Fun at the Beach and Knott's Berry Farm 2015!

What an amazing, fun time we had in California!  We took my family and some of our best friends came along with us in our 15 passenger van.  We stayed in the Knott's Berry Farm hotel with connecting rooms for four days. 

The first day we go there we wanted to check out the Santa Monica Beach.  That is definitely a fun beach if you are okay with the crowds.  It wasn't too bad being it was such a popular beach.  Maybe the summer would be worse?  On the pier there are so many options of fun.  You pick from tons of restaurants, my husband's fave was Bubba Gump Shrimp.  There are rides.  Being that the next day we were gonna hit up Knott's Berry Farm, we decided to just go on the ferris wheel and check out the sun setting on the ocean.  Was gorgeous!!!  That is definitely a very FUN beach!

Kyle and Ryan

 

Kyle (11)

 

Chaz (14)



Caleb (5)

We had saved up and prepaid for almost all our vacation before we got there.  The hotel and the tickets to Knott's Berry Farm included.  Another option we had when purchasing tickets was add meal bands and souvenir cups.  I was a tad worried buying the meal bands in advance.  What if it wasn't worth it?  Meal bands are $34 each and give you access to 6 restaurants in the amusement park.  Each ones has meals you can pick from AND you can eat every hour and a half!  One meal at Knott's Berry Farm can be anywhere from $10-15 so that band is definitely worth it.  In fact, we only got it for the kids that were gonna run around the park riding rides without us.  The ones that were with us, we only got the band for every other kid. The meals were so big it was easy to share.  Best money spent for food ever. The cups were worth it as well as you get free refills allllll day for that one day.  We refilled a lot and they even make it to where you can hang the cups from a stroller.  I didn't need to even use the cup holders.  Being I was 35 weeks pregnant with baby Jaxon, I could ride any of the rides.  The older kids ran everywhere while Charles and I stayed in the Snoopy area with the younger ones.  I had no idea they would make it so fun and have so many options of neat things to ride.  Even our 2 year old Juliet was able to do a lot!  Yep, my suspicions are confirmed.  My wild 2 year old isn't afraid of anything and would ride anything that was allowed for her.  She laughed her head off on every ride. We waited till we could get discounts so it was $305 for my family of 9 for the day.  Way cheaper than our last visit to Disneyland and faster, shorter lines. 

 



 



Our third day we went to Seal Beach.  It was so neat seeing the military ships way off in the distance.  That's partly why I wanted to go.  I think every time we go to a beach, we like to try a different one.  This was new!  The kids were able to see seals, starfish, and other fun sea stuff.  The day was warm and this time we weren't freezing with sweaters!  I was so worried we'd get a foggy or rainy day.  It's hard to plan in advance because you never know how the weather is gonna be.  It was great!  It was an amazing day and we didn't plan anything else as we just wanted it to be all about our time together at the beach.  Sigh.  It was great!!!

Ivy (9)

Ryan (13) holding dead stingray





See full album HERE!!!

Bringing Our Large Family to Las Vegas

True to our former ways, Charles and I took our family off on an adventure.  We are known for not really planning.  Just deciding one day to up and take off for another fun trip.  5 years ago we were eating breakfast and decided to take our kids to Disneyland.  We picked up the kids from school and took off for 7 days.  The kids still talk about that trip!  Ashley was a baby and I had just found out I was pregnant with our sixth child.  It was an amazing trip.

Sometimes planning is good but sometimes it takes the fun out of it for me.  We knew we might do something but we literally didn't know what we were gonna do for sure until the day of our trip.  All we knew was we wanted a Christmas get away!  I'm not usually the traditional type where I have to keep up with different traditions for the holidays.  If it gets to where it's the same year after year, we have to shake it up a bit.

 We decided to take our kids to Knott's Berry Farm in California for Christmas and then to the beach.  The night before our trip my husband said he's always wanted to take the kids to see the Vegas lights in Nevada.  I'm like, "Okay, we'll pop in there for a couple of days and then head off to California."  We made sure not to arrive into Las Vegas till night because we wanted the kids to see all the lights from very far away.  Well, that's not hard when driving far and with a large family.  We had to make tons of potty stops.

  The kids loved all the lights in Vegas!  They oohed and awed.  It was getting late so we headed quickly to our hotel.  Because we knew Las Vegas could be iffy for families, actually for Christians in general, we tried to figure out a casino hotel to stay in that was safe.  You know, simple things like not wanting strippers on a pole while trying to check in our hotel.  Someone suggested we try Circus Circus because it's so family friendly.  TRUE it is very family friendly.  We weren't very pleased with our room and it was pretty outdated.  The service was very slow and the lobby for horrendously crowded with families.  Normally that is a good thing but it really did feel like a circus. LOL.  

Regardless of our hotel we had soooo much fun looking at everything that the kids voted to make the entire trip about Vegas and not leave so soon.  Fine with us! Less driving and more sightseeing! Even though we got checked into our hotel late we HAD to walk around the casino and look for a yummy buffet.  They had a decent one except for how expensive it was.  Basically $16 per person. Normally not a big deal with one other person but there were nine of us. Well, I had to show the kids how awesome Las Vegas buffets are!  It was huge and the kids were having to go into different rooms to find all the different types of food. It was goooood.

As much as I wanted to live it up, we passed out early because of all the traveling.  Oh well, the next day we would live it up!

Taking a Trip Out of Town

Last weekend I took 3 of the kids out of town with me so we could visit some friends.  It's a much smaller town but more trees so we were excited to go.  Melanee has a gorgeous house and I got lost a few times just trying to find my way around.  LOL.  Melanee's son has Aspergers Syndrome just like my oldest son so we like to find ways to get them together and visit.  Dexter and Chaz are best friends and missing living close to each other.

I love kids just being kids, playing in the dirt, catching frogs.  Whatever.  :D  I love, love this picture of Melanee's daughter holding the frog.

My favorite thing was to sip coffee in the morning in front of these windows.  She lives on a hill so you can see for a long way.

This picture doesn't do justice for how long that rope really is and how far you swing out.  Ryan got me to climb the hill up to the tree swing to show me.  When you swing out, the hill goes down so you'd better not fall off.

Then we started crafts and Melanee showed the girls how to make silly putty but with glitter.  It was neat and sooo easy!  

Above: Ivy's friend Cassidy holding silly putty

We visited a nearby park before I had to come back and Ryan swung the girls on the tire swing.  We didn't get to be there long but it was awesome that we had that time together.  It was fun seeing how such a small town operates because there is pretty much one of everything.  It's actually a huge desire for me to live in a smaller town but close enough to the city to easily drive there.  We're definitely gonna visit in the summer for their family events.  

Finding a Friend and Then Saying Goodbye

Cassidy and Ivy

It is really difficult for Chaz to find a good friend that he can really relate to. Also, his friend has a little sister who is Ivy's good friend.  Not only that, but their mom and I have a lot in common.  Well, today they are moving out of town. Sniff.... they will only be an hour and a half away but it's still not so easy to just stop by.  Chaz is just devastated. It's really not easy for kids with Aspergers Syndrome to make friends.  His friend also has Aspergers Syndrome and so they just really got along well.  Yesterday I went over her house to help her sort and pack.  I helped pack her son's room and daughter's room.  I really do love to sort, sift out, and organize.  It's soooo much easier doing it with other people's stuff than your own.  I've moved 9 times before we bought this house so sorting and packing is my thing. I really like it.  Of course not all by myself.  It's stressful doing it alone and that's why I wanted to come over and help.  I'm gonna miss them though.

After I left from Melanee's house I picked up my kids and the extra kids at my house and we headed to the Christmas play at our church.  It was more geared towards adults but was really interesting.  It was hard not to fall asleep though from packing all day.  Part of me felt like I just want to be home in bed but then I also want to be faithful to church.  I'm glad I did, waved a tired goodbye to my mom and remembered that I still needed to pick up two of my kids in the next city over. I let Chaz and Ivy play longer at at their friend's house to say goodbye.  It was harder for me to have to go and pick them up after the play but they needed that extra time.  Chaz cried when he left Dexter's house.  He said, "Mom, you have no idea what it's like to lose a friend forever."  :(  I know exactly how it feels.  Whether it's from betrayal, a friend moving, or passing away, we've all felt that loss.  I was so tired but it wasn't the time to be impatient.  His heart was just sad and needed someone to understand.

It's so cute when I'm washing dishes and I turn around to see that Ashley and Caleb cuddled up on the dining room floor and fell asleep together. You KNOW later in life, as teens, they would never do something so cute like that.  Ashley had set up a stuff animal and blanket to lay on and then Caleb came and joined her.  She even sacrificed her binky for Caleb so he'd be happy.  She's finally starting to say she doesn't need it.  Thank goodness.  It's very difficult to break an older one from the binky habit when there is a baby underneath that still loves them.  I used to make a big deal about age and binky use but now...who cares?  I've stopped rushing everything and following everything by the book.  Same with potty training.  Pressure from other moms doesn't intimidate me one bit.  When they are ready, then they're ready and you'll know it.

There is no way to be a perfect parent, but a million ways to be a really good one.

Celebrating 13 Years Married and Adventures!

That doesn't feel like a long time to some but in this world, it actually is!  Thank GOD I married my best friend.  Makes the ups and downs a bit easier to handle.  :D

We had so many fun adventures in our first year of marriage.  I can't  believe how much we did before we had kids.  I got pregnant our 11th month of marriage.  Just 3 months before I became pregnant with our first, we made a trip to the Grand Canyon and hiked down it 6 hours.  Our feet were completely blistered by the time we reached the bottom and made camp. We got to swim next to the Havasupai Falls and race down the river.  It was gorgeous.  No, I don't wear bikini's anymore. Since that picture is sooooo tiny of me, I'm not embarrassed to post it. :)

Eating at the Indian village waiting
for helicopter

The next day there was a warning of a flash flood coming from the ranger.  Even though the skies were clear like you see in the picture, there was definitely one coming and we weren't taking chances.  We threw back on our 80lb packs and raced uphill 2 miles to a nearby indian village.  Even while we were quickly racing to get to safety, muddy water was rushing closer and closer next to our feet.  Once we reached the village we were safe for a bit and away from water but we had to get out of there.

Once we reached the village we took a helicopter out to safety.  The year before people had died from a flash flood so we weren't taking any chances.  Two years after this picture was taken, this helicopter crashed and killed everyone inside.  Crazy, huh?


From there we headed to Vegas. For us, it wasn't to gamble.  We just basically went site seeing and visiting the yummy buffets. My husband forgot to inform me about this part of the trip so I did not pack anything fancy at all.  So here were were walking around in hiking clothes and boots. For some reason I have no pictures of us here.  A funny memory was getting locked out of our hotel in our pajamas.  We were with family and didn't know where they were so we just had to sit by our room on the floor till they came hours later with the key.  People in evening gowns kept passing us from the elevator looking at us strangely.  

Then we headed to Utah and got to experience being at a cowboy camp.  It was such a neat place where you stay in cabins and do lots of fun activities. We went shooting, zip lining, cliff repelling, rock climbing, riding ATV's, horseback riding, sitting around a campfire at night.  It was awesome!

3 months later I found out I was pregnant with our first.  We weren't trying, but hey, it got the ball rolling and I've had 6 other fantastic, life changing surprises after that.  Ever since then we have experienced so many adventures since having kids and I wouldn't trade any of it for anything in this world.  Having a family is so awesome.