Tis the Season

Rice Chex was on sale all of November and December so I stocked up!

 

Gingerbread Houses

The Crabtrees came home for Christmas! They actually arrived the Saturday before we went to California so we saw them on the 15th. They came earlier than expected so we were so surprised to see them that day when we went to my parents' house. On the 22nd we decorated gingerbread houses! It was lots of fun as always!

Grandpa even joined us this year!

My house

Jordan and his house

Kenzie, Grandpa (back one), Jackson, Doug

Cam, Alli, Coleman

Konrad and Ashlee

Jordan, me

 

Sports Pictures

We got Kenzie's and Jordan's soccer and swim pictures. Kenzie's were taken in the fall, but we never got them because we forgot to add our email address to the order. Jordan's swim pictures had the same photographer so when I realized we never got Kenzie's, I emailed him and he immediately sent them. 

 

California Trip Day 4 - Six Flags

On Friday we went to Six Flags. Doug remembers going there as a teenager and has always wanted to take our kids there. The first few rides the kids waited in were pretty long (even though the Six Flags app said they'd be shorter) But after those the rest of the ride lines were pretty short. Since Coleman discovered he likes drops now he was happy to go on all the rides. I only rode one ride (because I haven't discovered liking big drops yet) and Doug rode two. The kids had a lot of fun on most the rides they went on.

I guess we all also rode this tram ride from an upper part of the park to the lower part. So that makes 2 rides for me and 3 for Doug :)

The whole week Jordan was a big trooper and carried the backpack a ton. Almost every time I was wearing it (especially when it was full of our sweatshirts) he would pull it off my shoulders and wear it. He's so helpful!

We had such a fun trip! It went by way too fast. Throughout the week Coleman kept talking about "when we come back in 3 years" because he just loved it all so much. He also thinks we should go every year :) It was really weird being there the week before Christmas because it did not feel like Christmas at all! (even with all the Christmas decorations around.)

California Day 3 - California Adventure

On Thursday we went to California Adventure. Both days we went to the Disney parks we got there after 8 (when they opened) and didn't have to wait in any lines to enter. We were a little more late on this day, and I was worried it would mean we'd miss the short lines and the beginning of the day, but we didn't. We'd hoped to do Radiator Springs first, but all the early access people were there really early because when I checked wait time before 8, I think, it was already at least an hour. So we saw that Toy Story Mania was 5 minutes so we went there first. We rode it several times with basically no wait time. It was great! 

Everyone but me rode the Ferris Wheel. I think that's the first time that's happened. Usually Kenzie or Coleman stay with me. Last time Coleman rode it, but he screamed in terror the whole time. He liked it this time though and didn't scream at all :)

Next we rode the water rafting ride. We got fairly wet. Some more than others. I brought flip flops for this ride so I wouldn't have wet socks and shoes all day. I was really glad I did!

Doug got the wettest! It was so fun to ride though. Everyone was screaming and hoping we'd be the lucky one that didn't get splashed by the big splashes.

We've taken a picture on this bench a few times so we had to again.

Resting before lunch

Everyone but me rode Tower of Terror (or, I guess, Guardians of the Galaxy). Coleman hadn't been planning on it, but since he liked Splash Mountain and the Ferris Wheel, he thought he'd try it, and he loved it!

Cars Land! My favorite place in California Adventure!

The dancing cars

Doug and Jordan

Kenzie and I rode Little Mermaid together like old times.

Everyone but Jackson wanted to ride the Cars ride again in the single rider line (we think Jackson just wanted to talk to his girlfriend, Leilani :)) The line was pretty long, but much, much shorter than the normal line. I think we waited 20-30 minutes (long for single rider, at least what single rider was when we've come previous years) but the normal line was 1.5-2 hours long. When we were getting assigned our cars, the guy sent Doug, Coleman, and I to three different cars (Kenzie and Jordan were already in their spots) but the other people in the cars we were going to be in decided to change how they were arranged (they were a big group). The 2 sitting by Doug ended up taking mine and Coleman's spots so the guy sent us to ride with Doug. We were so excited to all ride together!

We rode Toy Story a few more times as our last rides.

We got some hot chocolate and milk shakes on our way out! Milk shakes are Coleman's favorite treat is a vanilla milk shake. He was really disappointed that they didn't have any in Disneyland but was happy California Adventure had them. They actually had milk shakes all over and he'd had one for his mid afternoon snack too:)

This was our hotel. We had a bunk bed and two queen beds. The kids changed beds every night because they all wanted to sleep on the bunk bed. Jordan didn't fit on the bottom bunk though:)

Coleman climbed in bed to watch whatever Kenzie was watching on tv and wait for his turn to shower, but he was so tired he just fell asleep. We'd been walking at least 10 miles a day so we were getting lots of exercise!

The biggest downside of the day was that the Incredicoaster was closed. We kept checking to see if it would open, but it never did. Coleman and Kenzie were especially disappointed!

Favorite Rides:

Coleman: Radiator Springs

Kenzie: Tower of Terror

Jordan: Toy Story

Jackson: Toy Story

Doug: Tower of Terror

Me: Radiator Springs