When We weren't in Disneyland We...

We did do some other things this month besides go on the best vacation ever... See, here's proof:

I gots my hairs did. I need to figure out how she curls my hair because I just can't seem to recreate this same look right after she does it.

We celebrated Carson and Camden's birthday. This was taken just a few days shy of Camen's actual birthday, so here are the three 3 year olds!

Karen drew our family name for Christmas this year and brought over an early present... Matching Christmas jammies. Oh my! Let's just say they only looked flattering on a few of us.

I'll let you guess who. 

 Ummm.... who sleeps like this?

 So I haven't mentioned it on the blog yet, but Tyler got a new job! What? About a year ago Tyler was actively looking for a new job because while DMC has been a great company to work for, it has become very stressful for not just Tyler, but the whole family. There were a lot of responsibilities placed on Tyler's shoulders, with no direction. Tyler was traveling A LOT for work, which was taking a toll on me and the kids. He was stressed every night and would end up working 12 hour days with some nights and weekends too.  I honestly worried Tyler would have a nervous breakdown from all of the stress. Tyler interviewed for a few jobs, but none of them were the right fit. We weren't willing to move our kids out of state, and we weren't going to take just any job.

After a few months with no luck of a new job Tyler and I decided to take a step back and just wait out DMC. Well about two months ago DMC's direct competitor, Cementation, contacted Tyler about a job. They had his resume and were interested in interviewing him. Long story short, Tyler interviewed with them and they and gave him an offer, which we excitedly accepted. Interestingly enough, DMC countered for a ridiculous amount of money and we started to question our decision of leaving. After a lot of discussion, fasting, and praying, we knew we needed to trust our initial decision and leave DMC, realizing no amount of money could justify the stress our family has been under. We are so grateful for the new opportunity. Tyler started working at Cementation on November 13, right after we got home from our vacation. So far it has been a great change. There is some stress with starting a new job, but so far the change is exactly what we needed for Tyler and our family right now. I honestly believe this job was presented to Tyler at the exact time he needed a change. It's not a coincidence this job fell into Tyler's lap at this time, and I am so grateful for the new opportunities this job will provide.

To celebrate we went to dinner at The Roof. We had an amazing view of the Salt Lake Temple and a delicious dinner. 

 Oh, so much sass crammed into one little body!

 Carson seriously grew overnight. He's almost as tall as I am.

 Caden had a "Feast Day" at school and I got to help out. He pretended he was irritated I was there and taking a picture of him, but I know deep inside he really loved having me there embarrassing him.

 Thanksgiving dinner was so much fun this year at Tammy's.

 Friday was spent decorating our tree and spending the entire day in our jammies.

 Caden got to put the star at the top of our tree this year.

 Then we had our traditional hot chocolate and movie night.

Makayla ran some errands with me on Saturday and she was so excited to go to "Subway Sandwich"... just me and her. I really loved having someone to shop with. It reminded me of all the Saturday's I spent with my mom shopping and going to lunch growing up. I hope we can continue this fun tradition!

 She clearly loved her sandwich!

And this girl... she asks almost every single day to go to Target and get popcorn. This particular day she insisted on bringing her purse full of toys. I just love that she loves Target as much as I do. 

Caden had a field trip to Thanksgiving Point, and boy was it stressful leading up to the day. Caden was so worried about riding the bus. He was worried the bus driver would crash. He was worried because there are no seatbelts on the bus. He was worried he wouldn't have any friends. As much as we talked through it, he was still nervous until I told him he got to take a lunch with him and he could take his new LEGO lunchbox. He got even more excited when we went to the store and he picked out a Lunchable with Oreos. Luckily, the morning of his field trip he was ready and excited. 

When I picked him up he was so excited and told me all about the fun things he did there. Even days later he would tell me he wished he could go on a field trip everyday. 

Makayla writes the cutest notes. I had to chuckle at this note:

*I had a bad day today but my dad played music and it helped me and my brother then I had a better day. 

The Best Vacation Ever Part 4

Our last stop on the Best Vacation Ever was to LegoLand. Our kids are obsessed with Legos, so we knew they would have a blast here, especially Caden. Legoland was fascinating because of all the detail that goes into building the sculptures. The kids' favorite part was posing in front of all them. 

Caden is really into Ninja Legos right now so he was in heaven at the Ninjago City section. 

Makayla (and apparently Tyler) really love the Lego Friends. 

 We went on a little boat ride.

 And was absolutely fascinated by all the things they could replicate out of Legos.

 If you look really closely at this replica of the White House, you can see Donald Trump with this orange hair!

 Look at those asses. Oops... did I just write that?

 Lego Land was different because they had weird height restrictions. Some rides all of us could go on, some rides only Makayla could go on, and some rides only Caden and Brynnli could go on by themselves, not with an adult. Makayla was underwhelmed at our first ride. When we got off the ride, she said to me, "that was it?" Apparently only incredibly fast, stomach churning rides are acceptable for Makayla!

This ride was the one that only Caden and Brynnli could go on by themselves. It was so funny watching Brynnli trying to drive because she kept getting stuck, then she would look around for the worker to come rescue her. 

 We went on the carousel

And watched the Lego Friends show. 

Brynnli sure knows how to pose. 

 Our last ride was the Ninjago ride, which was by far the best one.

Sadly our vacation was coming to an end. We packed everyone in the car and drove straight to Vegas. The kids were so exhausted they slept the entire way there. 

Sunday we finished our drive back home. I snapped this cute picture of the kids spending some time with Grandma and Grandpa while we drove. 

After countless hours in the car, the kids' first time at the beach, 6 days in theme parks, lots of laughing, and lots of treats, our vacation had sadly come to an end. But this vacation was such a memorable one. We seriously had the best time. I love that Terry and Craig were able to go with us this year!

To help us ease our Disney with drawl, we saved our $12 caramel apple and ate it when we got home. It was totally worth the steep price tag.

Oh, I am already wishing we were back on vacation! The thing I love the most is that I know this will not be our last time at Disneyland. I can't wait to start planning our next trip. 

Sea World and Day 4 at Disneyland

We took a short break from Disneyland and went to Sea World. I have not been to Sea World since I was little and I was really looking forward to it. Makayla is a lot braver than me and dared to touch the fish. I tried... but it was too gross for me. 

 The kids got to feed the seals.

 We watched the dolphin show. Good thing Tyler has a greasy head so his brochure can double as a sun visor.

 The dolphin show was super cute and maybe one of my favorite parts of Sea World. Earlier in the day we were even able to see them feed the dolphins and got to pet them.

 How cool is Caden in front of these awesome turtles?

 Brynnli was hilarious on this trip. She had finally figured out the potty training thing and was ready to be done with diapers, but I was not about to potty train her on vacation. So every day about the same time, Brynnli would say to us, "I need to go poo-poo" and we would tell her to go in a corner. She would say, "okay, Mommy" and go in the corner to do her business. After she was done she would come over to say, "Mommy, I all done going poopies!"

 We got to see the beluga whale, and I taught all the kids to sing the baby beluga song.

 I was super excited to see the whale show, even knowing they had changed the show because of all the controversy over the whale killing the trainer a few years ago. We knew going into it the show would be more educational than entertaining, but I was still excited. It was fun to see the how big the whales were, but the show ended up being not as exciting as I was hoping, and probably my least favorite part of Sea World.

 But these two boys right here can just melt your heart.

 Standing in front of the flamingos pretending to be flamingos.

 We went on the sky ride and a few other rides they had there.

And ended the night at the seal show.

As we left, the kids all got to pick out a souvenir. Makayla picked out a ceramic turtle and a mermaid/penguin who she named "Merflake". Caden picked out a stuffed Orca whale that he named "Blackie" He said that Blackie could be friends with Bulie (his dolphin souvenir from Grandma and Grandpa's last trip to SW). Caden said he would be like the trainers and teach Blackie and Bluie to do tricks. And Brynnie picked out a mermaid. When we asked Brynn what her mermaid's name was she told us, "Alina Evans". After a while we figured out she named the mermaid after her middle name. When Brynn tries to say "Linnea" it always sounds like "Alina". How cute are our kids? 

Overall, we really enjoyed SeaWorld, but the place was so dead it was almost spooky. I heard SeaWorld was struggling, and I wonder if this will be the last time our kids will ever go there. 

We ate dinner at a place right across from the San Diego temple. This picture does not do it justice because it looked so pretty all lit up in the darkness. 

Just when you thought we were done in DisneyLand, we went back for one more bonus day of fun. We had been on every single ride and met all of the necessary characters, so we just really enjoyed the day and figured everything we did that day was a bonus. We were expecting the day to be super crowded and busy because it was the first day of the Christmas season. 

We met Gaston. He refused to sign our books because in his opinion, books are useless. 

He did a show for all the people and Makayla ended up getting picked to help out. She had to hold her best muscle pose.

 We met Aladin. We were hoping Jasmine would be with him, but not this time.

One of the things we were most excited about our bonus day was that we would get to see the parade since it was running on weekends. Grandma and Grandpa are the best because they ended up saving us the best seats. The kids even got to write postcards to Santa.

The parade is always one of my favorite parts because I love watching the kids' reaction to all the characters. The parade did not disappoint. It was fun to see the characters celebrating Christmas. 

After the parade we split up. Caden wanted to meet Thor and Makayla wanted to stay in Disneyland to ride more rides. Another bonus this day was that Makayla's and my favorite ride, Indiana Jones, was open again, so Makayla and Grandpa went on that ride. 

While waiting for Thor we shared an ice cream. Shhhh... don't tell Makayla. 

Brynn was surprisingly afraid of Thor. Caden is the best big brother and reassured her that she would be ok. Thor took Brynn's hand and they walked over together.  

Turns out Brynn was afraid of Thor's brother Loki. Thor took control of the situation and cover up Loki so Brynn didn't have to look at him. 

We spend the rest of the day going on all of our favorite rides. Brynnli's least favorite ride this trip was the "horman house" aka, the Haunted House. Even weeks after the trip she keeps telling us that she wants to go to Disneyland, "but not on dat scary ride... it scares me". As the day went on, the park became more and more crowded. It was so crowded that most rides were 90 minute waits and you couldn't even move. At that point we were on day 5 of theme parks and we were getting worn out. We decided to head back to the hotel early, eat pizza, go swimming, and watch the fireworks from the roof top again. 

 So with one last goodbye, we left Disneyland.

As a side note, how cute is Brynnli drinking her bottle with her souvenirs?