May 2013--Trip to California

I'm not going to lie, it's not easy to take pictures at either the beach or Disneyland. At the beach, you are worried about your camera getting wet, or your kids getting sucked down by a wave. At Disneyland, it is go, go, go. So, I will share the pictures Jeremiah and I took of our vacation...such as they are!

We went to my Mom's house for dinner on Sunday night (I kept both boys home from church because they had colds). Both of the boys were so riled up. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to go to Mom's house--for everyone's sake! The boys were sassy to their Nammy, didn't really eat anything, and were begging to leave. They were more than ready to be on our way. Jonathan didn't really understand what was going on, but he knew something was up. Peter understood and he wanted to be on the road and on his way to Disneyland. We got ourselves out of there at around 7:45 p.m. (probably to the collective sighs of relief of all of our family members who were still at my Mom's house). We went to the gas station to put some air in our tires, and fill up our van, and then we were on our way.

Our plan was that I would do the first half of the drive, the boys would fall asleep a little after bed time, Jeremiah could catch a little sleep, we would swap in Las Vegas and Jeremiah would drive to California while the boys continued to sleep, and at that point I could get a little sleep myself.

Things went very nicely according to plan at first. The boys fell asleep around 9:30 p.m. Jeremiah fell asleep around 10 p.m. I got to St. George to fill up the van with gas around 12:30 a.m....and the station I stopped at was blaring 80's music like it was a night club...which, of course, woke everyone up. I figured the boys would drop back off to sleep...but not so much. They were wide awake...until almost 4 a.m.

Since they weren't showing any signs of going to sleep, we thought it might be fun to drive through Las Vegas on the strip so the boys could see the lights. That was the first time I have ever been to Las Vegas (besides driving right past it on the freeway). Let me tell you, that will be my last time as well. We got there around 2:30 a.m. and you would think it was 9 p.m. by how many people there were out on the streets. Not to mention all of the nearly naked pictures of women that are all over the place. Thank you, ladies, for letting us all know what your backsides look like! Seriously, that place just felt dirty and despite all of the lights, it felt very dark to me. Yuck.

Anyway, we switched in Las Vegas and Jeremiah started driving. He had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep before we hit St. George. Since the boys were super awake until almost 4 a.m., that meant that the block of time where I was supposed to sleep was also compromised. I slept from 4-6 a.m. At 6 a.m., we hit a wall of traffic due to a rainstorm, fog, and a terrible accident where I am sincerely hoping that the person involved in it came out alright.

We got to our hotel at about 7 a.m. We got some breakfast nearby and took it into our hotel to eat. The boys were wide awake, super excited, and ready to go. As a result, we only stayed at the hotel for a little over an hour. At that point, we headed to the beach (both parents on only 2 hours of sleep each).

 

Above: Here is Peter bright eyed and bushy tailed after waking up to the 80's music in St. George.

 

Above: Here is Johnny just as awake as his big brother. Peter insisted on driving without pajamas...Johnny ended up without pajamas because he had a leaky diaper (hence the towel in his car seat). He refused to put on a new pair of pajamas because he was sad about the last pair getting wet. For the most part though, the boys were really sweet and happy on the ride...but they were super hyper too.

 

Above: Jeremiah LOVES the ocean. He was so happy to see it when we reached it. He feels about the ocean the way I feel about our mountains.

 

Above: Hooray for the ocean/beach/surfing!

 

Above: Johnny LOVED the sand. He thought it was so cool, and so much fun to play in/with.

 

Above: This kind of reminds me of one of those evolutionary pictures (though without the whole evolution thing, of course). :) We start little...get bigger...and grow up to be a big man!

 

Above: "Oooh! A bird!"

 

Above: "Hey! This stuff sticks to your feet!"

 

Above: Peter took like a duck to the water. He was a natural. He loved the ocean. It was a rainy morning...but it cleared up once we hit the beach. The result was that it was a mild day and the beach was absolutely empty.We had it all to ourselves. Soooooo nice.

 

Above: Playing in the waves.

 

Above: Pete and Dad had so much fun.

 

Above: Here is Dad pretending to be Pete's dog.

 

Above: Johnny and I had a great time playing in the sand and collecting seashells.

 

Above: My three guys playing together in the ocean.

 

Above: My guys are so little!

 

Above: "I'm ready to go now." At this point, Peter was SUPER ready to go. He had sand on his hands...and rubbed it in his eyes...and FREAKED out. He had a major meltdown and we had to rush him back to the van to get him cleaned off. I told Jeremiah to go surfing (he hadn't yet) while I cleaned up the boys. It took awhile to get Peter calmed down. He then decided at this point that he HATED the ocean and never wanted to go back. That made me kind of sad, of course (it turned out well by the end of our vacation though...you'll see.)

 

Above: Jeremiah posing with the surfboard that his friend let him borrow.

 

Above: Jeremiah had a great time. He has missed the ocean. It has been too long.

 

Above: After the beach, we went to the La Brea Tar Pits (Page Museum). It has a beautiful enclosed greenhouse/garden. It was closed because of the rain earlier in the day, but I was able to get this picture from the deck above it.

 

Above: The boys thought the ice age animal exhibits were really fun.

 

Above: Peter mostly just wanted a souvenir...so he was putting in his time. Seriously, why do they put gift shops where they do? I understand that they want/need the business...but it's pretty mean to the parents.

 

Above: They had a cool exhibit (which I didn't take a picture of) that showed how many wolf skulls had been collected from the tar pit. A lot of wolves met their fate there!

 

Above: Johnny taking it in stride that a saber-toothed cat is attacking a short nosed bear just over his shoulder.

 

Above: "Look!"

 

Above: "Really? THIS is how the dinosaurs came to be?"

 

Above: It was really pretty outside...a gorgeous day. The boys insisted on wearing their hooded sweatshirts, but it really wasn't necessary.

 

Above: Just checking out the tar pit. It smelled like road work because, well, it was a lake made of tar.

 

Above: Time to head back to the car! The boys were at cross purposes the entire trip. Johnny fell asleep on the way to the La Brea Tar Pit while Peter was wide awake. Peter fell asleep on the way back to the hotel while Johnny was wide awake (this became the norm for the whole trip...they rarely slept at the same time). Once we got to the hotel, Jeremiah desperately needed a nap (remember everyone also had colds), since he had only had two hours of sleep the night before. I figured that since the boys were sick that we could just have a little movie night in our hotel room and take it easy to prepare for Disneyland the next day. Well, I was wrong. The boys were having none of that. They were so riled up. Besides that, Jeremiah wasn't the only one who had only had two hours of sleep the night before! After Jeremiah had been asleep for a little over two hours, I was at the end of my rope. I told Jeremiah he needed to wake up and that it was his turn...and then I stormed off to the van to have some alone time. I meant to only take about 5-10 minutes...but I fell asleep too. I woke up about an hour later. Jeremiah took the boys swimming in the pool. Afterward, we gave the boys a warm bath and then the boys finally fell asleep. We fell asleep maybe two seconds after they did. The boys slept in until about 8:15 a.m. the next morning. We all had about 11 hours of much needed sleep that night.

 

Above: Ta da! This is the first picture I took of the boys in Disneyland. Isn't it a beauty? Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. It took so long to get the actual tickets (which I had bought online already and simply needed to pick up at will call, but it took FOREVER). While I was getting the tickets, the boys were melting down and trying to kill each other. I returned to three very unhappy campers. Peter was throwing tantrums up until we went through the gate. Yeah, no time to take pictures by the flowers shaped like Mickey's face. Get these boys to a ride, STAT! 

We took them first to Pirates of the Caribbean. Disneyland wasn't too crowded this first day because it was kind of rainy that morning and mostly overcast throughout the day. So, we pretty much walked right onto Pirates. So, no time for pictures there. The boys LOVED the ride. Peter started singing along with the song. They were pointing at all of the stuff and they were so excited. It was a much needed piece of heaven after a hard entrance into the park! 

Johnny then decided to have a leaky diaper. Thank goodness I packed an extra pair of shorts! So, we changed him, and then went on the Haunted Mansion ride. The picture above is a picture of the boys checking out a grave stone for a squirrel while we waited in line. Surprisingly, Peter got kind of scared by the ride, and Johnny was a-ok. Go figure! 

Oh, and just a little Pirates of the Caribbean side note. Over the two days we were at Disneyland, we rode that ride four times. The second time (on the first day), Jonathan fell asleep on my lap DURING the ride! Ha ha! He was so cute. The ride attendant chuckled when she saw him and said, "It looks like he thoroughly enjoyed himself."

 

Above: After the Haunted Mansion, Jeremiah hung out with Jonathan while Pete and I went on Splash Mountain. Peter LOVED this ride. After our two days at Disneyland, Peter said that Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain were his favorite rides. Sadly, Jeremiah's favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was closed, and they never made it onto Space Mountain because the line was too long. However, Peter would have loved those rides too. He's just like Jeremiah that way. :)

 

Above: After Splash Mountain we met up with Dad and Johnny again and went on the Winnie the Pooh ride.

 

Above: Finally a chance to take some pictures...the boys enjoyed the Jungle Cruise, despite the fact that it was the longest line (up to that point) that they had had to wait in.

 

Above: I sure love my guys.

 

Above: Dad smiling at our corny tour guide.

 

Above: So, what kind of mom am I? I put sunscreen on Jeremiah and I while we were driving, and then I forgot the sunscreen in the van when we went into the park! We planned to put sunscreen on the boys in one of the lines. When we finally had a moment to put sunscreen on the boys, I realized it simply wasn't there. I had hats to put on the boys (Jonathan insisted on wearing Jeremiah's hat instead of his own though). While the boys rode the tea cups, I found a very nice mom and asked if I could have some of her sunscreen. Bless her heart for that! It made me feel much more at ease the rest of the day. You can bet your boots that I didn't forget sunscreen the second day.

 

Above: It is really hard to get a good picture of the tea cup ride!

 

Above: After we spent a little time in Fantasy Land (and a fantastically lovely tantrum/meltdown from Peter that had to do with some frozen lemonade...and the chucking of), we headed to Toon Town. Oh, and Johnny had another leaky bum (he was drinking a ton that day and I guess we didn't do a good enough job of keeping up with him). Never fear though, I had also brought one of his swimsuits, so we weren't out of clothes for him to wear. The boys actually loved Toon Town--though this picture of Johnny doesn't show it!

 

Above: Down periscope!

 

Above: Pete's turn! Sorry, Dad.

 

Above: The houses in Toon Town looked adorable, but honestly, there wasn't much to actually do in them.

 

Above: Handsome guys!

 

Above: Peter checking out the magic mirror in Mickey's house. He really wanted to meet Mickey, but I thought the line was too long and I honestly didn't know how he would act once he actually met him. He doesn't always take too kindly to strangers and after his frozen lemonade meltdown, I just wasn't up for taking that chance. 

Above: Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

 

Above: "I'm breakin' loose! You can't stop me, copper!"

 

Above: Just because the photo opportunity car doesn't have seat belts, it doesn't mean you can stand while Johnny is driving! 

Above: Waiting very patiently for dinner...our very expensive dinner. :) (Seriously, why would a kids meal ever be $8? Especially for macaroni and cheese?)

 

Above: We had pretty decent seats and we were able to watch the parade on Main Street while we ate dinner. That made Pete pretty happy!

 

Above: Peter really wanted to shoot guns with Dad. So, we headed to Frontier Land. Peter saw this Indian statue and wanted to take a picture by it.

 

Above: "Cheese!"

 

Above: My two sharp shooters! 

Above: The end of our first day at Disneyland. The boys got to choose some toys as souvenirs. Johnny chose a Perry the Platypus (aka Agent P) pillow pet, and Peter chose a collection of Monsters Inc. (Monsters University) figurines. The next day I got an Agent P antenna ball to replace our Wienerschnitzel wiener that someone stole off of our van! (Can you believe that, Kim? The wiener you put on our antenna as a joke got stolen! Plus, we think it happened while we were at church! Who does that?)

 

Above: This is what a day at Disneyland does to a two year-old!

 

Above: Peter fell asleep on the ride home from Disneyland, but woke up again once we reached the hotel. We put on Monsters Inc. and he watched for a little bit and then we all went to bed. (By the way, how cool is this? Our portable DVD player that we use in our van has those red, white, and yellow hook-ups, so we were able to hook it right up to the hotel TV and watch our own DVDs on our own DVD player. Take that, hotel!).   

 

Above: Our second day at Disneyland. Jonathan checking his map to make sure we don't miss anything! 

 

Above: Pete driving with Dad (Autopia). He's a natural! 

Above: Road trip buddies!

 

Above: Uh-oh. I think I will be in trouble when this guy is a teenager.

 

Above: "Look, if you are going to be a backseat driver, why didn't you just drive?"

 

Above: "Guys...there is a bug behind you."

Our second day at Disneyland, we started with Disneyland (instead of California Adventure, as you can see from the pictures above). Our plan was to go on Pirates and Splash Mountain really fast and then see what we hadn't seen the day before (the rest of Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land). We pretty much walked right on to Pirates of the Caribbean again. Splash Mountain was closed though, darn it! Fantasy Land turned out to be packed! So, we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrow Land, and then Jeremiah and Pete went on Star Tours. Then, we decided to head over to California Adventure ("No! Stop! Don't do it! You are only headed for trouble!," I should have told myself).

By this time, the boys were tired and hungry. We went on the Monsters Inc. ride in California Adventure, which had a ridiculously long line. After that, we decided to get some food. However, we were having a hard time finding a place to eat where reservations weren't required and were they served food that the boys would actually eat. That's when Peter decided to throw a MAJOR tantrum. He just started screaming. Long, hard, and loud. We couldn't get him to be quiet. He screamed so loud that I noticed that people ACROSS the pier could hear him and were pointing in our direction. It made me angry and brought out the mother bear in me. I angrily waved my arm at them. I didn't say anything, but my body language said, "Do you like staring at my kid? What? Your kids never threw a tantrum before?" Peter happened to be wearing a saber-toothed cat necklace that we got him at the La Brea Tar Pit. In his anger, he pulled the necklace off, and chucked it about 20 feet down into the water, right off the pier. Nice. Goodbye La Brea souvenir. Jeremiah went and asked someone where he could get burgers and fries for our boys. Once he found out...we were off as quickly as possible.

Both boys fell asleep in the stroller. While Jeremiah went to get food, I tried to find a shady spot for the boys to sleep. I found what looked like a group of tables outside the restaurant were I didn't think we would be bothered. Well, of course, as soon as I stopped, both boys woke up. I hadn't quite given up hope that they could go back to sleep. I pulled some chairs over so they could put their feet up, but they were waking up more and more. At around this time, a lady came out of a door that was right in the pathway of where we were sitting (I honestly thought it was one of those locked "employees only" doors, otherwise, I wouldn't have parked the boys there). I know I had a look of frustration on my face as I moved the chairs, the boys, and myself out of this lady's way. It wasn't towards her, it was because of the situation. However, SHE thought it was towards her. She sat down at the table just kitty corner to us and loudly said to her husband, "Did you see the look she gave me?" She continued on to complain about me...kind of behind my back, but pretty much right to my face. I unrepentantly said, "I apologize." She kept complaining about me, loudly, to her husband. So, I said, again, "Look, I apologize!"

It took FOREVER for Jeremiah to come back with the food. The boys were pretty good and patient, but honestly, I felt so uncomfortable so close to that woman. Besides that, she kept mentioning me to her husband (more quietly though). However, they both kept looking over at me. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I went right up to her table and I said, "I have to say something. When I sat my boys down by that door, I thought it was a locked employee door. I didn't expect anyone to come out of it. It has been a hard morning. My boys had just had meltdowns before we came to sit here. I didn't mean to give you any kind of look. I didn't mean to offend you. I don't want to color your day in any way. I really am sorry." She quietly said, "It's okay. I'm sorry." I then walked away. They stayed there forever. We ended up leaving before them.

I honestly felt like the worst person. There is nothing like being a wife and a mother to make you realize how imperfect you are and how much you have to work on as an individual. Then, there is nothing like being a wife and a mother in a theme park to make you realize that there are plenty of people around you who are judging you too. Only they don't have the whole story, and they can judge you even more harshly than you judge yourself! It was a lesson to me that I have no power over what people think of me...the power I do have is to have sympathy, empathy, mercy, and understanding for others rather than judging them when they are in difficult situations. Oh, and the power to cut myself some slack and stop being so hard on myself. I really am just trying to do my best with what I have been given.

We walked around California Adventure for a little while longer. However, neither Jeremiah nor I knew that park very well and from looking at the map, Peter and Jonathan were too short for many of the rides. The rides that they weren't too short for had super long waits. So, after taking a few pictures, we headed back to Disneyland.

 

 Above: "Yup. There is a bug behind us."

Above: "I'm not afraid of bugs! I like bugs!"

 

Above: The boys went on this ride together. I didn't go because these rides often make me feel sick. Instead, I waited to the side and cried a little bit to myself after that terrible tantrum of Peter's followed by that awful experience with that lady at the restaurant. Yay! So much fun! 

Above: If nothing else, we got this absolutely adorable picture of my sweet Pete in Cars Land. I sure love this guy. He is a good boy.

 

Above: Cars Land did look really cool.

 

Above: The whole time we were at Disneyland, Peter kept wanting to stop and meet the characters. I was so worried that it would just lead to a tantrum or meltdown, so I kept avoiding it...but he really wanted to meet Goofy. So, we stopped. It was a very humbling moment for me. Peter waited patiently, and as soon as it was his turn he rushed up to Goofy and gave him a big hug. He was so happy to meet Goofy. It wasn't like he was seeing a stranger. He was meeting a friend. It made me feel so sad that I hadn't let him see more of the characters. I sure love my sweet Peter. Even though I have a lot to figure out in how to deal with his heightened emotions, he is such a good boy. He has a really good heart. I just need to learn how to teach him to reign things in a little when he is frustrated or angry. But he is a sweetheart. I'm glad he got to meet Goofy. The next time we come (whenever that may be), I will let him meet whatever and however many characters he wants to.

 

Above: I can never seem to get everyone to look at the same place for a picture!

 

Above: I love these guys...Goofy included! 

Above: You know, when it comes right down to it, these guys are just happy to look at the boats and ducks. Simple pleasures really are the best. They needed some wide open spaces to just run around.

 

Above: Our final day (Thursday), we went back to the beach. Peter did NOT want to go because of the whole sand in the eyes experience from our first day. Jeremiah was so ready to throw in the towel. Our second day at Disneyland ended well...but it had been a hard day. Right after the restaurant experience with that woman, Jeremiah said, "Should we just go back to the hotel, pack everything up, and drive home right now instead of tomorrow?" We were both really tempted to do that...but I'm so glad that we stuck it out. We really needed Thursday. It ended things on such a good note. I told Jeremiah that if Peter refused to go to the beach, that I would just sit in the car with the boys while he went surfing for an hour. He had been aching to see the ocean (he hadn't gone surfing in about 5 years). Besides, we couldn't let Peter call the shots on this. 

So, we went to the beach. Peter couldn't sit in the van while adventure waited outside. So, I got the boys dressed in their swimsuits again and we went to the beach. I warned Peter not to touch his face/eyes. I told him that if he got sand on his hands, that he needed to wash them off in the ocean. I also told him that we would shower him off before he got back in the van. It worked. The boys had an awesome time. Jeremiah got to do a little surfing, and Peter decided he loved the ocean after all and didn't really hate it.

 

Above: I didn't actually get any shots of Jeremiah standing on his board. I had my hands full with one boy who wanted to play in the ocean, and another boy who only wanted to play in the sand (and not even set foot in the ocean--that would be Jonathan--not because he was afraid. He just preferred playing in the sand to being in the water).

 

Above: I learned a lot of lessons on our trip. One lesson that I learned is never to drive through the night again. The boys were both absolute sweethearts during the drive home (which happened during the day). Originally, we decided to stay all day Thursday and drive home Thursday night and recuperate on Friday. Instead, we left California at around noon and returned to our home in Utah at about 1 a.m. The boys were awesome the whole time. I am never driving through the night again! They watched shows, they talked to one another, they took naps. They were as sweet as sweet could be. It was a great drive home. Even when we stopped for lunch in Barstow and the play place at the McDonald's we stopped at was closed, they were still so sweet and understanding about it. They were both disappointed, because they wanted to play, but they took the bad news in stride. Seriously, they were so good. I was so proud of them.

 

Above: My sweet, silly, sassy guy...he always gets riled up and hyper right before passing out...

 

Above: Aaaaannnnd....he's out like a light.

 

Above: Peter was a sweet and silly guy the whole ride home. Always pulling faces! I never did get a serious road trip picture of him on the drive home!

 

Above: We stopped for dinner in St. George. That play place was open...we made sure of that before we stopped. The boys had so much fun. They probably played for close to an hour. They needed to stretch their legs and get out their wiggles.

After dinner, we started on the final part of our drive home. The boys fell asleep shortly after that. They slept the rest of the way home. When we got home at around 1 a.m., they hardly even stirred. We simply picked them up and tucked them into their beds.

Everyone slept soundly until 9 a.m. the next morning. Oh, and kudos to me, because we left the house almost immaculate, so everything was clean and welcoming when we returned home. Plus, we stayed under our trip budget. Awesome! We spent Friday resting, unpacking, and doing laundry. The boys were as sweet as could be.

It's funny because with as many hard things that happened on our trip, you would think I would be overjoyed to be back home. I had mixed feelings. I was glad to be back. Our house felt so big and welcoming after our little hotel room. However, I was sad that I wouldn't be taking pictures of my boys in the ocean, and going for another ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean with sweet boys holding my hand or sitting on my lap. Despite the hard times, it was a really good trip. Plus, we learned some good lessons to make the next trip that we take (whenever that will be) an even better one.