Super Family Vacation 2010

We have been planning this vacation for 10 years. We've been telling the kids, "In 2010, we'll go to Disneyland!"

It always seemed so so far away, but we knew by then we would have paid off some very large debts and would finally have the money to make the trip. Everything worked out, and so off we went for a week long fun trip to California and Disneyland!

We decided to drive to keep costs down, so first we stopped in Vegas along the way. Here we saw all kinds of fancy hotels and buildings.

Here is Las Vegas in the daytime:

And here it is at night, the cool castle hotel:

Along the way Macey kept on coughing and crying. We thought she was just tired and frustrated with being in a car seat so long, but by the time we were almost to our Disneyland hotel she was crying nonstop saying "oweee oweee oweeee!"

We decided a trip to the Urgent Care was in order. Yep. Turned out she had a really bad ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. Poor little girl.
But, she got a shot and some medicine, and we hoped things would get better.

We went to Disneyland throughout the next few days on and off. We only barely saw a little of California Adventure. I think Disneyland seemed much more exciting and seemed to have more family friendly rides. Well, we didn't have too much time to explore them both.
The kids did like to pose in front of the letters:

We went on a few rides there, but mostly we hung out in Disneyland.

The girls focused on finding the Princesses.
Jewelia and Macey got all dressed up to find their favorites and to see Sleeping Beauty's Castle:



We planned it out pretty well, and they were both able to meet Sleeping Beauty and Snow White!



Jewelia was in Princess Heaven!

The boys focused on more manly activities. Micah, in particular, was determined to make it into the Jedi training. He went many times to try to get picked to train to be a Jedi, and on the last day he was finally chosen!



Here they trained Micah how to be a Jedi and how to fight. Then came Darth Vader and Darth Maul! Which one do you think Micah got to fight?





Here, we will show you the video:

Macey was hopefully getting better, but Troy was feeling bad and his sinuses were acting up, (turns out later we found out he has Tonsilitis) so we took a break to go see the beach.

We went to Huntington Beach which was pretty big and nice, but I thought it was a little cold.
As you can see, Macey did not like it at all!



Troy loved it of course and the kids enjoyed their first beach experience. Here is a little video of how much they loved it:



I, on the other hand, hated the beach. Yes, it was all pretty, but I just hate all that sand! Hate it hate it hate it!!!!

I would much rather have been at Disneyland, but it was nice to see the kids and Troy have fun.

We spent on and off 5 days at Disneyland/California Adventure, although too many of them were spent without everyone because someone wasn't feeling their best. We missed Troy the most!

Micah and I had a day together going on all the "big kid" rides. I borrowed Macey's hat for the day.



Jewelia and Caleb joined us a little later.

Mostly we had a great time and the kids are already counting down the days (more like many YEARS!) until they can visit Disneyland and the beach again.



Driving back we got stuck in a freeway closure and detour that added an extra 4 hours to our trip home! We ended up not getting home until midnight!

Besides the long delay and sicknesses, we still had a great time. We are however happy to be home. Well, at least I am!

We will just have to see how long it will take to make it back to the Happiest Place on Earth!



(Check out our awesome matching shirts!)

Micah and his Guitar Debut

OK, so we let you know a little while ago that our Micah has decided to learn how to play the guitar, but we haven't let you listen to him yet.

The last month of school he came to us and told us that he was going to be in the school's end of the year talent show. I thought, oh, he's going to sing, but then he told us, no, he was going to play his guitar. I thought this a little rushed because he had only had 1 month of guitar lessons, but Micah seemed confident he was ready to perform.

He and Caleb both performed in their school's talent show. We didn't get the best recording of their performances, so we recorded them both playing what they were to perform at home. To hear what Caleb played you can click here or check out his piano blog.

And without further adieu, here is Micah's debut guitar performance:

We think he is pretty awesome only having 2 months of guitar now.

Soon to come.....Micah has picked Paul McCartney's Blackbird and the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun" to play next.

Dance Recital Time!

It is end of the year dance recital time once again! The kids get to be all dressed up cute for their dance performances.

Micah got to wear his Ballet costume from last year for his ballet number, but he got a new cool army camo outfit for his tap dance number:

Jewelia, so excited was she to get to wear her fancy costume:

This was before the actual performances with her hair down. I had to put it in a bun for the show with 18 bobby pins, a hair net, and lots and lots of hair spray. She has a lot of hair!

Here are some cute videos of their performances from their dress rehearsal.

First we have Micah in tap:



Micah's tap dance was interesting because they were going to bring a prop fake bugle for his dance, but when not finding what they were looking for, instead decided to give him an actual very old trumpet that was someone's great grandfather's trumpet to dance with. I mean this thing was big and kind of heavy, and then they told him to be really careful not to break it because it was an antique! So, goes to say he looks a little weighed down at times, yet I'm glad somebody's trumpet didn't go flying across the stage!

Next we have Jewelia doing tap:
(She's the one on the far right if you can't tell.)



I think she did alright. It wasn't a too exciting dance the second half with all the same shuffle steps over and over, but for some reason she had a substitute teacher for over half of her classes so she didn't have time for her teacher to create a real elaborate dance. (I think something wasn't quite fair there, but oh well. She still did pretty good.)

And last her is Micah's ballet number.



I think he has quite improved on his balance and coordination in ballet.

I feel a little like a traitor this end of the year. After being with this dance studio for 2 1/2 years, we have decided to move on to a different place. Next year Micah will be taking ballet and tap with another boy at a different studio that even has a male teacher. Jewelia will be focusing on ballet specifically.