Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Legoland!

I really, truly don't mean to be a month behind in blogging!  Life is so busy with Emily, Lindsey, Jack and Hannah playing soccer, Jack playing baseball, Lindsey and Kate getting ready for their "Rapunzel" show, Kate getting ready for her spring dance show, watching Brooklyn a day and a half a week, Jon's busy schedule, having Hannah in our family :) and preparing to be PTA President next year, it's just nuts.

So, back to our spring break trip to California.  On Thursday morning, we got up, checked out of our Anaheim hotel and drove to Carlsbad, CA.   Neither Jon or I had ever been to Legoland and we figured it would be a good trip to go there, since our kids are still little.  We got there about 11:00 and we started riding rides.  We headed to the smaller kid section first, ate some lunch and then hooked back up with the Spackman's.  The kids had a fun time.  Although Legoland doesn't know how to get people through lines like Disneyland does, it was a lot of fun. 

It closes at 5, so after we left, we went to El Norte's (a recommendation from the Rough's) for a yummy Mexican dinner.  By the time we finished, it was too dark to go to the beach (which we were right across the street from), so we headed to our hotel (the Ocean Palms Resort) and had a pretty good night's sleep.

We got up the next morning and headed back to Legoland for a 2nd day.  This day, I remembered by camera!!! and we met up with our friends, the Rough's.  When we moved to Ohio in 2002, Sean and Debbie welcomed us like family.  We had Sunday dinner together, we took Mommy and Me classes together, we scrapbooked together, they invited us to their big family events, and they introduced us to all the wonderful things in Ohio.   They had 2 kids at the time, Pierce & Nicolette, who were exactly the same ages as Emily and Lindsey.

The Rough's moved to California the summer of 2003, but came to visit Ohio while we still lived there and came and visited Utah right after we moved back in 2009.    They had added a set of darling, identical twins, Molly and Lilly.   

We were so excited to see them again, and since they live right in Carlsbad, it was fun to spend the entire day with them!   They pulled their kids out of school and all of the kids got along so well.  We laughed and reminisced and just enjoyed being with them.

When the park closed at 5 again, we headed to their cute house for pizza and then went to a couple of innings of Pierce's baseball game.     Thank you Sean and Debbie for a wonderful day!   We loved seeing you and can't wait to do it again some time soon!

Here's all the pics...

Kate 

 Hannah was too short to go on the horse ride that Kate's on in the above picture



The Frog Jumper - Hannah loved and hated it at the same time.  She's trying to laugh in this picture, but was actually quite scared.  She felt better as soon as Kate Spackman put her arm around her.  So sweet of Kate!!


Emily, Kate, Hannah, Pierce, Nicolette, Lindsey and Jack


 Nicolette and Lindsey


Pierce and Jack




Pierce was so sweet with Hailey!


 Hannah and I on her kind of ride



Lindsey, Lilly, Pierce, Kate, Jack, Molly, Emily, Hailey, Kate and Nicolette


 Our favorite part was the  section with cities/national monuments/Star Wars scenes that were all made out of Legos - incredible!

















Debbie & I




Monday, April 9, 2012

Fantasyland with H & H

We had a great 3rd day at Disneyland/California Adventures! As soon as we walked in the park, I took Hannah & Hailey to Fantasyland. Jon took the bigger kids on other rides and I spent an hour & a half going on ALL the little kid rides. We had a blast! It was so nice to not have to wait too long and to go on rides that I have never gone on (like the Storyland ride - it's a little boat and you see little villages of the Disney characters - so cute!). Hannah was in heaven and it was cute to see her so excited! We hit about 10 rides and then went to the Baby Care Center to feed Hailey. Then we headed into California Adventures, did a couple of rides, and then waited in line for the Disney Junior show.

We treated ourselves to Rainforest Cafe for lunch, went back into Disneyland and rode until our legs were exhausted!





Friday, April 6, 2012

Happy 1st Birthday Hailey!!

It's hard to believe, but our sweet, little, teeny baby is 1 today!!! What a wonderful year it has been! We can't imagine our lives without Hailey! She has brought us (and continues to bring us) incredible happiness & joy!


April 2011 - in her NICU incubator
Freshly Hatched
3 weeks old

6 weeks old
2 1/2 months
2 1/2 months
3 months (with cousin Sophia)
4 months
5 months
6 months
7 1/2 months
9 months
10 months
11 1/2 months
We love you Hailey!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Disneyland - Days 1 & 2

We went to Disneyland/California Adventures last Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. We stayed at the Best Western Raffles Inn in Anaheim and it was perfect! It was about 3/4 mile away, so we'd get up early every morning, eat the free continental breakfast and then walk to Disneyland! The weather was absolutely perfect!

The first day, we headed straight towards Star Tours & Space Mountain. After riding those 2 rides (I took Hannah & Hailey on Buzz Lightyear), the older girls split off from the group and go on rides together. We met up with them at lunch time, but I think they had a fun time all being together.



Disneyland has a great Baby Care Center, so I'd take Hailey there once in the morning and once in the afternoon to nurse her. Jon took Jack, Kate & Hannah on a couple of rides and then over to Mickey's Toon Town.
Hannah
Kate
Jack
Hannah would not turn around for the picture - she was just laughing at how funny goofy was.

Yeah - finally turned around!
I caught this picture once over by the Baby Care Center when I had taken Hannah with me. I'm not really into waiting a long time in a line to see a character, so it was perfect that we caught this one.
Happy baby!
We went at The Hungry Bear Restaurant for lunch. It was okay - expensive, but it was nice to sit down for a few minutes. We rode rides during the afternoon (thankfully using Fast Passes or waiting in lines that were about 45 minutes). We left the park around 6 and went to a yummy pizza restaurant for dinner. By the time we were done, we decided we were done for the day.
Again, the next morning, we got up early and arrived at Disneyland when it opened. We did several rides and then headed over to California Adventure. The kids LOVED California Screamin', Tower of Terror & Soarin' the best.
Hannah & Hailey ended up sleeping for a couple of hours in the stroller - poor babies!

This picture cracks me up - Debbie (in the green) is getting ready to ram into Hannah (her daughter) on the bumper cars.
Jon took these 2 for a little bit while I went on Soarin' with the other 4 kids.
We left Disneyland at lunch time and walked across the street to McDonald's for lunch. Then, we actually went back to our hotel room to rest. Hailey took a nap and the kids were happy to just lay on the bed and watch tv. We went back to Disneyland after a couple of hours and enjoyed the evening of shorter lines.

We were exhausted by the end of each day, but it was so much fun!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Spring Break 2012

Last week, we had a great spring break! For Christmas, we had given the kids a trip to Disneyland. (We figured they totally deserved it for being so good on our trip to Russia last October). Emily played in a soccer tournament in Salem, UT on Thursday night, Friday night & Saturday morning. After her game on Saturday morning, we headed out! We drove to Primm, NV to stay the first night.

Primm, NV is nothing but 2 huge casinos, some restaurants, a shopping area and a couple of gas stations. Dragging 6 kids and gear for those 6 kids through a dirty, stinky casino was gross, but the kids were so excited. We were able to go with the Spackman family. Emily plays soccer with their daughter, Kate and Lindsey plays soccer with their daughter, Olivia. We checked in, ate dinner at their food court area and then rode a couple of their rides. They have a huge roller coaster ("Desperado"). It was $10 a piece to ride it once, so I opted out. Jon took Emily, Lindsey & Jack on it. After he got off, he and Jared convinced Debbie and I to try it. We did, only to discover we were right behind 2 very drunk men. Our first concern was not getting thrown up on and then we discovered later that they require at least 10 riders on the ride when it's windy. Now, if there is any chance of a roller coaster not staying on the tracks, I don't want anything to do with it! Thankfully, although we screamed our guts out, we survived!

We needed 2 rooms, so the 4 oldest girls slept in that room and Jon & I and our 4 youngest slept in our other room. They all slept really good. We got up, ate breakfast in our room and headed toward Los Angeles.

More to come....

Disneyland 2012
These are all the kids from 3 families - another family from Lindsey's soccer team were there too so it was really fun!

Hannah, Olivia Spackman, Lindsey, Mia Strong, Nora Strong, Logan Spackman, Kate Spackman, Ben Strong, Emily, Hailey, Hannah Spackman, Kate & Jack

All 13 of these kids were incredible!!


Eating breakfast in Primm