Family Vacation 2010

I think it is very important that our family take a trip every year with just our little family. Whether it be a small trip or big trip. (I think it builds lots of good memories and I think it is important to do it with just our small family so that Rob and I can really focus on the kids and not be distracted.) This year we were very fortunate to take a big trip to California.

We decided to drive when we found out that Rob's family was taking a trip to Las Vegas just before out trip to CA. I was a little nervous about the drive with kids and being to pregnant but it went actually really good. Thank goodness for modern day technology (we used the laptop to watch many movies and it worked better than ever because Rob figured out how to hook up the sound so that it ran through the car's stereo system and the kids could actually hear).

Las Vegas was lots of fun! We were so lucky the weather was perfect. The high 70's the whole time we were there. We went swimming everyday, sometimes twice a day. Eliza was so excited about having a swimming pool at the hotel and being able to swim. She told me before we left, "Every morning I am going to go swimming." And sure enough the first morning we got there she wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately the kids woke up at 6 am that morning. She wanted to go swimming right then. I could only hold her off until 9:00 am and it was a bit of a chilly dip that morning. They didn't last very long. But the days to come it was very warm and we swam in the later morning or afternoon. Rob unfortunately had to work most of the time, but would come hang out at night and go to dinner with us. We went to a buffet (of course, its LV) and Lucey's (Ted's favorite BBQ place), and tried Phu. (Rob's all the rave right now about this Vietnamese noodle dish. Everytime we talk about going out he want to go to a Phu restaurant. He is such a funny guy, so extremem. Don't get me wrong it is good but it is all the man can talk about.) It was a good time in LV. Eliza said it best though when she was telling Sarah about Las Vegas, "But you know what made Las Vegas so fun? My Grandma and Grandpa Coco where there too."
After three days in Vegas we drove on to CA. We arrived late Wed. night. Liberty had gotten sick on day one of the trip (Monday) with a cold. She was seeming a little miserable in Las Vegas. She had a fever and whenever the tylenol and ibuprofen wore off she got really tired and grumpy. Poor girl. This night she was especially sad and miserable. It was the worst she had been. I had tried up to this point to have a positive attitude and not let it worry me to much but it had seemed to have been so long and she seemed to be getting worse that I was starting to get stressed out and down. Fortunately for me, I have pediatrician brothers. I got a hold of David and told him about Libby, he told me usually with a virus the 3rd day is the worse and then the next day you will see improvements. This was a good to hear. We post-poned Disneyland for Friday and decided to do Sea-World the next day, Thursday. (I hoped that Sea-World would be more watching and less crazy for her. Plus, I just couldn't take her to a the "Happiest Place on Earth" feeling so miserable.)

Sea World was lots of fun (but I must admit I feel it is overpriced). I think Eliza's favorite part was getting her face painted. We watched a sea lion show, but we loved the killer whale show. The anticipation of whether we would get wet or not, just adds to the excitement. Eliza was so nervous she was going to get wet.
The next day we headed off to Disneyland and thankfully our plan had worked and Liberty was feeling much better. Not 100% but her fever broke by late morning and she seemed to be enjoying herself much more and not sleeping in the stroller so much. Disneyland I thought was amazing. The people are so nice there, even people on the clean up crew are nice. Liberty spilled osme cough syrup on the ground right in front of a guy cleanning the sidewalk and he just smiled and cleaned it up. We started by watching a parade, while Rob went and got fast passes, then we went on a few kiddie rides. We ate lunch mid day. Rob and Eliza got a Turkey leg. It was so funny to watch them eat this huge leg. It was like watching a cartoon as they knawed on this hunk of meat. Liberty fell asleep in the stroller so Rob and Eliza went crazy and went all over the park trying out all kinds of rides. This is when I love having a Rob as a husband. He loves to plan and make things fun and his energy level is like the energizer bunny. When I saw other parents looking exhausted and yelling at their whining kids, I'd look over and see Rob with a big smile, planning with Eliza the next ride they were going to go on. Eliza went on lots of big kid rides. Rob even convinced her to go on "Splash Mountain". She was so funny, she kept saying, "I don't want to get wet." Who cares about scary fast roller coaster (she had already been on thunder mountain twice), the girl just doesn't want to get wet. Well I think she had the scare of her life when she went down the last big hill. We bought the photo they take because her face of horror was just way to funny. Not just a little scared people, a face of serious terror.

After Liberty woke up, we went on some more kid rides. Liberty loved it. She especially loved the ones that you get to look around at things i.e. the Winnie Pooh ride and Small World. We also stopped in at a toy store (Liberty and Eliza had been saving their money for the last 3 months to buy a toy at disneyland. They get a penny every morning if they stay in their bed until morning. This is all Eliza could talk about on the ride to CA. She said to me, "What are we going to do with all of our toys in our room?" I was a little confused with what she was talking about but after talking more it came out that because she had saved (what she thought) was so much money she was going to be buy lots and lots of toys. I didn't want to make her feel bad and tell her that really all that hard work of saving pennies wouldn't even be enough to buy one toy, so we explained that the toys at Disneyland are really expensive so she would probably only be able to one and that mom and dad might even have to help pay a little to get the toy she wanted. She took the news well. After much searching she finally decided to buy a stuffed baby Simba lion that she calls "Tarzan". Her and Rob counted out all of her money at the desk with the very patient teller. It is amazing how when you work to earn something yourself you treat it so differently. That stuffed toy is admired more than any other toy she has and she was so concerned when it got a little tear and reminded me again and again to sew it up until the job was done.

After the big purchase, we watched another Disney parade. They are so much fun to watch and the girls even got to go dance with the characters. We did a few more rides and then Liberty fell asleep again. I was completely exhausted. I kept thinking I as going to have my baby because my stomach muscles hurt so bad. I really wanted to see the firework show though so I told Eliza and Rob to go on some more rides and I would save us a seat. They arrived just in time and we watched an awesome firework show (totally worth the wait). A real person dressed as Tinker Bell whizzed back and forth over the castle during the show which I thought looked so scary to do but was a pretty cool effect. We left the park satisfied and exhausted.
The last day in CA we went to the beach. We parked by a farmer's market so stopped in to grab some food. We bought delicious fresh raspberries and some homemade tamales. They had some corn and cheese tamales that were the best thing I have ever had. It had fresh pieces of corn mixed into the cornmeal tamale mixture. It was so good. It reminded me of cachapas from Venezuala. I hope to find someone again who makes this kind of tamale. Then we headed to the beach. Liberty of course fell asleep again on the walk there. We set up camp right next to the basketball courts so that Rob could do his favorite thing, play basketball right at the edge of the beach. Eliza played for hours in the sand and made some friends while Rob played so it was actually really relaxing. Soon Libby woke up though and it became a little less relaxing so Rob went to grab a boogie board and came back to help with the kids. He and the girls built a sand castle, collected shells, chased the waves, and boogie boarded (Libby got a face full of water on the first try and was pretty mad at Rob and did not want to try again). It was a perfect day! We left around 6:00 and went and ate at a nearby restaurant where Rob we watched the first part of the BYU basketball game.
Then started on our way back to Las Vegas.
We ate breakfast at the Starley's and went to church with them then started again on our way back to Salt Lake City. The girls slept a good part of the way which I was surprised since it was so early but I think they were just exhausted from the vacation. They finally wok up around 8 and the only place open at our pit stop was a Maverik gas station. We scrounged up all that sounded good and somewhat dinner worthy and ate at a table there in the gas station. It seemed really funny to me since it was completely unhealthy. Finally we arrived home and ah doesn't just feel good to be home. Even when you have been on vacation!