Other So. Cal. Adventures

My cousin, Brian, and his lovely wife Larissa live near Disneyland and have season passes. They met us there for an afternoon of fun.

It was great to see them and to have their perspective on the park--they knew where all the closest bathrooms and water fountains were! We rode Matterhorn Bobsleds, watched a production of Tangled, and other great things that day. 

On our second to last day there, Brian and Larissa took us to Seal Beach which was AWESOME! Sun, sand, and water that you can swim in. 

Note: the two ride wimps are the two crazy wave, water girls! Poor Livy spent a good deal of her beach time like this: 

She had a wave that, "....crashed me to the ground and tossed me under the water for a long time. I wasn't sure if I was going to be swept out to sea." Daddy had warned the girls and I before we left that day of the undertow on California beaches. Many times throughout the day I was asked if we were being "undertowed". But, our So. Cal. beach guides were quick to inform us that we were in a protected bay at Seal Beach and there was not a danger of that. What a great day that was! We all decided that if there were not a trillion, gazillion people living in Southern California, the smog that blanketed our view of the mountains every day, the concrete jungles, the lack of green, did we mention the 1.5 mazillion people?? that would be the place for us.

We were fortunate to meet some friends of Brian and Larissa at the beach and the girls struck up a quick, great friendship!

It was great to meet you, Audrey and Chloe! Hope to see you again sometime! 

Poor daddy had to work hard all day while mom and the girls enjoyed the beach. Hey, somebody's got to support this lifestyle, right? :)

That night Brian and Larissa and the sun-kissed (maybe more than kissed. Note to self: NEVER let a hyper 9 year old apply sunscreen to your back....never, ever....) Gates girls headed back to the hotel to pick up daddy so he could join us for dinner. We headed out to a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives place: Mama Cossa's, in Anaheim. YUM! We all really enjoyed it, even daddy despite his face in this picture. He is the king of photo bombs. 

Larissa and Gina picked out the same sunglasses at an awesome shell shop on the beach. Aren't they lovely?!?! **the sunglasses AND the ladies**

Thanks for a great time, Brian and Larissa!!! Don't forget, we owe you a Juicy Dog or two so you better come up and visit us soon! Or, better yet, come buy it!!!! :) 

We spent the last day of our vacation in the pool. All three girls would be content to swim in a pool all day if we let them. 

All in all, we had a great vacation; much different than our regular Montana summer trip. Hopefully we get back to California someday. 

California Adventure

We spent 2 days at Disneyland and 1 at California Adventure. As fun and amazing and "magical" Disneyland is, California Adventure was thrilling, new and dazzling--especially to us parents! We enjoyed the rides, parade and shows very, very much. Here are a few of the high-lights:

Luggi's Ride from Carsland. Carsland was amazingly true to life to Radiator Springs.

Going up the lift at Grizzly River Run. Livy LOVED the adventure, fast rides. 

Maryn........not so much. 

Jessi!!

3-D Toy Story shooting game. Livy and Dad went to ride California Screamin', the roller coaster, while  Gina, Maryn and Mom stood in line one hour to get to Toy Story. Just as we were about to get on the ride, Livy and Dad came up and started to tell us about the roller coaster. They were so animated and excited that the monitor of the Toy Story ride let them in line with us to ride this ride. Josh is still rubbing that in....:)

Oh! The parade!! It was about 1,000,000 degrees that day and Dad had to go to work at noon so it was just Mom and the girls for the afternoon and evening. We decided to bypass the rides as 2/4 of us were not big fans of anything remotely fast or adventurous. So, we watched a Broadway like production of Aladdin in the most beautiful theater! We laughed a lot at Turtle Talk with Crush and we really enjoyed about an hour of sitting in a huge building and watching the animation process for many of the Disney movies. But, all in all, our favorite time was the parade. All of the floats are water activated meaning, you can get wet and b/c of the heat and sitting on the hot sidewalk, that was awesome. Not to mention the great floats and characters. Loved every minute of it!

After a long, hot, wonderful day, we met up again with Daddy:

and the littlest one and mom headed home to the hotel while daddy and the big girls enjoyed a few more rides and the light parade. Nothing like a cuddling, content little lady to end the day with!

Dazzling Disneyland

These next few posts will contain the ups of our recent visit to Southern California. Disneyland, California Adventure, the beach, the hotels, the sun, ahhh, what a place!

We started our trip out w/ a first plane ride for Maryn and second for the big girls.

The girls really enjoyed Disneyland:

All 3 LOVED meeting the characters (note: the picture with Princess and the Frog--we did not see the movie so that is what we called her--was taken when Maryn was back at the hotel, sawing zzzz's.  Just for clarity sake, we do not discriminate against any girl posing w/ any princess...or duck for that matter. The big girls were shooting Astro Blasters and Maryn and I happened upon Donald while we were exiting the bathroom.)

It truly is a small world after all!

Toon Town was a lot of fun for the girls to explore:

And, all of us really were impressed and awed by the parade. So much so, that we watched it multiple times:

All in all, our 2 days at Disneyland were really, REALLY great. We were blessed by some really unexpected things and despite the heat and mass quantities of people, the girls were troopers.

Favorite rides: Livy: Space Mountain, Gina: Matterhorn Bobsleds, Maryn: Small World, Dad: Star Wars, Mom: Splash Mountain

Rides of Terror (a.k.a. worst rides): Livy: Indiana Jones (although she's now saying she liked it, yah--I don't think so), Gina: Space Mountain, Maryn: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dad: Small World, Mom: Tiki Room

Starting, again.....

Hello there all 3 of you who will probably read this!

We attempted to begin a blog called holyroller awhile back when Josh started the company. My role in the company was that of blogger, secretary, support, folder, etc. At the same time we began that journey our house was under construction:

we began homeschooling:

we had a new baby:

and I pretty much hit an all time low as far as balancing it all.

SO, something had to go and that, among other things including my sanity, was the blog.

Now, fast forward 3+ years, and:

....our house is pretty much constructed:

our homeschooling is paying off:

our "baby" is turning 4 in a few weeks:

and, I'm in a much better place as far as trying to manage it all:

God is so faithful to our family and we look forward to sharing some of our lives with you, dear 3 readers, of this blog. :)

Let the blogging begin!