Disneyland (part 4)

Day 4 was Justin's 8th birthday!!!  

Both Judson and Johnny insisted on buying these rifles for their souvenir.  Jud has hardly put his down.

Splash Mountain was a favorite of the boys.

For Justin's birthday, the Johnsons treated us to dinner at the Big Thunder Ranch.  It was delicious!

A few of the boys were wanting their souvenirs from Cars Land, so we made a quick dash back over to California Adventure.  I loved riding Soarin' Over California again!  I remember loving that ride 10 years ago.  :) 

These two really hung in there.  They had their moments and definitely enjoyed any time they got out of their strollers.  It was crazy at times, but it wouldn't have been the same without them.  

Ready to head home.....

Disneyland (part 3)

Day 3 we spent at California Adventure.  Wow....Cars Land was pretty amazing!  They did an excellent job making it look like the movie.  :)

We have a lot of pictures on this ride, but it was one our least favorites. :)  BJ and I could hardly get our tire to move!

I sat this ride out....someone had to stay with the bins, and I was okay with not getting soaked. :) 

Justin really wanted to spend some of his souvenir money on cotton candy.  He was sweet to share with us all.

Sleepy bins.

A few highlights of this day included.....
-Johnny loving Goofy's Sky School.  He was so scared when he rode it with me the first time, but then wanted to go back over and over again.  It was cute to see him tell Justin all about it and how Justin didn't need to be scared or worried.
-The giant corn dogs that we bought on Aunt Connie's recommendation. Yummy! :)
-Jesse telling us a month later that he almost got lost when we stopped to get the corn dogs because he kept on walking.  And Jared chiming in, "Oh, I watched you get lost."  Hopefully Jared would have come to his rescue if Jesse hadn't figured it out!

Disneyland (part 2)

Big breakfast before the big day.  Here are the highlights of day two.......

I asked Johnny if he was excited to go to Disneyland and he said, "I don't even know what Disneyland is!" But, he was still excited.  :)

Josiah and Uncle Gary

Ending the day with dinner at Red Robin.....an early celebration of someone's birthday!

Boys' surprise trip (part 1)

We surprised the boys!  The first week of October BJ and I, along with our dear friends, the Johnsons, planned a surprise trip to Disneyland.  I still can't believe we were able to keep it a secret.  A big part of the reason we didn't tell them was because we wanted them to enjoy daily life and not just live, dream, and breath for a five day vacation.  :)  Packing for my crew was also a tricky task.  Weeks before I went around secretly with a clipboard planning out each boy's outfits for the trip.  On the Saturday before we left BJ took the five oldest boys during the twins' naps for a five hour outing in the pouring down rain!  I went to town pulling their planned clothes off the shelves.  Then BJ snuck all the bags out of the house on Sunday morning (he leaves early Sundays anyways) and gave them to the Johnsons.  Monday morning we told the boys we were going to spend the day together, but had an errand to run first. To kill a little time we drove to IKEA. Since they were't open yet it was an easy way to offer a trip to watch the planes take off and land while we waited.  The boys still didn't catch on when we drove to the departures and saw the Johnsons and Grandma Sally and Papa there waving at us.  Jesse's response was, "nu-uh!"  It was fun to quickly scramble to get our confused boys out of the van so we could be on with our trip.  :)

Leaving our home for a surprise family day. 

Airport fun....I couldn't wait to fly again.  It had been 10 years since I had flown, but I gotta say, things have changed (like the food) and flying with 2 two year olds isn't very relaxing. :)

Aunt Connie, Corby, and Justin

Josiah and Johnny

The boys were impressed with how high up we were in our hotel.

Exploring the lobby at our hotel.

Gotta love sunshine in October!

Our first night there we spent at Downtown Disney.  I think that street alone would have been enough excitement for our boys.  :)

The Johnsons were so sweet to buy our boys matching sweatshirts for the trip. :)

On to day two....