California Vacation

We decided to use Matt's two weeks of vacation by going to California in hopes to spend time at Disney Land, Sea World, the Beach, The San Diego Temple, & The Zoo. Our first leg of the trip was from Denver to Cedar City where Matt's family lives. It was an 8 hour drive & I thought we were never going to make it without our portable DVD players. Matt thought it would be fine (mostly because he didn't have to worry about the kids-just the driving), so I tried to do a little research & get creative on some new entertainment.

The kids did SO well, but when things started to get a little crazy I pulled out the pipe cleaners & started making anything I could think of. The first thing that came to mind was glasses.


Brinley wanted Triangle glassesTrinity was happy with squares/diamond

Grayden didn't want much to do with his other than tear them apart!

All three kids were in the back seat together & did a pretty good job of entertaining each other. There weren't any big fights on this first leg of the trip & each of them took a little nap at some point. I should have done that!

Matt was an awesome "pilot" & honked as we went through the many tunnels on our trip. (at the kids' request) He even sacrificed listening to his music occasionally so that the kids could enjoy some of their more familiar songs. He claims to hate the kids Cd's that we have, but I caught him more than once singing along & dancing to the hokey pokey! HAHA!

Here is some proof that I was there too! Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!

These are some butterflies that I made out of pipe cleaners. They provided a lot of entertainment.

When it got dark the kids weren't too interested in going to sleep & started getting real ancy to get out. I pulled out my secret weapons & saved the day again. Push lights...what a great invention.We got into Cedar City pretty late & spend the next day hanging out with all of the family & had a fun BBQ that night. I didn't get any pics of the actual BBQ, but took a few as we all lingered around later that night.

Angela (Matt's Sis) doing Elizabeth's (Matt's 1/2 Sis) NailsJon (Matt's Bro), Grayden, & Matt being...odd.Grandpa Dave (Matt's Dad) & GraydenTaylor (cousin)I need to figure out a fail proof way to get Brin to smile!!The next morning was the first day of school so I forced the 3 oldest kids to let me take their pictures. Cody, Makenna, & Logan. They are such great kids & I really wished they lived closer.Emily got some time to chill with Grayden before she had to head off to school.Matt snuck in an early morning run & reminded him that we were on vacation! :)Emily posing for her first day picture.Nurse Debby & Emily. Thanks for letting us stay guys-we always have such a great time & I know the kids do too!

After everyone had left for school we packed up & started off on our second leg of the trip. That post will be coming soon...