California Vacation!

It was a good thing that we decided to drive to California because we packed our pilot to the top!  We were all packed up and ready to go... swimming?  That's right.  Aleah and Cade got to go swimming at the Scera Pool with all of their gymnastics friends to celebrate all of their hard work during the competition season.  We swam and went down the slides and had a great time.  Then we loaded back up and drove down to St. George to meet up with Brad's family.

Something we learned the hard way, don't drive to California from St. George on a Sunday afternoon! We hit traffic!

 And more traffic!

It took us almost double the amount of time to get there.  But, we were all so happy when we finally arrived at our vacation home.

We did this vacation the right way!  We woke up, had breakfast, swam in the pool at the vacation home, had lunch, went to the beach, came back to the vacation home, jumped back in the pool, had dinner, played in the pool some more and then went to bed.  Hit repeat a few times and you've got it.

We absolutely love the beach!  We could spend all day every day at the beach!  The kids were all smiles the whole time we were at the beach.    We played in the waves.

We did a lot of boogie boarding!

As is the case with most vacations, I was the only one who took pictures.  So there are not any pictures of me.  But, that doesn't mean that I didn't play and boogie board because I did and I loved it! I'm going to have to work on my selfies next time.

I especially like building sand castles.  I think that the kids and I spent most of our time playing in the sand.

They spent hours filling up their buckets with water and dumping it in the moat.  

Brad spent most of his time body surfing.

 

Occasionally, Cade would take a break to warm up a little.  Then he would be right back out playing in the water and the sand.

We spent one day at Disneyland to celebrate Brad's parents' 50th wedding anniversary!  Brad's parents went to Disneyland on their honeymoon.  It was a lot of fun to be able to celebrate with them. We love them both so much.  We are thankful for their commitment to each other and the wonderful example they are for us.

The night before we went to Disneyland we planned our day using RideMax.  It was awesome!  We were all able to stay together, all 22 of us!  We got to go on all the rides that we wanted to go on and a few rides we went on twice.  Most of the rides were no wait at all, the rest were a little wait, except for Star Tours.

Star Tours was our longest wait.  We had to wait for about 30 minutes.  The whole time we were in line my nephew Garrett was talking about how there would be a rebel spy and he thought it would be someone on the front row.  He really wanted to be the rebel spy!  When we got on the ride he was sitting right next to me on the front row.  I got picked to be the rebel spy.  It was funny.  He was so close!  It was a really fun day!

Our first big rollercoaster was Matterhorn.  Cade got to be in the front of our train.  He was so excited to be in the front of the train!  The abominable snow monster was a little scary for Aleah and Cade, but they still loved it.  Brad lost his hat which was sad, but also funny.  When it flew off his head it landed on his sister Crystal who was right behind him.  She didn't know what it was a thought maybe it was a bat or something.  It scared her and therefor she didn't catch it for him.

We were looking forward to Splash Mountain.  Aleah remembered it from the last time we went to Disneyland.  She was very excited to ride it again.  Cade was very hopeful that he would be tall enough this time.  We loved it and got to go on it twice!

We still love the carousel!  But, we didn't go on it as many times as we did in previous years.  Aleah and Cade love rollercoasters!  I'm so glad because Brad and I do too.

It was such a wonderful day and evening.  We loved it all!  The fireworks at the end are always one of my favorite parts.  Cade fell asleep during the fireworks and I'm sure Aleah would have as well, but we only had a single stroller.  It's hard being the oldest!  She was asleep the second we got in the Uber car that took us back to the vacation home.

We did not want this vacation to come to an end!  It was a nice ride home, much faster than the way there!

Enjoying Summer!

One of my favorite things about summer is our beautifully decorated driveway.  I love the way that our house faces because by the afternoon the driveway is shaded and perfect for doing some chalk art.  I have some amazing little chalk artists.  Aleah loves drawing ocean scenes with islands and flamingos.

Cade draws the submarines, with boosters!, that are under the ocean.

For our craft one week Aleah and Cade wanted to make a Humpty Dumpty with paper mache.  I thought it would be a fun new craft for us to do.  Aleah loved it, and Cade could not stand having the paste on his fingers.  He is so funny!  I thought that he out grew his need to have clean hands, since I can't get him to use his utensils at meal times!  Obviously not!

So Cade took over the job of ripping the newspaper strips and I took over putting the strips in the paste and onto his balloon.  I love doing paper mache so I liked the trade!  It ended up being a lot of fun.  After they were dry Aleah and Cade enjoyed painting them.  I forgot to get an after picture, but both Humpty Dumptys turned out really cute.

This summer we loved going on outings to different museums and spending time with our friends!

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is to go on family bike rides.  Aleah and Cade also like to do bike races.  One day we decided to do a bike race that was in Heber.  We packed up all the bikes, water bottles, snacks and headed up the canyon.  We were almost to Heber when I realized that we had forgotten to pack the helmets.  They can't race without a helmet.  Aleah and Cade were devastated!  Brad used his quick thinking amazing Dad skills and took the kids on a bike ride to Bridal Veil Falls.  I drove the pilot down the canyon and met them at the falls.  They loved it!

We love going boating with Grandma and Grandpa Stone!  Utah Lake was really low this year so we had to go to Deer Creek Reservoir.  It is a bit more of a drive and the water is cold, but it was worth it for all the fun!

Brad is so handsome and so much fun to be around.  I'm so lucky to have him in my life!

The water is so rough at Deer Creek.  So we did a lot of air chair this summer.  Brad is awesome on the air chair.

I crashed a lot, but finally figured it out and had a lot of fun!  I usually don't do the air chair because I love wake boarding.  Most of the time we only have time for one turn each so I usually pick wake boarding.  But, the air chair is more fun on rough water.  I'm so happy that I figured it out!