up a bit more even, but it was a big concession on his part to take the littler kids because he really wanted to win. But it was fun.

Friday we went to Sea World which I loved. The animal shows were amazing, the other things were really interesting too. The rides were fun and there were pretty much no lines. The only thing I did not like was that they were a bit strict on the height requirements for rides. Rick took the older boys to do something and I took the youngest three to ride the more baby rides. Well I thought it would be no problem but they made me ride with each one of them separately. So I had to ride those stupid baby carnival type rides where you go around in a circle and get really dizzy 3 times in a row, for each ride. I thought I was going to die I was so dizzy. Anyway didn't throw up so that was successful. I was also really wet. Absolutely drenched from the Shamu show and the Atlantis roller coaster ride. (Mostly wet from Atlantis) I don't think I could have gotten wetter if I dove in a swimming pool. So I walked around drenched all day - it wasn't hot enough to dry us out so I was a bit cold too. Luckily I brought a change of clothes for the kids. Anyway I think Sea World was my favorite.

A funny little side note. We saw baby killer whales when we first came in. Rachel really liked them and I told her we would go see the mommy whale in a show. She wanted to know if there was a daddy too. I said I didn't think so. She was disappointed there was only a mommy Shamu. Well the show started and 4 killer whales actually came out (I didn't know this I thought there was only 1) Rachel was so excited and yelled- look there is a Mommy whale, a Daddy whale, an Uncle Kevin whale and an Aunt Tess whale too. She wasn't' the only child to compare her family to a whale. We overheard a little boy ask his mom, "Mommy are you bigger than Shamu." I am glad my kids didn't ask me that - that would be a tough one to call.

Saturday we went to La Jolla beach. It was awesome. We spent the day building sand castles, playing in the water (a bit cold for swimming or snorkeling) I brought those little water guns that are like a syringe kind of that you get from the dollar store and we had a big water fight. Anna spent most of the time collecting shells. She did this in Newport beach too and we forgot she left them in the car so when we got back in three days later we were hit with an awful stench. We found muscles that were apparently live, or had been anyway, that had been sitting in our hot car for three days -so gross. We made her throw those. We also walked along La Jolla cove and saw the seals on the shore. It was awesome to see them out sunning themselves and crawling or waddling or whatever they do around the sand. There were so babies that we were really cute too. We also went to the San Diego temple which was absolutely beautiful. The kids endure it.

The ride home was a bit more adventurous with a bit of throwing up and a little more fighting than the way out but all in all I am shocked with how good the kids were considering how tired they were. We tried to go to church in Henderson on the way home. Kevin and Kristin told us Church started at 2:00, according to the Internet. Well the Internet was wrong. So we heard a testimony or two and the closing song. We were told there was another building down the road a block or two so we tried that Church too - same story. So we just got back in the car and kept on going. We don't have the great of luck at going to Church while on vacation. Right after leaving Las Vegas Anna started looking a bit green. We turned on the air and prayed she wouldn't throw up. She almost made it. Well she did make it actually. We decided to stop in St. George for a rest. So we pulled up to the temple. She got out took started crossing the street, got to the middle stopped and threw up. We were mightily glad she made it out of the car. The bride having her picture taken was probably not to thrilled with that as a background but what could we say. Anyway we rested a bit and headed home. We made it home by about 11:00 pm. All in all it was a wonderful experience. Full of good times, and good memories.