We had the best visitors back in March!
(I have had these pictures ready to post for a few weeks and I want to get it done before baby comes, so here goes. I wanted to write out all the little details of our time together, but I won't be able to be as specific as I hoped.)
My wonderful brother Spencer and his beautiful family flew out from Colorado to spend their Spring Break with us in California!
It was such a blast!
Tuesday morning I kept up on their airport adventures on the phone while getting the last things ready for them to come.
They decided that a California trip needed a
Mustang Convertible
and I took the picture of their family above as they pulled up to our house!
When Ellie and Ryan walked home from school they had to take turns trying out the Convertible. I think these girls think they were made for this kind of lifestyle!
The weather was beautiful, and the kids had fun blowing bubbles and playing the backyard for the afternoon. We love cousins!
They have 3 absolutely precious kids; Ella (5), Caden (3) and Claire (1)
Spen got creative with the bubble blowing, and did a great job keeping the kids entertained.
Claire and Sterling loved being outside together, and Sterling loves Claire! It's been almost two months since their visit and he still asks if every baby he sees is baby Claire.
We love her too!
Ryan was excited to play the XBOX with Uncle Spencer, and they had fun playing Indiana Jones and Star Wars together.
The other kids joined in for Just Dance 3.
Sweet moves!
Claire found the baby stroller and had to push it all around, she's was so close to walking!
It was so fun to get to know this little cutie!
We met her for the first time over Thanksgiving, and haven't had much time with her.
We spent time playing in the front yard too, so the kids could ride bikes in the Cul-de-sac.
Ella showed off her new skills of riding a two wheeler without training wheels!
We found our way back to the backyard to cookup some BBQ.
Teriyaki Shis-kabobs and Hot Dogs.
Spence was great to man the grill (manly grunt- Tim the toolman style).
Ellie and Ella, and the boys for a little while, had fun decorating lunch sacks and signature books for Disneyland!
After the kids were down for the night (it's so hard to go to bed when you're so excited!) we finished getting the lunches made and everything ready for a quick exit the next morning.
DISNEYLAND!!
We woke up to perfect weather and got out of the house as fast as 4 adults and 7 kids can. :)
Cute cousins!
Ellie changed her outfit so she would match aunt Rachel. :)
I'm grateful she has her as a role model in her life.
She is fabulous!
Holding hands at Disneyland....love having cousin time!
What a beautiful family they are!
We've been to Disney twice and we still don't have a family picture of us!
Our kids are too anxious for the rides I guess.
One funny thing that happened was Claire lost one of her pink shoes, and Rob went back for it and found it...not once but, twice!
Shoe finding is one of the many talents he has, that's why I married him. :)
We shouldn't have, but we jumped on Pirates of the Caribean for our first ride. It was a little too scary for some of the kids.
The Dad's took the big kids on Splash Mountain
(which this time included Caden, but not Ella and Trevor who were both scared on Pirates) and the Mom's and little kids headed for Winnie the Pooh.
I love Caden's face in the picture above!
We had an exciting moment when they had techincal problems and the mom's and little kids got stuck in the Winnie the Pooh ride and the Dad's and big kids were stuck in Splash Mountain. Gratefully it wasn't long, and only added to the adventure. :)
Eating lunch in line for Dumbo.
It was a little wild juggling all the little ones needs and trying to get to as many rides as we could, but the kids held up really well! The snacks and food held out, and everyone had a fun day!
Claire loved "It's a Small World," and the big kids loved finding all the Disney characters as we went through the ride.
One of the highlights of the day was seeing the
Broadway version of "Alladin" in California Adventure.
We had never been to that park before and it was fun to check out!
Here's a funny story about Claire during the show from Rachel's blog:
"We went to a fun Aladdin show in the late afternoon. Claire had had about a 30 minute nap. She got antsy in the show and she started her lovely scream halfway through. Well at this point the Genie was on stage with Aladdin. Claire let out a scream and the Genie said, "See Aladdin, you're making that baby cry!" WE WERE ON THE BALCONY ON THE THIRD TO LAST ROW! It was pretty funny. She got the Genie's attention, so that got my attention and was my cue to remove her:) We hung out in the back and she kept crawling to the stairs and wanting to climb down them. Another note to self: Don't take Clairey to the movies or any other sit down show:)"
Rachel's cousin, BreAnne her husband Trevor and their son Nathan met up with us for parts of the day. It was fun to meet them! They live closer to Disney than we do, and have season passes like us. The perks of California living.
What a super, fun day!
What a fun day! We got to see the amazing
"World of Color"
show in the evening.
We hadn't been before, so we didn't stand where we could see very well,
but is was still amazing.
We're big Disney fans!
Thanks for the unforgetable day, Anderson's!
