Road Trip to Utah: Day 8

More resting took place today.  Can you tell how our vacation went?  Lots of rest with a few activities thrown in? So not us, but oh well.  One thing the girls requested to do with grandma and papa was to go bowling.   I've missed bowling, so I was all for it.  So that night after everyone was off work, and we conjoled Ken to spend a little time with the family instead of working, we headed to the Holiday Lanes. 

I had forgotten to call and reserve some lanes so we all had to cram onto one lane.  It worked out okay.  The girls shared turns with the adults which helped the game keep going at a steady pace.  Lily was very involved in the game.  She wanted to be right up at the score keeping thingy the whole time.  She bounced around a lot but for the most part stayed out of everyone's way.  She also did pretty good at bowling too.  All that Wii bowling must be paying off!

Char had never been able to bowl before.  So we made sure to give her plenty of turns.  She loved watching the ball go down the lane.  She loved watching it come out of the return even more!  We had to keep a close eye on her because she almost got some smashed fingers a few times.

Becky takes such good care of her nieces.  I think she bowled with all them, but this was just too cute!  Char loved going up there with her.

Char tuckered out pretty quickly though and spent most of her time back in daddy's arms.  These two pictures are my favorites from the night.  I love to see the relationship these two have together!

Allie was there, and yes she did bowl but somehow I missed a picture of her.  It probably had something to do with the fries we ordered.  The girls saw Becky and her family eating and wanted to join in even though we had dinner.  We ordered a large fry for all of us to share.  Char and Allie parked themselves in front of that thing until they were gone.  Also, Allie was slowly getting more and more sick.  She hadn't ate much lately either and we figured we would let her eat while she could. 

I wish we could have played more than one game but again the girls just couldn't handle any more time in a public place.  We went a spent an hour or so at Becky's to cool down and then headed back to mom's for the night.

Road Trip to Utah: Day 7

When planning our vacation I specifically requested for a day that I could hit a few stores in Provo that just don't exist around us in Texas, or are too far away to be worth a visit.  We got a late start which should have clued me in on exactly how this day was going to go.  We first made a trip to Costco.  I needed my bulk Taco seasoning!  Russ was excited because Costco was handing out a ton of free samples.  Can you believe we scored FULL SIZE Creamies?!  The girls loved them!  We also had lunch there.  I was quite impressed with how much food Char wolfed down.  She really hadn't been eating lately so we were happy to see her eat.

After Costco we went to See's!  Oh, how I miss See's!  I don't know if Russ or I miss it more, but we seriously are about to start a petition for them to come to South Texas.  Mom bought our family a pound of chocolates but sadly we didn't get any milk patties because they were out :(  

Our next stop was to Archiver's.  I haven't been to a good scrapbook store in a very long time.  I really wanted to find some fun stuff for my Project Life album, but by this time I was getting stressed out.  Char wasn't doing well because she was tired but couldn't sleep in the stroller.  I couldn't bring myself to really look around when I knew my kids were suffering.  While mom finished up looking we took the kids down the hallway to this cool indoor playground.  It had dinosaur as part of it.  I don't think the kids were supposed to play on it, but everyone else's kids were sooooo we let ours :)

 I couldn't get the girls to even look at the camera by this time, but at least they all made it into the picture right?!

When mom was done we then headed down the hallway for a special treat for Char.  We had noticed that she had been carrying around Molly a lot lately.  We thought it would be a good idea for her to make her own Build-a-Bear.  I'm sad she wasn't feeling well, because I'm sure it could have been a better experience for her but oh well.  We showed a few of the bears and she instantly clung on to this dog.

In fact she didn't give it up very willingly to get it stuffed.  Daddy showed her how to step on the stuffing button though and that got her attention.

After that she was done with the whole process.  So I quickly brushed it for her and picked out some clothes.  Russ and I picked out the name Cupcake for her doggie.  We thought it was funny because of Sprinkles!  Char was so done with the whole process that she wouldn't even look at or hold Cupcake when we were done.  *Sigh* 

Grandma and Papa kindly bought all three girls some PJ's for the stuffed animals.  Allie was so excited to find some Minnie Mouse jammies.  Char and Lily's were some cute generic ones...nothing themed.  Lily was too excited about everything to hold still for a picture.

We drug around Kohl's after this and then finally told mom and dad we had to leave.  The girls were out of control and needed to be home.  We got home and found out that Char really wasn't feeling well when her Costco lunch came up on Russ. By this time we were starting to wonder if we needed to take Char back in to the doctor.  We decided to wait it out a little longer in hopes that she would get better.

Road Trip to Utah: Day 6

Our special event for today was pulling out the pool.  Daddy and papa got it out early in the morning and scrubbed it down.  They filled it up all the way to the brim with water.  The girls were super excited and wanted to jump in right away.  The combination of a cool Midway morning and the ice cold water prevented them.  Impatiently they waited until after lunch when the water and the weather had warmed up.  Grandma had bought them a super big bouncy ball to play with in the pool.  Char really didn't have too much desire to play in the water since she didn't feel well.  Normally we can't pry her away from pools and such.  Russ helped her play a little bit so I could take some pictures, then she went inside for another nap.

My favorite picture was this one.  They both were having soooo much fun!

Ugh!  Allie is my pool water drinker.  No matter how many times we talk about it she still will drink the water.

We cleaned up ourselves and rested for the afternoon.  For dinner we made a special trip to Canton City just for Russell.  We have NO Chinese food down in Texas, so every time we go back to Midway Russ requests at least one dinner at Canton City.  It really is pretty good Chinese!  Russ and I spent most of our meal passing Char back and forth so we could take turns eating.  She was really not feeling well this day and was letting everyone know it.  Allie who had been on a bit of break from her sickies started manifesting again at dinner that she was sick.  My normal happy girl was whiny, clingy, and wouldn't touch her food.  It wasn't our best trip to Canton City but at least we had good food to eat!

Road Trip to Utah: Day 4 & 5

Early Monday morning Russ called and got us an appointment for Char at a local pediatrician.  The morning was relaxed with the girls playing with all of grandma's toys from the basement.  Russ and I took off around 11:00 to take Char in.  Crazily enough the nurse practitioner who helped us recognized me from high school.  After a few minutes of talking we figured out who each other was.  Guess that is what happens when you grow up in a small town.

Unfortunately, despite how sick Char was she didn't find much wrong with her.  She did see some fluid behind her ear and said she might be coming off an ear infection or starting an ear infection.  The change in altitude could have caused some vertigo because of this and started the throwing up.  We opted to start her on antibiotics hoping to knock whatever it was out.  We took Char back to mom's and she promptly fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon.

After dinner we went over to Becky's house where Tyler did a FHE on talents.  We helped the girls write out lists of things they are good at.  It was so fun listening to them name them off.  I wish I had kept the lists to add them here.  But they got lost :(  Char seemed to be doing a bit better and wandered around and played with some of Tyler's old toy cars.  We loved visiting Becky's house considering it was air conditioned.  Apparently Texas has turned me into a wimp because I used to survive the Utah summer heat without air conditioning.  But I just couldn't do it this trip!  We also watched some of the Olympic trials at their 50 or 60 in flat screen.  That was REALLY cool to see!

Tuesday morning was another slow going morning.  Char still wasn't showing much improvement.  She would eat, curl up on Russ, throw up, then fall asleep for a few hours.  We knew she needed to rest so we let her.  She slept through lunch but we made her wake up shortly after so we could go feed the ducks. 

Feeding the ducks is an activity the girls look forward to every time we visit grandma and papa.  there was only one slight problem.  When we pulled into the parking lot we noticed the ducks were on the other side of the pond resting in the shade.  Luckily we had an awesome cousin Tyler with us who ran around the pond and chased them over to the girls.  He did get into some stinging nettle, but at least he didn't fall into the pond!  Char got into throwing the ducks some bread.  It never went far, but she enjoyed it anyway.

After the bread was all gone the kids went and played on the playground.  And by kids I'm totally including Tyler even though he is 15.  He was right there beside them going down the slide and going across the monkey bars.  The girls loved having him there to play with.  Char copped out by this time and was content in mine and Russ's arms.  Notice how ORANGE Allie's hair looks in these pictures. 

At one point Tyler and Russ started to show off what they could do on the monkey bars.  Russ challenged Tyler to see who could do the most dips.  Russ won hands down.  He did somewhere around 20 and could have done more but stopped.  Guess those 15 mins of weight lifting at work are paying off! 

Russ took the girls home and the afternoon was spent with Char taking another nap.  By this time I was starting to get concerned with how much she was sleeping.  The girls watched one of the many Disney movies that grandma has that we don't.  I went with my parents and helped them do some shopping and waited for them while they went and voted.   Grandma gave Lily her "I Voted" sticker when we got back to the house.  She was super excited.

After dinner we went over to Becky's to cool down a bit.  Again Char perked up again.  Lily and Allie went and helped Tyler with one of his chores....feeding the chickens!  They were so excited when they came back in to show us that they had found some eggs in the chickens nests.  Both girls had found one, but Allie dropped hers...oops!

We stayed until Char insisted we go home.  It had been a nice fun filled day.





blahsdfadf

Road Trip to Utah: Day 1, 2,& 3

We decided earlier in the year that a trip to Utah was in order.  It has been awhile since we made it there and some of my family haven't even met Charlotte in person.  We had planned on leaving Friday and traveling all day, and then all day on Saturday.  Thursday night Russ came home and declared he really felt it was important that he take the car in to a mechanic to check out a funny noise we had been hearing the van make.  To put it lightly I was devastated that things were getting pushed back.  We opted to act as if we would still be leaving on Friday and packed everything we could Thursday night.

Early Friday Russ took the van in to the mechanic.  For some unknown reason our tires are wearing unevenly which is making the funny noise.  We quickly loaded the van with everything, had a quick lunch and started out for Utah.  We knew we weren't going to make it in two days like planned so we took the first day pretty easy and only went to Dallas.  

We were planning on having plenty of time to enjoy ourselves there and let the girls relax, but we hit some major traffic the messed up that idea.  We sat in traffic for over an hour, with Charlotte screaming most of it.  She had a bit of cold coming on, and a few teeth coming in so I knew she was miserable.  Russ did some random turns and got us out of the traffic and pulled into the closest restaurant that he saw just to give us a break from the car.  The restaurant was a nice little bistro called La Madeline.  Russ and I got some yummy sandwiches and the girls got some mac n cheese.  Charlotte went to town on hers.  She must have been super hungry.

We got back in the car and found the hotel.  By this time it was bedtime so we put everyone to bed.  A short while later, Charlotte threw up on us.  Thankfully she mainly threw up on me and her so we took care of that mess.  She spent the rest of the night sleeping in short little bouts and crying the rest.  To say the least we did not get much sleep.  We were up early the next morning so we could make our long drive to WaKeeny, Kansas.

The girls were pretty good in the car, especially since they didn't fall back to sleep after leaving at 5:00 in the morning.  Charlotte was not good though.  She spent most of the day screaming.  Since I was sitting next to her I did my best to keep her occupied, but it was clear that she wasn't feeling good and being in a car seat was the last thing she wanted/needed.  I noticed at lunch time she wasn't really eating which concerned me, but I couldn't exactly force food down her.  I did however, try and force liquids down her.  She wouldn't take much but at least it was something.  That night we reached our Motel 8 and stepped out into the record heat of 107...at 6:00 PM!  We melted on the spot!  

We jumped back in the car after unloading our stuff and went to a local DairyQueen.  Very bad choice!  Not only is that place crazy expensive for fast food, but we proceeded to watch them MICROWAVE our hamburgers.  Charlotte got a little spunk back in her and wolfed down some food and ice cream.  Her spunk didn't last long.  Getting back to the hotel we wrestled with her to get her to sleep but she was screaming again.  Another long/sleepless night was spent at the hotel.

Bright and early we headed out on the road.  After being on the road for a couple of hours the REAL FUN began.  Charlotte starting throwing up about every 30 minutes to an hour.  I wasn't prepared the first time, so she required a clean up.  I didn't have a new shirt for her that was accessible so she went without.  I looked at her while she took a brief nap and noticed she was breathing funny.  I mentioned it to Russ but he couldn't see her, and we both figured I was just being paranoid.   Also while driving through Colorado I kept asking Russ if it looked dusty or hazy.  He thought it looked cloudy too, but we couldn't figure out why.

Around noon we pulled into the Summit Rest Area by Laramie, Wyoming.  It was a convenient place to stop and have lunch, but what really made us stop was Abe Lincoln.  While driving Lily spotted him and told us she saw Abe Lincoln.  I didn't believe her until I looked up and saw him on the mountain.  We had a nice cool lunch there since we were so high up in the mountains.  Char was still not doing well.  A few short times she got down and walked around but for the most part she clung to Russ.  After lunch we went and explored the small museum at the rest stop.  They had few interesting things there.  Like this stuffed bear...

Oh and the girls may have gotten thrown in jail there too...

And we of course went and saw Abe Lincoln.  For some reason statues like these wig me out.  Something about the eyes.  But I knew this was a rare thing to see so we took some pictures with "Creepy Abe" 

Loading into the car Allie requested a bathroom trip.  Exasperated I agreed, considering this was her THIRD trip just at this truck stop.  After that potty trip I realized Allie was probably sick too.  How great was this?!  Two sick girls on vacation and we hadn't even made it to our destination yet!  The rest of the trip to Midway was mostly uneventful.  Char threw up a couple times, but the amount of time in between was increasing.  By the time we reached Midway at 5:00pm, she had completely stopped.  Never before have we rolled in from our road trips more exhausted than we did this one.  My family took one look at Char and insisted that we get her to a Dr., but we had to wait since we couldn't find one open that late on a Sunday.  We unpacked the car and spent a few hours visiting before everyone fell into bed exhausted.

 

Jones Family 1st Vacation: Day 5

I must admit, this was my least favorite day of our whole vacation at Disneyland.  I think it was because we went to California Adventure.  There really isn't a ton for the Lily and Allie to do there.  Also I woke up with a migraine.  I'm sure it was from lack of sleep and allergies.  My hips were killing me too from walking so much...I guess my pregnant body doesn't like that.

We were up early and to our hotel breakfast around 7:00.  This gave us a whole hour to eat and walk across to the park.  I was quite impressed with the continental breakfast our hotel provided.  They had fruit loops which the girls happily consumed.  Russ and I stuck to doughnuts, eggs, and juice.

At 8:00 we were lined up and ready to go into Disneyland.  We had decided to go there for a couple of hours and then head to California Adventure when it opened at 10:00.  We were hoping to hit a few of the busy kid rides at Disneyland early.  The lined moved fast especially since we had strollers and got to move to the front of it.  We quickly made our way to Fantasyland.

The very first thing we did upon arriving in Fantasyland was go to the Mad Hatter and buy some Minnie ears for Lily.  We were going to get some for both the girls but Allie would have absolutely nothing to do with a hat other than her own.  Since we are cheap we chose not to buy any instead of buying some that would never be worn.

Allie was being disruptive while Lily was diligently working on picking hers out, so Russ took her outside.  He saw this fun little statue of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and "surprised" me with the picture.

Lily finally settled on this headband of Minnie ears.  I think this was a great choice!

Shortly after we walked over to the teacups and stood in line until the finished.  We then walked on!  I couldn't believe the wait was so short!  Lily wanted a pink teacup so that is what we got...sorry Daddy!  Russ and Lily were in heaven twirling around.  I got a bit nauseous and was surprised by that.  Allie was enjoying herself for the first few seconds but then I noticed her head was spinning in a circle.  I could see she was getting sick from watching things swirl around her, so I got her attention and told her to look at mommy.  The greenness passed quickly when she had something to focus on.  Funny how you don't realize you have to teach kids little things like that.  We took several pictures but this was the only one that turned out.  At least it was a cute one!

  After getting off the ride we saw this teacup and the girls climbed in it thinking it was the same ride! LOL!  We were able to get a cute picture of them together this time at least.

We headed over to the carousel because Allie wanted to ride the "neighs!"  Hmmm....need to work on saying horsies I guess!  By this time I had shoved the camera at Russ since I was sick and he got some great photos while we were riding it.

By this time it was 9:30 and I felt like we should go get in line at California Adventure.  Soooo glad that we did.  The line was HUMONGOUS!  Nothing like Disneyland's teeny fast moving line.  The girls patiently ate their snacks while we slowly moved through the gates. {Did I mention the girls were complete ANGELS for this whole trip.  Seriously, hardly any complaining or fighting the whole time! Yippee!}  I sent Russ running ahead to get us fast passes to World of Color show.  The line for that ended up being 45 min!  So the girls and I wandered around since we didn't want to go on any rides without daddy.

While wandering we found Mater and Lightening McQueen.  I totally cut in line on accident and got us a picture without standing and waiting.  Lily loved being able to touch the cars.

Daddy finished up with the Color line.  We were grateful that he scored us tickets for the early showing.  He actually had been the first person to start getting the later show when he mentioned to a ticket person he had young kids.  The ticket guy swapped our tickets out!  Wahoo!

We headed over to Toy Story Midway Mania because we had heard the line can get out of hand since it is so popular.  Ummm...yeah, the line was ATROCIOUS!  75 mins to wait.  We asked a ticket guy and he said the line wouldn't get shorter the rest of the day unless we came during the World of Color show.  Well that wasn't happening so we stuck it out.  Shortly after joining the line Allie fell asleep.  Poor Russ had to deal with that dead weight for an hour or so!  Needless to say his back was hurting a bit the rest of the day.  They entrance to this ride was pretty cool though.  They had a GIANT talking Mr. Potato head that Lily was enthralled with watching.  Also they had some pretty cool posters about the ride to look at.   Off to side of the ride they were promoting Toy Story 3 with this HUGE toy box.  Check out Lily all boxed up and ready to be shipped.  Not sure I would want to buy a Lily doll that pull that face though!

 

Was the ride worth the 75 min it wait?  Heck ya!  The game was awesome!  I've never played something so fun in my life.  Lily was able to even to do it!  Russ said Allie enjoyed wearing her glasses and watching instead of playing.  At least she liked it!

I needed some rest after standing in that line so we went for a shorter ride...King Triton's Carousel.  I'm not sure how I managed to not lose it on this because I was feeling like I was gonna pass out.  Russ and the girls enjoyed the ride though.

By this time we were all starving so we went and had some chicken strips and fries at some vendor nearby.  The food helped me to start feeling better, and I dug out some Tylenol to take.  Oh pure relief once that kicked in!  I now could enjoy the day with the family.

I had always wanted to take Lily on Soarin' Over California so we headed that way.  Since we had snagged fast passes earlier in the day Lily and I literally walked on again! Suh-weet!  Lily got a teeny bit nervous when we lifted off the ground, but she loved flying.  I had to keep reminding her not to yell from excitement.  The visual affects had quite an effect on me, I felt like I had been on a large roller coaster as my stomach dropped every time the picture flew down.  Pregnancy can sure change the way rides go for you, lol!  Lily ran off the ride excited to tell daddy all about it.  When learned that she got to go on it again with daddy she was so excited.  Gotta love the whole parent swap feature!  Before Russ left he told me to check the camera, there was another surprise!  I checked it and laughed, apparently I had forgotten to tell him we had seen Mater and Lighting McQueen already!  Allie apparently loved Mater and kept standing by him.

Allie and I went and did some souvenir shopping while Lily and Daddy were flying.  We found a Tinkerbell Bell Trading pin for my mom.  I loved that it combined two things my mom collects...a bell...and pins.  I also bought Allie matchbox Mater which she could hardly wait to get out of the package.  She even slept with him that night!  Lily got a pair of airplane pilot wings that had her name on it and a little bubble saying Soarin' Over California.  When I gave it to her she gave me the biggest hug and said "Thanks Mom!"  Who could ask for anything better?  She promptly had me put it on her shirt and showed it off to ever ticket taker from there on out!

The girls were getting restless so we thought we would try and make it to some of the shows in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.  We hit up the Muppet Vision 3D.  We had some premiere seating that we had received from buying our DL tickets online.  That seating put us right up front in the middle.  No one was really in front of us so it worked perfect for the girls.  Allie was done with 3D glasses by this time and I'm not sure she really enjoyed the show.  She did sit quietly though.  Lily that it was fun but a bit scary.  I guess all the cannons going off could be scary.  It was a good rest for us to say the least.

We then headed to Allie's favorite ride.hehehehe....Disney's Playhouse.  It was a fun little theatre that you sit on the floor and watch stories from four Disney TV shows.  There was Mickey's Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Winnie the Pooh, and Handy Mandy.  The kids were encouraged to dance and play with the puppets on stage.  We were seated at the back which made it a bit difficult for Allie to see considering that quite a few parents let their kids stand during the WHOLE performance even though they had been repeatedly told by attendees to sit down.  Allie and Lily both enjoyed the dancing and playing.  Russ and I enjoyed the sitting and resting! LOL!

Next up was the Animation Academy.  We had heard the Turtle Talk with Crush was a must see at this academy.  We had to wait for one show to get out but that was okay.  We were busy doing things like saying hello to Snow White!  Allie again ran right up to her to pose for a picture!  Lily was all smiles too!

We had some snacks to finish off our wait.  Since we were at the beginning of the line we able to sit on the Lily Pads right next to the screen.  Lily thought it was silly they were name after her!  Crush came and talked with us, and it was so fun to watch him answer questions from the crowd.  Animation has come such a long way since I was little!  Lily was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to ask him a question like some of the other kids, but we assured her she would get to do some else fun like that later.  We looked at a few more things in the animation center before heading out to find a spot for the parade.

We were late getting a spot for the parade and ended up with a kind of crummy spot where they didn't perform.  Rats!  But we saw the whole thing and that is what is most important.  Some older girls {think tweens} who were standing in front us had Lily come stand in front of them so she could see.  It is incredible how thoughtful people can be!  Allie dozed off right before the parade and missed most of it.  I took an incredible amount of pictures.  Some had heads in them, but these ones didn't....

Mr. Incredible

Crush and Little Dude

Frozone

Jack-Jack
{Love how I got Grizzly mountain in the background!}

Flik and Princess

Aliens
{That water coming at the camera hit me right after I took it, lol!}

Buzz Lightyear

Army dude
{These had to be dying of heat in all that paint and clothes!}

These guys were doing acrobatics.  Really cool to watch!

Wearily we trudged all the way from the parade route up Downtown Disney to the Rainforest Cafe where Russ decided to tell me he wasn't really feeling like eating.  I threw a hormonal hissy fit and went off dragging Lily back down Downtown Disney.  I calmed down halfway through Downtown Disney at  a pizza joint where I ordered pizza for me and the girls.  Russ ended up eating even though he wasn't hungry.  The pizza was okay, but not my favorite.  The girls ate it up though.

We slowly made our way to the Disney store at the end of Downtown Disney.  We spent quite a bit of time wandering around in there.  The girls chose to use some of their souvenir money on stuffed animals.  Lily got a Mickey Mouse dressed up for some sort of a celebration.  Allie chose a princess Minnie.   Odd choices for both of them, but they loved them nevertheless.

By this time we were pushing both girls in the strollers since they were worn out from all the walking.  We found our way to our spots for World of Color.  They weren't the best spots, probably because we had to trade out our tickets, but we could see.  There was a really fun pre-show where a bunch of the characters came out and did some dancing, and getting the crowd to cheer for them.  The show started and it was quite amazing!  It really put the water show at the Bellatio to shame.  The water went as high as the Ferris Wheel that was right behind it, and seeing the images on the water was cool.  Definitely worth the wait!

After the show we headed back to the hotel.  We were too tired to stay out any later.  Since we would be getting up early to pack the car it was doubly important to get to bed semi-early.