Visiting with grandma and grandpa

After hanging out in their garden for a while, I decided we should drive down to my uncle Von's house and see if they were over there. We found them, and they came back to their house with us. Isaac sat on Grandma's lap.

Grandpa held Keeley for a minute, although she wasn't too happy about it.

I took a picture of the kids with both their grandparents.

 Then I took one with just grandpa...

and just grandma.

 We took a family photo by the rock.

And I wanted a picture of me with my grandparents.

Then we sat on their porch for a while and visited. It sprinkled a little and the kids ran around in the rain while we watched and talked.

 It was a lovely afternoon.

 I love how joyeous children are

Keeley doesn't much appreciate raindrops pelting her bald little head, but Sareny took her in the rain for a bit.

I love visiting my grandparents!

In My Grandmother's Old Fashioned Garden

After leaving Grammy Jo and Bampa's house, we drove up and stopped in Scipio to visit Grandma and Grandpa Quarnberg. Unfortunately, when we got there, they were not home, so we looked around their garden for a while and took some cute pictures of the kids. I love the rock in the above picture--when I was little it was always the spot for a cute cousins picture.

Keeley had fun exploring around after sitting in the van for most of the day.

Grandma always has lots of pretty flowers growing in her garden. Behind the kids is grandpa's work truck and haystack.

 Cute little sissies!

Finley and Isaac sitting on the rock. I believe my grandpa gave this rock to my grandma for an anniversary present many years ago.

 Finley climbing the rock, with grandma's house in the background. I love their little covered porch--it is the perfect spot to sit and enjoy the day.

My silly IJ Isaac!

Finley girl in front of the large tree in their front yard.

 Sareny by the same tree.

Finley found a dandylion, made a wish, and blew on it.

 And then she did it one more time.

 The other kids thought that looked like fun, so they each grabbed a dandylion too.

 Wish I knew what they wished for.

 And a parting shot of IJ on the rock.

Even though my grandparents weren't home, we still had a nice time in their garden.

Trip to Utah part 2, Getting There is Half the Fun

After leaving Grammy Jo's house, we had a full day of driving ahead of us. We stopped in Beaver to break up the trip and to visit the Cache Valley cheese factory. We sat at a picnic table and had ice cream cones, and counted how many cows we could see. This picture just may be my favorite from the trip.

Then we stopped in at grandma Q's house for a visit. She held baby Keeley while we visited for a bit, and then we went outside to see her pretty garden.

I have always loved her yard! It is so green and pretty. And I must say this picture is certainly a contender for top pic of the trip...

The kids sat on a little bench in front of some of her flowers.

Isaac climbed up the rock. I always loved this rock as a kid.

Sareny climbed the rock as well.

Then the neighbor's kitty wandered over and the kids loved petting it.

Keith and Keeley on a swing in the front yard.














Okay, I lied above, because this one actually is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Most likely.

The whole time we were at grandma's house, Sareny kept asking where grandpa was. Grandma said he was out working in the fields, and Sareny wanted to know if we could go visit him in the fields. Despite the fact that we didn't know which field he was working in and we didn't have long to visit, she was adamant that we go visit grandpa in the fields, so we finally loaded up in their truck and drove out to find him. As he pulled up in the tractor, the kids all stood there and waved him in, which I thought was just the sweetest moment ever. Grandpa scooped Isaac up to talk to him, and to give him hugs and kisses.














I love how cute he was with Keeley as well.

Then he told the kids to climb up in his tractor and he would give them a ride around the field.














Seriously, I don't think a personal visit with Santa Claus himself could have been more special--he spent one on one time with each kid, then gave them a ride in the "sleigh," which was even red.

The kids with Grandpa Q in front of his old tractor.

Then I took a picture of each of the older kids with grandpa by themself.














He helped Finley cross the bridge.

Grandpa and Finney.

IJ and grandpa.

Sareny in the back of their truck. This color of truck will always remind me of my Q grandparents. Either they've had this truck for a long time, or they keep replacing it with a similiarly hued truck.














The kids got one final hug, and then it was goodbye Scipio and grandma and grandpa Q!

Farewell to Disneyland

Despite the massive crowds on Saturday, we had a great last day at Disneyland. We revisited some of our favorite attractions and also checked out some of the off the beaten path things we rarely take the time to do. Keith is always up for Jungle Cruise.

This how Finley spent a lot of her time--snuggled on her Daddy.

I was surprised today--she told me she liked the monster ride when she said, "Don't get me, monster!" She was referring to Matterhorn.

I was the only one in our group who had ever seen Captain EO, and although I did warn them that as far as I could remember, it was pretty bizarre and cheesy, we decided to go see it.

It was every bit as bizarre and cheesy as I remembered it, and the plot still didn't really make sense to me. But it was still kind of fun, and I enjoyed the nostalgia of seeing it again.

We used one of our readmission passes to jump the always huge line for Storybookland Canal Boats. I do really like this ride, but the line is always so bad! The kids had been looking forward to being swallowed by a whale.

The other side of the boat.

Keith and the girls during the ride.

We stopped to have our picture taken on our way to Tom Sawyer's Island.

We spent a bit of time on Tom Sawyer's Island, which I haven't been to in years. Possibly it is now called Pirate's Lair, and not Tom Sawyer Island, but it seemed odd that they just nailed up a board saying "Pirates Lair," that only partially covered the Tom Sawyer Island sign. Kind of weird for Disneyland. The kids really had a lot of fun running around.

The kids all climbed up the wall of bones. This one kid climbed on the outside of the bones (you can see him in the picture,) which I'm sure was not allowed since he was hanging right over the water, which then prompted other kids to follow suit. Was it bad that part of me really wanted him to fall in?

There were a few interactive things for the kids to do, as well as caves, treehouses, and bridges to explore.

We found the pirate's treasure.

The rest of the day featured several other rarely done things, like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Turtle Talk with Crush (which I highly reccomend), Disney Junior Stage Show, and a Dance Off show. The shows were all really good and a welcome relief from standing in huge lines all day. We did squeeze in a few rides as well. Right before the fireworks, we rode the Carousel again, because Finley had been asking to do that one all day. Earlier when I had gotten her out of the stroller, she said, "You are taking me to ride the merry go round?" How could you resist taking her? At the end of the day, we watched the fireworks and then hurried over to New Orleans Square where Fantasmic was underway. As soon as it cleared out, we joined the throngs pushing and shoving to get good seats for the next show. Keith was off riding Indiana Jones with Sareny as her last ride of the trip, and I managed to score us some front row seats for Fantasmic.

I asked Keith if he knew how I managed to get such good seats, and he said, "Pushing and a shoving?" And I said, "yep." Once we secured the seats, I rushed off with Isaac to do Splash Mountain, which he had been asking to do all day long. He was so excited, and I think this may be my favorite memory of the trip.  So each kid got to do one of their favorite rides as the last one of the trip. Finley fell asleep right after the Carousel. I tried to rouse her for Fantasmic, but she was out.

Then, she woke up on her own right when the villains take over Mickey's dream and Fantasmic gets a little scary. She seemed fine though, and got to see the big ending. Once the show was over, everyone headed back to the hotel except for me and Sareny. She wanted to pick out a christmas ornament from a store on Main Street for her souveneir, so we did a little shopping together. It was kind of nice to have some time together, even if we were both pretty wiped out.

I polled the kids about their favorites from the trip, and this is what I got:

Sareny--Big Thunder, Indiana Jones, Ariel, Peter Pan, and Goofy's Flight School

Isaac--Splash Mountain was his total favorite, but he also liked Grizzly River Run and Big Thunder

Finley--the Carousel, and the Soundsational Parade. Later she added Matterhorn.

The next morning we walked over to the Grand Californian for a character breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe. It was surprisingly affordable and relaxing, possibly because we went after the parks were open so the rush was gone. The kid's meals were only $6.99, which I still have sticker shock over but in a good way. Character meals usually run over $30 per person, including children. Here are some of the characters that came to our table.

Koda

Finally, at the tail end of our trip, Finley had relaxed about the characters.

This guy from Pocohantas

This guy from Tarzan.

They also led the kids in some parade thing through the restaurant.

And then we headed home.