Disneyland....Ahh The Memories!

Well, It appears that I took about 786 photos on my trip to California with the kids & Shumway family. We even got the added bonus of meeting up with the Jenkins Family at Disneyland on our last park day, and seeing the Anderson Family on our last day in CA. What a great trip! It was so great to see everyone. The kids were adoreable in both families and it was so fun to catch up. Please come visit us when you are out East!

So, as you can tell, there is no way I can post all of the 574 that I kept and have them make sense.

I guess it will collages that tell the stories. (Click on them to see them larger). We rode EVERY ride that could be done by kids and visited both parks (Disney Land & California Adventure Land). I loved them both! Favorite rides were different depending on which person you asked, but I think the over all favorites were definitely All of the Toy Story Rides. Buzz, Woody, they all rocked! I think everyone loved the Soaring Over California Ride and the oldie but goodies were loved once again (Star tours, Michale Jackson's Ride, Thunder Mountain Railroad (Where we learned Jake does not like fast rides)



and the list goes on and on! We had such a fun time! I am making a family book about our vacation on Blurp because I just cant get it all into a blog entry. There was so much more to tell about, but a month has a way of helping you edit your content!

Well, suffice it to say: the kids had a great time and now Jake is planning a trip to Disney World with the Hutchins Family (I think to get a second trip back). After 3 days in the park and so much fun...we were worn out. I was sorry to go, but did not want to stay another day in Disney Land (mostly my feet had objections), so with 3 days left till departure we did what anyone would do.... We headed to the beach, saw friends, and just hung out. It was truly a great trip & a nice excuse to see family & Friends. We miss them all terribly and wish we were closer but we are grateful for the time we did have.

We had to pry these mickey ears from Jacobs head when we got home, but we let him do the plane ride with them. I think that is how he got invited to do this:

Pacific Ocean Fun In The Sun

Although our trip to CA was more about Disney Land, I just could not be on a coast and not visit a beach! I loved riding the rides, loved the magic of the parks, but just adored laying on a beach and letting my toes just dig into the sand! I must live on a beach sometime in my lifetime!

Anyway, we got to visit the ocean a few times during our trip, (so some pics below are our first day in town at Will Rogers State Beach) but our "beach day" was the Thursday before we left. We hit Laguna Beach, long known for its beauty, and had a ball. Meeting Kevin and Steph and the kids there was just icing on the cake!

We had a wonderful time & hated to have to go!

Finally In The Big CA (June 2010)

This trip was taken in June but I am only now getting to it. I was beginning to wonder if we ever really did it! I miss the beautiful beach, the beautiful weather and the stress free fun! Here is what happened in real time (only recorded a month or so later!)

We are headed to CA!!!!!!! I am so excited. We woke up early this morning (June 5th) and headed out on our standard 8am flight. Not much to report there.... A few breakfast burritos, sodas and seats later, we were on our way. We had a 3 hour layover in Baltimore so Ricky and Jakie just played and wandered the airport until it was time to go. Here is Jakie thanking Rick for getting to go to Disneyland! I got a few pics of Rick and Jake playing, but we were tired and I did not shoot much else. We got into LAX at about 2pm. Jacob was so excited to see Mom, Cam and Kate (of course!). We did hugs, hello's and then headed off for the rental car and back to the hotel. Pretty standard. Dinner and Target were the most we made of that evening. The next day Sunday (June 6th) was our first day out to see the city and we made the most of it. Church was un-doable due to times, and location, so we headed out sight seeing later that morning. We drove out to check out a few fun things like: The Beaches! I just wanted to drive around and see/smell the Star Jasmine, birds of paradise, oleander etc. Southern California smells so great to me. I loved in San Diego before moving to UT and I loved smelling the air each morning as I headed to the beach for a morning walk or surf. Anyway, we drove around and though it was cloudy, it was still beautiful. We went in search of Will Rogers State Beach (travel channel said it was beautiful) and after a long search, we found it just North of the Santa Monica Pier. We all got out and went for a stroll (not a full day since Thursday was to be our beach day). We played in the sand, watched the sailboats in the distance, relaxed and then headed home. Well, not exactly home. Mom had done some research on a huge Mexican market in downtown LA so we haded over. We only wandered through for a few minutes, but it was fun to see all that it offered. By then, we were tired! We headed home to rest, and did dinner and the pool later that evening. I wish every day were like that! Someday......maybe it can be:)

The Jersey Shore

When we got to New Jersey to see the Harkers in May, I just could not resist seeing the famous New Jersey Shore. We drove about 2 hours, 3 toll roads and finally got to a fun beach. We circled for about 20 minutes to find a parking spot, got all loaded up and then arrived at a pay booth that charged for entrance onto the beach! WHAT THE ??? I could not believe that they charged 8$ per person to enter the beach. I almost flipped! We paid the $$ in the end but I was thinking to myself, well, they just charged for the last free thing in freaking America! We will not be moving to Jersey anytime soon (unless we get a great job, of course). Oh well. Once there, we had a great time and loved to play in the water! Anyone that knows me knows I LOVE the shore. I love the west coast, but I am just happy near any ocean line. One day I hope to live there forever, or at least visit yearly! Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean everyone!

Jersey, NYC, Harkers....Just Fun!

After Lancaster County, PA we continued North to New Jersey where we met with our friends Kuuleh & Nick and their adorable little girl Allette. We descended upon them for 3 nights over Memorial Day weekend and though it was cramped and we took all of their space up, it was a blast being with them. They were so gracious allowing us to crash on the couch in their 1 bedroom apt so that we could all enjoy the time together and save some cash. I bet they were thrilled when we took our little maniacs home!
Well, while there we got to do so much! We visited Manhattan for a day, rode the subway (stinky & hot!), ate out most nights except for when Kuuleh cooked for us and we loved it! We went to the Jersey Shore one day (my idea, and I may have been the only one that wanted to go!) oh gosh, and so much more!
I love Nick & Kuuleh! They are so laid back, so easy going total troopers! They did the subway and Manhattan for the day with a 6 week old baby! Gotta love em! We miss you guys! We have to do it again some time! Open invite for you to visit us here in Pittsburgh. Bring that beautiful baby anytime!
My favorite parts of New York are the sights, sounds, the angles, the fun, the things to do. I got a few pics of my favorite sites. Check them out below.

Lancaster County, PA.

We went to check out Lancaster County over Memorial Day Weekend on the way to New Jersey (to visit friends). Rick loves going to Amish towns and wanted to see what Lancaster offered. We found that like many other Amish towns it was farmland, animals, black buggies, hand made goods, good people, and our favorite: Good & Plenty. Everything was similar to other Amish towns in PA, but just on a much larger scale. Ever been to Lancaster? Ever been to Good & Plenty? If not, Good & Plenty is an Amish, family style restaurant where you are served with all other guests (kinda like one big family table). We went and paid (super pricey) and enjoyed a home made meal of bread, fried chicken, baked Talapia, fresh corn, apple butter, mashed potatoes, green beans, butter and desert (ice creams & pies). All of it was made from scratch by Amish recipes and I was amazed! What a difference in taste! What a difference in texture! I don't know that I could ever wear the clothes & adhere to the life style, but I sure could get used to the amazing food! We had a great time & although we paid for Jacob & he ate NOTHING, we were glad that we stopped to enjoy the fun.

Well he did it. Jacob finished his final year of Pre-School. It is off to Kindergarten now. I cant believe he is old enough! Prince of Peace was such a wonderful experience for both he and I. I loved the teachers (as did Jacob) and their patience, love and affection for Jacob was so appreciated by mom. Jacobs last day was Friday May 14th at Pleasant Kingdom Park where the whole school did a final party. Jacob got a certificate of achievement (seen above) and got to say goodbye to everyone for the last time. He was so sadly to say goodbye to Mrs. Patterson (left of Jacob), Mrs. Jantz (just right of Jacob) and his 1st year Pre-school teacher/program director Mrs. George (far right). They were fantastic teachers and I am so glad that we put him in the program! I have a wonderful DVD of his last program but no pictures as I had Ricky in my lap and he is squiggly. I will get some of those of Jacob dressed as a clown from his school teacher and post them soon too.

Jacob loved playing around with the kids from the class on his last day and I loved seeing him have so much fun! Off to Kindergarten!!!