California: Part 2

After our small group meeting on Monday night we headed down to Anaheim to meet up with my sister Amy and her family, my Mom, and my aunt Kathy.  This November marked 5 years since my Dad passed away and what would have been his 55th birthday.  Vacationing as a family was always so fun.  So, in memory of him, my Mom treated our families to Disneyland and we had a chance to make some really wonderful new memories as a family.  

We spent 3 days at Disneyland and here's the recap:

We stayed in a great condo which was only about a 10 minute walk from the main gates.  The entire place was Disney themed and even came with a closet full of dress-up clothes which the kids loved!!!

Wyatt, Sadie, and Payton

 Waiting in line for our 1st ride.

 You can't really tell from this picture, but believe me Brandon can really get the teacup moving!

 Buzz Light Year was Wyatt's favorite ride!

This one the kids DID NOT LIKE!!!

Meeting Elsa and Ana was definitely a highlight of our trip!

 We also meet a lot of other characters along the way.

The girls were especially excited to meet Cinderella and we may have told them to get out of their stroller and run after her as she was walking away so that they would get their moment with her.  We try not to be those moms but sometimes you just have too!!

It was also a lot of fun to go back to Cars Land since Brandon spent a lot of time working there while I was pregnant with Wyatt.

Cooper thought the parade was the BEST THING EVER so we ended up staying to watch it twice!!!  Seriously, he was barely containable as it passed by.  He cracks me up sometimes.

We had thought that by staying close to the park and having 3 days we'd probably take it slow and get the kids home for naps at least a couple of the days, but once we were there it was like the adrenaline kicked in and we couldn't get enough.  The kids rode every ride they could and most of them twice because we were able to get the family switch passes, and we basically opened and closed the park every day.  Then as we'd walked home to make dinner most of the kids would crash, exhausted. In fact, one of the nights Wyatt was so tired that he practically begged to go to sleep with out eating.  I think that means we had too much fun!!!

 Of course we had a few of these moments too....

We wrapped up our time in California visiting Brandon's Mom and Nana in Oceanside, and then his Dad and Grandparents in Escondido.

And on the way home they slept from pure exhaustion and we wished we could join them.

California: Part 1

It was so good to be back in California for a bit this November, to catch up with friends, and spend some time relaxing as a family.  We left Halloween night and drove straight through to Glendora, arriving around lunchtime on Saturday.  The kids did amazingly well and though it was exhausting we were thankful to be able to get the drive over with so quickly.  We stayed with our good friends the Wallaces, giving us and the kids a chance to catch up, and we were also able to attend our old church, our small group, and spend some time with my best friend Melinda and her family while we were there.  For me especially, it provided some much needed time to connect with people who know us well and who I've really missed this past year.

Once again I'm going to give all the photo credits to Andrea because in all the craziness of our two and a half days in Glendora I'm afraid that I didn't take any pictures of my own.

Good Morning Munchkins

Cooper, Sadie, Georgia, Wyatt, and Titus

Breakfast

On Sunday after church we may have taken over Rubios with our little clan.  So fun to see how big everyone has gotten.

Wyatt, Georgia, Sadie, and Lucie

Best friends love to match!

Bedtime Stories

The 3 big kids all shared a room and thought that was so much fun!

On Monday we went to the park.  Love all these little blessings!

Mason, Sawyer, Ava, Georgia, Titus, Sadie, Hayley, Mia, Wyatt, and Cooper

And we're starting to loose them...

Poor Hayley.  She's so sweet and this was a lot of commotion!

Bathtime

Sadie wasn't so sure about Titus' involvement in bath time.

Wyatt could care less and Cooper well he just takes it all in.

Sadie still loved playing with Titus and I'm pretty sure he couldn't get enough of her either.  They were very sweet together.

A little more play time!!!

Love this picture Andrea got of Sadie, except she looks so grown up!!!

Small Group

Crazy Kids

The personalities this picture shows and way that this captures the insanity of so many toddlers is absolutely amazing.

Top: Ava, Mia, Lucie, Sadie, Samson, and Georgia

Bottom:  Cooper, Mason, Wyatt, Sawyer, and Titus

There was a day way back when that none of us could really imagine having kids or being a parent, and then the next 5 years happened, and now we can't imagine our lives or each other any other way.