Disneyland 2011

We spent 3 wonderful days at Disneyland back in January. If you ask me, 3 days is not enough time. I wish we had just one more day. We went to Disneyland with Kevin, Jonathan, Gus, Kevin's friend, Julie, and her children. It rained the first day we were there. POURED!!! But we are die-hards and we stayed and enjoyed the short lines. We also saw "World of Color" which is the new water and lights show at California Adventure. We saw it twice. It was probably my favorite thing that we did this trip. The Happiest Place on Earth once again lived up to it's name.

Our Hero, Uncle Kevin

The main reason we went to California was for my brother-in-law, Kevin's, retirement ceremony. He retired from the Marine Corps. after 20 years and 10 months of service. We are so proud of him and grateful for his service.

Texas Surprise!!!

On Christmas, while Shelley and I were sitting in the kitchen, she mentioned to me that she was planning to go to Texas to spend New Years with Ryan's sister, Bobbi and her children. We talked about how we hadn't seen Bobbi or her kids for about 5 years and how fun it would be to go surprise them. Well we kept talking and we all decided to do it. We left for Texas on December 29th and drove 16 hours to surprise them. They knew that Shelley was coming, but they didn't know that she was bringing the rest of us. We got there at 9:00 am and they were all very surprised and happy to see us. We ate breakfast and then went to Six Flags over Texas. We had such a great day. It's sad some times to live far away from family, especially when your nieces and nephews grow up so fast.

The Happy Meal McDonald's (as seen on The Travel Channel)

Ryan and Kira

Kira, Kathryn and Emma

Austin, Shelley and Braxton

Ryan and the girls on the teacups. Emma is on there too.

Me, Emma and Kathryn

Shelley

Me and Emma

Braxton and Austin

Getting on the teacups

One of the best roller coasters ever!!!

My tired and very cute kids

The whole gang

We had a great time with family. We were there for four days. Poor Braxton came down with the flu the first night and wanted to spend most of the time sleeping at the hotel. We didn't get much sleep, but we still loved being there. He misses his cousin Austin all the time, so it was so nice to see them together.

Home Sweet Home

Here's a quick summary:

I am finally getting around to blogging about our trip to Nova Scotia this summer. 18 Glorious Days!!! I wish that I could spend every summer there. We had such a great time. Getting there was an adventure. Flying with 2 kids is not the easiest, we had a lot of things go wrong and we did a lot of running through the airports. I thought back to my earlier blog entry back in March when I flew back to Canada alone and sat and read my book and enjoyed my time. This trip was the complete opposite. We almost missed both our flights, it took us over an hour to clean customs, Air Canada lost my car seat. I will say this though, there is no better airline than Air Canada. They were so helpful when they saw that I was traveling with little ones. Plus, they have TVs on the chair backs with recent movies and tv shows. We watched "How to Train Your Dragon" and I watched "Date Night" while Emma slept.

When we got to Halifax, we stayed at my sister's house over night, I had forgotten how much I hate humidity. It was so gross, I took a shower the next morning and felt so hot and sticky within 10 minutes. We drove to Cape Breton and that's where the fun began. It really doesn't matter where I live, Cape Breton is home and it feels like home and when I am there, it feels like I never left.

We went to the beach. Braxton can now say that he has gone swimming in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The kids played with cousins, EVERYDAY!!! I think that is what they enjoyed the most about the trip, I really liked it too. I saw some wonderful friends, family and spent a lot of time with my sisters. I was there for 10 days and then Ryan arrived. I then had to play tour guide. We went to the Fortress of Louisbourg which is an 18th century French Fortress, we played in the ocean, we had the best pizza in the world, I had girl's night out. We spent a night in Ingonish with most of my family, it was so beautiful there. It's so hard to get all nine of us siblings together, there were 7 of us in Ingonish. We stayed at these cute cabins, played at the beach, ate lot of food, played games and had such a great time. I think that was the highlight of our trip. Spending time with family is what it's all about. After Ingonish, we drove around parts of the Island, Cape Breton is called Nova Scotia's Masterpiece for a reason. It is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I was able to take Ryan and the kids to North River, where my grandparents grew up. We visited my Papa's grave, we ate seafood at a restaurant that had an incredible view of the water. We spent a day in Halifax and visited the Citadel and the waterfront. We decided the next time we go, we will spend a few extra days in Halifax and maybe visit Prince Edward Island. I cannot wait to go back. Being there makes me realize how much I miss it there. I am happy that the kids loved it there, Braxton keeps asking when we are going back.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

July 4th, 2010

USA T-Shirts for a family of 4............ $20.00

Neighborhood fireworks (the legal and illegal variety)............$80.00

The Bounce Toys in Kaysville.......................$0.00

Living in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave...............Priceless

Road Trip

I am so behind on my blog. I finally got our South Dakota vacation posts done. Of course since it was a month ago, I didn't write it as detailed as I would have liked. So there are four days of vacation. We had such a great time. We love taking road trips, we had no idea there were so many things to do in South Dakota. We will probably go back some day and do the other things that were on our list that we didn't get to do. There are a lot of cool caves that we didn't get to visit.

Devil's Tower, Deadwood, Cedar Rapids

The kids ready to go in the Broken Boot Mine

Day 1

We began our vacation on May 28th. We drove to Moorcroft, WY and spent the night. We were really shocked at how different North East Wyoming was. It was green and pretty. We are used to sage brush Wyoming. On the morning of the 29th, we woke up and drove to Devil's Tower. When I was a kid, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was one of my favorite movies, so it was fun to go there. It is huge and impressive. There is a paved walking trail around the base, it's a little over a mile long. It was a beautiful walk and the perfect day to be there.

After Devil's Tower, we drove into South Dakota. The Black Hills are so beautiful. I had no idea that it would be like a little slice of Heaven. Ryan and I were in awe of the scenery. We went to Deadwood on our way to Cedar Rapids, which was home base for the evening. Deadwood was okay. I guess it's nice to say that you've been somewhere. I guess we weren't too impressed with Deadwood because we aren't gamblers. Emma did commit her first crime though. We were walking up the street and I noticed that she had a pair of sunglasses in her hands, she had taken them from a gift shop and we walked right out of the store without anyone noticing. Ryan brought them back and the clerk seemed surprised that he did. When in Deadwood, I guess.

We also toured the Broken Boot Mine. Which was a gold mine, but not a very successful one. The kids looked so cute in their hard hats. It was a fun tour because we met a lot of neat people on the tour. A couple from Italy and one from Texas. The couple from Italy were traveling for the whole summer. They started in Chicago and would end their trip in August in Vancouver. I wish we had the same sort of vacation days as Europeans.

We ended the day in Cedar Rapids with a yummy dinner and swimming at the pool. While at the pool I met a girl who grew up in Kaysville and her sister, Emily, went to high school with Ryan. Emily is the mother of one of Braxton's good friends from Kaysville, Jacob. It's such a small world.

Emma ready to go

Devil's Tower, it's cool how it's just out in the middle of nowhere by itself

There were rock climbers all over when we were there. It was fun to watch them.

Braxton at the base of Devil's Tower

Us on top of a rock

The site of Devil's Tower is a very sacred place for Native Americans. Here is a picture of some prayer clothes hanging on a tree. There were prayer and clothes and prayer bags all around.

Ryan and Braxton at Deadwood

Deadwood

Tired girl

The mine we toured

Braxton inside the mine

Cedar Rapids, SD

Day 2:

After a great night's sleep in Cedar Rapids, we decided to explore the local area. We started with a chuck wagon breakfast at Fort Hayes, which is just outside of Cedar Rapids. It's also the site where they filmed parts of Dances With Wolves. Part of the set is there. While we ate our breakfast, since it was Sunday, they had some country gospel artist at the restaurant to entertain us. She was only 15 years old and quite talented. After breakfast we walked around Fort Hayes.

This is Braxton standing in the room where Kevin Costner got his orders. Braxton is standing on an "X" on the floor which was a mark for Kevin Costner to stand on.

Braxton learning how to make a rope. The man who taught him how to make it was very entertaining and had a lot of stories to tell.

Finishing the rope. Doesn't Braxton look excited. :)

Braxton with his finished product.

After Fort Hayes, we drove down the street the Reptile Gardens, which was the highlight of the day. We went to the Gator Show, the Snake Show and played with Giant Tortoises.

Gator wrestling

Snake in a tree

Braxton petting the baby gator

Emma not petting the gator. She enjoyed the snakes show a lot more than the gators

Braxton and one of the giant tortoises. They love to be scratched on their necks.

Braxton and the prairie dogs. They were everywhere.

Prairie dogs

After Reptile Gardens, we went to Cosmos. I can't really explain what Cosmos is, the gravity there is all messed up. The pictures do not do it justice. It's a strange place that needs to be experienced. We had a blast. I don't know if you can tell in the pictures, since I wasn't able to stand up straight, but everyone is slanted. Very weird, but very fun to watch your kids try to walk. ( www.cosmosmysteryarea.com)

We drove down to Hot Springs, SD and spent the night. The kids were excited that they had their own room with bunk beds.

But of course, they fell asleep in our bed while watching a movie, so Ryan slept on the bottom bed and I squeezed in with the kids.