Spring Break 2009

It appears that I am continuing to slack on my blogging, oh well how many people actually read this anyway, right?

So for spring break this year we went to sunny California, it was a dream. I have decided that as I get older I need the warm sunshine more and more.

We left at 5am on Saturday, it is a 16 hour drive from Portland to Disneyland and we decided that neither the kids or Mike and I could handle it all in one day. The kids actually do pretty well on long drives, I on the other hand do not enjoy being in the car for long periods of time especially when I am pregnant. Mike bought a Nintendo DS and kept it a secret until we needed it on the drive. Jackson was beyond delighted at this as Mike had bought him the Legos Star Wars game.

Saturday we drove 11 hours arriving in Tracy, California around 3:30pm, plenty of time left to enjoy the rest of the day. After some swimming(actually hot tubbing because the pool was freezing) for the kids, and a run for me we were off in search of some dinner. The kids decided that they wanted Burger King, really? Needless to say Mike and I did not partake and decided to get something elsewhere and take it back to the hotel. Burger King was an adventure as Noah decided that he needed to poop, mind you that he is still refusing to go in the potty. So Noah and I headed off to the bathroom which would be a 1/2 hour experience of me trying to coax, bribe, do anything that would get him to poop. Amazingly, no one came into the bathroom that whole time, I am sure they would have been very entertained if they had. After getting food and ice cream for the kids we got back to the hotel with arms very full and proceeded to try and get into our room. Our keys were not working so Mike went to the desk got them rekeyed and came back, still not working. Again to the desk, this time he came back with rekeyed cards and a worker. Keys did not work and the master key card did not work. Meanwhile the ice cream is melting the kids are lying on the floor and I am starving. You all know that it is not good for anyone when a pregnant woman is hungry. As the worker walked by me he mumbled a really nice word to himself and at that point I was wondering if we were ever going to get into our room. So I decided that the kids should probably eat their half melted ice cream and as Jackson kept spilling his on the floor I was wondering what I had done. the guy comes back with some tool and proceeds to remove the door lock and was able to get the door open, but we were not going to be able to stay in that room. MArvelous!!! Now we have to move all of our stuff ,which was already unpacked, all the way down the hall. I was not happy and being hungry did not help. So finally an hour later we were settled in our new room. Of course we thought that they would comp the room, they didn't. I let Mike handle it but we all know that he is not mean enough. They will be getting a letter from me soon.

Sunday started out much how Saturday ended. We got up got ready for church, packed and left the hotel in plenty of time to make it to the first meeting. Mike had programmed the GPS for the nearest church with a 9am meeting. We drove and ended up in the middle of nowhere! After calling our friends to help us out we did indeed make it, although a little late. The 5 hour drive on Sunday felt like 12 hours! Jackson was whining pretty much the whole time. We made it though! Before meeting up with my parents at our hotel we went to visit friends from college. It had been about 8 years since I had seen Jillyn and Curt and it was fun to visit with them. Jillyn is a super woman, she made an awesome dinner and did I mention that she had just had her 6th baby that previous Tuesday! We had a great time visiting and catching up.

Now onto Disney!!

MONDAY- We got up early and were in line when they opened the gates! We went all day and the kids did awesome!!! We did everything that we had planned and got back to the hotel around 7:30pm after picking up some dinner.

The teacups, as you can see not my cup of tea!

Just after getting into the park on day1

Jackson got chosen for Jedi Training!! I was jumping up and down so the master jedi would hopefully pick him, it worked luckily! He got to fight Vader! Jack with his certificate

Tuesday-California Adventure

Lucky for us California adventure does not open until 10am so we got a little rest before round 2. This day was so sunny and warm, I was in heaven!

Jackson really enjoying his ice cream bar!

Wednesday-All our favorites and anything we missed

So we got there after a great parking fiasco! We got our fastpasses for Indiana Jones so that we could ride it later, or so we thought! When we went to ride it we got on the ride and then it broke down , this was so frustrating especially for Jack who was ready to drive the Jeep. Oh well! We tooka break and went back to the hotel for dinner and then went back to the park for the fireworks! By this time I think that we were all exhausted but we went anyway knowing it was our last hurrah! WE did not get back to the hotel until about 11:15pm. Luckily we planned on sleeping in and not checking out until the last minute.

Thursday we just recuperated, we had to move hotels and we did a little shopping in downtown Disney. The kids finally got to swim in the pool and they loved it. I loved sitting in the sun by the pool and reading a magazine while chatting with my Mom.

Friday was a sad day as we started our trek home. It is never very fun to drive home from vacation especially whe you have to get through LA traffic! We drove to Redding, CA which was really pretty town.

Saturday brought more driving and it was sad to say goodbye to the sun! As we approached Eugene, OR the rain started. I turned to Mike and told him that we need to move.

It was a very funfilled and exhausting trip! I don't think that we could do Disney every year but maybe every 2 or so. I think maybe next year we will venture as a family to Hawaii!

Thanks to Alex and Ellen, Mike and I get a little R&R this weekend as they are taking our kids while we go see Wicked and stay downtown. I will have to post about that later, I am very excited I have been wanting to see it for a long time!