2017 Vacation Book

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Summer Vacation - Day 6

Last day! We decided to spend today letting each child pick the ride they wanted to go on again. We also wanted to get another family picture:

Summer Vacation - Day 5

Welcome to Day 5. Today we went to Legoland! We told the boys last time we went to Disneyland that next time we came, we would take them to Legoland. Jonathan was already starting to wonder why we were going to a "kid" land, but Thomas and Taylor were excited to go.

Before we even made it into the park, we went to buy our tickets and someone asked us if we were buying tickets. I told her yes, and she said her daughter could not make it so she gave us their adult ticket that she was going to use. That was very kind of them. 

We made it in and after traveling for almost 1 1/2 hours we were tired of sitting. We were ready to do a little sight seeing. 

Summer Vacation - Day 4

By Day 4, the kids knew the morning drill. Thomas decided to stuff an entire doughnut into his mouth. Not laughing on the other hand was a different story...

Summer Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 we started out at California Adventure. We decided to go on Toy Story Mania first. They look so happy to be there, don't they?

Summer Vacation Day 2

Morning came too early! We also decided to use our Magic Morning and get in 1 hour early. Having stayed at this hotel previously, I knew there was no room for the family in the breakfast room, so we sent the older boys to get breakfast. They came back with doughnuts and Froot Loops. Not much to pick from...The kids of course though doughnuts for breakfast was a great idea! 

We headed off to the parks with hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, snacks and water! Since it was Magic Morning, they had Fantasyland and Tomorrowland opened one hour prior to the rest of the park. Jonathan & Taylor wanted to ride the Matterhorn, so John took them. 

Summer Vacation Day 1

Our family went on our big Summer Vacation last week. Doing it right after the kids were out of school was not the best timing, but we wanted to go before Rebecca turned 3.

So for our vacation, we went to Disneyland and Legoland. I got some great deals on our hotel (Stay 4 nights, get the 5th free.) and our tickets to Disneyland (Buy 3 days, get the 4th day free + 20% cash back! From here, but went through here for cash back. It was a 1 week deal.) I also ordered Disney gift cards from Target and used my REDcard to get 5% off. Every little bit helps! We were ready for our trip. Rebecca is demonstrating how ready we were here:

Getaway to San Diego!

On March 1st, John and I celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary. We were able to do a 3 day/2 night getaway to San Diego this last weekend. I think the pictures say it all. :-) John found a place on Coronado Island. We were able to upgrade to a bay view with a view of the bridge. So pretty!

Jonathan and John's Trip to Philadelphia and Gettysburg: Day 1 & 2

Before time gets away from me, I thought I better blog about our trip to Philadelphia and Gettysburg last week.

Day 1: July 3rd

Our non-stop flight was scheduled to leave at 2:45 pm from Phoenix and arrive at 10:05 pm eastern time in Philadelphia.  However, due to the high temperatures (I think it was 115), the flight needed to refuel in St. Louis.  Despite this additional time added to the flight, we didn't leave Phoenix until around 3:30 pm.  We ended up arriving in Philadelphia at 12:30 am.  This meant that the shuttle I planned on taking to our hotel was no longer running.  Public transportation (i.e. the subway) was also closed.  So Jonathan and I took the first taxi-cab ride of our lives.  Strange that at age 39 I had never rode in a taxi before.  It was neat in that it had a TV in the back seat with touch screen channels and a GPS map of where we were.

Summer Vacation - Day 10 of 10 (HOME!)

Monday morning, we woke up and the kids got ready and went to eat breakfast. John was quite impressed with everything they had to offer.

Summer Vacation - Day 8 of 10 (TWO Family Reunions!)

Saturday morning, John left early to go help with baptisms for the dead. I was planning to go a little later, but did not feel well enough to go. So I rested. Everyone says it went well. It was the first temple trip I have missed since 1995. I was happy to watch these kids though.

Summer Vacation - Day 7 of 10 (Family Reunion)

As we went to bed on Thursday, John asked what I wanted to do Friday morning. I said, "Nothing!" I was quite serious too. My joints were getting more painful with all the walking we were doing, and I was sick from just traveling. So that is what we did - nothing. 

The boys played Settlers of Catan.

Summer Vacation - Day 6 of 10 (BYU + Family Reunion)

Thursday we left my friends home and made our way down to Utah County for my family reunion. On the way we stopped at Thanksgiving Point. We could not find the Museum of Ancient History (we came in the back way), but we did find the Princess Faire. When we suggested going there instead, we were met with groans and rolled eyes. Taylor said he would dress as a Jedi because Jedi are not suppose to get married! I was grateful Rebecca was not older and insist on going. They had a horse drawn carriage and lots of little princesses.

We finally found the museum and went in. This was probably the quickest museum trip, but we still had a great time!

Summer Vacation - Day 5 of 10 (Lagoon!)

Have you ever had one of those days where everything was perfect? The weather was perfect, crowds were perfect, kids were perfect? Ok...so we can't have everything, but still this day was pretty close to being perfect. Today we went to a Utah legend - Lagoon! The last time John and I went, it was with my sister Lindsay. I think that was back in 1997 or 1998. So as Jonathan likes to say, "It was last century!"  We went with my sister and her kids. Our kids had a great time. We swapped kids on the way up. Julie loved being with her cousin Rebecca. Mainly because they shared the name Rebecca. Kody & Taylor were in the back. Taylor taught Kody to hypnotize himself. It was rather quiet in the back.

Summer Vacation - Day 4 (Temple Square)

Tuesday we started the day at The Leonardo Museum. We picked the wrong week to go though. The Utah Art Walk was that upcoming weekend and so they had roads blocked off and parking was really slim. We found a spot though and got in. We went to the second floor and did the main exhibit which we were not that impressed with and wondered what we were going to do with our kids. However...we then found the other side which had lots of interactive activities for the kids. 

Taylor loved the green screen and they learned what happened when you put green clothes on. Thomas loved disappearing! You can kind of see it on the tv screen.

Summer Vacation - Day 3 of 10 (Museum Day!)

When I say museum day, I mean we went to three museums in one day! We went to the Utah Natural History Museum, Clark Planetarium and Discovery Gateway. I think by the end of the day our kids were museumed out!

We started our journey and took a little detour. When John and I were first married, we lived in Holladay and would drive around dreaming about living in one of the homes over there. We drove through the area again just to see it. It was not until we were back on the freeway that Jonathan said, "Um...did you guys just go down memory lane?"

Earlier this year, I got a really good deal on a season pass to AZ Science Center. With the pass, you could also get into other museums around the country. That right there paid for all of the museums we went to in Utah. First stop was the Natural History Museum. We learned about the weather:

Summer Vacation - Day 2 of 10 (Travel to Salt Lake)

We started the morning off with breakfast. What is better than leftover pizza? I personally love cold pizza where John prefers his warm. So far we have two kids that insist pizza is warm and one that is ok with cold. Maybe we will be two for two?

Our Summer Vacation - Day 1 of 10 (Travel to Las Vegas)

So...we took a family vacation this summer! It has been a while since we have done something like this and hope that our children remember this one for a LONG time! Between John and I we have a lot of pictures on our cameras, so I decided to break it down day by day.

Everyone knows that when they get ready to go on vacation, things rarely go as planned.  That was Saturday morning for us.  We loaded the van and got off later than we had anticipated.  We had a few issues that came up that we needed to take care of before leaving.  Meanwhile, Rebecca decided she wanted to start her movie.

Twas the week before our Vacation...

We had so much to do before we left on our vacation. My parents were starting to get settled, when my dad had his surgery that Wednesday. They removed two bones and part of his toe bone. He was home the following day.

Our Trip To Utah: The Good, The Bad &The Ugly

With John's Dad passing away, we knew the funeral would be a trip for the family.  It was decided to be the following Saturday and with the boys out of school it made sense to take everyone.  John's dad had written out every detail of his funeral - who would speak, the topics, music...everything was done.  He had asked if I would play the organ and do a musical number.  The only thing that was not planned was what he wanted the special musical number to be.  After finding my piano books and going through them, playing several for John, we decided on Love One Another as the best choice.  My wrist was still not 100% yet, so I had to really practice to get it up to where it should be so I could even play.

Our original plan was to leave Thursday morning and drive to Salt Lake.  We woke up Wednesday morning and John said, "Why don't we leave today and break up the trip.  I don't know how Rebecca will do driving 12 hours."  So we scoured the Internet for hotels and booked one for the way up and back at Circus Circus in Las Vegas.  Here is our trip broken down by The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.