Day 3 - California Adventure

It's been about 25 years since Rick and I have gone to Disneyland.  Last time we went and took our family, California Adventure didn't exist.  The location where it now stands was once the parking lot for Disneyland.  Now there are high rise parking lots for both parks and it has changed a lot since our last visit. This is Disneyland in about 1965.  The huge parking lot is where California Adventure now sits.

Our girls and Andy and their families have gone to the parks more frequently over the years than we have. Dave and family hadn't gone before.  Since Claire knew all the ropes of visiting these theme parks, we all turned ourselves over to her to plan our day.  She and her Disneyland app worked wonders.
She and Rick bought our entry tickets the day before so we wouldn't have to spend time in line buying tickets.  At exactly 10:00 am, we were at the park ready to begin our day.  We all wore comfortable shoes and it's a good thing we did because our step counters said we walked close to eight miles that day.  We had the littles in strollers and off we went to our great adventure.

 The weather that day was actually a little too hot. It was about 88 degrees and kept us toasty warm through the whole day, no jackets required.  We started off with a bang and went from ride to ride as Claire directed.  Fast passes helped on the popular rides.  I sat back and watched the little kids for some rides since I didn't want to get a dizzy spell going.  Luckily, I didn't have issues with that.

We learned that Ursala's head had fallen off
the day before we went through this ride.
 That would have been cool to see!

These little boys L O V E the movies of Cars. 
They have seen all the movies and know all the names,
places and plot lines.  They were in heaven to go to Cars Land.

Is there a more excited child than Will?
  His facial expressions are the best.

We rode, and we rode and we rode so many rides. 

 It would be hard to say which was my favorite.

Like mother, like child.  Claire and Will have great facial expressions!

One fun activity was going into the Disney animation lab and learning to draw Disney figures.  We learned that Oswald, a rabbit, was the first figure Walt Disney brought to life.  It was fun to learn how to draw him.  We later had an art show at the house and saw all the fine drawings of Oswald.  We have some really good artists in the family!

We stayed until closing at 9:00 pm.  It was a huge, fun, exhausting day and we loved every minute of it.  There were many tired but happy people returning back to the house that night.

What an adventure we had!  We'll always remember our day at California Adventure!

Day 1 and 2 - Family vacation to California

Wonderful!!  That is one word to describe our family reunion trip to southern California last week.  We set the date many months ago, knowing that we wanted to go to Cali in the off season so that we could enjoy reduced fares on house rentals and fewer crowds at Disneyland.  We were right.  We rented a spacious, clean and comfortable Airbnb which housed our group of 19 perfectly.  It had so many extras like a huge game room in the garage, washer and dryer, hot tub, swimming pool and kiddy pool, BBQ grill, fire pit, and a fully equipped kitchen with lots of extras.  Each family was comfortable in their own room with all the space they needed.  

Sam was a very good traveler, coming
 all the way from the east coast with his family.

Dave, Charlie and Margaret have cross country
travel down to a science. 
Many thanks to Courtney and her planning.

Annie and Claire flew down and spent a half
day exploring the LACMA while the rest of us drove
 down in the two vans from Utah.

We were so happy to be together that first evening
getting settled in and having some pizza
 for dinner and relaxing after a long day of travel.

Cousin love.  Will and Charlie.

We attended a regional conference
 in the Anaheim stake center on Sunday.

These two and Tommy are the best of friends. 
So cute!

After church, there was some rest time and fun play time in the
large and spacious yard, it then it was time for family pictures. 
Margaret is such a beautiful little girl, full of sugar and spice.

Annie!  We all love this little girl.

This family of mine.  Love. Love.  Love.

Our darling ten grandchildren.  Oh how we love to spend time with them.

We love being together with these wonderful children.  Love each and every one.

Grandpa with our youngest grand girl.

Trying out our matching shirts. 
I thought these shirts would only appear in this one picture. 
Was I in for a surprise!

Family Love!!

Messing around with our crew.

Andy pretty much hated his matching shirt
but wore it just the same.
He is a good laddie boy.

Darling family!

Love this family!

Andy and Chelsea's friends Tanner and Camie came
with their two kids to take the pictures and hang out for dinner.
They are awesome people. Tanner is a
dear friend of Andy's from junior high days. 

Handsome bearded Dave and our sweet Sam man.

This girl is full of smiles.

Jord, Ada and Tommy with photo bomber Ellie!  So cute!

12 year old Lauren is getting to be quite
good at lettering.
 This is one of her many creative fonts.  

That night we BBQed steak, chicken and all the fixings and enjoyed a lovely meal out on the patio in 85 degree weather.  It was a wonderful day to just visit and enjoy being together.  

Welcome 2018!

I'm ready for a new year.  2018 looks promising.  I love turning the page and starting new beginnings.  I love my life!  I'm so grateful for the people around me, for my wonderful husband and for the comforts of life that I enjoy and the opportunities I have to do some things that matter to me. I'm grateful for our children and their spouses and our wonderful grandchildren. We have meaningful relationships with one another and I hope those continue forever.  I love learning.  I love visiting with people and coming to know them on a new level.  I value my faith and the comfort and direction it gives me.  I value relationships and endeavor to keep them strong and interactive.  I love to travel and have some new adventures awaiting this year.  I want to strengthen the relationships I have with loved ones. I want to read more, I want to sew more, I want to learn how to machine quilt.  I want to garden more, cook more and entertain more.  I want to gather people more. Those are all things I enjoy and they bring me a lot of happiness.  Here's to a successful, happy, productive and interesting 2018!

We had a fun London New Year's eve party and made plenty of noise about 8:00 pm.  I'm sure our neighbors were checking their clocks and wondering what was going on.  We were all tucked into our beds sawing logs by midnight.

These ten little ones bring us such JOY and happiness. 

 I love being a Grandma Vonnie to them. 

 It's a JOY to watch them learn, grow and progress. 

 Their parents are doing a wonderful job raising them.