Happy Birthday A!

A is one year old today! I can't believe my baby is that big. His personality is really starting to come through. He loves to stand at the air hockey table and hold the hitting thing-- the name escapes me, and say go! go! over and over and try to hit the puck like he sees his brothers doing. He thinks he is one of the big kids. The boys were reading a story and it was full of silly puns and jokes, so they kept laughing. Each time they would laugh, A would start laughing and copying them. He was always about 30 seconds behind, starting late and stopping late. It was pretty funny to watch. We did a chocolate cake for his birthday, so I could get messy pictures, but then the camera wouldn't work, so I didn't get cute messy baby pictures, just a mess.

Congratulations Steve!!

My younger brother Steve is a Special Olympics althete. He is the 4th from the right, the boy with black hair and a permagrin. His team was able to come to the World Invitational Games in Boise and march in the opening ceremonies. Way to go Steve!!!

My mom was a chaperone, she's the tall one on the far right edge.

A Wonderful Trip

Our 15 day California trip was about as perfect as it could have been. In all we traveled 2,572 miles, drove through 6 states, and stopped at 9 temples. We saw lots of animals, went on a bunch of awesome rides, met lots of characters, and took over 500 pictures.
We left on February 9th and drove 12 1/2 hours. We left early and the kids slept off and on while we drove through the corner of Oregon and into Nevada. We stopped at the Reno temple, then the Sacramento temple (picture at left), then crashed at the hotel in Fresno.

The next day, we went to church in Fresno at the ward where Stephen served his mission and then wandered around the Fresno temple before driving to the LA temple (below) and on down to San Diego. We stopped at the beach, but it was dark and scary.



Monday was Sea World where we saw the dolphin show, Shamu (the killer whales), and petted lots of ocean animals, like dolphins and rays, and starfish. We also tried to feed the flamingos, but the ducks were faster and stole most the food. The weather was beautiful most of the time we were there-- from high 60's to 70's. A really nice change from the Idaho snow.






Tuesday we went to the San Diego zoo where we watched a baby panda playing and climbing a tree, polar bears playing, and grizzly bears wrestling, hippos, monkeys, tapirs, and along with lots of other animals. The weather was cool enough that they were out and active. My new favorite animal is the okapi (below). It's related to the giraffe, but has zebra stripes and just looks like you took a bunch of other African animals and shook them up together.

The kids loved posing with all of the fun boards that let them look like someone else.

Wednesday we went to the Wild Animal Park which was AMAZING. The park has 1800 acres, so the animals are in big enough spaces that they can run and play. Did you know baby elephants wrestle with each other? My favorites were the 7 lion cubs and 4 African elephant babies. You ride on a tour bus out "Into Africa" and get the see all of the animals living in a mixed species environment, lots of different antelope species, rhinos, giraffes, gazelles, etc. just roaming across the plains. (some, like the lions and elephants have their own exhibits).

They also have a petting zoo area where you can pet deer and gazelles and antelope, which the kids enjoyed. It was fun to be that close to wild animals--well, tamed wild animals.








Thursday we went to the Natural History Museum and Science Museum and saw dinosaurs and fossils and enjoyed a slower pace day. We spent the evening walking along the beach collecting shells and testing the waves. What better Valentines Day than a sunset walk along the beach, right?j

Friday we visited the San Diego temple, then went over to the La Jolla Childrens Pool, and area of beach that was made for kids to play protected from the hardest waves, but has been taken over by the seals. We watched a mother seal teaching her new baby (3 hours old) about the ocean. It was AWESOME. She would shove him out into the ocean, then swim out past him and shove him back onto the beach. They are in the center of the photo, touching noses.

The boys were more intrigued with the waves than the seals, and A just slept through it, but J thought it was fun!

That night we drove to Anaheim and went to Medieval Times where the boys watched "real" knights and sword fighting. What was I thinking???? They don't need any encouragement. :) But they absolutely loved it and both chose swords as their souvenir at the end of the trip.

Saturday was our first day at Disneyland. We avoided most of the crowds and rode a lot of rides and met a lot of characters. At first J was a little nervous, but once she realized we always get off at the end, she started to enjoy them. One of the favorite rides was the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, which is like riding through a video game. You have a gun and you are trying to defeat Zorg by shooting "Z's." You get points for how many you hit. The boys enjoyed trying to beat mom-- I was easier to beat than dad-- especially since I was usually holding a baby. J liked the gun, but also liked the little lever that let her spin the car around in circles. Try hitting a target when you're spinning randomly every little bit. :)

That night (and Monday) we watched the Electrical Parade, which was amazing!!!! There were hundreds of thousands of lights on the floats and the dancers. J's eyes would light up with every princess who passed, and of course, they were all waving and blowing kisses straight at her!

Sunday we went to the Newport Beach Temple where the kids loved the fountain. Then we went to the Santa Anna Children's Museum where they met Clifford and tried a bunch of science experiments.

Monday we went to the other Disney Park, California Adventure, that has some bigger rides and roller coasters and a fun area dedicated to Bugs Life. The 3D show was lots of fun and the kids, and Stephen, really liked their bug glasses. J liked the carousel and the fact that she could ride "no hands" like the boys.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we spent time in both Disney parks. We collected lots of character autographs and it was interesting to see who J would approach and who she was afraid of. She loved JoJo and ran right up to give her a hug, but she was scared of Clifford. She liked any of the princesses or anyone in a frilly dress.

At one point, we were able to get pictures with characters from Star Wars. I think Stephen's grin was bigger than any of the kids as he met Jedi Knights and Darth Vader and Darth Maul. J was a okay with the Jedi's, but almost cried when she met Darth Maul and told Stephen, "he is a bad, bad man."


Mr. Incredible was another character who brought out the kid in Stephen. Look at that grin!




Another one of my favorite things was going to see the play Aladdin at Disneyland. It was the best play that I have ever seen. The sets and acting and stunt work were incredible!!!! There were 11 genies for the scene where they are all dancing, and a "real" flying carpet, and a huge snake, that burst to have the Genie Jafar inside. It was so good we went to see it twice!!!


I was impressed with how many rides A was able to go on and how much he enjoyed them. He did get a little tired of the stroller at times, but overall he was a great sport. Having 5 days at Disneyland made it easier to take a break in the afternoons and go back to the hotel for a little while some days.



And here we are with Mickey Mouse on our last day at Disneyland. We left Anaheim about 6 and drove to Las Vegas, getting in around midnight. The next day we drove to Clinton, stopping at the St. George temple and Visitors Center. We stayed the night with family in Clinton, then drove on home the next day. It was a long time, but it was so fun, I'm so glad we were able to go!!!!!

Disneyland/CA Trip Budget

I've had several people ask me about the deals I found for our trip. We had 6 people, 2 adults, 4 kids (7, 5, 2, and 11 months). Going just before J turned 3 saved quite a bit because we didn't have to buy her a ticket for everything. We drove 2,572 miles.

GRAND TOTAL: $2,702.76 for 15 days

Here is a breakdown of our expenses, which includes the things I bought before the trip to go.

Hotels: $765.57
$71.67 Fresno-- Roadway Inn, 1 night
319.60 San Diego-- Days Inn, 5 nights I got lucky and got a suite through Hotels.com
$345.00 Anaheim-- Super 8 on Katella, 6 nights, 2 blocks from Disneyland Entrance, about a 12 minute walk.
$29.30 Las Vegas-- Arizona Charlies- Boulder, 1 night, away from the strip, and separate from the casino. hotels.com

Gas: $364.40
Started out full. It took 8 1/2 tanks of gas for the entire trip.
$40.65 Lodi, NV
$47.78 Lovelock, CA
$47.25 Caustic, CA
$52.18 La Jolla, CA
$51.52 Barstow, CA
$44.42 St. George, UT
$31.86 Sanaquinn, UT
$27.54 Salt Lake, UT area
$42.39 Jerome, ID (had over 1/2 a tank left, so I'm only counting 1/2 $21.20)

Food: $294.21
$28.00
I bought several gift certificates through restaurants.com Usually they are $10 for a $25 gift Certificate, but I used a coupon code I found online and got them for $4 each. Some of the restaurants were awesome, only one was a flop (Indian food is WAY too spicy). One fun restaurant was called Azteca and it was a Mexican Restaurant, but every inch of wall and ceiling was covered with Elvis memorabilia. Elvis movies, Elvis jukebox. Quite interesting. You have to spend $35 at the restaurant, plus pay tax and tip, but we could get tons of food for the same amount we'd pay elsewhere. The restaurants were a couple miles from Disneyland, so we had to drive. I don't know that I would do it again, even though we got a ton of food for the money, other than the Azteca restaurant which was just fun. like a mexican Hard Rock Cafe.
$13.00 Samari Sams in Sacramento with gift cert.
$17.00 Rastal's-- real Indian food, very spicy
$30.19 Sals Bit of Italy-- one of the gift certificate places. The food was awesome, but he was offended that we used the certificate and overcharged us on things.
$19.07 Azteca Restaurant.
$19.00 Seafood Kingdom
$19.51 In-and-Out Burger in San Diego
$8.99 Subway-- 2 footlongs to share with coupon from home
$34.87 IHOP kids eat free, right across from Disneyland
$35.72 IHOP again, the kids favorite restaurant
$8.52 Suckers at Disneyland, 2 days
$6.00 Cotton Candy at Disneyland, 2 days
$5.00 Cotton Candy and a bucket at Sea World-- which was perfect for playing in the sand and collecting shells-
$4.27 tortillas in Disneyland. This is one of the best deals in the park. Bring in some jam or peanut butter and eat roll-ups. One
$4.71 McDonalds-- ice cream on the drive
$8.53 Jack in the Box-- breakfast in Las Vegas
$17.00 Subway in Utah driving home
$14.83 Pizza Hut, Twin Falls, ID used Book its and Coupons from home


Attractions: $1019.10
$172.80 Sea World-- Used Code BOEING for 2 days for the price of 1 with a 20% discount (you can also get the 20% off using Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards card, which is free.) We didn't use the 2nd day, but it is valid until next Jan, so who knows. . .
$10.00 Sea World Parking

$119.00 Zoo and Wild Animal Park. It was cheaper to buy a diamond membership for Stephen and I which is valid for 1 year, it comes with 2 free guest tickets to each park which we used for the boys, and the little ones were free. It also includes free parking at the wild animal park and our tour ride.
$12.00 for the boys tour ride tickets. You can use them over and over, and it was VERY worth it. I think we rode 3 times.

$105.30 Medieval Times-- they were offering a promo 1 free kid with a paying adult, and the two little ones sat on our laps. It is a bit tricky to eat with your hands with a baby on your lap, but they were really good and gave us extra bread and stuff for them.

$600.00 Disneyland-- promo of buy a three day park hopper get two days free. Best deal was through arestravel.com. Look for deals on www.mousesavers.com That is where I found most of the Disneyland deals.

All the Museums were free because we have a annual pass to the Discovery Center in Boise. It was $60 and all of the Museums are reciprocal members.


Miscellaneous: $259.48
$164.05 at Walmart before we left buying snack foods, microwave dinner foods, rain ponchos, toys and treats for in the car, games, and misc trip stuff.
$7.00 tip at Medieval Times
$29.71 Souvenirs-- t-shirts and surprises for all the kids and our autograph book-- we went to the Character Warehouse in the Orangefair Mall about 4 miles from Disneyland, stuff was way cheaper there-- about 1/3 of the Disneyland price for the same stuff. Selection was limited though.
$28.55 Swords for the boys
$12.93 Princess figures for J--Great grandma sent each kid $10 and we gave them $5 more
$17.24 Plate and Ice Cubes-- my souvenir. I've wanted a "special" plate that we can use to celebrate someone doing something, so I bought a Mickey one. And mickey shaped reuseable ice cubes.

We leave in the morning

The bags are packed, the car is loaded, and if the kids will ever fall asleep, we'll be able to get some sleep before we pull out bright and early tomorrow morning (the plan is 5 am, so they can sleep while we drive the first bit). They are so excited, I think it's worse than Christmas. Packing was crazy with lots of little helpers pulling stuff out faster than I could put it in-- J and A. But all the reservations are made, tickets are bought, and enough maps are printed off to fill a binder. We want to visit at least a dozen temples on our trip, so we had to make maps to find all of them.

And R just came out of bed with the exciting news that another tooth had fallen out. He was really concerned that it would fall out on the trip and we would lose it before we could get home to put it under his pillow. He's been wiggling it all day, even though we told him she could find him in California. The worries of a 7 year old. :)

Snow, Snow, Snow

What a crazy weekend. Our good friends the Nortons came up to visit to go to a baby blessing this weekend. We had fun visiting and hanging out with half the ward last night, then woke up to a ton of snow this morning-- there are 12 inches on the ground and it's still coming down!!!!!! This is unheard of for the Boise area. This year is the first year in 13 years they have had to cancel school for snow, and it's been canceled 3 times already and probably will be tomorrow. Even church was canceled today. We have more snow on the ground right now than we have got in the last 5 years altogether!!!! We had a fun, relaxing afternoon hanging out and playing games, since the Nortons are snowed in here and can't go home.