When Am I?

Topher: (this morning, after waking up and coming in to snuggle) I'm going to have fun cereal because it's Saturday.

Me: Sorry bud, it's Thursday.

Topher: (real confusion on his face) But... it's Saturday.

Me: I know it's confusing because we had pizza and watched a movie last night and we usually do that on Friday, but we did it on Wednesday this week.

Topher: (confusion mingled with acceptance) Huh.

It's okay Topher, I haven't known what day it was for most of the week.

Book Buddies

When I was writing up our Disneyland adventure last year Blogger started having trouble moving pictures from Google Photos into the posts. To circumvent that issue I had to download everything, then upload it all to the blog. This was a pain and took more time and I ended up not ever finishing the posts about Disneyland. I also never wrote about our trip to Utah right after that. I hope to fix that someday. For now though, I want to make sure I don't make the same mistake with our most recent trip.

After spending a few days at Ron and Shari's house, we headed to down Utah County to see friends there. Our first stop was BYU. We tried to get a tour of Peter's new apartment since it looked like he wouldn't be able to move in until after I had flown back to PA with the other kids. When the sweet receptionist told me no, I almost cried. I quickly regained my composure and she gave me some good news: Peter could move in on Saturday instead of waiting until Monday! We would still be there and would be able to see his home for the next eight months. I was thrilled!

After that, we grabbed lunch at the Cougareat, then headed north to see my friend Beth! We were in the same married ward at BYU, but I don't think we ever actually talked to each other then. We found each others blogs and she and I have essentially been blog pen pals since Cooper was a baby. Her kids are just a little older than ours and she's a fellow bibliophile. There are lots of other great things about her, those are just two things we have in common. When we were in Utah in 2023 I stopped by for a quick in-person hello and we've been trading Marco Polos since then. I love that we got to stop by for a bit longer visit on this trip! And our kids got to meet each other, which made me happy.

Thanks for making time for us, Beth!

PA to NJ to CA

The Beach: Day 1

Last week I took the kids down to the beach! The real reason for the trip was so Peter could see the girl he met at church prom back in April. They've been talking nearly every night since. Spoiler: Peter officially has a girlfriend now. This is new territory for us as a family.

Unfortunately Bryan wasn't able to join us. He had too many meetings that he couldn't get out of. So he had a quiet house for a few days and we all missed him.

While Peter spent time with his girlfriend, the other kids and I spent time in the Atlantic Ocean.

We brought sooooooooo much sand back to the hotel that night. It was fun though.

Pack It In

Day one of Spring Break weekend included playing at a friend's house, lunch at Wendy's, lots of backyard time for the kids, some chores, pizza for dinner, and a double feature movie night.

I figure if we only get Friday and Monday off we should make them count.

Recharging

I discovered Cooper napping yesterday afternoon. I feel like this picture is a good representation of how the whole week has gone. We've had lots of napping, more screen time than usual, and very little is getting accomplished. We did go see a movie (Wonka) on Wednesday, but that's the only adventure we've had.

I'm not complaining, It's nice to have some downtime.

Maybe after all this resting we'll be full of energy for the new year.

Our Big Adventure: Disneyland, Day 2

I don't have as solid a record of this day. Apparently we didn't take as many pictures. So, some of this will be out of order. Possibly.

9:57AM

Day two was our latest start. We had pushed so hard on day one that we were exhausted and needed to sleep. Beyond that, though, Bryan and I had stayed up much later than everyone else trying to figure out what to do about our planned short Disneyland days. We finally learned that we could possibly switch our tickets to the other park. Instead of going to Disneyland on day two, we decided to switch to California Adventure. We were some of the last people to breakfast this time, then we made our way to the parks.

9:59AM

The kids took advantage of the hot chocolate station at the hotel and enjoyed a cup nearly every morning of our visit. 

10:12AM

The difference between getting to the parks when they open and coming in a few hours late was kind of major. The security lines were much longer later in the day. Bryan and I were worried we would be told we couldn't change our tickets, but the woman that helped us was super kind and helpful. Apparently we could have changed them on the app, we just didn't know how. With our new plan of a second day at California Adventure officially in place, we went into the park.

11:21AM

According to my pictures our first activity of the day was the Animation Academy. I'm pretty sure we rode the Red Car Trolley either to or from this attraction, so we'll count that too. I love the Animation Academy! When we visited in 2013 we all learned how to draw Agent P from Phineas and Ferb. This time we showed up for a surprise character. It turned out to be Ember from the new movie Elemental. I think we all did pretty well, which is a testament to the skills of the teacher since some of us are artists and some are not. Okay, I'm not, most of the others are. Oh, and Topher dismantled his drawing board instead of drawing, so that was exciting. I successfully reassembled it. Here we have art from

Bryan:

Cooper:

Peter:

Phoebe:

Sophie:

Topher:

and me:

11:36AM

We missed seeing Rodgers the Musical by a few weeks, but you can see the marquee in the background. This was my "what is everyone wearing in case we get separated" picture.

11:44AM

After our art lesson, we cut through the Avengers Campus to get to some rides. On the way we happened to pass Spiderman and quickly lined up to meet him. Bonus: in these two pictures you can see some of the fun backpacks the kids carried on the trip. Cooper's is shaped like Captain America's shield, Phoebe's is Minnie Mouse themed, and Sophie's has princesses on it. Peter still takes his Spiderman bag pretty much everywhere. It holds his Epi-Pen nicely.

11:57AM

We were near the front of the line, so it didn't take too long to get our picture with our favorite web slinger. One of our favorite web slingers, at least. We like Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey a lot too.

12:12PM

The big kids desperately wanted to ride the Incredicoaster again. Since we'd done most of what we wanted the first day, we decided this day we would repeat our favorites. I took the first turn this time while Bryan waited with Topher. They enjoyed some blue cotton candy while we rode and had some to share with the other kids when we got back.

12:15PM

12:19PM

12:23PM

I spy Mr. Incredible near the Incredicoaster. We didn't meet him, but it was cool to see him at a distance.

12:31PM

Peter and Cooper got to ride with Bryan during his run since the girls had gone with me the day before.

12:35PM

I assure you, their poses and facial expressions were all intentional.

1:30PM

After the Incredicoaster poor Topher was near tears since everyone had now gone on a ride except for him. I believe this is when we rode The Little Mermaid, though I'm not 100 percent certain of the timeline. I do know we rode it at some point and that I definitely let my eyes close and my head lean on the tall seat back while we rode. I believe we rode Grizzly River Run next. After spending most of the previous day in wet jeans from this ride, Bryan opted to sit this out while the rest of us rode.

2:08PM

We were finally ready for a late lunch at Smokejumpers Grill, right outside of Soarin' Around the World. It was the best meal we had while visiting the parks! Seriously, it beat out the two fancy places we ate at. Hunger was probably only part of the equation. They had a fantastic gluten free hamburger bun and were extremely mindful of Peter's allergy.

3:10PM

After that we wandered over to the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. We had missed this in 2013 and almost missed it again this time. It's kind of tucked away. It was essentially a big, redwood forest themed nature trail and playground, which is just what Topher needed at that point in the day. We spent a surprisingly long time there. Apparently this attraction is now closed for refurbishment, so I'm glad it was still open when we visited!

3:39PM

3:40PM

Bryan and I took turns keeping watch from a lookout spot. Peter and Cooper shadowed Topher while Phoebe and Sophie stuck together.

3:46PM

The kids enjoyed the rock wall.

3:54PM

Topher and Sophie were able to use the ziplines, but Phoebe was just barely too tall. She was pretty disappointed about that.

3:58PM

This tree segment was massive! According to the accompanying sign, it was 1000 years old when it fell.

4:28PM

After we'd gotten to run and play, we visited Toy Story Midway Mania! again. This one is closed for refurbishment now as well!

4:38PM

I have no pictures of the next attraction, but I wish I did because it was one of my favorites of the day! We went to Turtle Talk with Crush. The guy doing the voice of Crush was hilarious! I was so impressed at his improv skills. Our whole family loved this one.

6:01PM

After chillin' with Crush, we visited the Sorcerer's Workshop.

6:12PM

That led us to the Beast's library! We got to take quizzes to find out which Disney characters we are. Topher learned that he's Winnie the Pooh and Peter and Cooper are apparently like Woody. Bryan got Peter Pan, Phoebe was Sally from Cars, and Sophie was Pocahontas.

6:13PM

6:14PM

Oh, and if you answer a little differently, your result changes. Topher went from Pooh bear to Scar. Sophie became the Queen of Hearts. Phoebe got Ursula from The Little Mermaid. She wasn't thrilled about that.

6:16PM

I'm most like Belle! Well, that makes sense.

6:27PM

We wandered back over to the other side of the park to jump in line for Soarin', that was my repeat request. One of the seat decks was malfunctioning, so it took a while to start. But at least we didn't have to leave the ride and try again like the people in front of us. I do love that ride.

7:33PM

Cooper really wanted to ride Guardians of the Galaxy again (so did I!), but there were no Lightning Lanes left. We decided it was important enough to stand in the long line to ride it. And yes, it was probably the longest line we waited in that day.

7:40PM

Topher was beyond tired and losing his mind a little during the line for this ride, so we broke down and let him watch Disney+ on Bryan's phone. At least we stayed with the Disney theme. Oh! And now you can see Topher's little backpack.

8:21PM

8:23PM

Topher finally crashed and Peter and I traded him back and forth while we were in line. We discovered that this kid can sleep anywhere.

8:46PM

Right as we were ready to board, Peter and Bryan both stepped out of line. Bryan had known the whole time that he didn't want to ride it again, Peter decided part way through. I thought it was nice of them to stay with us anyway. The rest of us loved it and discovered that there are different storylines! It was not the same ride we had been on the day before.

8:49PM

We were dragging and made the choice not to stay until the park closed. We knew we wanted to be at rope drop the next morning. So we slowly walked to the entrance. Actually, we rode the Red Car Trolley several times that day, including at the end, so I guess that ups our ride count. 

9:00PM

We took some time to sort of recreate this picture from our 2013 trip.

9:01PM

9:02PM

And we played with our Magic Bands. In theory we could make this medallion light up with the colors of our Bands. It mostly worked.

9:07PM

Peter was Topher's personal chauffeur as we walked back to the hotel. We had missed a few shows and didn't go on the Bakery Tour (one of the attractions listed in the map), but other than those things, we had done everything available at California Adventure, some of them multiple times.

9:28PM

We walked back into our hotel, totally worn out. Again, Topher dropped his stuff and climbed right into bed. Everyone was so tired that it was a little easier to chase them to bed. I set my alarm, looking forward to our first day in the original Disneyland park.