California Trip Part VI: Last Day at Disney, Travel and Family!

It was another early morning on January 2nd. Rob loaded up the van and roof top carrier and I supervised the packing and clean up. We had breakfast early and drove over to the park. We didn't know where the access to the parking garage was so we spent a little while driving around, but we still got to the park within 15 or 20 minutes of opening. We decided to go back to Disneyland that day since there were a few rides we still wanted to go on, but hadn't yet been able to. One of these was Space Mountain which we went on right away, and I even got to go on twice. We also went on the Indiana Jones ride, which was a quite impressive. We took in a couple of the other favorite rides again (Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, and Big Thunder Mountain) and Alyssa and I went on Pirates of the Caribean, which a lot of people love, but which I found elaborate, but boring. One highlight was that Preston was able to go to Jedi training again, and this time was chosen to become a padowan. He had to fight Darth Maul. We met up with Kennedy mid morning. She left her and Mark's luggage with the front desk at the hotel and came over when they were ready.

By about noon, I was done. The crowds were getting thick and I was exhausted and my patience wearing thin. I would have been happy to leave at that point and head to Las Vegas to see Joe. But, we stayed another 2 or 3 hours in the park. Rob and I took the boys again while Alyssa and Kennedy went out together. We went over to Toon Town and waited in line for a good hour to see Mickey Mouse in his house. (You know it's a guy in a suit, right?). Then we went around looking for souvenirs. Austin got a shirt that is just perfect for him and Preston bought light up Mickey Mouse ears.

About mid afternoon we left the park via the Monorail and went to Downtown Disney for lunch, to see the lego store and to look for souvenirs. We ended up eating at the ESPN Zone which I think Rob particularly appreciated. The boys liked the lego store which not only had a wide array of lego for sale, it also had huge statues made from lego, and a couple of interactive building centres. 

This part of the day dragged for me and I was happy to get on the road to leave....although we left around 5, just in time to be in rush hour traffic for almost 2 hours before being able to travel at high way speeds.

This chair in Mickey Mouse's house is not very comfortable. I think it is made of concrete.

"Do I have to get my picture taken with Mickey Mouse's phone?"

These are all the strollers lined up outside "It's a Small World"

The castle

Drumroll Please! The picture we've all been waiting for!

Mark's favorite part of Disneyland--his music toy.

Goofy in Toon Town.

This hulk at the Lego Store in Downtown Disney is made of lego.

Beauty and the Beast made of lego

One of the interactive stations at the Lego store was to create a race car and race it down the track. Preston said his car won the race he entered!

We arrived at Joe's house in Las Vegas at about 9:30 pm. Joe and Haylee were wonderful hosts. They gave us 3 bedrooms with huge, comfortable beds. They also cooked up a very extensive breakfast for us in the morning. Even though we were only there about 12 hours, including sleep time, I was happy to see the kids frolicking on the floor together, and I found a little time to visit with both Joe and Haylee. I was glad to see their new house, which we had never been to before. They have been installing new hardwood floors and they look great! In the morning we even FaceTimed with John over in Abu Dhabi and had a great time with him while eating breakfast. Thank you, Joe and Haylee for your hospitality! My one big regret is that I didn't get any pictures of being at their house or of our time in Provo (coming up). I think I was just too engrossed in the joy of being with my family and didn't even think of bringing out my camera.

We drove to Provo on Thursday, January 3rd and had time to go to the BYU bookstore before meeting up with Liz and Christian and their family for dinner at Sizzler. You should have seen our poor waitress trying to figure out what food went to whom with l1 kids and 5 adults on three separate bills all seated intermixed! The kids were having a great time together. It ws awesome. We left Sizzler a little after 6 so that we would have time to check Mark and Kennedy into the hotel and get to the BYU basketball game which started at 7.

Unfortunately, that's where we had a problem. Turning from University Ave onto 300 South, we had a minor car accident. It was our fault, but that traffic light worked differently than any we had seen. After our main northbound light turned red, our turn lane still had a flashing yellow arrow and the southbound traffic was full on green. We didn't realize their light was green and thought we needed to quickly move out of the intersection (where we had been waiting to turn) before the East/West traffic started coming. Anyway, we damaged the bumper and headlight of the man we hit and are in the process of settling that up. No one was remotely hurt, but we had to wait a good hour for the police to come and this made us miss a lot of the game. After a while, Christian was reached and he came back for the kids and took them to the game so they only missed 5 minutes of the first half (Christian missed more because he now had to try and find parking after everything was full). Rob and I arrived at half time.

I forgot to get my camera out, but Alyssa got this cute shot of her and Anna.

The view of the game from the good seats. We had 4 good seats for Christian, Anna, Alyssa and Rob. (Christian shared with James.) the rest of us sat up in the rafters.

At the game we met up with Sarah and Brian. They also came to our hotel after for additional visiting. I was so glad to see Pretes, Bryners and Kohrmans on the trip, if only for a brief moment.

These three were crammed in the back of the wan the whole way!

It's a good thing they had some entertainment

The view from the back of the van. On the homestretch!

On Friday, January 4th, we drove home from Provo. The roads were perfect the whole way and we got home around 7:30 at night.

All together, we travelled 5268 km, saw 19 family members, went to four different theme parks 9one twice), spent $3500 and all of our airmiles (in spite of Mark's and Kennedy's expenses being covered by Mark's settlement), slept in 5 different beds (each), and made a thousand memories!

It was an amazing, memorable holiday, the memories of which only improve with time. The more rested I get the more I can look back with amazement and what we were able to see and do!