California adventure

We had a bit of a rough day today. The park was incredible, I was in heaven with the Art Deco design of buena vista street and Hollywood blvd. Each land and ride and such amazing detail. But half of them were broken down for a part of the day.
We never were able to ride Radiator Springs. It was a bit disappointing. I really regret not getting a hopper pass for today. We had fun anyway.
The kids had a complete blast running through the wilderness camp. The boys loved the zip line. We went after the sun had gone down and the forest feel was so refreshing and calming.
Bugs Land was really fun for the littles. Everything was made to make you feel as small as a bug. We went on the bugs life ride and Reagan freaked out. I guess black widows dropping down on you from the ceiling is scary. It was another event that was incredible. A 3-d show with moving "bugs" under your bum and interactive animatronic characters.
One detail I found ingenious at both parks is the added sensory details to the attractions. Several attractions pump smells out for different parts of their rides. In Soaring over California we could smell pine trees and orange blossoms. In the chew chew train we could smell animal crackers. So cool.
The World of Color show was incredible! They project images on to a water show to music and lasers. It was like nothing I'd ever seen.
Ash's favorite: screamin' roller coaster with the loop-d-loop and Goofy's flight school
Colten's favorite: Soaring over California, and the flying rockets
Reagan's favorite: Arial ride and the very wild Ferris wheel (the carts slide on tracks as it goes around)
Sarah's favorite: Tower of Terror and Buena Vista street
Aaron's favorite: Soaring Over California (or 12 things I'd rather be doing than Disneyland) and the World of Color

Disneyland

Our first day at the happiest place on earth. Ashton's favorite: pirates of the Caribbean and haunted house! Colten's favorite: astro orbit, a rocket you get to move up and down. Reagan's favorite: the princesses she saw in the parade, the only ones she saw today. Sarah's favorite: buzz lightyear ( we didn't spend much time in fantasyland). Aaron's favorite: the Asian tourist that wiggled her way in next to him during the parade and then proceeded to rest her forearms on the white lady's head in front of her in order to get better pictures.

Reagan bought some sequin Minnie Mouse ears. The cutest things I've ever seen. We plan on more photo ops the second day.

Huntington Beach

After unloading at the hotel, we headed down to the beautiful beach. The kids were so surprised at what they found. "This is the softest sand I've ever felt!" Yelled Ash. The ocean was quite cold but they lived running from the waves. Until RJ got hit by a big one that literally made her do somersaults in the water till her dad grabbed her and pulled her out. She wasn't going in after that- it offended her :).
On the way out we saw some teenagers smoking. Aaron says to me "aren't they a little young to be smoking?" Then we hear Ashton say "Oh the taste, the taste is awful!" I respond with "how do you know that?" Ash says "Cause I fell into it and got some in my mouth!" He was talking about the ocean water. Few!

When RJ was ready to go, "Lets go back to the hellto. " she said. We all giggled.

On Our Way

It's 4:00 am and we pull the kids out of bed. Ashton is sleepily saying "I'm just so excited!"
RJ has on her new neon outfit. She looks like a mini teenager from 1990... So cute! "First one in Disney gets to see the princesses!"
Colten is only concerned about having a pillow and how long till we get to there.

6:15 am- first stop. No one needs to use the restroom... Oh wait yes they do but only after the previous child comes back.

7:53 am- Aaron is listening to a comedic audiobook that explains to aliens what life on earth was like before the human race became extinct, on the iPod. Once Ashton realized he couldn't listen to the end of Harry potter because the iPod was in use he says, "now dad is listening to the goofy stuff, aliens please, that's impossible. "

9:47 am- Hit Arizona.
10:14 am- Nevada.
12:43 pm- California.

1:20 pm- Thank you, I win the alphabet game.

4:30 pm- in our surprisingly nice hotel room. We made it. The kids were great the entire ride. No fighting, minimal "I'm hungrys" were said. We arrived to the 'happiest place on earth' happy. On to the fun....

Speaka Spanish 2

Here are new recordings of Ashton having a conversation with his teacher and another girl in his class. I am so proud of him, he really has picked this up well!

Easter

We had three Easter events this year - the ward Easter egg hunt, which I didn't take pictures of (I need a smaller camera), my niece's blessing and family hunt, and the Jackman family dinner.  Whew, busy day.  Here's some pics from the Reid event, thanks to mom.  Hopefully I can get some pics from my father-in-law for the Jackman stuff.

Mad Hatter

To celebrate the Relief Society's birthday my ward had a Mad Hatter party.  I helped to do the invites, decor, making playing card garlands, mini top hats and giant flowers with eyes.  My favorite item was an alice upside down looking like she was falling into a pot of flowers.  You could only see her tutu and legs.  It was a lot of fun!  Mom came to enjoy the dinner with me.  I made both of our hats for the occasion. 

I Speaka Spanish

Ashton is in a spanish immersion class at school.  The teacher only speaks spanish after lunch and the kids are expected to do the same.  She has told me that Ashton is excelling in spanish, we are very excited about that.  She sent us recordings of Ashton's spanish test - it is so awesome to listen too, we thought we'd share:

Recent Accomplishments

Recently Aaron took a fishing trip to the Four Wind river.  The weather wasn't great but he managed to catch this 12 lb trout.

A Day with Dad

Aaron took the twins for a day out.  They went to do some HVAC work and then went to Scheels to play.