I need to write about this before it vanishes from my memory.... It was such a fun week, I want to be sure to remember it.
Like I said, we arrived at The Crockett Household late after Disneyland and, first things first, got to see Tadd! It was so great! Giving him big hugs, chatting a bit between exhausted children and getting our stuff up to our room (Will's room, thank you Will). It is so evident that his mission blessed his life so much. He has such a light about him. Glad he is back and that we get to see him a lot while he is up at school in Provo.
Anyway, the next morning the family reunion officially started. There was a pancake breakfast and Zane LOVED that! He downed a lot of pancake and was a happy boy (/he wasn't very happy before the pancakes, however. thank goodness for the pancakes.) The first activity was a hike in Towsley Canyon. Everyone packed lunches and we headed out. It was a bit hot. And really sunny. And Zane didn't feel like hiking much so Rob got stuck with carrying both boys most of the way (Link in the BabyBjorn and Zane in his arms or on his shoulders. good exercise at least). But everyone made it! And chillin' and chattin' at our picnic lunch afterwards was really nice. Somehow it turned into an impromptu yoga session (Your Body Is A Gym) with all the grandkids striking poses, Zane right in the center of it.
We were in charge of dinner that night at the campfire at Castaic Lake so after the hike I got busy getting ready for that. I ran to the store (my first time out and about in Santa Clarita without Rob! and I made it back to the house without a problem. yay!) and got everything organized. The menu was hot dogs, chips, watermelon, tomato-corn-arugula salad, limeade and s'mores. I made the salad and dressing, with a lot of help from Carly and Debbie, and cut the watermelon (all the while taking care of kids' naps and feedings with Rob's help) and got everything packed just in time to head to the lake. It was a really fun night. The food was great, the salad and the limeade were hits, the weather was perfect and everyone had fun. The night was finished off with Carly and Lindsay serenading us with a girls camp song duet. Very nice.
I have to mention that the sleeping arrangements actually worked out really well. We were a little worried about how the boys were going to do having to be in a room together and also with us... But it worked. Link was in the pack-n-play and Debbie got a great little mattress for Zane to sleep on. When Link would wake up in the night, if it woke Zane up Rob would jump down and lay with him and he would go right back to sleep. Mostly Link just woke up once a night and they slept in pretty good... always past 7am. They were so tired from all the activities everyday that they napped well too, either in the room or in the car when were driving. So it was great. That was a blessing.
The next morning, the Severts made awesome muffins and egg casserole for breakfast. And then Lindsay, Kelli and I met Cindy to get manicures and pedicures. (Debbie had already gotten hers so she could stay and help with grandkids and Carly ended up getting her later that day.) It always feels great to do that, but it was even funner since it was for the wedding and we were with the bride! That afternoon Rob went rock climbing with everyone at an indoor climbing arena while I stayed home with the boys. It was nice to be able to be at the house without too many people there and craziness going on and just relax with the kids. Rob came back and swam with the boys for a while. Kelli had done crock-pot burritos for dinner that night and they were so yummy! Cookies were also made that night, a Crockett Family Must-do, and all the grandkids and men watched "A Lego Movie" in the guesthouse. The women mostly visited over in the main house. Zane stayed over in the guesthouse with Rob the whole time. That was great!
The next day was Beach Day at Ventura Beach. Aside from a bit of drama about where we were supposed to be on the beach, everything went over really well. We were joined by some of the Clarene Hansen family and Tamara and James and Grandma Townsend. They had been over at the house a bit the day before too when they came to drop off Grandma. But the beach was great. I even got to go play in the waves with Kelli a bit. The kids were good an tolerated the sunscreen and sand, but Zane wouldn't get in the water because it was so cold. Rob got in the water a bunch and played frisbee with all the guys. We sat and chatted with Grandma under the canopy for a while and ate a packed lunch. It was nice. And about all the beach I need for the whole year :)
We headed back early afternoon and got all cleaned up. We had family pictures in our reunion shirts, which were really cool I thought, and then the kids did some pinatas. That was funny.
That night, Alan's family put on the pre-wedding dinner. It was held at the Crockett Household. They had some really delicious food brought in and everyone introduced themselves and visited. Some fun stories were shared about Cindy and Alan and we watched their wedding slideshow. It was so crazy to me that it was night before Cindy was getting married!!!
The next day, their wedding day, was wonderful. I loved being at the sealing and Alan's grandpa, who sealed them, did a wonderful job. Cindy looked absolutely gorgeous! The rest of the day was actually pretty relaxing as everything for the reception was being set up by other people. We got all spiffed up for pictures at 4:30. The boys looked so cute in their wedding attire! Zane was in suspenders and a bow tie! Link was in a cute green jumper! Such cute boys! All the grandkids looked great! So many little boys! The reception started at 7pm. It was so nice. The weather could not have been more perfect. The food was yummy, the IBC rootbeer was awesome, everyone loved the ice cream bar. The DJ did a good job and the dancing ended up being one of the funnest things of the night. Link went to bed pretty early and Zane went to bed before the night was over too, so Rob and I had a little alone time and were able to dance without kids! After it was all over, some of the family sat out at some of the tables together a talked. It was great. A really good wedding day!
The next day Casey whipped up pancakes again for breakfast and Zane was thrilled! And then we all went over to church to hear Tadd speak. Really awesome. He loved his mission. His testimony is so strong. He is awesome. We all ate leftovers from the wedding after church and then we packed up to head back to Utah. We were heading to Vegas that night and left at about 5pm. We'll stop there, and not talk about how Zane got the stomach flu in the car about a hour after we left and I got it the next day and the car ride was horrible, and Rob got it that night once we made it home.... Oh, it was bad. But the reunion was perfect!
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Disneyland!!
Wow, haven't been on here for a while. We recently took Zane to Disneyland for the first time and I wanted to write about it somewhere and I thought of this blog.... Maybe I should start writing on here again.
Anyway, Disneyland was so fun! We were going to California for a family reunion and for Cindy's wedding this August anyway so we thought, now that Zane is 4, it would be a good time to go to Disneyland. We left our house on August 3rd and drove to Las Vegas through horrible construction traffic for the last couple of hours and it was no fun. The next day we continued on down to San Clemente, California where we were going to be staying the night with Kirk and Kelli. That evening we went to T Street Beach, got pizza and played in the waves at sunset. It was beautiful!
The next day, Tuesday August 5th, was Disneyland day!!! We took our time in the morning and didn't get to Disneyland until after 10am. We parked, set up the stroller (LOVE our stroller, so glad we had it), and walked the 15 minute walk to the entrance. We stopped at 7-11 on the way and got slurpees which Zane loved. We didn't have to wait in line at all to buy tickets and then we just walked right in and right up Main Street! It was exciting to be there and there were so many people and we didn't really know what our game plan was.... We kept telling Zane we were at Disneyland as if that meant anything to him (it didn't) and Link was just chillin', along for the ride. We saw a short line at Pinocchio's Daring Journey so we just parked the stroller and got in line. We rode it as a family. It was a little bit scary for Zane and for Link (I am sure they were thinking, "What the heck are we doing!?") but we got through it and then quickly moved on to Dumbo the Flying Elephant. I waited in the shade with Link while Rob and Zane waited in line to ride together. Zane ate a snack in line and while I waited for them I looked at the map and tried to figure out what our plan of attack should be. Zane loved Dumbo! He would wave every time they came around because Rob would tell him too, even though he couldn't see me in the crowd of people. It was so fun to watch them and to see him having fun. After that ride we hopped on over to the Casey Jr. Circus Train and rode that as a family. None of the lines had been too bad (Dumbo was the longest) and we had done three rides in about an hour.
We decided to sit and take a break, feed Link and get some water and then we did "it's a small world". I really liked that one. It was fun. (Rob made the comment about how it is very symbolic that everyone is all together at the end, happy and in white clothing. hmmm :) ). The kids liked it too but they also got sleepy and were fighting off nodding off until the end. We packed them up in the stroller and they were both out cold very quickly. We decided to walk to the furthest point in the park that we were going to go while they slept, which was Critter Country and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. On our way there though we discovered we were hungry and decided to stop at Big Thunder Ranch for an all-you-can-eat family style BBQ. It was actually really good. Chicken, ribs, beans, cole slaw, corn bread, Coke. The boys woke up while we were eating. There was an old guy dressed up as a cowboy walking around playing his banjo and singing. He was cool. After that we made it to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and I fed Link while Rob and Zane went on it together. I met some people from Peru while I waited for them and talked to them for a while. They were talking together in Spanish trying to figure out where they were and I understood what they were saying and knew the answer to their question so I just started talking to them in Spanish. It was fun. They loved that I had lived in Peru. After the ride, Rob and Zane saw Tigger! There was line to go get your picture taken with him and Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh and we definitely had to do that! When we actually got up to them, Zane kind of freaked out, but he would pause and smile for the picture and then kind of whine and freak out and then pause and smile again for another picture. It was really funny and cute. We got pictures with all three of them. Yay! The lady running everything was really nice to us. The characters had to go in for a water break and Rob ran to change Zane's diaper. The characters got back before Rob and Zane and she just let me stand there and keep our place (while other people moved around us to get pictures) until they got back.
We took another little break after that (feeding Link, restroom stops, changing diapers) and then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. The line was a bit long but we loved that one. Once again the kids were a little nervous but they did great! After that we headed to the Tiki Juice Bar to get DoleWhip Floats. They were so yummy! And Zane ate his own entire DoleWhip! While we were eating them near Main Street a parade came by. Rob took Zane to see what they could see, which ended up not being much so they came back. There was a marching band that played the song from Frozen, so we heard that. Next, we headed to Jungle Cruise, which would have been cool except the lady on our boat talked too much and her mic was up way too loud so Zane was whining about it the whole time. He didn't really like it because of that which made it less enjoyable for us too.
From there we headed over to Tomorrowland to hit the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride which I think Rob loved the most :) It had little laser guns you could shoot at aliens for points.... Zane will like it more when he gets older. By this time, it was getting late in the day. We were surprised that the boys were making it that long and doing so well. I wanted to go see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln so I fed Link and then we went to that. Rob had to leave early with the boys, they weren't into it, but I got to see as much of it as I wanted to. When I walked out of the theater to find all my men, it was dark. We decided to ride the Disneyland Railroad around the park as our last ride. That was fun. We realized on the ride that we had forgotten about the car driving track ride thing (when we passed it on the train) and committed to remembering to do that next time. It was very much time to go when we got off the Disneyland Railroad. We packed the kids up in the stroller and walked back to our car, getting there just about the time the fireworks started over the castle. We were fine to miss them.
We did pretty much everything that we wanted to do at Disneyland all in one day, only missing Mickey's Toontown, and the boys did great! It was fantastic, a really fun family day. From Disneyland we headed north to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Newhall. We got there after 11pm. We got to see Tadd for the first time since returning from his mission which was awesome! And then we started the rest of what was a fantastic week with the family. Disneyland mission accomplished! I love my little family so much, and all our extended family so much. We are blessed.
Anyway, Disneyland was so fun! We were going to California for a family reunion and for Cindy's wedding this August anyway so we thought, now that Zane is 4, it would be a good time to go to Disneyland. We left our house on August 3rd and drove to Las Vegas through horrible construction traffic for the last couple of hours and it was no fun. The next day we continued on down to San Clemente, California where we were going to be staying the night with Kirk and Kelli. That evening we went to T Street Beach, got pizza and played in the waves at sunset. It was beautiful!
The next day, Tuesday August 5th, was Disneyland day!!! We took our time in the morning and didn't get to Disneyland until after 10am. We parked, set up the stroller (LOVE our stroller, so glad we had it), and walked the 15 minute walk to the entrance. We stopped at 7-11 on the way and got slurpees which Zane loved. We didn't have to wait in line at all to buy tickets and then we just walked right in and right up Main Street! It was exciting to be there and there were so many people and we didn't really know what our game plan was.... We kept telling Zane we were at Disneyland as if that meant anything to him (it didn't) and Link was just chillin', along for the ride. We saw a short line at Pinocchio's Daring Journey so we just parked the stroller and got in line. We rode it as a family. It was a little bit scary for Zane and for Link (I am sure they were thinking, "What the heck are we doing!?") but we got through it and then quickly moved on to Dumbo the Flying Elephant. I waited in the shade with Link while Rob and Zane waited in line to ride together. Zane ate a snack in line and while I waited for them I looked at the map and tried to figure out what our plan of attack should be. Zane loved Dumbo! He would wave every time they came around because Rob would tell him too, even though he couldn't see me in the crowd of people. It was so fun to watch them and to see him having fun. After that ride we hopped on over to the Casey Jr. Circus Train and rode that as a family. None of the lines had been too bad (Dumbo was the longest) and we had done three rides in about an hour.
We decided to sit and take a break, feed Link and get some water and then we did "it's a small world". I really liked that one. It was fun. (Rob made the comment about how it is very symbolic that everyone is all together at the end, happy and in white clothing. hmmm :) ). The kids liked it too but they also got sleepy and were fighting off nodding off until the end. We packed them up in the stroller and they were both out cold very quickly. We decided to walk to the furthest point in the park that we were going to go while they slept, which was Critter Country and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. On our way there though we discovered we were hungry and decided to stop at Big Thunder Ranch for an all-you-can-eat family style BBQ. It was actually really good. Chicken, ribs, beans, cole slaw, corn bread, Coke. The boys woke up while we were eating. There was an old guy dressed up as a cowboy walking around playing his banjo and singing. He was cool. After that we made it to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and I fed Link while Rob and Zane went on it together. I met some people from Peru while I waited for them and talked to them for a while. They were talking together in Spanish trying to figure out where they were and I understood what they were saying and knew the answer to their question so I just started talking to them in Spanish. It was fun. They loved that I had lived in Peru. After the ride, Rob and Zane saw Tigger! There was line to go get your picture taken with him and Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh and we definitely had to do that! When we actually got up to them, Zane kind of freaked out, but he would pause and smile for the picture and then kind of whine and freak out and then pause and smile again for another picture. It was really funny and cute. We got pictures with all three of them. Yay! The lady running everything was really nice to us. The characters had to go in for a water break and Rob ran to change Zane's diaper. The characters got back before Rob and Zane and she just let me stand there and keep our place (while other people moved around us to get pictures) until they got back.
We took another little break after that (feeding Link, restroom stops, changing diapers) and then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. The line was a bit long but we loved that one. Once again the kids were a little nervous but they did great! After that we headed to the Tiki Juice Bar to get DoleWhip Floats. They were so yummy! And Zane ate his own entire DoleWhip! While we were eating them near Main Street a parade came by. Rob took Zane to see what they could see, which ended up not being much so they came back. There was a marching band that played the song from Frozen, so we heard that. Next, we headed to Jungle Cruise, which would have been cool except the lady on our boat talked too much and her mic was up way too loud so Zane was whining about it the whole time. He didn't really like it because of that which made it less enjoyable for us too.
From there we headed over to Tomorrowland to hit the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride which I think Rob loved the most :) It had little laser guns you could shoot at aliens for points.... Zane will like it more when he gets older. By this time, it was getting late in the day. We were surprised that the boys were making it that long and doing so well. I wanted to go see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln so I fed Link and then we went to that. Rob had to leave early with the boys, they weren't into it, but I got to see as much of it as I wanted to. When I walked out of the theater to find all my men, it was dark. We decided to ride the Disneyland Railroad around the park as our last ride. That was fun. We realized on the ride that we had forgotten about the car driving track ride thing (when we passed it on the train) and committed to remembering to do that next time. It was very much time to go when we got off the Disneyland Railroad. We packed the kids up in the stroller and walked back to our car, getting there just about the time the fireworks started over the castle. We were fine to miss them.
We did pretty much everything that we wanted to do at Disneyland all in one day, only missing Mickey's Toontown, and the boys did great! It was fantastic, a really fun family day. From Disneyland we headed north to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Newhall. We got there after 11pm. We got to see Tadd for the first time since returning from his mission which was awesome! And then we started the rest of what was a fantastic week with the family. Disneyland mission accomplished! I love my little family so much, and all our extended family so much. We are blessed.
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