Giveaway

My friend Catey is doing a giveaway of a first edition signed hardback copy of "The Hourglass Door" on her blog at http://www.randomthoughtsfromthezoo.blogspot.com. Check it out to win!

Why do I live in Utah again?!!

We just returned last Sunday from eight days in beautiful California. And as is typically the case when I return from that lovely place, I'm trying to figure out why I live in Utah. Of course I was raised here, and I do love a lot of things about Utah, and a lot of our family is here, but let's be honest people, I belong somewhere warm with less than 30-minute beach access. To say the least, I love California. It's beautiful and warm, and there is so much to do and see. If I can't live there, I might as well visit as often as I can - right?

We haven't been to California for four years which we figured out is the longest dry spell of my life. T.J. was 3 months old the last time, and that whole trip was probably a little too much for me. I walked around Disneyland, Sea World, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and Knotts Berry Farm with a three-month old child literally attached to me. Not sure why I would take a newborn on vacation .... But anyway, this time was much different. Turns out, we are at the PERFECT stage for a trip to California! No diapers, no nursing baby, and not even much crying or whining. Not bad at all. We didn't even get a stroller! WAHOO! It was really fun!

We went to Disneyland first and rode the train first thing. T.J. got to meet Curtis, the train engineer. T.J. is obsessed with trains, so that was perfect.

Grandpa got in a car with T.J. as the driver. Sucker.

Turns out Jackson gets his driving skills from his father ... I wasn't impressed.

Grandma was sure she had actual whiplash after riding in London's car.

T.J. wasn't too sure about the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Too dark, and what's up with all those dropoffs? He was a good sport. He was tall enough for every ride there but Indiana Jones and Space Mountain. He was such a big boy and so brave on all the rides.


Tarzan's treehouse. The kids thought it was weird that they had to do all the work and that the treehouse didn't move them or go fast or spin them around. It was just walking up and down stairs looking at Tarzan stuff. They might have been getting a little spoiled at this point.

The new Finding Nemo ride was pretty cool. I thought it was worth the wait (about 30 minutes). The kids loved it. T.J. and London have both been OBSESSED with Nemo at one time or another, so they really loved this ride.

They have a new interactive Toy Story ride in California Adventure that is SO FUN! We waited 40 minutes to ride it ... twice! You make several stops in the ride and play different carnival games video game style. Yeah, I pretty much rocked at this game. My high score was 108,000. Go ahead, ask Dave what his high score was. Ha ha! My kids actually told me how cool I was when I schooled all of them at this ride. So yea, it was worth it.

It was a little chilly waiting for Mickey's Street Party, so T.J. played kangaroo in Dave's jacket. Too cute. Dave and the kids all wore BYU gear all week, and we kept getting comments on that. During one of the parades, one of the dancers who was on tall stilts made her way over to Austin and whispered "Go Cougars." He thought that was pretty cool.

T.J. got to meet Mater and Lightning McQueen while everyone else was on Tower of Terror (I was happy to skip that ride and hang out with my handsome boy).
We got smart and brought ponchos for Splash Mountain. Nothing is fun about my hair getting wet and going all half curly and half frizz halfway through a day at Disneyland.

T.J. could NOT believe Woody was just walking around. It was fun to see him so excited.

T.J. and London loved the carousel.

Austin and Jackson, as you can see by their oh-so-expressive faces, were really excited about riding the merry-go-round. What good brothers to ride with London and T.J.

London got picked by the ride conductor to be the "best swimmer" on King Triton's carousel. She could not have been more proud. She wore that crown around beaming all day long.

Meeting Mrs. Incredible.

We might have worn out the little guy just a bit. He crashed right here and didn't move until the next morning.

Hanging out with the bears in the playground. The kids loved the big ropes course, zip line, tunnels, and bridges to run around in. That playground is really fun. It's in California Adventure. We brought our lunch in and ate it there. Perfect spot while the kids played.
This picture above was too cute. Austin and Jackson had made it all the way across the rope bridge and when London tried she got a little freaked out. I was trying to encourage her and wondering if I was going to have to go up there. I just kind of watched for a second and then saw Austin making his way all the way back over to help her across. It was so cute! You always wonder if your kids are hearing what you say about how to treat others and being kind, and when I saw that, I felt like maybe he's got the idea. It made me so proud. I probably looked a little silly there in the playground watching my kids up there with tears in my eyes ... of course I'm never without my sunglasses so I hid it well. Ha ha.

This was awesome. Austin and Jackson went on this roller coaster over and over ... and of course they drug Grandpa and Dave along with them. This picture caught them right at take-off ... PERFECT. I love Jackson's face.

We wore them right out! I had more energy than they did ... for the first time EVER!

On the jungle safari ride ... one of my favorites. I've been on it a million times and I still laugh at their dumb jokes. I'm a dork. I don't care ... I LOVE IT!

You know we had to get one of these pictures.

Waiting for the Toy Story ride again. You wear 3-D glasses and then play the interactive video game. Too cool.

T.J. spent a lot of his week right here ... no wonder Dave's neck hurts. At least we didn't have to take a stinkin stroller .... YEAH!

After three days in Disneyland/California Adventure, we decided to send the Lego fanatics (Austin and Jackson) to Legoland with Dave and my parents and I took London and T.J. to the San Diego Zoo. Good choice since the boys LOVED Legoland. I'm glad they enjoyed it. Dave even admitted that it was pretty cool.





T.J. got too tired of walking at the zoo and just sat down and refused to go another step. Poor little tired legs.

Turns out the San Diego Zoo is AMAZING! We probably didn't even see half the stuff, and we were there 6 hours. We'll have to go back I suppose ... Don't tell Dave that I'm already thinking about our next trip.
London thought an escalator OUTSIDE at a Zoo was just too cool. I thought it was BRILLIANT after walking around for four solid days.

T.J. faithfully followed his map all day at the Zoo. Not bad considering the boy can't read a word.


We rode the bus all the way around the zoo and learned about the animals while we ate lunch.

No wonder my back started to hurt ... T.J. really did walk most of the time, but those little legs can only go so far. With Dave off at Legoland it was up me to lug him around.

Our kids LOVED Sea World. They had fun petting, feeding, and looking at all the animals.

We sat right up front at the Shamu show ... turns out they're not kidding about the "Soak Zone" seats. We were drenched, but it was pretty hot, so no problem.


Ha ha! I caught them holding hands. Too cute!

They have a huge playground at Sea World that is a lot of fun. We've been to Sea World three times and this is the first time we've played on here. The kids loved it!


The Shamu Show was definitely the highlight of Sea World. We went twice, and it was really fun!

I let T.J. pick out a snack while we waited for the Shamu Show to start. He picked a big giant pickle. Gag.

We spent Saturday morning at the beach ... LOVED IT! I love just sitting and watching the ocean and feeling the breeze and sitting in the sand. Remind me again on the whole Utah thing. Hmm.


The kids learned how to build a sand castle from some local expert sand castle builder near us on the beach.

T.J. loved the waves and the water and playing in the sand. What a cutie!



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Dave and Grandpa and boys "thinking" about diving right in.

Dave and Grandpa finally got brave and did some actually "swimming." Not me ... someone has to take the pictures.

The kids loved loved loved the beach and the ocean. It was hard to leave, but Dave had big plans to try and get tickets to the BYU/San Diego State game, so off we went.



Nice necklace Jacks.



I love this picture. Dave and all of his kids enjoying the ocean. It was a beautiful day.

That afternoon we headed over to Qualcomm stadium for the BYU/San Diego game. We got tickets easily considering that stadium is HUGE. We sat in the Cougar section and had a GREAT TIME! There were honestly just as many BYU fans there as there were San Diego, so that was kind of funny, but it made for a loud Y cheering section.

Dave stopped complaining about the ridiciulous amuzement park food prices when I came back from the concession stand with a bucket of popcorn that cost me .... wait for it ... TEN DOLLARS!!! Are you kidding me? Even insane movie theaters only charge like $6 for popcorn. I thought they were joking with the $10 ... but no, they weren't. What do you do? The game was right during dinner, and we were starving! Don't even get me started on the hot dog prices. Anyway, Little Miss Personality used the empty bucket for a hat and fit right in with all the other crazy fans.

The game was the highlight of the week if you ask Dave. That probably has lot to do with BYU winning though. If they would have lost ... yikes.

T.J. was just too worn out and slept through a lot of the game. It was unbelievably LOUD in there, and I cannot believe he slept. It's kind of fun to still have him crawl up on my lap and go to sleep. He's not exactly a baby anymore ... but he's my baby, and I love it.
We've got quite the Cougar fans on our hands with these two. They loved the game and are learning a lot about the players and different positions. It's fun to see them getting into football and really starting to enjoy it. Like father like son I guess.

We drove all the way home on Sunday. That was Dave's promise to me if I agreed to stay an extra night so we could go to the game. So he drove 11.5 hours on Sunday. What a trooper! I read my book almost all day and loved it! We loaded the kids up before with left with Sunday movies for the car, and we hardly heard from them (except to ask for food of course) the whole way home. It was a nice relaxing drive ... for me anyway! Thanks hon! We had a great trip ... can't wait to go AGAIN!