Vacation Recovery-- Part Two

As mentioned, we stayed at Disneyland really late.  We rode every ride on our list (some twice), and did everything we wanted to do, and even though everyone was complaining about tired feet and ankles, we all left happy. The boys were asleep in the car before we even hit the freeway.

Luckily, we didn't have any time constraints for Wednesday, so we all slept in late.  When we were finally ready to take in another day, we headed just across the way from our hotel to a great little place called Stacks Pancake House.  The prices were great and the food was delicious, so we actually ended up going to Stacks again on Friday before heading home.  Yum!

After breakfast, we went to Salt Creek Beach and spent a lovely afternoon playing in the surf and sand. 

The beach made us feel like we needed to eat fish and chips, so we found a great little place at Dana Point Harbor that served them hot and fresh.  Delicious!

While Chris and the boys swam at the hotel pool, Neil and I napped, then we all relaxed and the boys played with their souvenirs.  For dinner, we drove down to San Clemente to a tasty New York style pizza place.  It was a really nice, relaxing day.

On Thursday, we headed South to Carlsbad and LegoLand!  None of us had been to LegoLand before, so this was a completely new adventure.  LegoLand is absolutely perfect for kids 3-11-- younger and they are too small to ride the rides, and older and they probably want something a little bigger.  Luckily, those are the exact ages of my kids, so they had a blast. 

Of course, we were all completely impressed by the Lego everything-- especially the mini Star Wars displays and the MiniLand, USA.  I was surprised that the boys wanted to spend more time checking out all of the Lego buildings than actually riding the rides. 

On Friday, we just had time to eat at Stacks, then head back to LA to catch our flight.  Even though it was a quick vacation, we had an incredible time and made some great family memories!

Vacation Recovery-- Part One

I love vacations!  We've been back from lovely Southern California for nearly a week and I am still missing feeling that California sun on my shoulders, spending quality and quantity time with the boys and Chris, and ignoring my diet.  Ah.  Well, real life is good, too, it's just not a vacation.

We really did have so much fun.  We decided to fly directly from Idaho Falls to LAX on Allegiant for an insanely good deal, which was really exciting for the boys.  Both Thomas and Gordon have flown before, but neither remember it, and Neil had never been on an airplane, so the flight was one of the highlights of the trip.  We did learn on the way there that Thomas, like Chris, gets airsick, and on the way back, we learned that kid's Dramamine is the cure.

We spent our first day flying, getting a car, checking into our hotel in Dana Point, then exploring the local tide pools.  We love the ocean.

Our next day, Tuesday, was spent at the Happiest Place on Earth (TM)-- Disneyland.  We arrived early and stayed late, and had a truly wonderful time.  I've been to Disneyland a few times and I have to say, April is one of the best months to go.  It is after the standard Spring Breaks, so the crowds were really manageable, and the weather was absolutely perfect.  80's and breezy.  You can't beat that.

The food was okay.  I mention this because I had been dreaming of this fabulous blog post I was going to do about the supposed "World's Best Corndogs", available at a little red wagon on Disney's Main Street.  I'm not a corn dog connoisseur or anything, but they were the food I craved when I was pregnant with Neil (Tom=chocolate milk, Gordon=Big and Tasty hamburgers from McDonald's--ew, I know), so I've had a few.  I was REALLY looking forward to trying this particular corn dog and sadly, I was disappointed.  Luckily, the food situation was remedied on Wednesday in Dana Point, but I'll get to that after the pictures.

I think this picture of Gordon trying to pull the sword from the stone is so hilarious. I love the veins in his neck-- he is really trying!

We took this picture with Mickey after getting wet on Splash Mountain, so excuse the hair/clothes/general ugliness.  But at least we're with Mickey!

Coming tomorrow-- our day at the beach, LegoLand, and a wrap up.

In preparation for this week...

We've been watching this YouTube video over and over. 



California, here we come!

Could this be a weekly thing?

Blogging weekly?  I'm not committing to anything at this point, but at least we're headed in the right direction!

It's been a pretty good week for the Hansens.  We had a nice Easter Saturday where the boys got lots of candy I managed to survive another Primary-sponsored neighborhood egg hunt.  Thank goodness for Wal-Mart and their bulk bags of pre-stuffed eggs! 

On Sunday, we enjoyed a beautiful Easter Sunday with my family.  I was grateful to be able to share some lessons from the life of Christ in Primary and to bear my testimony of the gifts of His life and resurrection. 

Here we are on Easter Sunday...

I feel like I look kind of chubby in this picture, but I'm working on fixing that little problem... I joined a "Biggest Loser" club.  And now it's out there.  I wasn't going to say anything, but I have to celebrate that this week (the club started on Monday) is the first time in my history where I've actually stuck to an eating plan for more than one day!  YAY!  I still have 7 weeks (and a few days) to go, and truthfully, I'm not counting on winning the thing, but I feel really good about my progress so far.  Yay again!

This week has been pretty low key, but next week is going to be super fun-- we're going on vacation!!  We're going to California and I am bringing my camera, so look for a picture-filled post next week.  :)

Update

I haven't blogged in so long that Blogger has changed its format and I almost don't know how to do it anymore!  But don't worry, I said almost.

Here's a quick little rundown of the happenings at the Hansen home, in no particular order:


*  Gordon finished up a stellar basketball season.  Even though he never actually scored a goal in a game, he had a blast and keeps talking about playing again next season.  He did come really close to winning the free-throw competition after the last game, so he definitely ended the season on a high.

*  Tom finished another swimming lessons session.  He is getting pretty good at his strokes and has even made up a couple of new ones.  He really, really loves jumping off of the high dive and spent nearly two hours during a Saturday public swim doing just that.  On that particular day, I learned that an hour wrangling a super wiggly 3-year-old in the shallow section is about all I can handle.

*  Neil spends all day talking, talking, talking and I think it's pretty funny.  He still can't say his "R" or "L" sound, so it's cute when he says things like Hewwo (Hello) and yitto (little).  A week or so ago, I took Neil to the store with me and he picked out a C3-P0 Pez as a treat and has been carrying the dispenser around ever since.  This, of course, led to watching the Star Wars series and a renewed interest in the random Star Wars toys we have collected.  Today, Neil was imitating C3-P0 and said "HeLLo" just perfectly, with the L sound and all.  I said, "hey, you can say your L's!  Can you say NeiL?"  Neil said, "My name's not NeiL, it's Neow."  Right.

* Chris returned last week from a 4-week-long business trip to Dallas, during which we all just about lost our minds.

*  Luckily, during said business trip, I was able to leave the boys with my wonderful and patient in-laws and fly out to Texas for a long weekend.  Chris and I hung out with his cousin, Jake, his wife Maren, and their darling kids, in the Dallas area, then drove down to San Antonio to visit Andy and Amanda and our sweet little nephews and niece.  We ate A LOT, went to the movies for the first time since Avatar (sad!), and had really perfect weather.  It was the perfect little respite from the aforementioned mind-losing.

Here we are at San Antonio's famous River Walk...

*  After returning from the lone star state (Chris still had a week to go), I took the boys to the Air Force Museum at Hill AFB on the way home.  The boys sure love those huge planes.  In fact, Gordon has decided that in addition to the myriad other things he plans to be when he grows up (President, a doctor, a teacher, a fireman, an inventor, a rock star, etc, etc, etc), he is adding "pilot" to the list.

I think that's about it for now.  Happy Friday, and Happy Easter!