Month: October 2012

Friday we had a lazy morning, and Kyle and I went to the credit union to open an account for Adam. When we got back to the house, we loaded up all of our kids to go to Knotts Berry Farm. Since Tiffany was all alone at the house, we took her with us.

It turns out that we chose the perfect day to go. The weather was beautiful, not hot, and not cold. And considering our kids were out of school, but kids in California were in school there were next to no lines for any of the rides! So we just got right on almost everything.

Chloe and Jeremy look like they really didn’t like this one. It was kind of like a mini Supreme Scream where they take you up and then drop you. Only this one they take you up and then you kind of bounce down, and then you go back up only not so high and then bounce back down. Also, those are all our kids except the little girl sitting between Jeremy and Chloe. 🙂

After Woodstock’s Airmail, Kyle took Ethan, Tyra, Jeremy and Dinah on a roller coaster across the way. Tiffany and I stayed with the strollers of little people, and went to find the exit of the ride. Kyle, Tiffany and I took turns staying with Adam and the strollers (and sometimes Lydia and Chloe if they were too short to go on something). There was next to no line so they got on pretty quickly.  As soon as they got on the ride though, Jeremy decided that there was no way he was going to go through with it, so he came right down the exit stairs to be with us while we waited for the others. When it finished and they got off, they came down the stairs to us. Dinah had a huge smile on her face while she said “that was SO scary!”

Being October the park was all decked out for Halloween (they closed early so they could reopen a bit later for Knott’s Scary Farm).

Lydia really got mad every time we tried to buckle her into a ride. But once the ride got going, she really enjoyed herself.

The only ride we really had to wait in line for, was the ferris wheel. And it wasn’t because it was highly popular or anything like that. It was only because the girls running it were only using about half the seats, which I suspect had something to do with keeping it balanced, but I’m not positive about that.

Jeremy makes some really awesome funny faces. If you have time I highly suggest you go over to the photo gallery and check them out (there are a few from when he was sitting on this ride).

We had an awesome day. We probably could have got there earlier, but I’m not going to beat myself up over that. We were able to cover almost all of Camp Snoopy, and I think the kids had a lot of fun. After every ride they asked if they could go again, and thankfully we kept answering with “well lets see what’s next” or we may not have been able to go through as much of Camp Snoopy as we did. 🙂

It’s time for the kids fall break! A couple of years ago we had decided that the 4 day weekend was just too short for a trip to California. Every time that we had attempted it, we just felt really rushed. This year however, they had a five day weekend! So we decided to try the California trip again. Our plan was to have Kyle take Wednesday off, and we would leave as soon as the kids got home from school, stop in maybe Mesquite for the night, and then finish the drive Thursday morning. But then we remembered about pack meeting. Kyle is a cub scout leader and we felt that we should stick around for the meeting so he could be there, and so we changed our plans to leave right after.

Well as it normally turns out, we weren’t ready to leave right after the meeting. I got the van loaded up as fast as I could, and we were off, but not really. We had to go pick Granny up first. When Kyle first mentioned to his mom that we would be going to California middle of October, she told him that she would like to go to, but that she probably wouldn’t be feeling up to it. I tried not to think too much of it. I figured she would say that she wanted to go, and then she would still not be feeling up to it, and then decide in the end that she should probably just stay home. No such luck. From the beginning I was not thrilled about the idea of taking his mom with us. I didn’t want to give up my seat next to Kyle in the front of the van, and it’s also a lot harder to just come and go as we please when we have to coordinate with someone else. So the day we were supposed to be leaving I was kind of bummed when she called Kyle to tell him that she still wanted to go. We figured out a way to move the car seats around so she would have enough room to sit in the back next to Adam and after the pack meeting we went to pick her up. Most of the kids were asleep when we got her and her luggage loaded into the car, and THEN we officially hit the road.

The drive was mostly uneventful. We stopped about every 4 hours to feed Adam, our first stop being in Beaver. Karen asked where we were when we got off the freeway, and was shocked to find out we were “only in Beaver”. We pulled into a gas station parking lot and that is where all the kids woke up. The ones that weren’t awake when we picked Granny up were all surprised to find her in the car, and so got really excited. While I fed Adam everyone else took advantage of the opportunity to have a potty stop. Then we got back on the road. The kids talked to Granny for awhile and then things settled back down as they started to drift back off to sleep. Every now and then, while we were driving, Karen would ask us a question. Usually she asked where we were, but there were a few times where the road would get bumpy that she would ask us questions like “Do you need new tires?” “Are your shocks ok?” and the one that shocked Kyle and I the most “What did you hit?” Um ya we didn’t hit anything that was just a bit of bumpy road. 😛

We began our drive so much later than originally planned that we decided to just drive straight through the night. We felt it would be pointless to try to stop at a hotel for the night considering the kids had been asleep for so long already. Stopping at a hotel would mean that instead of Kyle and I resting we would be too busy trying to keep the kids from disturbing other people and therefore we would be neither driving or resting. So we got to my parents house earlier than they were expecting us.

We didn’t do much on Thursday. Karen’s friend Carolyn came and picked her up so they could go spend time together, and the kids let loose to get their wiggles out. After a bit, Kyle and I just found places to lay down and take a nap.

Thursday evening, after dinner, we left our smallest three kiddos as Grandpa and Grandma’s house, and we took the older four to the lego store at Downtown Disney.

The kids were in awe at the size of the lego displays. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ethan had been drooling while I wasn’t looking.

Of course, the girls loved seeing a giant girl made of legos.

Most of our kids were drawn to the table of legos where you can sit and build things. Ethan however, was more attracted to seeing what he could buy. Of course I had told him over and over that we were NOT going to buy anything. His room is a giant explosion of legos and until he gets it all straightened out, I don’t really want any new legos coming into the house. He was not pleased when we told him to put the things he selected back on the shelf so we could go and so the night basically ended in tears. I do think they enjoyed themselves before the meltdown though.