that was not the end.

I was hoping our dental saga would be over, but no.

Thursday night Mady woke up multiple times saying her teeth hurt. I would give her medicine and she would go back to sleep, but it was a rough night.

Friday I took the kids to a friends house to have a picnic and play outside. Pretty much as soon as we got there Mady started crying, saying her teeth hurt. I called the dentist and set up an appointment for after lunch and I decided I better fill the prescription for stronger-than-Tylenol medicine the dentist gave me so we ran to Target. Waiting for that prescription was the longest 20 minutes of my life. I was pushing a cart around with Mady screaming and crying in pain, which made Mia and Austin cry because she wouldn't stop. Let me tell you, I got so many stares and weird looks. So finally I just went back to the prescription counter to wait it out. As soon as I got the medicine I tried to give it to her but instead of giving me a little drinking cup to put the medicine in the pharmacist had given me a syringe. Mady was SCREAMING to not give her a shot and I had to show her that it was NOT a needle, just a different way to give medicine. After sitting in the store trying to calm her down enough to get her to take the medicine (more awful stares and glares) I gave up and took the kids to the car where I finally convinced her to take it. No yelling, crying or screaming on my part which was a minor miracle in itself.

She was still crying and screaming and driving me crazy. We finally went to the dentist and he told me that her tooth was horribly infected. He immediately gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and said that he recommended she have her tooth pulled ASAP. It wasn't the same dentist that saw her on Wed. and he said I could wait for him to come back on Monday but I couldn't imagine surviving a weekend with her like that so I said we needed to take it out now. Mady was terrified of getting a shot (hence being scared of a syringe!) because that was all she remembered from her Wednesday experience so we talked about our options. We had to wait until she hadn't eaten for 4 hours so we rescheduled to come back at 4:45. I was crying and emotional at this point because they were going to pull my little girl's tooth. Again, feeling like a failure and an awful mother.

We drove to my mom's so I could drop off the other kids and filled her antibiotic prescription, then went straight back to the dentist. Mady was adamant that they not give her a shot and even though I promise they wouldn't she was still super nervous. She asked the assistant and the dentist as soon as she saw them and made them promise they wouldn't give her a shot. She just had to drink some medicine which was in a syringe so I was really grateful we had already had done a trial run so she wasn't freaking out as much. It still took a little bit to get her to take it, but she did. We waited for it to kick in and within 5 minutes she was sleeping. I left the room when they pulled the tooth because I really didn't want to see. She was not conscious, but she was still crying and screaming a little bit so it was hard to take. It didn't take long for them to pull it and put in a spacer so I went back in and helped her calm down. After she came out of it more she got a popsicle and some juice and we went home.

I had planned on the kids sleeping over at my mom's house Friday night because I had wanted to go to the temple (didn't happen) and then pick Ryan up from the airport, but I had no idea how Mady would feel once the medication wore off so my mom took the kids home and put them to bed there. Mady was so disappointed to not have a party with grandma. She ended up sleeping great that night (I did, and still do, have to wake her up every night to give her an antibiotic) and hasn't complained of her teeth hurting ever since.

Later the dentist told me that the tooth was so infected it was really loose and if we had waited any longer it could have caused some serious damage, maybe even more teeth would have needed to be pulled, and other awful stuff.

Although just getting the tooth pulled was supposed to cost $500 my dentist waived the fee. And then I cried. Some more.

dentally retarded

(skip to the end for the moral of the story)

I told the car place I would bring our car in first thing Wed. morning. I decided Tuesday night there was no way that was going to happen and that it was just too much for me to handle. But the kids were all up and at-em by 7 so I decided we might as well. So now I'm stuck at home without a car again!

I had joy school again and honestly thought about cancelling. I wasn't prepared at all and was really worried about Mady crying and screaming the whole time (because of her teeth). It was my last time to do joy school at my house so I just decided to brave it - - if I had to turn a movie on to kill time, so be it. We learned about the letter W. It was tricky with Mady because she could only eat until 11:30, which is still during school, so I needed to feed her lots of food so she wouldn't get hungry before she saw the dentist. I decided to make waffles for snack time which is one of Mady's favorites and fit the W theme.

We took the rest of the day pretty easy around the house until my mom came over to watch Austin and Mia while I took Mady to the dentist. Mady was excited and took her tooth picture she had colored with a toothbrush for the dentist. I got to hold her on my lap while the anesthesiologist gave her a shot. She was screaming pretty hard and pretty mad that she had a shot but they were distracting her with prizes until she couldn't keep her eyes open and then just passed out in my arms. It was weird and kind of scary to see how fast it kicked in for her. At that point they took her from me and I didn't see her again for 2 hours. I walked next door and got some Thai yellow curry for dinner and tried to read and do crossword puzzles until she was done. I was nervous and anxious for her and just hoped everything was going well. Finally the dentist told me that all had gone well - they hadn't had to pull any teeth, but he had done a few more fillings then originally anticipated.

I got to go back and see Mady who was still completely out of it and shaking on the couch. I held her in my arms and tried to help her wake up. She started moaning and talking incoherently. The first thing she said in a really slurred voice was "I don't want to get a shot! No more shots!" I kept telling her she didn't need any more shots but she wasn't really conscious. She was talking and crying with her eyes close. They told me I could take her so I left and she snoozed for awhile on the way home until she started crying super hard. I asked her what was wrong and she said, in her still slurred words," I didn't get to choose a prize!" For her the last thing that had happened was the shot and choosing a prize and she fell asleep before she got to choose one. Luckily I had grabbed a few for her. She cried until we got home and even when my mom was holding her. I gave her medicine and put her pjs on and helped her lie down on the couch and turned on a movie. She wouldn't ever really open her eyes all the way and finally calmed down enough to go to sleep. I moved her in my bed and she slept all night with me.

So that was a really hard experience, one that I hope to never have again.

I grew up with good teeth and totally took it for granted. I didn't floss and I didn't get cavities, so I wasn't worried about my kids. I only brushed once a day, so that's all they need, right? I was totally naive and just plain stupid. I had NO IDEA that some people have softer, more susceptible teeth to decay and cavities. You better believe that I brush my kids teeth twice a day now, something I thought before all this took WAY too much time and wasn't practical at all. We are taking fluoride, rinsing, and flossing. This was not only awful emotionally and hard on my little Mady girl (who's teeth are still sore today), but it was very pricey. Even with dental insurance we ended up spending almost $2000 for all her work.

This was definitely a lesson learned the hard way.

Tuesday

I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep so I exercised for a bit before the kidlets were starving.

I had a dentist appointment at 10 for a NEW dentist to give me a second opinion about my teeth. The kids loved the train that drove around the office and it kept them busy while they redid my xrays and I talked to the dentist. Good news? I only have 2 cavities that need to be filled instead of the 9 the other dentist recommended. Joy!

Because the kids were so good at the dentist we decided to do something fun. I had packed a lunch for them so we stopped at a park to play. It was a little too cold so we didn't stay long, deciding to drive up to BYU to eat lunch with Grandma and then go bowling. Lunch was great but bowling was kind of a bust. Austin said he was too tired about half-way through the game and Mady started crying because her teeth hurt. So I ended up bowling for both of them.

We had to stop at the grocery store because I had no food at home and needed juice for Mady (she isn't allowed to eat anything before her dentist appointment tomorrow). Mady had a complete meltdown at the store, screaming and all, because she wanted to sit in the truck on the front of the cart but Mia and Austin were. I just tried to smile and hurry while everyone in the store stared at me. Awesome.

Mady was going crazy about her teeth hurting and would not stop crying and screaming once we got home. I gave her tylenol, called the dentist, tried to distract her. Nothing was working.

My wonderful friend invited us to her mother-in-law's house to see their baby chickens and play outside. I almost didn't go because Mady was freaking out but thought it might be good for my sanity and for her to get out of the house. As soon as we pulled up she stopped crying and didn't say anything about her teeth the rest of the night. What a blessing! The kids had an awesome night running around, swinging, driving a little ride-on jeep, jumping on the tramp, and seeing the chickens. When we got home they went right to sleep. Phew.

Monday

Monday morning I had joy school. I was not as prepared as usual and it was about neighborhoods which I thought was kind of a hard topic. But it ended up going awesome and was really fun.

Our car, which had been in the shop for almost 2 weeks, was still making a weird noise and just wasn't back to normal so I took all the kids in to the car place. While the mechanic was test driving it to hear the sound he ran over a huge tack. Awesome. So instead of getting our car fixed I drove to a tire store to have the tire fixed. Then I dropped off my 120 rose clips for the quilting retreat. I wanted to do a little fabric shopping but my kids were out. of. control. so we didn't stay long.

here is what 120 rose clips looks like:

We made pancakes for dinner because that was all I could handle. I tried putting the kids to bed at 6 because they were all so tired and grumpy but they weren't too happy about that. So they kept getting out of bed and I kept getting frustrated. Not a good cycle. Mia was getting out of bed and thinking she was so funny so I told her if she got out again I would put her in her crib. And she did. So I put her in her crib and left her there until she fell asleep. She woke up an hour later crying so I moved her to her bed and she stayed. Hopefully lesson learned.

It was a rough first day alone.

spilled

We got Ryan safely to the airport. It is always a funny time, when he goes on trips. He is not excited while I am just jealous - I love going on trips. Just thinking about going on an airplane, having a little break from everyday things and the kids, eating out...you know. Kind of makes it hard for me to feel sorry for him. But I'll sure miss him!

I can summarize the last few days by telling you all the things I've had to pick up:

- the bottle of over 300 teeny fluoride pills, which Mia dumped on the bathroom floor. I had to be quick because she was trying to shove them in her mouth before I could catch her.

- a whole huge can of hot chocolate mix. All over me and the floor.

- our garbage can and all its contents, which blew over and into the middle of the street in the hurricane-force winds that were blowing this morning. I woke up thinking that our house was going to blow away. Seriously.

big girl

I gave the kids fluoride tablets for the first time. Austin tried them first. "These are yummy mom." Sweet. All three kids loved them. What a relief!

Ryan has been working until after midnight every night. And I just found out he is going to be out of town all next week. Which means I will be going through the traumatic IV anesthesia dentist visit for Mady by myself. Luckily my mom has already volunteered to watch the other hooligans for me. What would I do without my mom? Die. For sure.

We listed our awesome little exercise bike on KSL so we could upgrade to something a little better. It sold in 2 hours.

I went to Ikea with my mom yesterday. It had been a long day and all my kids were exhausted, but it ended up being completely worth it. I bought tons of picture frames for my awesome-in-my-mind gallery wall that will go by our kitchen table. I spent this morning going through old pictures on the computer, choosing the ones I want to frame. I love projects.

I attempted putting Mia to bed in the "big-girl bed" (bottom of the bunk beds) the other night. She thought it was a game and kept seeing how close she could get to the edge of the bed before I would yell at her to get back in bed (I was watching her every move on a video monitor). Finally at 9:30 I gave up and put her in her crib. I knew that this would be a hard battle. With our other two it was easy-smeazy. But Mia is our spunkiest, most defiant child by far. She was so tired last night I decided to attempt it again. She only got out of bed once and then snuggled down and slept good all night until this morning at 7:30. SUCCESS! I put her down for nap time and even better. She is sleeping away like an angel. Fingers crossed the success continues.


Other great news: I only have 15 more tape-measure roses to go. 105 down. My fingers are scarred for life from all the hot glue gun burns. Pictures to come.

progress

For joy school this week we talked about safety. I totally procrastinated preparing for it and kind of threw things together last minute but it was actually a really fun day. We made policeman badges for all the kids so they could be Safety Police. We talked about lots of different ways to be safe, did a fire experiment, played red light green light, and practiced stop, drop and roll.

We finally got our car back yesterday. It has taken so long and was expensive.

Speaking of expensive, I went to a pediatric dentist yesterday to get a second opinion on Mady's teeth. I have been harassing our other dentist to email out our xrays to me and to the new dentist and they were so weird about it. Luckily the new dentist just did new x-rays for free. He recommended she be put under as well and is staying late next Wednesday night so they can get her done. He was really great and it will be such a relief to get this taken care of. Even with dental insurance this is probably going to cost $1500.

With all these expensive things happening lately I am so grateful that it is happening right when we got our tax return (yahoo for filing our taxes early!). Instead of socking the money away for a tropical vacation we are spending it on these necessary expenses, which isn't as FUN but I'm just glad we have the money to take care of this stuff.

My cousin has been staying with us for a few days with his wife and triplet girls. Mady has been in heaven. They are adorable together - - disappearing downstairs to dress up and play house and never return.

bunk beds

Since our eventful trip to the dentist I have been doing some research and found out that the dentist we saw is not highly recommended. He over diagnoses. He does crappy work. This, of course, stressed me out. A lot. So I started calling around and found a pediatric dentist for Mady to see this week. And another dentist who will give Ryan and I a second opinion. What a headache!

Our car is still in the shop. This has been a ridiculously long process to get our car fixed. My sweet mom has let me use her car, otherwise we would be going crazy. I'm not getting my hopes up, but it should be done today.


I finished and hung this wall hanging. I read this quote by Sis. Hinckley in one of her books and it really stuck with me. I thought it would be good to have it hung in our living room to remind me every day:

On Saturday we bought a bunkbed for Mady and Mia (eventually) to share. Mady is so excited and loves sleeping on the top bunk. We moved her little bed down to Austin's room. He is so funny - - he calls it his "race car bunk bed" and loves it. We moved the queen bed he has been sleeping in to the other bedroom downstairs so now we officially have a guest room if anyone wants to come visit!

We also listed a bunch of stuff on KSL that I have been meaning to sell. We decided to upgrade our exercise bike since we use it so much and we sold our old one within 2 hours. Sweet. I also scored a flat screen computer monitor for $20, so we set up our old computer for the kids to play games on.

Today I start my last rotation of joy school for this year. It has been great and I think I will do it next year with Austin. Of course it is really stressful for me when I have joy school in my house for those two weeks, but the next 8 weeks are really nice. So I guess it is worth it.

The other day I found Mady had made all of these puppets by herself - cut them out (from the back of the Friend magazine), taped them to various pencils, and then cut a hole in a shoe box for a stage. She did a little puppet show for family night this week.

bleh

Last weekend was pretty good. I realized Ryan would be home "early" (at 5:30!!) because he had been training in Salt Lake all day so we had friends over for some grilled pizza and a movie.

Saturday we played at the park with Ryan's family(Ry was training all day). Memorable moment: Mad stepping on Ausy's fingers. He's crying super hard. We console him with a can of lemonade. Pretty sure he has never had a can of ANYTHING before. He wouldn't stop drinking it and the lemonade was pouring down his front, soaking his shirt. When the girls went back to play on the playground he said "I will play with you but don't step on my fingers. Saturday night I made Ryan take me on a date. We ate Indian food and loved it.

The weather has been so nice this week that we have been playing outside! Mad didn't have preschool on Monday and she was heartbroken so we went to Discovery Park and had a little picnic lunch. There were tons of older kids there for a field trip and it was a little overwhelming for my little munchkins so I tagged along with them to make sure they wouldn't get run over. They love that park. Then we met up with Ryan's family at a park for FHE.

Tuesday we had a picnic lunch outside with friends. I'm getting excited for the warm weather. It has been such a weird winter, though - - hardly any big snowfalls. Tuesday night Ryan even missed watching most of the BYU game so I could go out to dessert with friends. Champion for a husband, I tell you.

Yesterday was one of the worst days. I decided to take Mady and Austin and I to the dentist, now that we have dental insurance. I was super nervous that they were going to freak out. Just trying to talk to Mady about it beforehand she would say "let stop talking about it. I'm getting nervous." As soon as we walked in the office she started to cry and was so scared. They wanted me to go first so they could see what was going to happen and then she calmed down. They both did awesome and were super brave. The worst part came when the dentist told me I had numerous cavities and Mady's teeth are riddled with cavities. They are going to have to put her under to do all her work! Wow. I started to cry and felt like a failure as a mother. Of course the dentist was really nice and assured me they will fix it (for only thousands of dollars!). Luckily, Austin is 100% fine. I guess Mady just has really soft teeth and we will have to be extra vigilant in the future. As for me, I have never had a cavity before and I'm in shock. I was kind of an emotional wreck yesterday.

And our car is still in the shop. Boo hoo.


On a happier note:

- Mady: "look Mom I'm doing it by myself! Putting whipped cream on my bagel"
She has gotten SOUR CREAM and has spread it all over her bagel!

- Driving to California through the red rocks south of St. George Austin says "Look Mom! The ocean!"

- Again in the car, trying to talk to Mady but she can't hear me so she says "I couldn't quite catch up to that Mom." (instead of I couldn't quite catch that Mom)

- One of the houses Mady goes to for preschool has a cat. She is deathly afraid of all animals so as soon as she gets there they put the cat in a bedroom. Mady asks "Can the cat open doors?" No, the mom assures her, the cat can not open doors. One day the father of the home goes in the bedroom and forgets to shut the door so the cat gets out. Mady is playing on the floor in the living room and sees the cat come out. She looks up at the mom and says accusingly "It CAN open doors!

crafting mess

Monday was kind of a weird day. Austin woke up crying and crying, complaining he didn't feel good. But then he was fine the rest of the day. Then at dinner time he said his stomach was hurting and started crying again. I wouldn't have thought much of it but he was breathing really weird - - holding his breath and then puffing it out. He kept saying he wanted to go to the doctor so I thought I better take him to Urgent Care. Ryan was still at work and the other kids were in bed so my mom came over while I went with him. Of course, by the time I got there he seemed better. The nurse couldn't tell me much: just that if it kept up to beware of appendicitis. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and has seemed fine since then. Weird.

My house (specifically my kitchen) has been a disaster lately.

Mostly because I am trying to do a bajillion things at once. Luckily I am finishing some of my projects up. Like:

newborn baby girl shoes

a wall hanging (in the works...almost done!)

yarn and fabric balls for the mantel
I'm also making 120 rose pins out of tape measures for work. It is going to take me a long time. I'm not looking forward to all the hot-glue burns on my fingers I will get...

I love biscuits. In high school I was asked to a dance with a box of KFC biscuits because he knew how much I loved them. While in California we went out to breakfast a few times and I got a biscuit breakfast sandwich that wasn't great. Ever since then I have been wanting a REAL biscuit breakfast sandwich. So I made them for dinner this week. They were amazing.

black ice!

So we got home from Disneyland Thursday night. Ryan went in to work to catch up on things and was driving home at 1 am during a little bit of a snowstorm, hit some ice (going slowly, but it didn't matter) and slid into a curb.

We had to have our car towed to a shop because the front wheel was completely jammed into the wheel well. My mom has kindly lent me her car so I'm not stuck at home without a vehicle. I'm just hoping it gets fixed soon. Its only money, right?

It took us a little while to recover from the "vacation." Ryan and I joke that now we need a vacation just the two of us. Ok, we aren't joking. I admit I am REALLY hoping that he has to go to Hawaii for work so I can tag along.


Cute moment: yesterday after church I was getting lunch for the kids and put Mia in her high chair. She folded her arms and was waiting for us to say the prayer! I asked her if she wanted to say it and so I said it slowly and she would babble after each sentence, sometimes getting the syllables close. Wow it was cute.

disney details

Saturday was full of last minute details, final packing, getting food ready for the car, Ryan realizes his laptop isn't working so hurries in to work to find someone to help him (or basically we can't go on our trip), which leaves me to pack up the car. I also really like to leave the house in semi-order so I'm not coming home to a mess but I didn't really have time for that. Oh well. We ended up picking Ryan up from work and getting on the road right when we wanted to so it all worked out.

The drive went pretty smoothly with the kids. We only stopped for gas, to change drivers, and for a bathroom break once so that was ideal.

My greatest idea? I went to the dollar store and bought a few little things for each kid that I wrapped. When someone was having a meltdown I would say "Time for a present!" and they would unwrap something to eat or entertain them for a little while. Austin loved his cheap little plastic Ninja guys, Mia loved the stickers, and Mady loved her plastic baby doll (who's arms and head popped off before we made it back home. Oh well. It entertained her long enough to get the dollar's worth out of it!)

We made it to Vegas and Ryan promptly set up a work station and got to it while I took the kids down to the hot tub to play with cousins and family for awhile. We were most worried about our kids all sleeping in the same room and surprisingly that went really smoothly each night. I guess if you are tired enough you can fall asleep anywhere.







Sunday we made the rest of the drive to Cali, stopping outside Anaheim to visit with one of Ryan's mission companions and his wife. It was so great to see them and let the kids run around outside for awhile. There was a wood-chip playground and Mia would throw the wood chips up onto her head. The kids were filthy by the time we left. Mia was deliriously tired and fell asleep within 30 seconds of getting back in the car.

Our hotel was directly across the street from the gates of Disneyland. The room was nothing to write home about (as basic as they come) but the location made it worth it. My first meal in the hotel - chinese chicken salad with french bread - was a success.



Monday was our first day at Disneyland!

The kids were so excited. We went straight to Fantasyland and our first ride was Snow White's Scary Adventure. Bad idea. Those little-kid rides in Fantasyland are kind of freaky. The kids didn't like them at all because they were dark and scary and so they basically cried the whole time. This meant that we had a HUGE obstacle when going on any other ride with them because they thought they were all going to be scary. We did find a few that they liked - the jungle cruise, the carousel, a small world (for the most part). Austin loved the rocket ride that spins you around around in Tomorrow Land. He was giggling the whole time! Ryan took Mady on the roller coaster in Toon Town and she did great for awhile and even had her hands up in the air but then started to cry pretty hard.







We got to see my aunt and uncle and kids for a little bit before it started raining. We were not prepared for the rain so we ended up going back to the hotel in the early afternoon. We ate an early dinner (sloppy joe's heating up in the crockpot all morning while we were gone) and then put our kids in bed. The weather had cleared up a bit so Ryan's parents stayed with the kids (we had adjoining rooms which was really great) while we went back to the park.



We met up with the rest of his family in California Adventure and Ryan made me go on the Screamin' California roller coaster with him. I am not a roller coaster person. Yes, I have been on them, but I don't love it. And since having kids I am even more of a cautious person then I once was. I was so so nervous, so nervous that I couldn't even scream or breath. But I survived. And then he made me go on it again. I felt pretty sick afterwards.

On Tuesday we used our magic morning to go early and jump straight in line for Peter Pan. Mady was most excited for that ride and it always has the longest lines. She liked it ok, but was pretty nervous. Mia just burrowed into my shoulder and was scared the whole time. We decided to jump in line to see the Princess' for Mady and my cousin's family joined up with us who just happened to be there. His triplet girls were so cute with Mady and it made waiting in line for WAY too long worth it. Mady got one-on-one time with the princess and was in heaven. Mia would even walk up to the Princess' and give them hugs.







Then we met up with Ry's family in California Adventure and they loved it. The Ariel ride, Toy Story, Bugs Life land, Monster's Inc...pretty much everything they went on. It was fun to see them so happy and loving everything. Ryan wanted me to "face my fears" once again and took me on the Tower of Terror. I can honestly say that I thought I was going to die and had no control over my reaction: I started sobbing and convulsing. I couldn't tell if I was going up or down. I hated it and have a hard time understanding why anyone would do that for fun. Rollercoaster's I can see. But not that. I wanted to take Mady and Austin to the Aladdin show so Ryan took Mia home and got dinner ready while we went. It was quite the production. Mady was really sad that Abu wasn't in it and she didn't think that Jasmine looked the same, but they both loved it.








For dinner we had Hawaiian Haystacks which was my favorite meal of the trip. We had wanted to take the kids back over to the parade but Mia was super cranky and Ryan had a headache. We almost threw in the towel but Mady really wanted to go, so I pushed Mad and Aus in the stroller and braved the crowds to find a spot. I'm so glad we did because the parade was so fun. The floats were awesome, the dancing was fun, and there were a lot of princess' and people that Mady was really excited to see. She would say "she blew me a kiss! She was waving to me!" with each princess. Adorable.

We were hoping to stay until Saturday with the rest of Ryan's family but work was piling up for Ryan (even though he was working every night and on his phone throughout the day) so we decided to leave Thursday.

That meant Wednesday we needed to go to Disneyland again. I wouldn't recommend going to Disneyland 3 days in a row because we were all pretty exhausted. It didn't help that Wednesday was "Leap Day" and Disneyland was open for 24 hours straight. It made for more crowds then usual. I took the kids on the carousel while Ryan got us tickets to the World of Color show for that night. Mady and Austin loved the carousel but Mia wasn't too sure. Then we went on a few rides we had missed the first time around in Disneyland. Ryan convinced Mady to go on the Thunder Mountain Railroad with him. He told her that if she was brave he would buy her a special prize and she didn't even cry once! For her special prize she wanted: cotton candy. We tried to tell her she could have a stuffed animal, a princess crown and she chose cotton candy. I guess she knew what she wanted!







While she was eating her cotton candy we stopped on a bench and had our pictures taken by the Disneyland Facebook crew.




Then we went back to California Adventure to do our favorite rides again. Ryan took Mady on Soarin' over California and she loved it! We went out to dinner with Ryan's family at Cheesecake Factory and decided to put our exhausted kids in bed instead of braving the crowds for the Color show. Ryan's parents offered to watch the kids for us so we could go, so we got to see the famed World of Color. Think Bellagio fountains with disney movies incorporated, colors, and 45 minutes long. It was very amazing and spectacular but was a little long for us.


Thursday we drove all the way home. Our kids were amazing (Mia had a few meltdowns) but we made it back home safely.

Things to remember for next time:

-presents for the kids for any long road trip is an awesome idea.
-taking frozen dinners was an awesome idea. Cooking for everyone was a little stressful, but it was nice to not have to worry about where to eat or taking cranky kids to restaurants.
-3 days at disneyland in a row is too many.
-next time we go to disneyland we will wait until our youngest is at least 4 and our kids are more independent. They were a little young to love it as much as we thought they would.
- I am my father's daughter. I don't love crowds. I don't love roller coasters.
- vacations with children are never relaxing. They can be fun, yes, but not relaxing.
- know your kids well enough to realize what they will like, what they can handle. Start somewhere small and work up to scarier. By the end of the trip Mady was so much braver then the beginning!