California Wedding

Almost two weeks ago, my sister was married. I now have a big brother.

The wedding took place in California so we loaded up our suitcase, 3 car seats, and double stroller and took an airplane with all four kids. The flight down was great...the flight back was not so great. Let's just say I have no plans to fly in the next decade. (although I'm sure I will fly sooner then that.)

It was a jam packed weekend. We squeezed in a trip to Legoland during the wedding weekend as well. I'm a fan of Legoland. It's not as crowded, we were able to do pretty much every single ride (good luck doing that at Disneyland) and since it's geared for ages 3-10 it's less crowded in general (no teens!)

And of course, there was the wedding itself. It turned out great. All the kids did amazing...granted I had to pick up Verity a few times during the ceremony but there's always one wayward flower girl, right?

More of Idaho

I have a horrible habit of bringing my great camera on trips or special events and then never even using it. This is why despite spending five days in Idaho, I took maybe 4 pictures. The rest I have snagged from Grandma. Story of my life.

So without further ado, here are a few more pictures from Idaho...that came from Grandma.

Dying Easter Eggs

Verity: chunky, sleepy, and covered in drool

Family Picture

At the Park

Road Trip to Idaho

Justin's parents moved to Idaho around 6 months ago. Until now, they have traveled to see us but we had never made the 8 hour trek to see them. Last week that changed.

Bright and early Monday morning (okay 8am, we have a hard time justifying the 4am road trip idea) we loaded everyone up and started our journey.

My kids are decent travelers; the boys were happy enough with books, Mad Libs, and Adventures in Odyssey. Everly was pretty decent as well although she started having a rough time around the 8 hour mark. (yes I said, 8 hour mark... the trip is 8 hours but when you take into account the lunch break and the every 2 hour breaks to feed Verity it was closer to a 10 hour trip).

Verity did great until about the 8 hour mark as well. You see, she decided to start the vacation by getting sick the night before we left. Nothing horrid, just a temperature in fact (enough to keep this mommy up more than she'd like the night before a road trip). However while on the road, she got a diaper rash and that was the end of it. She screamed bloody murder whenever her diaper was the tiniest bit wet. This unfortunately made hours 8-10 horrid. However, we finally made it. 10 hours later which seems really later when Idaho is an hour ahead of us. Let's just say we ate dinner and went to be extremely late that night.

This was the first year that the kids didn't get to do Easter with Grandma, so they requested to dye eggs, have an egg hunt, etc while they were in Idaho. So we celebrated Easter 2 days late.

We had 5 days packed full of parks, sunshine, arcade games, and food. We had perfect weather in Idaho. Full sun and perhaps just a tad too warm for us Washingtonians who had to go from cool rain to bright sun instantly. Nice to get our vitamin d and a little bit of a tan.

We had a great time and I'm happy to report that our return trip home went a hundred times better than before. It only took us 9 hours, Verity slept most of the way, and since we gained our hour back we arrived home at an earlier hour.

The Rest of California

I'm sure by now you have read enough about our California trip to last you awhile but there are a few odds and ends that I wanted to write about so you are getting one last mod podge of a post for all the remaining stuff.

Down in California there's an ice cream place called Handel's, it's probably in other states too but as far as I know it's not in our state. My parent's took us out for $1.00 cones. $1.00 and they had tons of flavors that were all yummy. Ironically, Everly probably got the biggest scoop of ice cream and her mouth was totally red from eating the cold ice cream the way she so weirdly did.

If you go to California, you HAVE to get some In n Out. There's nothing that compares. Besides my youngest brother works there now so we go to see him work. In n Out really needs to branch out to Washington. Mmmmm Animal Fries.

My Daly family. Whenever we go down to California, these are the people that I know I have to see. The Daly's (well a few have gotten married since then and are no longer actually Daly's but they still are to me) were my second family growing up. They were the ones that I could just drive to their house on the way home from college practically unannounced and hang out with. Lots of good memories with this lovely family...unfortunately not all of them could be there but I at least got to see most of them.

 Apparently this is what the kids did when Justin and I were still laying in bed trying to wake up. Cuddle time with Aunt Tiff.

We also visited my grandparents (the kids' great grandparents) and while there the boys got to check out their custom classic car. Something about the way Ransom looks while driving makes me fear the day he gets his driver's permit.

A Knight to Remember

While in California we did one other big outing: Medieval Times. In case you aren't familiar, Medieval Times is basically like dinner theatre only instead of watching performers on stage, you watch performers jousting on horses.

We were served quite the course of food, all of which you had to eat with your fingers. Thank goodness they somehow allowed wet wipes to be invented back in Medieval Times because the kids were covered in food. It was a lot of food but the portion size for the chicken was insane. It was literally half a bird, I'm convinced. The boys ate it ALL..ok almost all, when Logan heard that there were boxes to bring food home he found a few pieces of skin and bones to bring back. Why is beyond me as there seriously was not much left.

We were on the black and white knight's side and as Logan's luck would have it (as I mentioned, he'd been extremely lucky at Disneyland and it carried on to Medieval Times) our knight won. Both the boys loved the show. Ransom started getting into the cheering towards the end, Everly clapped her hands whenever there was clapping, but Logan, well you should have seen him! The kid was getting so caught up in the show what with all the sparks flying, that he actually had veins popping out of  his neck. He was so into it that he was that tense. Apparently Medieval Times trumped Disneyland in his opinion.

The Magical World of Disney

Justin and I always planned on taking the kids to the amusement parks in California when we went down for our years to go visit my family. (We alternate years, so this year it was our turn to go down to Cali, next year it will be my parent's turn to come up here.)

This year was the first year that we felt they were old enough to make an amusement park worthwhile. We decided to start with the big one: Disneyland.

Disneyland is expensive! Ridiculously so. It's $80 or so for adults or kids! I remember when it was $25....back in my day!

However, we had some wonderful people help us out. A friend of my grandma's (so the kids' great grandma) can get people into Disneyland free (if you work there, you get so many free passes for others.) Wonderful, wonderful Yolande was able to get 3 adults in free. Yolande really is a very sweet lady. So sweet that I even remember her from my aunt's wedding that must have happened when I was 16 or so! So right there we had my parents and Justin covered. Then my grandma paid for the remaining adult (me) and the two boys (the girls were free). We weren't really expecting any of this. We were planning on getting at least 2 of us in free (via someone who worked at Disney...we apparently have a few connections) but we figured we'd have to pay for at least 2 or more people on our own. The fact that we were able to go to Disneyland free of charge was great! A huge thank you to my grandma and Yolande.


We didn't get to do too many rides. It's amazing what waiting in line will do to your day. Justin and the boys (along with one or both of my parents) hit all the big rides and by big I don't mean popular, I mean big. Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, etc. I on the other hand did Pixie Hallow and Minnie's House with Everly.

The boys loved all the rides. Logan came out of each ride exclaiming that THAT one was his favorite. Logan also had some crazy luck in that he was always in the front for pretty much every ride. He also proved to be quite daring in that on one ride (a roller coaster no less) he rode in the very front all by himself. The kid definitely gets that from Justin and not me that's for sure!

Everly on the other hand was not a huge fan of the characters. She loved the idea and all the way to the front of the line she was excited. In fact, in Pixie Hallow (where the fairies are) when we got to the front of the line, she dashed towards where the fairies are and I had to pull her back as it wasn't our turn. Of course, by the time it was our turn, she didn't want to be anywhere near the fairies. I had to actually pick her up for the pictures and she wasn't happy even then. Minnie Mouse was the same way. In fact, she begged to get out of line at one point. Of course, now if you ask Everly about Disneyland she exclaim that she got to see Minnie and fairies! Crazy girl. Everly did however love to ride in the stroller eating her carrots. That's all she really did for at least 4 hours.

Verity of course slept through the entire trip. She only woke up to eat every few hours and then it was right back to sleep. Got to love my Ergo baby carrier!

It was quite the day. We couldn't have done it without my parents. Four kids at Disneyland needs at least 3 adults and 4 was better as that meant I usually had someone to hang out with when everyone else went on the rides.

All in all it was a great day and I know the kids loved every minute of it.

Strike!

Bowling seems to be a tradition now. It all started last year when my parents bought the boys one of those toy bowling sets. The boys of course were in love with the set and naturally my parents decided they needed to find out what it was like to go "real" bowling.

But that was last year.

This year we went while we were down in California, to a much nicer bowling alley I might add. The boys got their balls; Logan had green and Ransom should have had green because it was the lightest but he didn't want the same color as Logan so he instantly chose the pink. Whatever. It goes to show you that kids don't know gender colors until they've had them ingrained in them.

We had the bumpers up so no gutter balls for us although honestly, the boys seemed to do really well this time and I don't know if we would have had many gutter balls anyway.

The boys actually really got into it this time and tried to bowl the "right way". Not perfect of course, I mean what kid that young can swing a ball with one hand? It was more of a slow and steady approach. Even Everly joined in a bit and helped Justin bowl on his turns. Pretty adorable watching her get down and push the ball that was probably half her weight down the lane.

You wouldn't necessarily think so considering all that we did in California (Disneyland, Medieval Times, etc) but bowling was ranked one of the boys favorite things they did (granted Disney and Medieval Times outranked it)

Down on Grandma's Farm

While we were down in California, we stayed at my parent's house. This meant that the kids finally got to see the chickens that Grandma bought months ago and they've seen via Skype. Yes, we have Sykped with chickens!


Despite the title of the post, Grandma (and Grandpa because he lives there too!) doesn't really have a full fledged farm. She has a large chicken coop in the back yard with 3 chickens.


The kids got to feed the chickens as well as collect their eggs. Everly took a little while to warm up the the birds but she eventually was just as daring as the boys, entering the coop to collect her egg. Everly somehow missed the memo that you need to hold eggs carefully because the second she had it in her hands she decided to give it back to the chickens by tossing it to one of them. Miraculously the egg landed right on top of the chicken's back, stayed there for a bit, and then fell unbroken to the ground.


Every day the kids asked to feed the chickens which they were able to do a few times. Towards the end of our trip, Everly would start to cluck like the chickens whenever they would start making noise (which was only when someone was laying an egg apparently. Glad those chickens weren't in my delivery room! I wouldn't want someone announcing to the world what I was doing! But then I'm not a chicken.)





It turns out that chickens are highly entertaining for kids. Who knew?

California Report From the Boys

I asked the boys to draw a picture of their favorite part from the trip to California. 

I also asked Logan to write about it. 

Here's what they did.

Ransom's favorite part was Space Mountain and the Rockets at Disneyland. The picture above is of him riding the Rockets.

 Logan's favorite part was Medieval Times. The picture above is of two knights (our knight is on the right) jousting. As you can see, he still needs to work on leaving a space in between his words. It's a bit small to read so here's what it says (without corrections), "My fravorite part at Calivornya was Midevil Times becuse we won. The end."

Flying With 4 Kids

I'll be honest, when Justin told me we were going to fly down to California to visit my family instead of drive down, I was not happy. It wasn't because I didn't want to deal with 4 kids on a plane; that I could deal with. It was just getting through the airport, pulling all that luggage around.

I envisioned this monster sized family plowing through the crowds with their dozens of bags, double stroller, and, car seat overload. I'm sure to many people we did look like that but thankfully that was not the reality.

I was able to cram all our stuff into just 1 carry-on (didn't want to check in our luggage because although that would have been easier, it would have cost us at least $40 round trip) and 4 personal items. That helped get rid of some of the insanity.

We were able to borrow 2 car seats for the girls which was great because they were "lap children" so we would have had to gate check their car seats and I don't trust airports with my car seats. Since we borrowed 2 car seats, we only needed to bring the boys' car seats which they sat in during the flight. Handy because not only do I avoid gate checking the car seats but it keeps the boys contained.

I'm sure we still looked like a monster of a family; two kids in a double stroller, one car seat in the stroller basket, 2 personal bags in the stroller with the kids, me with Verity in the Ergo with a diaper bag on my shoulder, Justin with the carry-on with one car seat placed on top of the carry-on "just so", Logan trying to keep up with us all. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Honestly, it probably wasn't any more crazy than when we go on any of our outings...okay maybe a bit more.

Some things I learned about the airport when traveling with a family.

1) You don't need to take shoes off for kids under 12 years.
2) There's a family line for security (in some of the security checks, not all of them)
3) Double strollers need to be hand checked; they do not fit through the x-ray machine.
4) If carrying a baby in a carrier like my Ergo, you will go through security and then you have to have a "hand check" which apparently is where they run a paper on your hands and then scan that paper... still no idea how it works.
5) Early morning flights are hard to wake up for but easier for traveling.
6) Dinner time flights are annoying because you have to buy dinner in the airport.
7) Babies are the easy ones to travel with; they sleep through the whole thing.
8) You must use head phones with personal devices on the plane.
9) Car seats are a pain to install with airplane buckles but worth it as they keep kids contained.
10) All airport employees are very nice.
11) You can travel with 4 young kids.

How Much Luggage Do You Need For a Family of 6?

We didn't want to check in any luggage when we flew last week so we did the unthinkable: we packed only carry-ons. Not only that but since we were already traveling with so much stuff (2 car seats, 1 double stroller, 4 KIDS) we decided to pack everything we needed in only 1 carry-on (plus 4 personal items which were my diaper bag, Justin's laptop bag, and two other similar sized bags).

All of our clothing was in the carry-on. The personal items just held things like diapers and activities. So in reality, we really did pack 4 days of clothes for 6 people in just one carry-on.

Can't be done, you say? I must be lying? Nope! Here's the proof! (I forgot to take a picture of all of us at the airport with all our gear, I really should have since it's quite the sight) Here's our one carry-on (granted it's a big one) with enough clothing for 4 days for all 6 of us (granted 4 of those people are tiny and so their clothes don't take up much room).

The secret? Roll your clothes! I picked up that tip from a Pinterest, something like "stewardess packs 10 days of clothing in one carry-on". It really was the best tip ever! There's no way I would be able to get all our clothing in otherwise!

Oh and did you notice that a huge chunk of our luggage space was taken up just by my camera! Can you imagine how much more room I'd have if I didn't have the camera in there?

So how much luggage do you need for a family of 6? Well my family can make it with 1 carry-on and 4 personal items.

Beyond Blessed

We have been down in the city planting a church for almost 2 years now (more if you count the prayer meetings that started before the actual church services). During those 2 years, Justin and I have been blessed so often.

Now there are plenty of times that we feel the love of our congregation but we were recently given something special by our church that really just went beyond anything we would think of and so naturally I'm going to post about it.

Our church knew that we were going up to Whistler for a vacation/Justin teaching at a retreat. They also knew that it was going to be our 7 year anniversary.The night before we left, which so happened to be a Sunday night, Justin was handed a card at the end of church. Inside that card were instructions. We were told that we were to take the gondolas (think ski lift, if you are a native Californian like me...when Justin first told me about the gondolas I pictured Venice and I was totally confused) up to the top of the mountain where we had reservations at a great restaurant. We then got to take the Peak 2 Peak Gondola which goes from Blackcomb mountain to Whistler mountain. All bought and paid for!

On Tuesday (our anniversary) we started on our adventure. We were curious as to how the kids would do on the gondolas. Logan we figured would be fine, we weren't too sure about Ransom, and Everly honestly I thought she'd be terrified. Thankfully all the kids loved it! I was nervous about Everly as she had to sit next to me instead of in my lap however, she did great. She sat totally still and pretty much alternated between saying "whee" and "trees". On our way up we got to see a black bear which everyone thought was pretty cool. That first gondola ride takes a decent while, maybe 20-30 minutes so by the time we got to the top we were ready to eat.

As I mentioned the church had made reservations for us at a great restaurant called Christine's. Food
was yummy and the view was amazing.

Then it was off to the Peak 2 Peak. This thing is totally insane. As I said, it goes from the Blackcomb to Whistler mountains. It's 2.73 miles across! It also breaks some world records, here's some Peak 2 Peak trivia:

• Longest unsupported span of 3.024 kilometres
• Highest lift of its kind at 436 metres above the valley floor
• Completes the longest continuous lift system on the globe

Not a photo of mine. Just one I got off of flickr (see photo source).
Not the same time of year either...but same concept, we just had no/less snow.

Craziest view ever! The boys loved it and decided to talk the ears off of two Canadian grandparents who happened to be in the gondola with us. Everly oddly was more reserved about this ride than the previous smaller, less secure gondola but then maybe it had to do with it being nap time for her as she basically crashed once we got to the other side.

After we got to the end, it was back down the mountain in another set of gondolas. Quite the long adventure but one that we won't soon be forgetting. We were truly blessed by our church.

Up in Whistler

This was a year that we didn't think we would be taking a vacation. It just didn't look like it was going to work out. However, Justin then was asked to teach at our church's high school retreat. Now our high school group can have some pretty swanky retreats. Sure they've done their usual camping trips like many youth groups but this one, their Whistler one, is pretty amazing.

If you've ever been to Whistler, you know that there isn't a single bad looking hotel. They are all over the top, amazing places! We realized that we could easily turn this teaching event into our family vacation (ah the joys of being a pastor's family).

So we loaded all of us up, put all three kids in the middle row for this trip (yay for Diono car seats!) and headed up north.

6 days of mostly relaxing (as much as you can do when Justin taught at night and I was still mom), no cooking breakfast or lunch, dinner was bought I just had to throw it together. Lots of friends. Tons of pool time, and some special highlights (which I'll cover in my next post because it's just that amazing).

We've been trying to get the boys used to the water and "swimming" for awhile now. It's a lot harder of a task in the pacific northwest than it is in sunny California! There's just not many days that are hot enough for swimming. We knew that Whistler would be a perfect time to get them swimming. Last year, we attempted this at our Bible College retreat. The boys have been told that if they want to go out to the floating trampoline then they must first swim all by themselves to a buoy (maybe 15 feet out). They are wearing life jackets and everything so they really aren't in any danger. Last year, Ransom did great. He made it to the buoy...and then freaked out because he realized he couldn't touch the bottom anymore. I had to go rescue him and bring him back. Logan however, would have none of it.

When we got up to Whistler I figured it'd be the same again; Ransom being more daring and Logan sitting in the shallow end. Wrong! Logan was the one who dived right in (ok, not literally dived in) and water wings and all was floating around the pool. Ransom was the one holding on to the edge and terrified to float. Eventually we got Ransom to float...barely. Enough to say he did it once and that was it. Logan was daring enough to want to attempt swimming without water wings...yeah, he quickly realized that it's quite a bit harder that way! He still loved swimming though. I think they'll be ready to touch that buoy when we go to the next Bible College retreat next month. Oh and Everly? Crazy girl didn't want to even touch the water. She preferred to sunbathe.

Ironically we went up to Whistler during this years Summer Olympics. Logan has been fascinated by this "thing that happens every 4 years" and so it was neat for him to see the Olympics on t.v (we don't' have t.v at home) and see all the leftover paraphernalia from when Whistler hosted the Olympics.

Whistler was a nice vacation and much needed as we are now back into our crazy daily life.