On Saturday the 21st we woke up bright and early and headed to Disneyland.
In past years we've always gone on the last day and usually I am all for it but I was a little not excited to spend all day at a theme park with a toddler and a nursing baby. Oh and did I mention Michael flew back to Salem that morning?
Needless to say I tried to be excited and just hope for the best.
It was a bit crowded (I mean it was a Saturday), and there was a large group of us (21 to be exact), so it did get a bit crazy.
But overall we definitely had some laughs and good times.
Olivia was completely freaking out.
To her, it truly was the happiest place on Earth.
Making waiting in line just a tad bit more exciting :)
Some of these pictures are not great quality and the lighting is definitely strange on some of the rides.
Anyway, here we are with aunt Soph on the Peter Pan ride.
One of my favorites for sure!
LOVE Winston's photo bomb ha.
But here we are getting ready to go on It's a small world!
A small part of the group :)
Olivia thought this ride was the greatest.
And even though it was her first time hearing the song she could not help but sing a long even though she was just kind of making stuff up.
Although she did seem to get the hang of it towards the end, I mean they do sing the song seriously one billion times!
Clara was an angel baby like always and spent a lot of the time snuggled up to me sleeping.
Olivia thought the Casey Jr. ride was super fun.
And because we were such a large group we had to split and go in shifts so lucky for her she got to go again!
Cute uncle Winston with Olivia.
Waiting in line for Pirates of the Caribbean.
Definitely a family favorite!
She's had a thing for twirling my hair lately.
It feels pretty good actually unless of course she does it too hard!
Why hello there baby Clara!
Aren't you the cutest thing ever!
Oh goodness this child is a picker.
Apparently she started to get a few blisters on her feet from all the walking around and decided that she would take a little break in the wagon and pick!
Baby Clara snug as a bug in her little compartment!
We spent a little while in California Adventures.
Of course King Triton's sea animal merry go round was the best ride ever.
We all know how much Olivia loves merry go rounds!
I love how she's holding Harrison's hand.
Okay wow, I can not believe I am posting this but this is my scrapbook so...
I can not even begin to explain how much I loved this ride. (You can tell right?!)
I promise this part was quite fast and scary even though I'm the only one acting like it is :)
(Okay and for the record I had no idea they took pictures on this ride, what the heck was I thinking??!!)
Here we are on the Indiana Jones ride.
We got stuck. Yes stuck in the middle of the ride and it was freaky.
So when they finally got it working again they asked if we wanted to go again and of course we said yes, but when we got stuck a second time and then were asked if we wanted to go yet again we all agreed there was no way we were going one more time.
I'm telling you it was a little scary to say the least.
(We're trying to be brave in this picture).
Both of my babies fell asleep lying next to each other in the wagon.
I had so many pictures and didn't want to put them all in one post so here are some more!
One of my favorite pictures.
She's the cutest in her little sunglasses.
Sadly, we were out in the waves and I was holding her when they all of a sudden fell off her face into the water and before I could grab them a wave washed them right out to sea.
It was the saddest thing ever and she can't stop talking about how her sunglasses are gone and that she is so sad.
I like to tell her that a shark ate them, because that is kind of cool.
Morning snuggles and kisses.
Emmaline and Olivia.
I love how Olivia looks like she is just talking up a storm!
Grandpa loved to hold Clara.
He held her so that I could go out in the waves for a bit.
When I was little I would literally spend all day boogie boarding. This year between two kids I only made it out there once.
But it was a blast even though it was totally exhausting.
To quote Michael, "I'm not as young as I used to be." And that definitely rang true as my legs were aching and I was huffing and puffing like I just ran a marathon or something!
I'm also TERRIFIED of sharks. Everyone else is all decked out in their full body black wet suits but I refuse because I do not want to be mistaken for a seal.
This year I was just standing about waist deep looking for a good wave when all of a sudden something grabbed my legs really hard. I started screaming because I knew I had been bit. I've always heard that when a shark bites you it isn't painful at first but rather just like a big tug and that's exactly what I felt. (This was all going through my head within about a 2 second time frame). Well thankfully Winston popped right out of the water next to me dying laughing. Oh my gosh I seriously think I had a heart attack.
Enjoying the shade.
So Winston told me that Clara looked like one of the clam babies from Alice in Wonderland when she wears her big bonnet and all.
We all got a kick out of that.
Of course she is much cuter but there is still a super funny resemblance!
After 4 LONG weeks apart, we were finally together again.
Michael flew in for the last 3 days of the trip and we were all thrilled.
Being apart was so hard. I know this is kind of cheesy but such a huge part of me was missing those few weeks and it was nice to feel complete again.
It wasn't all vay-k for this boy.
He definitely spend his share of time studying.
Oh how I love him.
Taking a little walk on the pier.
Look at those little feet!
And those hands!
I can not get over this picture!
The family.
We of course really missed Ryan who couldn't get away from school and our cute missionary Emerson.
We can't wait for 2015 when we're finally all together again!
We had the best week ever.
I am blessed more than I could ever say with two beautiful girls, a handsome husband, and a loving and supportive family that are also my very best friends.
Life could not be better and we can hardly wait for next year!
Five years later (seriously) I am finally getting to blog about our wonderful week long vacation in Newport Beach, California with my mom's side of the family.
It was quite the gathering process with pictures and all but I'm sure glad I waited because there are some really good ones.
(Thank you to my Aunties Hilary and Annabelle for some of these pictures.)
Before I get to the the actual beach post I just wanted to quickly document our pre beach preparation.
First, my mom and I got spray tans. (I can not believe I had to do that but when I say I was white I am not lying. Living in Oregon has not been good for my coloring.) Let's just say that was probably the funniest, most awkward, interesting experience of my life. Apparently you are supposed to put your feet in certain places and then move them to other places when the recording tells you to so that you get an even tan. I should not admit this over the blog but I just want to remember that I really did not get that. I had taken off my rings (which help me keep track of which hand is my left and which is the right) I know, I know... you can make fun of me, but seriously it's hard. Anyway, I got confused and ended up just spinning around constantly hoping that it would go on evenly ha. And if you know what it's like to get a spray tan you know I did it completely wrong! Anyway, thankfully it looked pretty good and we were off to get our pedicures and manicures.
My cute grandpa came and joined in on the fun.
And Olivia thought it was the funnest thing ever.
And now for the beach part.
There are not words to even begin to describe the pure bliss of this trip.
Although there was an interesting thing that happened which I'll get to in a second.
So, we left late Friday (the 13th) so that we can drive to Mesquite, Nevada and spend the night. We always stay in that same hotel.
In the morning after a quick breakfast we drive the remaining 6 hours or so to Newport.
And that's when the real fun begins.
Mostly we just sit on the beach all day.
Rubbing our feet in the soft sand while talking endlessly, catching some nice waves on our boogie boards, building sand castles, catching baby crabs, and just soaking in that fresh beach smell while looking out at the endless ocean.
At nights each family takes a turn to make dinner.
We mostly keep it simple with burritos, spaghetti, pizza, lasagna, salads, and fruit.
We like to leave room for our Tutti Frutti runs later in the evenings.
If you are a faithful reader of my blog you know that there is not a better frozen yogurt place on Earth.
For breakfast we eat at least 1 donut (usually more) from Seaside donuts.
The best little donut shop around. It can be found right down the street.
We occasionally go shopping down the boardwalk.
We all scored a little something cute to wear this year.
Olivia can not get enough of crab catching and playing in the sand.
Let's just say that shower time was super fun:)
Clara enjoyed the peacefulness of the beach just as much as the rest of us and spent most of her time sleeping.
Now for the not so blissful part.
I don't want to focus on the negative so I'll just let it be heard for the memories.
The first night we were there I was woken up at 2:00 am by my parents who were lifting my sheets up and down looking for bed bugs.
Apparently they had gone to bed earlier and got woken up to bed bugs literally crawling all over them.
And this is no exaggeration.
Their bed was infested.
Luckily there were none found in mine or the other rooms.
So my parents moved out to the living room with the 3 littles and Olivia, and slept on mattresses.
That's where they remained because we did not want to leave the beach house.
The lady (Jackie) had a couple other beach houses available but they weren't on the beach.
So we figured that we would try to forget about the fact that we were living with tiny shelled bugs that wanted to eat our blood and try to enjoy our vacation.
We knew it would be quite the process to debug upon arriving back home anyway.
To make a long story with lots of drama short, Jackie is a butt (that's the nicest word I can think of to call her that is blog appropriate), we all spent countless hours literally stripping down on our doorsteps and taking all things to laundromats to heat them up to hopefully kill the bugs.
Ovens were bought to put things in and dogs were hired to come sniff our houses for any sign of the bugs.
Luckily so far our homes are free of them except for a large amount were found in Olivia's port a crib that she was sleeping in.
Which would explain her 15 or so bites on her face. (Pictures in a future post.)
My dad was bit around 75 times.
But everyone has healed nicely thank goodness.
That being said, we are all bug free but for sure hate Jackie.
Possible legal action may be taking place so we'll see on that.
Of course my future lawyer husband has been all over that. :)
Before this trip I always thought that expression of "don't let the bed bugs bite" to be cute and funny (not for real), but those bed bugs are serious business. And in the future when I use that expression I literally mean don't let the bed bugs bite because they are real and they are not nice.
Now for the fun part.
The pictures.
They say a picture says 1000 words so here you go!
The beach sitters.
Waking up bright and early and literally plopping ourselves right here on the beach for the entire day.
Digging for the sand crabs!
Olivia and grandma were glued at the hip and spent a lot of time exploring the sand and water!
Emmaline and Olivia.
Love this view of little Clara's chubbiest cheeks.
The best of friends.
I can't even begin to explain how much I love these girls.
(Sophia, Hilary, Tiffany, mom, me, Annabelle).
Me and Clara often spent some quite moments up at the beach house so that I could nurse her.
Enjoying the shade of her umbrella and the sound of the waves.
Puts her right to sleep!
My sandy girl.
Olivia and Abigail.
Cutest cousins ever.
Snuggle time with uncle Winston.
Our favorite little donut shop.
My favorite is the raspberry filled and the maple bar.
I think over the course of the week I had about 20:)
They had amazing ham/turkey cheese croissants as well.
There's our favorite TuttI Frutti.
I know they were sad to see us go.
I mean we brought in around 25 people each night!
I would get the pomegranate raspberry and the tart flavors with a few spoonfuls of fresh pomegranate seeds on top.
Simply heavenly.
Olivia loved it almost as much as me :)
So did Clara....6 hours later!
Taking a little nightly walk to Tutti Frutti.
She fit perfectly in the back.
Isn't that wagon the best ever?!
There are a lot of September birthdays in the Brown family so we forsure had to take one night to celebrate!
