California City Pass - III

I've never been to Disneyland more than one day at a time. It seemed quite extraordinary to be able to spend three whole days there. Our morning on the third day started out with tiny gastropods.

The boys had a blast finding plenty of snails on the bushes on the walk to Disneyland. Nanny was brave enough to join in the fun too.

A picture of the whole gang (minus photographer) in a tea cup.

Me and my girl.

Quite the catch - some grandparents and their grandchildren. I think we should keep them.

Another attempt at a family picture.

Part of our third day was an excursion to the Lego store (to appease the boys for not going to Legoland). They found plenty to be excited about! In fact they were all done with Disneyland once they got their Lego fix.

The boys wanted a photo with their Lego purchases. They saved up for almost a whole year so they could by stuff at Disneyland. And then they go and by Lego sets. Crazy boys.

C is for California Adventure and for the Caviness Family.

Chad's most daring ride was the Matterhorn.

Halle and Sean touch the poison apple.

Watch out here comes the witch!

Our last day of Disneyland comes to a close.

We got to watch fireworks 3 out of 4 nights. We watched from our Hotel a couple of nights. We missed one night when we saw the Electric Parade. But we got up close for the last night and celebrated with lights and music. They were crazy packed days but I hope everybody had fun and I hope my children remember it all for a long, long time.

Things to Celebrate

Finally after doing the dishes by hand for over 4 months (that is 1/3 of a year) I now have a new and perfectly working dishwasher. It is sooooooo wonderful!!!!!!!!!!

The same day I got my new dishwasher installed my washing machine got fixed too. (Yes, yet another appliance died on us.) It is so nice to do my laundry from home instead of running it to my in-laws and back again. I am also so glad it was an easy fix and easy on the budget. Although I do dream of a new washing machine and dryer (our current ones are older than our marriage) I'm a little sick of spending money.

I am also happy to be alive! We had a gas leak in our water heater a few days ago. I was actually the one that smelt it out which is amazing because I really have no sense of smell. 2 1/2 hours after we first called AVISTA about our gas leak (and several calls in between) they finally came out and fixed it. I was a nervous wreck as gas already totally freaks me out (I will never have a gas fireplace or stove!).

That's all for now.

California City Pass - II

On our second day of Disneyland we got to go in early. The first ride on the docket for the day was the teacups. Each kid had picked one must do ride for our trip. Chad's was the Indiana Jones ride. Sean wanted to do Buzz Light Year. And Halle's dream was to ride the teacups. It is so nice to fulfill your children's dreams. With a whole hour before regular opening time we hit all the kiddy rides before the lines became long (The Teacups, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, Peter Pan, etc.).




Halle having the ride of her life. Too bad I get dizzy - so I just got to take pictures. I did go on Dumbo though! Chris took Chad to ride the Matterhorn - while they were doing that my mom and I took Halle and Sean to Dumbo. Sean wasn't tall enough to ride by himself so I had to get in. Luckily I made it through without getting too nauseated.

My three Mouseketeers.

We went to the California Adventure Park as soon as it opened. It didn't seem like there were very many people. We got fast passes for California Soaring then took some pictures and lazily walked to the Bug 4D show. We were the only ones at the show!!!!! It was fun but I didn't understand why no one else was there. But later in the day when we finally went to the Toy Story ride we found out where everybody was - in line for that ride!!!!!! It was the most awesome ride ever.

A quick pose by Mater and Lightening McQueen.

Enjoying the whole bug park to ourselves.

A huge Mr. Potato Head and a huge line - almost 2 hours of waiting, waiting, waiting. But so worth it!!!!!!!!! It was the greatest ride ever!

Our night was finally finished off by the Electric Parade - very fun.

California City Pass - I

Life has been a complete whirlwind lately. My goal this summer is to catch up on everything from the last few months (and if I really get with it maybe all of last summer too).

Our big adventure for the year was to take the family to Disneyland. My parents have been wanting us to go for the past several years - but since we knew it would be a once (but hopefully twice) in a life time experience we wanted to wait until all the kids were old enough to enjoy and remember it.

I bought a "California City Pass" for everyone and we took full advantage of it. We spent one week in California experiencing Disneyland, California Adventure, Universal Studios, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and the beach in San Diego (and also major traffic jams).

Our adventure started out on Sunday, March 28th. We attended 6th ward sacrament meeting since they have the early schedule this year. Our kids were so excited to see so many of their friends/acquaintances there. They were also extremely twitchy. They knew that as soon as sacrament meeting was over that we could be heading for the airport and then Disneyland. Who wants to sit through church and be reverent when you have Disneyland on the brain?!

The first leg of our flight was from Spokane to Salt Lake City. At Salt Lake City everything got a little crazy. We were originally supposed to just stop in SLC, stay on the plane, have my parents board the same plane, and then proceed to CA. But, no! It would be just crazy talk to let the airlines keep it that simple. At SLC they had everyone get off the plane. They gave us a different plane to depart from. Then a different one. And, yes, yet another one. We changed gates and planes three different times. We finally started boarding one (my mom had a first class ticket and boarded first) when they changed their minds yet again!!!!! After just 2 hours we were finally on our way to Disneyland.

Finally in California! John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The kids had no clue who John Wayne was but loved the statue.

Sean went right for the gun.

Chad trying to make everyone laugh.

After getting our rental car, driving to Disneyland, finding our Hotel and eating dinner it was quite late. But that didn't stop up from walking over to Disneyland and showing our kids were we would be having tons of fun for the next three days. You can see Sean reading a map and already planning what rides he wants to go on. My parents are just thrilled to be with the grand kids and to have Chris and I there to do the babysitting (official disciplining etc.).

We got loads of advise from friends that had been to Disneyland before. We tried to take full advantage of everything. We got up early every morning and were always at the gate before opening. Here we are inside the park but still waiting for the official opening so that everyone can run to the most exciting rides before the lines get ridiculously long.

The first ride we went for was Indiana Jones. We would have been among the first in line - but it was closed!!!! Which meant the fast pass was shut down too. So, our very first ride at Disneyland was the Haunted House. The kids thought it was so cool and totally amazing. Our second ride was Pirates of the Caribbean. Again the kids thought we had brought them to Heaven. After those two rides (with no lines at all) we headed back to Indiana Jones which was working again. The line didn't seem too long so we got straight in line. Little did we know there was another whole line winding around for ever inside. It was all worth it! Again the kids thought that was the most exciting thing they had ever done in their life.

The only character we saw the whole time was Buzz Light Year. We took a quick picture of Buzz in the background while waiting for StarTours.

C3PO talking to us. The kids were amazed to find their favorite Star Wars friends.

The best ride ever with a fastpass was the Buzz Light Year ride. The kids (and grandparents) enjoyed shooting at everything!

Princess Halle welcomes us to her kingdom at Disneyland.

The kids were enthralled with Jedi Training but were too chicken to volunteer to be Jedi. The sith really was pretty scary.

One of Sean's highlights was to touch one of the geometrically shaped trees outside of It's A Small World.

My little munchkin's ready for the boat ride and an experience of a life time with It's A Small World. And yes, they caught onto the tune and words mighty fast. Just thinking about this ride makes me sing the song - very contagious!

We watched the street parade. It was nice to sit down for a while and just relax. Sean loved dancing to the music as everything went by.

We took the jungle boat ride at night when it was dark - it made it kind of spooky for the kids which was great as mom and dad love to tease. Our very last adventure for the night was to go to the Tiki Tiki room. This is what my dad had looked forward to all day.