Disneyland - 2015

We have loved being able to tag along with Clark to a few of his conferences, when we realized that L.A. is a short 6 hour drive from Phoenix we couldn't resist taking our boys to Disneyland for the first time!  I'm so glad we did, we got 2.5 marvelous days enjoying the Disney magic with our boys.  All of our boys were perfect ages to go.  Ethan was tall enough and adventurous enough to love all of the big roller coasters.  Quinn loved everything, if you ask him now what his favorite rides were he would say the "scaracal" (carousel) and Dumbo.  He was also short enough we could take advantage of the rider swap passes so our big boys got to ride every big roller coaster twice in a row without standing in a line.  And Caden, I don't think anyone could be a bigger Disney fan than Caden.  He giggles and shrieks on the big roller coasters, he loves the cutesy Disney touches, and everything is completely REAL for him...the special effects, the characters that he meets, the rides transport him to whole new worlds.
Our boys had watched the Disney vacation planning DVD, and had me tell them every attraction that was available, and they had a plan to hit all of them!  So we kept a break neck pace.  We didn't stop to eat meals, just a few snacks while running from one thing to the next.  My fit bit logged well over 20,000 (about 10 miles) steps every day.

When we first got to L.A. we were planning on taking the boys to see the ocean.  Of course, it started pouring rain as soon as we got to the beach.  Caden still wanted to see the ocean, so the two of us put on ponchos and ran!  In the storm there wasn't much to see and we were soaked, but it was a fun memory!

One of the very first things we saw at California Adventure was Donald!  The boys were the first to greet him that day.

The only ride that ever scares me are Ferris wheels!  Of course, the boys wanted to go on the giant Mickey wheel in one of the carts that rock back and forth.  It was terrifying.  Caden and Quinn snuggled in pretty close...Caden also got a little nervous when Ethan would lean against the door.  Clark and Ethan just sat on the other side laughing and taunting at me.

Quinn didn't LOVE all the characters, Jessi was a little terrifying.

Cars Land and meeting the cars was a highlight of the day for sure!  The best part was after their shift meeting with kids they would drive down the street, and another car would come in to the spot.  The boys loved it!

Quinn will tell everyone, "I rode a fish, Caden rode a sea horse, and mom rode a teeter (an otter)."

Clark and I loved our one-on-one time with Quinn when the boys were on the bigger rides.

Love Quinn's thumbs up (or his index finger up) in this picture!

Just waiting for his brothers to get down with the Radiator Springs racers.

I loved the matching T-shirts I made for my little family!

Love this little grin on Dumbo!

The longest line of our whole trip was to meet Mickey.  I took Caden and Quinn while Clark took Ethan on a ride Caden wasn't tall enough for.  I kept trying to get Caden to bail out of the line, but he just had to meet Mickey!  All of the kids in front of him had autograph books, Caden felt bad he didn't have anything for Mickey, so he took off his hat and handed it to him.  Mickey's handler seemed a little confused...but Mickey handled it perfectly.  He was pretty sweet and shy with Mickey.

Even Quinn was excited to meet the mouse.

Quinn knew how to catch a nap no matter where we were.

Quinn was dying to ride the monorail, so I took him while the boys hit Space Mountain for the 6th time that day!

Best selfie of the trip.

I was the only one disappointed that the castle was under construction.

It takes real love for Clark to join us on the teacups!

The boys knew they could pick one souvenir, so after debating and looking around a little for 2 days, I was thrilled when Caden picked this awesome hat!  After they put his name on it, he walked a little taller with a bounce in his step.  He was pretty proud of his new ears!

I knew as soon as Quinn saw Bullseye he was coming home with us!

I somehow picked a legit photographer stranger to snap a family pic for us in front of a family favorite, Big Thunder Mountain!

That must be a celebrity?

Love the Disney hugs!

I made a small mistake of taking Caden on Tower of Terror!  Look at the terror on his little face!  The next morning we were getting ready to leave our hotel room and Caden informed us he didn't want to go with us to Disneyland that day.  After a little probing I figured out he was terrified to take the elevator at our hotel, sure that it would turn into a Tower of Terror.  I explained to him that it wasn't real, it was all special effects, like a movie.  He replied, "well, Lightning McQueen is real, Mickey and Donald are real - they really live at Disneyland, so the tower of terror is real too."  Didn't know how to respond to that one.  Glad to report now he is back to riding elevators without fear.

All 3 of our boys were asleep in the car within seconds.  In fact, when we got to the airport I got Caden out of the car, turned around to grab a suitcase and then turned around again to find him like this on the floor of the car return.  

 We wondered why we ever came back when we found our car covered in snow and freezing in the middle of the night at the Denver airport!

It was just a fun time to be together!  Clark and I love watching our boys have so much fun!

Arizona February

In February we went with Clark to Phoenix for a conference.  We left a few days after Valentine's Day, and both Ethan and Caden had wanted to get me flowers for Valentine's.  They were beautiful and just starting to open up when we left for our trip.  I wanted someone to be able to enjoy them so I explained the situation to Caden and asked if he wanted to give his flowers to someone else to brighten their day.  He was excited about it until we were actually in the car on the way over to drop them off, and then he was sad I wasn't keeping his flowers.  I took a picture of him with the roses so I could always remember them!  He's a sweet 4 year old boy.

I think the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the airport was probably Quinn's favorite part of the whole trip.

As excited as we were for warm weather and a beautiful city to explore...we were most excited to see our medical school friends Bryce and Jessica and their 2 cute boys Beckett and Weston.  We had found a vacation rental house to share with them for the trip.  The house was perfect (other than the fact that the pool was no heated and way too cold to swim)!  Jessica and I spent our days exploring many different parks and restaurants in our awesome mini van (that was a free upgrade at the rental car place).  Every day was a fun adventure!

Just waiting for a train ride with our friends, we were able to meet up with another medical school friend, Auprielle, and her cute kids.

 

Cute Beckett and Quinn waiting for the train to start moving.

One day we were able to go to an awesome mall that had an aquarium.  The boys all loved seeing the sea creatures.

 

The best discovery at the mall though came in the form of these ride-able animals!  I had never seen these before, so we had to give them a try!  The little boys looked pretty cute riding them down the mall, and we had a few close calls, but I don't think we took anyone out too bad!

Of course I had to give it a try!

These boys just love to PLAY!  All fun all the time!

 

Jessica and I were able to pretend it was a girl's trip one night after the boys were in bed.  Catching up on the Bachelor and enjoying our traditional girl's trip Sprinkles cupcakes.

We got a few fun outtakes trying to get a group picture with the 5 active little boys!  The best part is that Jessica and Bryce will be adding little boy number 6 to this crew in a few months.

 We love our friends and wish we could live closer, but for now, will just start planning the next trip!