04/20/2010
EASTER VACATION
We decided to spend Easter Vacation with John and Courtenay, camping on the beach in Southern California. It had only been a month since we had gone to Disneyland and both James and I thought the trips were a little too close together. We didn't feel like we needed another vacation quite so soon. On top of not really feeling the need to go on another vacation, the weather report for the week was extremely grim. It was supposed to rain 3 of the 5 days we were there and we almost called the trip off. Luckily, we decided to go ahead with it -- rain or no rain.
We pulled out Tuesday afternoon after spending the morning with my Alannah, my first roommate in college, and her family. It was so good to see Alannah and to chat with her for a few hours. I wish we had had more time together! The wind as we drove South was absolutely amazing. Our car usually averages about 21-24 miles to the gallon, but with the head wind we only got 14 miles to the gallon on the way down there. I pretty much had the gas pedal floored the whole time. We stopped in Barstow that night and woke up early the next day to get to Legoland when it opened at 10:00 am.
LEGOLAND
When we went to Legoland in November they gave us free return tickets that expired on the 31st of March. So the kids and I decided to go again this trip and just hit the few rides we missed last time (James didn't want to go very badly). The park wasn't nearly as enjoyable this time, it was much more crowded and really none of the rides there are worth standing in any sort of line for. We only ended up riding about 6 rides this time. The boys had a good time, but I think that that may have been our last trip to Legoland for a long time (or ever). It's just not worth the money. If you can get in free then do it, but I would never pay their full prices.
CAMPING
Our day at Legoland had been overcast and dreary. With rain in the forecast, we really wanted to get to the campground and set up the tent before it started, so we left at about 4:00 pm. At 4:30 the skies completely cleared, the sun was shining and the wind began to die down. We got to the campsite, set up our tent and enjoyed a grilled dinner of hotdogs with John and Courtenay. James tried to get us to the beach that night to watch the sunset, but we were all too slow and missed it by just a few minutes. We went to bed that night and it rained from about 2:00 in the morning until 6:00 or so, right before we got up to get ready for our day at Disneyland. I think I was the only one that actually got wet in the rain, because I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (it wouldn't be a camping trip if I didn't have to pee every single night whether I had anything to drink the evening before or not!) Courtenay may have been up too, but at least she has the excuse of being pregnant!
DISNEYLAND
The sun came up bright and warmish for our day at Disneyland. James and I had even bought the kids rain coats and umbrellas before leaving because we didn't want them to be miserable in the rain, but we never used them the entire trip. I was expecting Disneyland to be extremely crowded because of it being Easter Weekend and all, but the weather forecast must have scared a lot of the people away. We were able to ride pretty much everything we wanted to. We noticed on our last trip that Seth and Jacob were both centimeters away from being tall enough to ride some rides they had never been on, so we put taller shoes on both of them this time. Jacob was able to ride Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. He liked Star Tours ("Is this almost over Mom?"), he loved Splash Mountain ("That was totally awesome!"), and he did not like Big Thunder Mountain ("That ride almost made me DIE!!!").
Seth was able to ride the Indiana Jones ride for the first time. The wait in line was a little nerve wracking for him. He was totally worried about "looking into the Eyes of Mara." He had his eyes closed almost the entire ride. We got him to open them twice, once at the beginning and then again at the end for the boulder scene. The boulder scene really is the best of the whole ride and I think he liked that part. He says he's not going to ride it again until he's 10 years old though, so maybe it was a little too intense for him.
James and John left Courtenay and me at Disneyland for a few hours while they went off to have a culinary experience in Los Angeles. They ate at Phillipe's, which is the home of the original French Dip sandwich and the went to Galco's Soda Pop Stop, which is a store dedicated to sodas of all kinds. I think that store has something like 140 different kinds of root beer. I thought James would go to town and buy a bunch of soda, but he only came out with about 10 or 12 bottles. The boys had a good time, but they said that the food may not have been worth the three hour drive back and forth to LA.
While they were gone, Courtenay and I, had lunch (Court got some Gluten Free pizza that she said was pretty good), watched the show at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon and had an ice cream dessert. Then we watched and danced along with the parade, rode Small World, went to Toon Town and then watched a guy make caramel apples in the candy shop on Main Street. It sounds like a lot, but we took our time getting places and just enjoyed the nice weather and the magic of Disneyland.
That night everyone was pretty wiped out. I broke one of my most important Disneyland rules, which is to eat earlier rather than later. We didn't have dinner until after 8:00 pm. We were actually going to leave the park and eat dinner on our way home, but Seth (and John) really wanted to see the fireworks. So we decided to stay and eat in the park. Seth fell asleep in the stroller as we walked to get our food :| , luckily he perked up again after eating. The fireworks were awesome as usual and we had a great spot to watch them. Jacob slept through them, but Lia thought they were pretty cool.
We didn't make it back to the campground until after midnight. I had the inspired idea to bring everyone's jammies with us to Disneyland and we put them on the kids before we left the park, so when we got to the campground all we had to do was slide the sleeping kids into their beds. I think Courtenay wished she had brought her jammies too, she was pretty tired and swollen from walking around all day.
BEACH DAY
The next day we just spent chilling in our campsite and playing on the beach. It was a beautiful day! I took Lia and went to get groceries while the rest of the group spent the afternoon burying each other in the sand and playing in the water. Both Jacob and Seth were wet and had sand in all their cracks and crevices when they got back. After we got back from the grocery store, I put Lia down for her nap and enjoyed a peaceful couple of hours, sitting in the sun and reading. It was pretty close to heaven! James and John grilled some fish tacos for a late lunch/early dinner and then we headed back down to the beach to watch the sunset.
EASTER EGG HUNT
I thought it would be fun to stage an Easter egg hunt in our campsite for the kids. John and Courtenay took Seth and Jacob on a hike while I hid the eggs. Lia thought the eggs on the ground were pretty interesting and ventured out to pick up a few of them. When she realized that they had candy in them she got really brave and even walked over grass to get a few. (She hates grass and will not touch it at all if she can help it!). The boys found the eggs pretty quickly and I let them have the candy for their car treat on the drive home that day.
GOING HOME
We drove to St. George on Saturday and stayed the night there before continuing home the next day. We were able to listen to the Sunday morning session of General Conference in the car as we drove. Stopping in St. George was really nice. We left at about 10:00 am and pulled into our driveway just before 2:00 pm. We unpacked the car and then went over to James' mom's house for Easter dinner.
The trip was so fun! If I did it again, I'd leave out Legoland and spend more time at the beach (I'm not sure I could leave out Disneyland though;)). I liked having all of our busy and tiring activities at the beginning of the trip so that we could be more relaxed at the end. The beach was beautiful and the weather cooperated quite well. We were all very glad that we didn't cancel it!!
We decided to spend Easter Vacation with John and Courtenay, camping on the beach in Southern California. It had only been a month since we had gone to Disneyland and both James and I thought the trips were a little too close together. We didn't feel like we needed another vacation quite so soon. On top of not really feeling the need to go on another vacation, the weather report for the week was extremely grim. It was supposed to rain 3 of the 5 days we were there and we almost called the trip off. Luckily, we decided to go ahead with it -- rain or no rain.
We pulled out Tuesday afternoon after spending the morning with my Alannah, my first roommate in college, and her family. It was so good to see Alannah and to chat with her for a few hours. I wish we had had more time together! The wind as we drove South was absolutely amazing. Our car usually averages about 21-24 miles to the gallon, but with the head wind we only got 14 miles to the gallon on the way down there. I pretty much had the gas pedal floored the whole time. We stopped in Barstow that night and woke up early the next day to get to Legoland when it opened at 10:00 am.
LEGOLAND
When we went to Legoland in November they gave us free return tickets that expired on the 31st of March. So the kids and I decided to go again this trip and just hit the few rides we missed last time (James didn't want to go very badly). The park wasn't nearly as enjoyable this time, it was much more crowded and really none of the rides there are worth standing in any sort of line for. We only ended up riding about 6 rides this time. The boys had a good time, but I think that that may have been our last trip to Legoland for a long time (or ever). It's just not worth the money. If you can get in free then do it, but I would never pay their full prices.
CAMPING
Our day at Legoland had been overcast and dreary. With rain in the forecast, we really wanted to get to the campground and set up the tent before it started, so we left at about 4:00 pm. At 4:30 the skies completely cleared, the sun was shining and the wind began to die down. We got to the campsite, set up our tent and enjoyed a grilled dinner of hotdogs with John and Courtenay. James tried to get us to the beach that night to watch the sunset, but we were all too slow and missed it by just a few minutes. We went to bed that night and it rained from about 2:00 in the morning until 6:00 or so, right before we got up to get ready for our day at Disneyland. I think I was the only one that actually got wet in the rain, because I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (it wouldn't be a camping trip if I didn't have to pee every single night whether I had anything to drink the evening before or not!) Courtenay may have been up too, but at least she has the excuse of being pregnant!
DISNEYLAND
The sun came up bright and warmish for our day at Disneyland. James and I had even bought the kids rain coats and umbrellas before leaving because we didn't want them to be miserable in the rain, but we never used them the entire trip. I was expecting Disneyland to be extremely crowded because of it being Easter Weekend and all, but the weather forecast must have scared a lot of the people away. We were able to ride pretty much everything we wanted to. We noticed on our last trip that Seth and Jacob were both centimeters away from being tall enough to ride some rides they had never been on, so we put taller shoes on both of them this time. Jacob was able to ride Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. He liked Star Tours ("Is this almost over Mom?"), he loved Splash Mountain ("That was totally awesome!"), and he did not like Big Thunder Mountain ("That ride almost made me DIE!!!").
Seth was able to ride the Indiana Jones ride for the first time. The wait in line was a little nerve wracking for him. He was totally worried about "looking into the Eyes of Mara." He had his eyes closed almost the entire ride. We got him to open them twice, once at the beginning and then again at the end for the boulder scene. The boulder scene really is the best of the whole ride and I think he liked that part. He says he's not going to ride it again until he's 10 years old though, so maybe it was a little too intense for him.
James and John left Courtenay and me at Disneyland for a few hours while they went off to have a culinary experience in Los Angeles. They ate at Phillipe's, which is the home of the original French Dip sandwich and the went to Galco's Soda Pop Stop, which is a store dedicated to sodas of all kinds. I think that store has something like 140 different kinds of root beer. I thought James would go to town and buy a bunch of soda, but he only came out with about 10 or 12 bottles. The boys had a good time, but they said that the food may not have been worth the three hour drive back and forth to LA.
While they were gone, Courtenay and I, had lunch (Court got some Gluten Free pizza that she said was pretty good), watched the show at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon and had an ice cream dessert. Then we watched and danced along with the parade, rode Small World, went to Toon Town and then watched a guy make caramel apples in the candy shop on Main Street. It sounds like a lot, but we took our time getting places and just enjoyed the nice weather and the magic of Disneyland.
That night everyone was pretty wiped out. I broke one of my most important Disneyland rules, which is to eat earlier rather than later. We didn't have dinner until after 8:00 pm. We were actually going to leave the park and eat dinner on our way home, but Seth (and John) really wanted to see the fireworks. So we decided to stay and eat in the park. Seth fell asleep in the stroller as we walked to get our food :| , luckily he perked up again after eating. The fireworks were awesome as usual and we had a great spot to watch them. Jacob slept through them, but Lia thought they were pretty cool.
We didn't make it back to the campground until after midnight. I had the inspired idea to bring everyone's jammies with us to Disneyland and we put them on the kids before we left the park, so when we got to the campground all we had to do was slide the sleeping kids into their beds. I think Courtenay wished she had brought her jammies too, she was pretty tired and swollen from walking around all day.
BEACH DAY
The next day we just spent chilling in our campsite and playing on the beach. It was a beautiful day! I took Lia and went to get groceries while the rest of the group spent the afternoon burying each other in the sand and playing in the water. Both Jacob and Seth were wet and had sand in all their cracks and crevices when they got back. After we got back from the grocery store, I put Lia down for her nap and enjoyed a peaceful couple of hours, sitting in the sun and reading. It was pretty close to heaven! James and John grilled some fish tacos for a late lunch/early dinner and then we headed back down to the beach to watch the sunset.
EASTER EGG HUNT
I thought it would be fun to stage an Easter egg hunt in our campsite for the kids. John and Courtenay took Seth and Jacob on a hike while I hid the eggs. Lia thought the eggs on the ground were pretty interesting and ventured out to pick up a few of them. When she realized that they had candy in them she got really brave and even walked over grass to get a few. (She hates grass and will not touch it at all if she can help it!). The boys found the eggs pretty quickly and I let them have the candy for their car treat on the drive home that day.
GOING HOME
We drove to St. George on Saturday and stayed the night there before continuing home the next day. We were able to listen to the Sunday morning session of General Conference in the car as we drove. Stopping in St. George was really nice. We left at about 10:00 am and pulled into our driveway just before 2:00 pm. We unpacked the car and then went over to James' mom's house for Easter dinner.
The trip was so fun! If I did it again, I'd leave out Legoland and spend more time at the beach (I'm not sure I could leave out Disneyland though;)). I liked having all of our busy and tiring activities at the beginning of the trip so that we could be more relaxed at the end. The beach was beautiful and the weather cooperated quite well. We were all very glad that we didn't cancel it!!
