California Day 2

Since Sunday was in the middle of our trip, we planned to have a rest day in between all the fun. And I was so glad because it gave me an excuse to go see my brother. He lived about an hour from where we were so we decided to meet in the middle. We met at a citrus state park and we had so much fun walking around looking at all the citrus varietys growing on trees! You don't see this in Utah!

My favorite moment of the day though was as we were out walking around and exploring someone suggested we play orange ball! So we kicked and passed an orange all around while we walked, until it died, then we found a new orange on the ground and started again! Many giggles were had!

 The kids really wanted to see the beach and while it wasn't quite beach weather in Dec, we still decided to go and enjoy the beauty at sunset for a bit. 

Tony put on a really nice picnic lunch for us. We had good conversation and just enjoyed catching up! We haven't seen them in over a year and we miss them all like crazy. 

We also got to celebrate  Brielle's birthday with them. I let her pick, and she picked christmas cupcakes. 

These kids have grown so much and Roman didn't remember us much but he sure latched on to Mollie and enjoyed exploring and treasure hunting. 

It was a blissful sunny quiet day and I'm so glad we had a day of rest spent with people we love before we hit it hard for one more day! 

Footlocker and Day 1 and Disneyland!

With all that comes with XC, there are also out of state races! They are optional but since this would probably be the last year he could go with his team, we let him go. The race was in Walnut California....only 30 short minutes to DISNEYLAND! I've been working on Chad, and so have his girls for years to go to Disneyland and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go. 

OK, back to the race. The weather was awesome and the race started bright and early at 7am! I had to laugh at the guy in the Santa suit. Every time we saw him he had shed a few more clothes and by the end was holding his whole santa suit. Too funny. There were other fun costumes like a banana too. 

It was inspiring to watch all these runners run up one small mountain and down and then up and across another plateau. Wow what a workout! Just walking it would be difficult but Carter did awesome!

There he is crossing the finish line. He said it was super tough but he loved it!

It was fun to watch the Rich boys and cheer them on too. 

Way to go buddy! Now hurry up and get in the car and lets go to Disney!

We made it! And since the park had already opened the lines weren't too bad and we started our 2 day vacay in California Adventure. 

We immediately went to Cars land. My favorite!

This guy still gets excited about McQueen!

Waiting in line for the Cars ride Rylee found a little treasure in the rocks. 

We rode single rider line so we could go quicker and we only ever waited about 10 min to go on. So we were in different cars and everyone was ok with that but Ry, but we still had a ton of fun and rode it several times within an hour. 

The swings are always a hit! and the girls rode them over and over!

Bing Bong Bing Bong!

I just love this sight!!

And there were treats, so many treats!!!! The kids got to experience Jack Jacks cookie. 

While they rode Guardians....

Me and Bri went and did a photo shoot and did the cute Finding Nemo Crush experience. She liked it and I wasn't sad about it either. 

Incredicoaster is always everyone favorite. Bri was hesitant but absolutely loved it!

We're starting to slow down....

We watched the water show to cap the night. We were all so tired, all the kids were leaning on me to sit up. Poor Carter was just spent. I didn't take that into account. After playing super hard for about 10 hours we finally cut out early to head to bed. 
But this face made it all worth it. Disneyland is magical, I just can't always explain why, but the look on even my big kids faces made it all worth it. 

At the hotel we raised our feet up for recovery. Oh it felt good to be in bed! Good night!

 

Kicking off December!

For not having a lot for November, I'm sure going to make up for it in December! Hang on, here we go. 

In early Dec, Brekkyn asked Carter to Winter Ball. Cute cheeseless pizza, adorable. Haha, he was very surprised. And when I asked for a pic, this is all I got. 

I did get this one later. They're lookin good!

We kicked off the Christmas spirit by attending Eclipse 6 concert. Oh this was gooooood! These guys are so talented and it really brought the love of christmas time. 

Since we had a vacation coming up and we were packed to the gills in our car, we let Bri open gifts early the night before we left. 

She was happy that many things could come on the trip with her and be useful. 

The next morning on Dec 6, bright and early, we were off to California! I'll explain why in the next post. Here are the girls hanging out in a cool little couch area once we got to our hotel.