California vacation, Day 1: California Adventure Park

Last November Evan and I got bumped on Thanksgiving Day on the way to his soccer tournament and Delta airlines gave us each $600 vouchers to fly later.  Since we hadn't used them yet we decided that we could use them to fly to California as a family and Dave and McKinley could go to Disneyland.  The boys and I would enjoy the beach and hanging out in the warmth.  Well, about 2 months before the trip the boys decided that they would like to see what Disneyland was all about and so we decided we would all go.  And off we went for 4 days...

The first day we spent at California Adventure park.  The park hours were shorter on a Thursday in early February, so we didn't think we would have enough time to do Disneyland that day.  We really enjoyed California Adventure park.  We got really lucky and didn't have to wait in lines really at all that day.  We rode all the rides that we wanted to and enjoyed some food and fun in the park.

After 4 hours we were pretty much done with the rides and headed back to the hotel to rest and grab some dinner out of the park.  Luckily our hotel was walking distance from the park and so it was nice to be able to go relax for a little while before we came back for the night.  We wanted to see the World of Color water show commemorating the 60th anniversary of Disneyland!  It was an amazing show and we enjoyed front row seats for it.  I'm so glad we got to see it!

 The park was closed after the show and so we headed home and enjoyed the evening, resting up for Day 2:  Disneyland!!

Two down...two to go. Adult children!

Somehow it's been 18 years since this amazing kid came into the world.  Ethan is an amazing kid...well, now he's officially an adult.  We had a great time celebrating his birthday with presents and cheesecake and friends and family.  He truly is a blessing in our family.  He is the peacemaker and can always make us laugh.  He's determined and disciplined and still fun and spunky at the same time.  I'm so proud of the person that he is becoming and can't wait to see all that lays in store for him as he begins to take on the world himself.  Happy Birthday Ethan!!

Reach for the Stars!

Ethan and Evan were part of a great fireside at the church last night with a guest speaker, Scott Anderson.  A lot of work went into the fireside beforehand as Don Wilhemson photographed every youth in the ward and added backgrounds to their photos that represent one of their dreams.  Both my boys dream about soccer and love playing it.  I love how the photos turned out.  It was such a great night with a great message...dream the impossible dream!  Reach for the stars.

"Christmas" before and after our trip

Since we were going to be away over Christmas we made plans to exchange gifts with our family's here in Utah before and after our trip.  Before we left we had Nana and Grandad Smith over for dinner and exchanged our gifts with them.  It was a nice quiet night and they are excited for their nice warm heater and the kids got their gift cards and coloring book that they love.  It was a great start to Christmas vacation!

After we got back from our trip we had a Sunday Christmas dinner with Vicky and Jim and the girls and Grandma Libby.  We had our traditional leg of lamb and of course the Christmas poppers!

We exchanged a few gifts and enjoyed an evening of visiting.  It was a nice low key Christmas all around.  We had fun trying to get Jim in a photo with the BYU gear he gifted us, but he was still a stinker and isn't a BYU fan....yet!  We loved all the swag and he'll see it around our house all the time!

Will all the fun we had at Christmas this year we are going to have to rank it up there as one of the best ever.  We are already thinking and planning our next year's Christmas get away.  We may have found our new tradition...if we can afford it.  Memories like those are priceless!

Cabo Christmas - Part VI

Monday was our last day in Cabo and even though we had to check out of our hotel at 11am, we had the entire day to enjoy and we did!  I made sure we got a picture of all of us on the beach and then we enjoyed our last day of fun in the sun!

 We made one last run into town for our last lunch and McKinley wanted to get her hair braided.  We had to walk around the marina a few times to find a lady that could do it, but we finally found Lindy who did a great job for her!

After our late lunch we had to head back to the hotel and get our luggage and make our way home.  It was a long (not really, but seemingly) time getting home, but actually everything went very smoothly and we were home to the cold Utah night that night.  What a great Christmas vacation we had and we are so thankful for all the memories!  We loved our Cabo Christmas 2015!!

Cabo Christmas - Part V

Sunday we were excited to go to church in town and worship with the locals and other vacationers there in Cabo San Lucas.  We rented a car for the day and made our way to the church.  We sat through a Spanish sacrament meeting where we understood very little but felt the love and warmth the ward had for all of the people there.  It was a nice service and a great way to have Sunday be a different day for us.

After church we had the car so we decied we were going to explore a little bit out of Cabo.  I had read and printed an article about some hot springs that were north near Santiago and we decided we would go and check them out.  It was a long drive through some very rural areas of Mexico but we finally arrived at the end of a dirt road to the El Chorro Hot Springs.  Unfortunately the hot springs were not very hot and it was more like a river, but it was beautiful and we explored the area for quite a while.

We did find one tiny hot spring that we were able to soak our feet in for a few minutes.  Not quite what we expected, but that's what you get sometimes when you go for an adventure.  It was a nice drive and we saw more "real" parts of the Cabo San Lucas area.

That night was out last night in Cabo and I wanted to see a sunset.  So Dave and I set out in our car to see if we could find a good place for the sunset.  We soon found out that it was not easy.  People later told us that the sunrises are beautiful in Cabo and the sunsets are just hard to find.  We did have quite the adventure "chasing" the sunset through the bario and snapped a shot over the barbed wire fence in a new neighborhood we found.

Cabo Christmas - Part IV

Saturday was a more chill day for us.  We had the entire morning to sit by the pool, swim in the ocean, and just relax.  The weather was perfect while we were there.  High 70's and sun each day.  This day was a little windy, but that just made sitting by the pool reading my book entirely enjoyable, without getting too hot.  McKinley and Evan lived in the pool and Ethan and Austin read and tanned and relaxed with Dave and I.  

After the morning we all walked into town to find the scuba shop that was going to take Dave and Austin on a 2 tank dive that afternoon.  We enjoyed walking through the shops and businesses and finding the outiftters slightly out of town.  They got all their gear and were ready with plenty of time to spare.  So we headed to the mall and got shakes at Johnny Rockets before splitting up for them to go on their dive and the rest of us to head back for more beach time!

Austin and Dave ended up having a private dive with just the instructor and the two of them.  He took them to a couple different dive sights and they saw some amazing things.  Unfortunately Dave forgot the handle to the GoPro, so there are no pictures except a couple from the guides phone of the spots they dove.  Oh well, some things are just amazing memories!

We all met up for dinner that night at the Marina at Ole Ole (YUM!)  and headed back to the hotel for some evening sun and pool time.