Day 6 Vacation

Sunday, we took a break from Disneyland and headed to the Los Angeles Temple Visitor Center.

It was a beautiful day and we loved spending the day with my parents.

 Lily climbed into this cupboard by herself.  Silly girl!

 I love this statue!

 I love these 4 kids!

 I love these parents!

 This is such a tall temple and it sits on a hill.  When it was built and sometimes still today on a clear day you can see the temple 25 miles from offshore (out in the ocean).

 It was closed, not only because it was Sunday but because they were doing an extensive cleaning.

 Above is a picture of a palm tree (duh?), but check out that height.

Below, Joey holding a palm frond/tree bark piece-huge!

 A random flower by where our car was parked.

 We visited the La Brea Tar Pits.  

Active tar pits in downtown LA.  

They have excavated thousands of animals, remains, etc from post ice age times. It was really cool.  I recommend it if you are in the area.

A wall of wolf skulls- only about 1/2 of the skulls they have found.

 That is a tar pit fenced off.  They have tried to help visitors understand how animals were trapped in pits with these models of prehistoric elephants.  The poor baby elephant is reaching towards its parent.

 Kids Meal prizes at Carl's Jr. Arabella makes a great pirate!

The 3 older kids sharing a shake.  They did not complain, just happily shared the goodness!

 Lily stole my dad's I believe and began to drink and then blow bubbles.

 Obviously making her very happy!

After Carl's Jr, my parents headed to the airport and we headed to see the Newport Beach Temple.

It has a very distinct look but is so pretty!

A really relaxing day!

Vacation Day 4

This day started out great until we realized we forgot to charge our camera battery.  

Gratefully, Grandma Rabner took a lot of pictures.

My parents arrived that morning and got to the hotel just as we were walking to the park so we all went over together.  It was a great day- although it was likely our hottest day in California. 

 Peter took Arabella to meet the princesses and it was magical!

Cinderella is her favorite, so meeting her was just about the best thing ever.

 

 Sleeping Beauty again.

 Snow White again.

 "I am Merida!"- If you are wondering we had pillow cases with an embroidery hoop on it to keep it tight for the characters to sign.

 Then you got to practice shooting an arrow after talking to Merida.

 This line was long and hot and we were very near the beginning. But you have to meet Rapunzel.

 A: "Did you know that I am growing my hair out to be long like yours?"

R: My hair when I let it down is 70 feet long.

Mom in her mind: Thank heavens that will never happen.

 Jon was a bit shy about it but he enjoyed meeting the characters too.  

I have to say that Flynn's wig is one of the worst I have seen in Disneyland.

So cute!

 The only picture of I have of my parents (actually only my dad) from this day; oh batteries.

 Lily was so happy to have a chance to move around on the Pirate's Island.

 Jon had on his pirate shirt this day so he was in heaven.

 Leaves, dirt, crawling, some walking, putting things in her mouth she should not= one very happy Lily!

 A reasonable family picture.

 Brothers.

 Getting Joey to hold still long enough for a picture is a trick but we caught a few.

 Ben and Jon

 Joey and Jared pumping away and working together.

 "Look, I can pick the skull's nose."

 Jon can not walk past Lily without picking her up, touching her, getting her face and saying something to her,  or pulling on one of her arms or legs.  I know he just loves her but sometimes she does not want the love.

 Just try and take our pirate treasure.

 Joey's pirate face.

 I really wish I could load the 30 or so pictures I have of us trying to get a family pic- quite entertaining.

Jon put your feet down.

 No, don't put your foot in your mouth.  Oh and  lets wait until the stranger is out of the picture.

 That may be as good as it gets.

 We left he park that night and had dinner at Bubba Gumps.  They had a character so we had to take a picture.  Not to mention that shrimp is Jon's favorite food.

Arabella usually does what Jon does so here is hers.

It was a great day.  We were so glad we had family to share it with!

Oh and Peter and I celebrated our anniversary this day by going to eat at the Blue Bayou.  That is the restaurant you see as you are on the Pirate's of the Caribbean.  It was the best food and we were so thankful to have parents there to watch the kids so we could go.  A truly memorable way to celebrate!

Flashback Friday

My cute sister Jana has returned to the blogging world and I am so thankful.  I love to see how her kids are growing.  One thing she has been doing is a flashback Friday.  

I decided I would still her idea.  Arabella and Lily's lives are fairly well documented.  Joey and Jon's not so much. I will be trying to post something from our pre-blog years each Friday so that it too can be documented.

 Joey- first powdered donut.

 Sunny delight in the park by Wright Engineers.  Peter eventually was hired here.  This is when we had gone down to interview.

 Helping with Thanksgiving mashed postatoes.

 First haircut.

"Look mom, I am so cool-sitting on the chair backwards."