A review of "the happiest days on the earth"

Okay, so I have to back-track a little bit here. It has now been a week and a half that we have been home. From where you may ask? Well, in Davis’ words we went to “the happiest days on the earth” or in other words “the happiest place on earth”…Disneyland! Of course the reason for making the trek to So. Cal was in fact to spend the week with my side of our family. We had such a great time. Here are a few highlights…

Day 1: We began our journey. We decided to do something out of the ordinary for our little family and we took our time getting to our destination, stopping at a lake on the way down for lots of rock throwing, wading in the water and a picnic. That night we spent the night, a little past the half-way point, at a hotel. The kids has a ball in the pool and Jed and I counted our blessings that they are all such good little travelers (or in other words Kate is a good little traveler, totally entertained by food and toys, and the boys are zombies when a DVD player is placed in front of them)!

Day 2: We arrived at my sister, Amy’s, house and were greeted by all of the cousins. We all (minus my mom and dad) stayed at Amy and Rob’s and they were so gracious to put up with the chaos...we even slept in the master bedroom while they slept in a tent! You guys are so generous! That night we had a yummy family dinner and Dessert at Yogurtland.

Day 3: The Guys went to ride go-carts and play at the batting cages while the kids and gals went to Castle Park (a park with a giant castle…the boys LOVED IT!).

Days 4 and 5 were spent at the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and California Adventure! We really had a great time. Owen’s favorite rides were Buzz Lightyear (we rode it 5 times!), Pirates of the Carribean and Soaring Over California. He will also say that he loved the roller coaster in Tune Town. Look at the photo above. Does it look like he loved it? Jed and I love that photo...my dad took it. Davis also loved Buzz Lightyear and the Dumbo ride. Kate loved the ice cream and was terrified by Pirates of the Caribbean and the Aladdin show. Jed and I enjoyed several hours the second morning by ourselves and then loved being able to take Amy and Rob’s little girls home so that they could spend some time with just their big kids (and Nana and Papa) that night. A major highlight for me was watching my kids laugh, run, play and enjoy the magic of their surroundings, with their cousins. We all had a great time. Oh, and thanks Auntie J and Uncle Dan for joining us!

Day 6: Girls Day Out! I love my sisters, mom and niece, Emma, and I got such a kick out of being with them all as we got Manicures and Pedicures and then went for Smoothies. Meanwhile the guys and kids played the Wii—Owen is a huge fan…oh, and I did beat Jed at tennis later, thank you very much. Also, this night Uncle Rob got some tickets for a show called "Walking with Dinosaurs". Rob, Jed, Papa (my dad), Matt, Emma, Hunter and Owen were all able to go. The report was that this show was unlike anything any of them had ever seen and I'll tell you, Owen says it is his favorite thing from the week. Better than Disneyland?!?

Day 7: Our last day, so we went out with a bang. My Dad took some pics of our little family in the morning and then we all hit the beach! Jed says the beach was one of his favorite things of the week. I think that the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids.

What fun! Thank you all for a great week, for helping out with and loving our kids and for being our family. Jed and I feel very blessed that we genuinely enjoy being around our family on both sides!