Vacation Part One

Last week we went on a trip to Palm Springs, California and Disneyland with Dan's whole family. The trip was our Christmas present from his mom and dad. What a great present!! It is definitely one we will always remember! All the kids knew was that we were going to Palm Springs. Going to Disneyland was a surprise and they were surprised!

We decided to drive instead of fly to get the whole experience. On the way there it snowed and the roads were covered in ice! Boy was I glad when we got to Winnemucca! That meant no more driving in 14 degree icy and snowy roads! Our hotel there is one stay we will never forget. When Dan checked us in, the lady said "I bet they didn't tell you that your room is next to the boiler room" and it was! It sounded like there was a freight train in our room all night! They did finally reduce our rate by $30 after an hour of trying to get another room!

On the way there, we stopped in Hawthorne, NV and the kids played at the park for a bit. They got to play on artillery guns that had been on a destroyer. They kids thought that was pretty cool. We also stopped along the state line. The kids thought it was really cool to get to stand in two states at one time, Nevada and California!

Our first night in Palm Springs we stayed with Granny and Pa at their new place. The kids had fun playing at their house. They actually starting mopping the patio and cleaning the table. The golfers were telling the kids they were doing a great job and that just got the kids more pumped up and Haylee started mopping the palm tree! If only they could get that excited to mop and clean at my house! LOL

The kids would sit and watch the golfers on hole #2.

Granny and the kids had fun telling each other ghost stories. They would go around in a circle taking turns. Maddie really loved this story time!

When we got to the rental house the kids pretty much swam nonstop while we were there. Who would have thought we'd be swimming in the middle of November!

Monday through Wednesday we drove into Disneyland. The kids thought we were going to a big water park since Disneyland was a surprise and they didn't know it yet. We're sitting at the intersection with the Disney sign just in front of us and Ethan pipes up and says "hey look, it's Disneyland! We had a really good time at Disneyland. Maddie was tall enough to ride on most of the rides, which was really nice. She's our little adventurer! She really wanted to go on Screamin California roller coaster and was pretty upset that she wasn't tall enough for that.

The kids really loooooove their Uncle Boog and Uncle Chad!

All of the grandgirlies :)

The kids all got their faces painted. They looked pretty cool. Hayden picked out a really simple one that was neat. The other three got quite the masks!

The favorite ride.......Space Mountain. Maddie wanted to go on it over and over again! She said "that was soooooo awesome!!!" That is something I will never forget, the excitement she expressed for that ride!

Hayden waited the whole time to meet Tigger again. All day was "when are we going to see Tigger?" If you couldn't already tell, Tigger is his most favorite of all time!

Thank you so much mom and dad for such a great Christmas present. xxxoooxxx

So many pictures and things we did. Stay tuned for Vacation part deux!

Halloween and Birthdays

We had a really busy week around here! Friday, Maddie had her pumpkin day at preschool. She dressed up as a ladybug. It was actually the costume she wore for Halloween when she was two! It still looked really cute on her.

We went to Spokane to visit cousins Ben and Angie and their family. We had cake for Maddie's 4th birthday. The picture was of her dressed in her Halloween costume. She really loved getting to celebrate with her cousins! The kids had so much fun playing together. Luke taught Hayden how to ride a bike. It was so cute to watch. I was so proud of those boys, for one teaching how to ride and the other learning how to ride. Ethan saw Hayden riding and pumped himself up saying he could do it too and he did! It was so funny; there was a porsche parked outside along one of the curbs and the guy must have been watching out his window because he promptly moved his car, which I couldn't blame him, I would have too!

The girls were so cute playing together. I love this picture of Sarah and Maddie.

It was so much fun watching all of the kids get dressed up and go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Their buckets and bags got quite full. They must have thought Maddie was super cute because when we got home, we noticed Maddies treat bag was full of more stuff than her brothers and sister! She WAS a really cute alien!

The adults even got to go out for dinner without kiddos! Thanks guys for introducing us to the White house. That was some really great food! I can't wait to try something different next time!

Buzz Lightyear (A.K.A Hayden)

Woody (A.K.A Ethan)

Jessie (A.K.A Haylee)

The Green Alien (A.K.A Maddie)

The whole group of Toy Story and Super Heroes!

Maddie loves Tinkerbelle. This was one of the things she wanted for her birthday.



This is Ethan the tire guy! We picked the kids up from school because their conferences were right afer they got out. We had just left the school to go to Nanas' and we kept hearing a weird noise, well it turned out to be a super flat rear tire! This is our second flat from going down Lincoln grade! While Dan was getting the spare out from underneath, Ethan decided he'd work on getting the hub cap off. He was actually getting them off too! Who knew someone would be so excited about getting a flat tire!!

I love, love, love black and white photos!!

Our little monkey Hayden. I wish we had some big trees in our yard he could climb on like this. He was so proud of himself for climbing this tree!

Maddie had her 'Birthday ' day out with her Mimi yesterday. She said she had so much fun and she looked really pretty too! She walked into the house like she was a model walking down the runway. She talked all the way home about getting her hair done, her nails painted, shopping and lunch with Mimi. We really got a kick out of her when she said that her and Mimi went on a rollercoaster (she put her hands up in the air) and said "then we were saying weeeee woooo weeee!!" The other kids jaws dropped and said "What? Mimi took you to Disneyland! No Fair!" Dan and I couldn't stop laughing. It's so funny to hear a little kids stories!

Happy Birthday Madelyn!

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