During our vacation we had some funny/interesting/embarrassing moments. You just can't avoid such experiences with kids...
Here's a few of the funn(i)est:
1. The very first night/morning we were in Anaheim we were woken up at 4 am by something you never want to hear--a kid telling us that he had horribly clogged the only toilet in our hotel room. DOH! Poor Aaron had to get dressed and go down to the front desk where they told him they didn't have any plungers--Double DOH!! Down by the lobby they have a bathroom so Aaron decided he would use that bathroom because it might be awhile before we could use the one in our room. Luckily, there happened to be a plunger in that bathroom which Aaron brought back up to our room and took care of the clog. What a good guy!! Heroes don't always wear capes--some carry plungers over their shoulders--haha!
2. Matthew is currently taking Spanish as one of his high school classes. The Spanish speaking bug has really gotten to him. He likes to practice his Spanish a lot. While we were walking around Disneyland there are quite a few Spanish speakers. Matthew would take advantage of our occasional inattention and go over and try to speak Spanish with those supposed Spanish speakers. A few of them got offended by the Gringo trying to talk to them, but some talked back. Matthew would then tell us in his not so quiet voice, "HEY DAD, I AM PRACTICING MY SPANISH WITH THE NATIVE SPANISH SPEAKERS!!" We tried to explain to him why this wasn't a very good idea, but he didn't quite grasp that concept. Anyway, the craziest situation of all was when Matthew made a bad judgment call and tried to speak Spanish to an oriental lady. Doh!! She did not appreciate that AT ALL!! What can you do?! Oh well, Matthew just moved on and tried practicing his Spanish on someone else. Gotta love Matthew!
3. After my Mom was admitted to the hospital we were all walking down the hall to visit her. That's when Noah looked into a different hospital room and saw a really old person laying in bed asleep with their mouth hanging open. He, however, didn't know they were asleep. He then announced in a really loud voice, "HEY DAD THAT PERSON IS DEAD!!"
4. While on vacation we mostly frequented McDonald's because it was cheap and filled the kids up without breaking the bank. However, most of the food is really not healthy and the kids weren't used to eating all that fried food which inevitable upset their stomachs. While standing in line for a ride at Disneyland we kept smelling something pretty foul. After a smelling it quite a few times while standing in line one of the kids said to no one in particular which a loud voice, "I DON'T KNOW WHY I HAVE THE FARTS TODAY!" There was no question after that where the foul smell was coming from. **Sigh** Gotta love those kids!
5. One more funny but not funny experience we had was while the kids were in line for a ride. Aaron and I had to sit this one out since I was on the phone with G&G T. After the ride was over Daniel came running back to us announcing that Matthew wouldn't stop playing with the elevator buttons. Matthew has had a fascination with buttons his whole life so this wasn't anything new. The bad thing was that there was an actual handicapped person in a wheelchair that happened to be in the elevator at the time Matthew pushed the buttons. When Matthew pushed the elevator buttons it sent the handicapped person back down to the bottom floor without him wanting to go there. As the elevator door closed he was not happy about what Matthew had done and was saying as much. Poor guy! I hope there weren't any more crazy button pushers in line after us so that guy could finally make it on the ride!!
Friday morning was our last day at Disneyland so we tried to fit in all the big rides before we left. We were excited to find that Splash Mountain was open that day. Wahoo! It had not been open all the previous days we had been at Disneyland so this was a nice surprise! Daniel insisted in riding in the very front.
After the ride was finished he regretted that decision because he got pretty soaked.
Noah and I got to hang out in the very back.
The great thing about having a big family is that we got to have the whole car just to ourselves since there were exactly 7 seats.
We had gotten fast passes before we went on the ride so we were able to go on it again right after which was pretty awesome. Daniel refused to sit in the front as you can see--haha!
We got to ride Hyperspace Mountain (it will always be Space Mountain to me, though) a few times, too.
They updated it to be more of a Star Wars ride and it was pretty cool! Our family really liked it!
As that Friday wore on things got really busy so we didn't get as much in as we wanted, but it was still a fun day. Matthew really liked the Mater tractor ride:
We even talked Sarah into riding The Tower of Terror again. I had to pay her a quarter to go on it, but it was worth it. Again our family of 7 took up the entire front row of the ride:
I had really wanted to see the World of Color light show in California Adventure that night. We hadn't had a chance to see it yet because of all the hospital craziness with my mom so I really wanted to see it that night. The show didn't disappoint. It was really neat how they could get all the projections and colors in the streams of water. The picture doesn't even do the show justice! I was glad to get a chance to see it!
After a LONG day Noah fell asleep on Aaron's shoulder. We were worried about how Noah would handle walking around the parks so much throughout our trip, but he handled it like a champ up until the end of this last day. Since he had done so well Aaron didn't mind carrying him for a little bit.
After the World of Color got over and California Adventure Park had closed we headed back in to Disneyland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean ride just one more time. Everyone was so exhausted that Noah fell asleep on Sarah's lap during the ride:
Daniel fell asleep on Aaron's shoulder by the end of the ride:
Josh almost fell asleep at the end of the ride, too:
I could see why the kids were all exhausted since this is what my Fitbit said at the end of the night:
We were all exhausted and our feet were sore as you can imagine!! It was hard to head out for San Diego next. We decided to go to Sea World Saturday morning. It is a good thing the park didn't open until 10 because it was really hard to get everyone one up and going the next morning. The last time Aaron and I were at Sea World was about 6 years ago when I went along with Aaron on one of his business trips. I didn't take any of the kids with me except Noah because he was a baby and I was still breast feeding him. Essentially this was the kids first trip to Sea World. We thought it was really neat then and wanted to kids to see it, too. When we got inside the park I was really surprised how run down everything was. It was a Saturday and we were afraid it would be really busy, but it wasn't. We saw all the exhibits and were done with everything before the park even closed. It was a bit of a disappointment. Even from when Aaron and I were there 6 years ago it wasn't this run down. Anyway the kids did enjoy seeing the different animals, though. Sarah and Josh liked the penguins:
They had some tanks full of different aquatic life. The kids really liked seeing the turtles:
While we were waiting for one of the shows Josh and Daniel got picked as some of the before the show entertainment. It was singing and dancing to a guy playing the ukulele.
Sarah really loved seeing the Killer Whales:
They also had a touch and feel tank where you could touch different types of crabs, sting rays, etc.
You could see how you measured up to the length of a dolphin:
We even splurged and let the kids feed the sting rays. Matthew was not a fan, but the rest of the kids thought it was pretty neat. You get a small fish and have to hold it on the bottom of the tank in between your fingers. The sting rays would swim by over the top of your hand and eat the fish. Again Matthew was not a fan:
The rest of the kids really liked feeding them, though.
Daniel was most excited about the shark tank:
They had a Megalodon jaw you could see how big the mouth really was:
Again, Sarah really liked the sea turtles:
After finishing up at Sea World we went and spent a little bit at the beach. The kids had been to a beach before, but it had been over 8 years and most of them didn't remember it. They had fun jumping the waves despite the freezing cold water:
We didn't wear our swimming suits so we just hiked up our pants and waded out. Noah had no fear and LOVED the water despite it being cold. I had to stay with him because he kept trying to go out further than he could touch. He was soaked from head to toe by the time we were done at the beach.
He got in all the way up to his neck. However, he eventually had a wardrobe malfunction. In trying to jump the waves in his wet shorts, they fell down. We couldn't get them back up until we walked back up to the beach so I could reach down and pull them up without getting a wave to the face. It didn't stop Noah, though, he went right back out into the waves to play.
Sarah wasn't a fan of the cold water, but she loved looking around for sea shells. Here's a few that she found:
Matthew didn't like the water. He stayed up on the beach, but had a hard time finding sea shells. Sarah was really sweet and took Matthew around and helped him find sea shells, too.
I was walking along the beach when Josh and I found some HUGE crabs. It took me a little bit to garner enough courage to pick one up. I had never seen crabs this big before on the beach. Other than Josh the kids didn't want to touch them at all. Here I am trying to pick one up while the other one is trying to snap at my fingers.
We found three huge crabs in all. Come to find out some lady had bought them and had tried to free them to go back in the ocean. They were having a hard time getting back in the water, though. It probably didn't help that Josh and I were trying to pick them up. After we found out they 'freed' we tried taking them out as deep as we could and let them, hopefully, swim away.
We had a lot of fun playing on the beach.
We stayed until after sunset until we couldn't see to play anymore.
The kids had all gotten soaked by the waves so they were more than ready to leave after the sun went down especially Daniel who had fallen in the water after a big wave knocked his feet out from under him.
The next morning we headed over to The San Diego Zoo. It was awesome to see the panda bears:
The whole zoo was so amazing. I had never been there before so it was all new to me as well as the rest of my family. They had ALL kinds of animals. Even being there from open to close we didn't see all the animals they had there.
We got to see the hippos up close since they were right next to the glass as we walked by. It was a mom and a baby:
Tiger:
Crocodile:
Gorillas:
They even had an overhead tram that ran the whole length down the middle of the park. It was neat to see some of the enclosures from overhead. Aaron, Matthew, and Noah were in the car ahead of us:
Josh, Daniel and Sarah were my riding buddies:
They had free roaming peacocks that we occasionally ran into. (Aaron was not a fan. He HATES birds of all shapes and sizes). They had a few aviaries you could walk through. When it came time to walk through Aaron just walked around and met us on the other side.
Sarah and Noah found a bird you could climb on:
The zoo was awesome. I would've loved to have gone back to see more if we would have had more time.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the San Diego Temple to walk around the grounds. It is such a beautiful temple!
The next morning as Aaron was loading up the car to come home I took the three youngest kids and we fed the fish in the hotel lobby.
The drive home was sooooo LONG!! We tried to see G&G T one last time before we left California, but the traffic was so bad that we weren't able to. I am really glad for Face time, though. I did call throughout the weekend to check up on my mom and she was doing well despite being in a care center in California than being in Utah. The staff was really friendly and they even let my Dad room in with her so he didn't have to stay in a hotel which was really nice. I was glad they were able to be together.
We got home late Monday night. There was no rest for the weary. Everyone had to get up and go to work and school the next day. Aaron got the added bonus of coming home to a jury summons--haha! This is his second summons in the last ten years. I think that is really funny Aaron has been asked to serve twice, but even though I have lived in Utah most of my life and have never been asked to serve on a jury. I guess they like asking the Utah/Texan guy to serve. We have been home a week and I think I am just starting to feel back to normal again. We really were on the go that whole vacation. There was so much to see and do we had no time to relax. Early wake up times and late bed times made for a few cranky individuals by the end of the vacation, but we still had a great time. However, I won't lie when we got home we were glad to get away from all the family togetherness for a bit--haha! All in all it was an amazing vacation despite all the craziness that went along with it.
Anyway, since we got home so late we didn't pick up Sophie from our friend's house who watched her until Tuesday afternoon. Matthew was in heaven. He really missed his Sophie girl. I think she missed us, too.
However, she had a lot of fun at her friend's house, though. Despite them having other dogs Sophie and their cat LOVED playing together most of the day. Here's a clip they sent us of Sophie and Lucy the cat playing together. I was surprised a cat would play with a dog, but they were a match in heaven:
Wednesday I had an orientation shift at my new job. I was a bit nervous because it was a new job and learning all the things that go with it can get a bit overwhelming, but things went ok. I was on my own for my Thursday day shift though. Usually Aaron has to get up before me to go to work. This time I had to get up at 4:30 am so I could get to work by 6. Aaron just laughed at me when the alarm went off then rolled over and went back to sleep. I was really jealous! My shift went pretty well. I was in charge of 5 CNA students and they were really well behaved and wanting to learn which was nice.
Friday Aaron had off for Veteran's Day which was nice. It was fun to spend the day together while the kids were in school.
Another exciting even that happened Friday was my mom had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon who did her surgery which gave her the ok to fly home to Utah Saturday morning. She was so giddy! Her and my Dad were done being in California away from everything familiar. Thankfully, my brother was able to fly out to help them get ready to come home. My brother got them on their flight and then was awesome enough to drive their car home for them from LA. It was a rough on my mom to travel home, but she was just glad to finally be home again. I am sure that was the longest two weeks my parents had ever had! I was also grateful to my brother that he was willing to fly out to drive their car back to Utah. Since I had just made that drive the previous Monday I was not wanting to do it again. It was wonderful that he volunteered to do that for them! Thanks Bryan!!
Friday evening a friend offered us his family's BYU football game tickets for Saturday afternoon since they weren't going to be able to go. Aaron snapped those up right away and was giddy about it. The next morning the kids at a Primary program practice. Afterward we picked them up and headed down to Provo for the game. It was fun to go as a family! Noah is at that stage where he has to pull funny faces in any pictures we take--the stinker!!
It was a good game against Southern Utah University in which BYU won. Wahoo!! Aaron was in HEAVEN. He loves BYU football. It was all I could do to get his attention away from the game for two seconds to take this picture:
The kids and I made some of our own entertainment during half time--haha!
The next day was the primary program in Sacrament Meeting. I was a bit sad because this is Daniel's last program. It was fun watching the kids sing and do their own parts, though. The primary program is one of my favorite Sundays! Daniel was excited because he got to talk about the Prophet Daniel. Noah did well during the first part of the program, but towards the end started goofing off. Oh well what can you do?! When it was time for him to give his part he decided it would be great to crawl up to the podium instead of walk. Awesome....not really. At least he keeps things entertaining.
Here's a flashback photo! Matthew's old scout leader found this old picture and sent us a copy. Matthew looks so young! I loved seeing it!
We had a bit of a scare from Sophie yesterday. She was just fine that morning. She was jumping all over and playing with the kids. When I got done volunteering and running a few errands I came home to find her outside laying down and super lethargic. I had to go pick up her because she was not moving. She was so cold and limp--I knew something was really wrong. The vet was able to see her right away which was good. She failed her neurological exam so they decided to take some blood. She then started throwing up, too--poor thing! The blood work showed she was really sick. Her liver enzymes were so high the machine couldn't even register them. Her platelets were low so they couldn't stop the blood oozing out from where they took the blood from. Her body temperature was extremely low as well. She was so sick they needed to hospitalize her. They didn't know if she ate something she wasn't supposed to or if she got a fast moving infection. Her X-rays came back showing there was no blockage which was good. However, she was still really sick. They started IV fluids and antibiotics and it was just a watch and see night. Here's what she looked like when I dropped her off. She was so pitiful it broke my heart:
Thankfully, she perked up this morning. She still doesn't feel very well, but they let me bring her home this afternoon. She has a few medications she has to take the next week, but I am hoping she will be back to her energetic, spunky self soon. She is just part of the family so everyone was sad to see her so sick.
