Working for Dr. Elison 8 1/2 years now, this is a tradition all of us girls look forward to. Every once in awhile our boss sends us all (including our spouses and our kids if we wanted to pay for their flights) on a trip somewhere fun. This year it was to California! Nate and I weren't super excited about the Disneyland part of the vacation so we took the first couple days to ourselves. We left later afternoon on a Sunday while my mom watched our kids.
We spent Monday just hanging out and enjoying our time to relax and spend time together. We slept in, worked out, and then went to lay out by the pool. Later we got ready and shopped around downtown Disney until it was time to meet up with the office for dinner at the ESPN zone. Such a fun group of girls I get to work with. Unfortunately Dr. Elison has to always put up with us!
Tuesday, Nate had to take a couple work phone calls that morning, but after he was done we took a drive along the coast to visit the San Diego Temple. I have always wanted to see this Temple and since we were so close to it I thought it was a perfect time to check it off my bucket list. Because of the timing we got there we had just missed the endowment session, so to pass time until the next one we we did initiatories. Then we were able to do the next endowment session where we were asked to stay for a little bit longer to help with some sealings. This ended up being the only day it was stormy and overcast so to me it was the perfect day spent together in the Temple doing service.
Since the Temple took most of our day, we headed back to towards the airport so we could meet Tina and the boys because they were joining us for the rest of the time. It was so fun picking them up and seeing how excited they were to be in California! We took them back to the hotel and got them all settled in before the real fun started in the morning.
Wednesday was the beginning of our Disney adventures. We started at California Adventure the whole day. We let the Elison family and Keela show us how its done and followed them around most of the day. We made sure we hit the Cars ride early and then all the the other big rides right off the bat to avoid the long lines. The boys weren't too sure what to think of it all. After we had ridden all the big rides they were begging for the pool to beat the heat and to get off their feet.
Before we started Thursday at Disneyland park, Nana took us all out to breakfast with the characters. The boys loved this and it was a quick way to check off the characters from our to do list at Disneyland.
Disneyland was a lot of fun too! Nate and I don't get the Disney magic but it is a lot of fun to watch your kids enjoy the Disney fun. I loved that the boys enjoyed the big rides with us rather than having to spend hours on the kiddy rides and chasing characters. Some of our favorite rides were both the Toy story rides, splash mountain, and Star Tours where Jackson was the rebel spy in the video. Jackson's favorite ride was the California screamin' and probably rode that 3 times. And Andersen surprised us all with his favorite ride being the Tower of Terror! He went on this twice and was so brave! Before we left on Saturday morning we told the boys they could each pick a favorite ride before we left for our flight... of course Jack's picked California Screamin and Andersen picked the Tower of Terror! But just like the day at California Adventure the boys were begging to go swimming after only 5 or 6 hours a day at the park so we always cut the days short so we could head back to the hotel for some swimming. Good thing we were just within walking distant of our hotel!
Friday, the last full day we had before it was time to leave, we took the family to Newport Beach. Who would have thought the boys could have more fun in the sand and water than two days at the Disney parks? Crazy, I know, but they did! They loved the beach. We had lunch at Charlie's chili and spent the afternoon playing in the water and building in the sand.
Its amazing how the littlest things can make these boys happy! Of course the hotel pool was their highlight of the vacation, but the Lego store took a close second. Jackson LOVES Legos and had heard of Lego Land from his friends so he really wanted to go. After seeing this Lego store and telling him we'd buy him a set from the store if we didn't have to take him to all the way to Lego Land (we heard is was kind of lame and not worth the money!) we had totally changed his mind. They only thing he was worried about now was which set he was going to pick out. He finally decided upon this giant Star Wars ship. It was so big he had to carry it on the plane. Whether is was the beach, the Disney parks or swimming these boys were exhausted EVERY night and crashed before we even had to tell them to go to bed.
What a perfect get away! A little time to ourselves, but then a lot of time and fun with Nana and the boys. So glad she was able to join us! The only thing we were missing was Maelyn, but she was at home in good hands with Grandma Kay. Thanks Doc for another fun trip and an unforgettable family vacation!
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