The Pollard Place: January: Snow, snow, Disney!

We got home from Jerusalem on January 10, but I thought it would be nice to get Levi and Kelsey a stay just the two of them for a night before they went home. We got them a room at the Blue Boar Inn and they had a great time! We stayed home that day and night just trying to recoup from the trip. It was sooooooo nice to be back home with my babies! I missed them so much. Two weeks is definitely too long!

I missed this so much!

Jet lag is the worst

Fun times with cousins!

Our first day alone as a family we spent lazing around the house and then we went sledding! There was some snow when we left, but nothing like the snow that was here when we got back! It's crazy! They had a great time sledding. Each kid preferred a different part of the hill to go down.

I missed that cheeser!!

Kirk and Phyllis stayed in town a few extra days so that Kirk could take the kids skiing and help teach them. I figured that it would not be super fun to bring Amelia and just stay in the lodge- and let's be honest I was still really tired- so Phyllis, Lia and I stayed home and made dinner. They had a great time! Henry has a natural gift for it, which is good because he hated that Della had a natural gift for ice skating last time and he struggled with it haha. They all had a blast and Henry has kept asking when we can go again!

Rusty's first day skiing with Desi, Aunt Karla, and Kirk!

We have gotten so much snow this year, and we are trying to make good use of it! One day we went out into the big green space behind the house and built a snowman all together and then played in the snow and looked up at the tree from underneath. It is fun to play with them outside in the snow, but it is also exhausting haha.

The kids and I went to the Ice Castles! We have gone a few years, and every year I am impressed and think it is so cool. This year was a little bit better because all of them were old enough to really play. They had so many different slides all around and different kinds. Amelia loved belly sliding like a penguin and the older kids really loved the bigger slides that you went down with the slick sleds. Afterwards we got some churros and hot chocolate!

Amelia was mad about sitting on this bench for a picture haha

Henry and Della are getting old enough that I thought it would be fun to give them a surprise announcement for our upcoming trip to Disneyland. They had no idea that we were going, so I put some Mickey and Minnie things in a box with little tickets that say their names and that we're going to Disney! It took them a hot second to understand what was happening haha, but then they were really excited!

So I had this glorious plan of getting a babysitter for Amelia and then Rusty and I taking the older kids tubing at Soldier Hollow. We got the babysitter, got everyone dressed, and then I went to pull up the tickets on my email while we were driving there and I couldn't find them. I thought I had bought them but I guess I never actually checked out. So I called to see if that would be okay and they told me that they were closing in two minutes. So... we had to rethink some things. We thought going ice skating would be a blast but they were closed early too (it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day) so then we decided that we would just go to the skate park and play in the snow. We jumped around into the pits for a while, got some hot chocolate, and then came home. I grabbed some glow sticks and we went out and played capture the flag and tag with the glow sticks and it ended up being a really great night!

This picture doesn't show much, but I knew if I didn't take one I would forget to write about it. We got to go and have lunch at The Other Side Academy. Dave invited us to come take a tour, eat, and talk about their general business plan. We got to meet some of the students and I just fell in love even more with what they're doing. They asked us to come back in June to speak to the students at a "Toast Night" which is kind of like a very low key Ted Talk. I'm so impressed with these people and everything they've done.

One morning I thought it would be good for us to walk to school. We hadn't done that in so long and it was a nice excuse to spend some time outside and slow down. After we dropped the kids off at school I went to the park to sled with Amelia. There is so much snow at the park and you can barely see some of the toys haha!

I know that I want to homeschool, but Midway Elementary really does do the cutest things. I guess every year they do a "Midway Reads" activity where the whole school reads the same book. Each family gets a book to take home and keep, the school gets decorated, the music and art and PE classes participate, and they have an opening and closing assembly. Last year it was Matilda, and this year it was HARRY POTTER. What. I was so excited haha. I obviously signed up to help decorate and I made the board for tracking house points and the wall in the cafeteria. For their opening assembly each grade was sorted with the sorting hat, and some characters came to visit (Dubmledore, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, etc) and the kids had a ball. For the final day they did a Great Feast in the cafeteria for lunch with chocolate frogs and butterbeer. It is so cute. And Henry is now completely obsessed with Harry Potter.

Henry and Della had a playdate with some kids in the ward! Ryker is Henry's age and Emery is Della's. They are in the same grade but they are in the opposite class as my kids for the immersion program. They came over and played inside for a while, and then they played outside with some colored water before we got pizza and then took them home!

We got a babysitter and finally got to go snowboarding! We thought we would go to Sundance but when we got there the whole parking lot was full and there was nowhere to go... so we decided to drive back and try Park City. The parking lot there was full too, but. you could park somewhere else and then take a shuttle to the resort. We ended up doing that and it wasn't too bad; it's just annoying that to do anything these days you have to make a reservation ahead of time. I feel like there are too many people everywhere. We had a great time snowboarding! My new pants and coat kept me really warm, and when my face was freezing off Rusty gave me his balaclava because he's a gentleman. We did a whole bunch of runs and even took the gondola over to the other mountain which was cool. To get back to our car we waited for the shuttle for a long time but the line was so long it probably would have taken two hours. So we decided to just walk- it was about a mile which was doable. A little annoying carrying the board but it was fine. A nice guy with a snowbike asked if he could walk with us to the parking lot and it was fun to talk to him a little bit.

One Sunday afternoon Rusty was taking a nap but we had said we were going to go for a walk. I ended up leaving the older kids at home and just taking Amelia. A few minutes after we got there Rusty woke up and called and told me that he wanted to come so he drove over and met me and we just walked around on the cross country skiing trail at Wasatch State Park. It was very peaceful and beautiful!

Rusty took the kids tubing eventually! Amelia was too little so I just stayed home with her. Rusty said that Henry had a great time, and Della had fun until it was actually time to start going down and then she just cried and hated it the whole time. He convinced her to do it one more time and then that was it. Henry went one time on his own and then everyone just came home haha. So maybe not something to do for a few more years.

To add an extra layer of fun to our weekly movie nights, I decided that whoever got to pick the movie that week also got to pick the snack! I took Amelia to the store and asked her what she wanted to eat. She said gum haha. Then I tried to convince her of other things, and when I said "milkshake?" And she said ya! I said what kind and she said burrito. So... I asked her some other things and she liked the little candy bars so we did that and some fruit. And popcorn of course.

We went and checked out an Oakley property for a potential cabin. We liked it a lot, but the lot is so skinny and narrow that there were cabins on either side of the land really close. We ended up putting in an offer, but it was low and they declined. And we were okay with that.

We were so blessed to be able to go to Disneyland! This was our first time at Disneyland as a family, ever! I came once when I was 16 and I think Rusty came once when he was 18. Rusty had a work training at the Disney Grand Californian hotel and they paid for our hotel room, Rusty and my flights, and our day passes for the three days. We paid for our kiddos to come and it was so great! I'm really glad we were able to bring them. I was feeling really unhappy about having to leave them again so soon after the Jerusalem trip, and finally Rusty's work decided that we could bring kids. Hooray!

The flight was a dream after our huge flights to Tel Aviv. It was two hours and no layovers haha. What! The kids did great and it passed quickly. We took an Uber to the Grand Californian And we've never stayed at a Disney hotel before but I am forever converted. The staff here is so kind and welcome you and talk to you so kindly. The hotel is very nice, and the room is clean and nice. We got to our room and relaxed for a little bit before we went out to grab some dinner. We went to the Craftsman Grill and got a table outside. It was so fun to be able to sit outside in January haha! Della and I got nachos, Henry got.a hamburger, and Lia and Rusty got a pizza. Henry's hamburger was so small it was hilarious, and the nachos were absolutely divine! The pizza was alright.

January 25: Disneyland Day #1

Because we were staying at a Disney hotel we got to go into the park early for early access! This was amazing and we got so many rides done quickly! We did have a little hang up at the gate, but luckily it got sorted out really quickly. I scanned the wrong ticket that had a reservation for a different day. But someone came to help and we got to go in pretty soon. We started with Peter Pan's Flight, and while we were standing in line I freaked out that maybe we couldn't do any rides because Henry wasn't old enough to go alone, and none of the rides would fit four across. Ah! I got so nervous and stressed out but when we got to the front of the line we were able to sit all together on it. It was such a fun ride; one of my favorites! After that we did Dumbo and then Alice in Wonderland which we did twice because the kids loved it so much. We went to the Buzz Lightyear Blasters ride. This ended up being Henry's favorite ride!

After the ride we went over to the carousel that Lia had been asking to do. She had been so patient and loved that ride so much that we did that two times as well! She had the biggest smile on her face! Now that we had Amelia feeling happier, we went back and did the Nemo Submarine. This ride usually has a long wait and it was only five minutes so we decided to go for that one. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that we went into an actual submarine and went underwater! There were colorful corals and fish all around and it went through the story of Finding Nemo. It was really fun to do something so different! All three kids had a blast.

After that we made our way over to Adventureland, and we saw Captain Hook along the way! Then we went to do Jungle Cruise. This ride has always had such a long wait in Disney World and this early in the day it was only five minutes! We did the ride, which was hilarious as always, and then got some snacks from the Tiki Bar and took them into the Tiki Room to watch the show. I'd never done this before, and I thought it was cute. The kids liked it a lot! We ate yummy pineapple and cream cheese lumpia, pork lumpia, pork bao bun, and shared two bowls of Dole Whip. These were our first snacks in the park and we were not disappointed!

When the Tiki Room show was finished we were heading back to do some more rides but we were passing the Royal Theater right when the show was starting. We decided to try it and I'm so glad we did! It was one of my favorite parts of the day. We saw Tangled and it was absolutely wonderful! We laughed so hard and had a great time.

We took a quick bathroom break and grabbed some snacks from the stroller. I kept checking the wait times on the app and the Snow White ride was still pretty low so we got in line for that. This one became another favorite for the kids! After that we did Pinocchio. These are both very similar to Alice in Wonderland where you ride through it telling you the story. We got some popcorn and sat down while we made our next plan for what to do. We decided to do the Storybook Canal ride, get our snacks from Maurice's and then go over to Tom Sawyer's Island. The Canal ride was cute and fun to do something different. The weather is so nice! We got the churro gears and cheddar garlic twists from Maurices that I read about, and honestly I was not that thrilled with either. But I got a drink (apple berry slushie or something) and it was absolutely divine. While we were eating our snacks here we saw Jasmine walk past! Then Belle walked past and she stopped right behind where we were sitting to meet with people. We got in line and it was the biggest smile Amelia had other than the carousel all day! Belle danced with them and talked about inviting them to her ball and what dresses they would wear. It was so cute! Tom Sawyer Island was better than I thought it would be! The kids voted for that because they wanted to go out to an island, and I was thinking it would be great for them to be able to run free out in nature for a little while. They had a blast, especially Amelia with being able to go where she wanted and to tell me where to go for a change haha. We climbed inside caves, across bridges, and Lia loved spinning the steering wheel.

By this time we were all really tired. It was about 2 and we left the hotel at 7ish. Another perk of staying at the hotel is that you can just walk back to the hotel to rest! How awesome is that!? So we decided that we would stay until the 3:00 show at the Royal Theater (they were doing Beauty and the Beast) and then we'd go back and rest. To fill that hour we did Space Orbitor because it was right next to the Buzz Lightyear Blast ride that Henry was begging to do again. Lia was asleep for Space Orbitor (which went surprisingly fast) and through the Blast one (which was loud for her to sleep through haha). That ended just in time for us to go to the second theater performance. This one I loved even more than the first! It was so funny and clever. When this was over we walked back toward the hotel, and saw Pluto hanging out all alone! We went over and got in line behind the one kid that was there and then got to say hi. He was cute with the kids (Amelia was not interested at all) and even gave them kisses at the end of their visit. Della told me afterward that he didn't give the kid in front of us a kid so it was very, very special that they got kisses haha.

We walked back to the hotel and went inside when I saw the Trillium Conference Room. I said to the kids, "Hey, this is where Daddy is!" and then I looked inside and saw Rusty haha! He came out to talk to us for a second and then we went up to the hotel room and watched Toy Story while we took a break until Rusty was done.

With Rusty we grabbed dinner at a buffet he had been wanting to try called Storyteller's Cafe. The kids and I had reservations to go there for Brunch tomorrow but he would be in his meetings. So I got a reservation for 5:20 and we went down for dinner. There was prime rib, mashed potatoes, fruit, salads, and some yummy Chinese options for Lunar New Year. After dinner we hustled over into Disneyland and went straight to Splash Mountain. Henry and I went first and Henry decided he wanted to sit in the front. When we got there and he saw the little log he changed his mind and I had to go on first haha. I got so soaked! He decided that it was maybe a little too intense for him, which is reminiscent of what he said last time he rode it: "I don't think this should be allowed for children!" or something like that haha. When Rusty was doing it I took the kids on Winnie the Pooh. Then we went over to the Matternhorn Bobsleds. Henry and I rode that while Rusty took the girls on the teacups. Then when Rusty was riding that I took all 3 kids on the Casey Circus Jr. Train. They really wanted to get to ride in one of the cars that had bars on it, and we made it! I had made a genie plus reservation for the Star Wars ride but we had a few miscommunications and errors and we did not make it haha. We came back to the hotel and Rusty got the kids to bed while I went to the grab and go place and got food for breakfast tomorrow. We all went straight to bed!

January 26: California Adventure Day #2

Today was another great day! We got up and ready to leave by 7, but Henry was feeling pretty sick so we decided he would stay home for a little bit and I'd come get him later. He had the hotel phone and we went over how to call, and Rusty was in conference downstairs and said he could check on him on his breaks. I left and Rusty was going to come ten or fifteen minutes later to just check into the park so we could use his genie plus pass after work, and by that time Henry decided that he wanted to go. Rusty and Henry went on Monsters, Inc. while the girls and I were making our way over there (they went in a better entrance) and they were the first ones on the ride! They started the ride for them. The girls and I got there and there was nobody there, I think we were right after the boys haha. They did it a second time because they saw us get on, and then we all went to the Web Slingers ride together. It was amazing! Rusty got to go before work (he was a little late) and that was extra fun. This was a really cool and unique ride where you got to ride in a cart and fling webs at bad spiders! Then bits of spiders would come flying at you and you'd (ok I'd) scream and scream haha. Henry was absolutely in love with it.

After that ride Rusty went to work and we went over to Pixar Pier. First we rode the giant ferris wheel, and it really is so cool looking. I'd never seen it before (or maybe I did when I was 16) and it was so beautiful. The ride was really windy at the top and the girls were very unsure about it haha. They did get Mickey Mouse stickers though so that was good. Then we did the Toy Story Mania ride and they loved it so much we immediately got on again. It was really fun! We took a snack break and bathroom break and then got on the carousel ride for Amelia. She liked it, but she didn't love it as much as the other one. The one in Disney sparkles and glitters a lot and I think she loves that. We headed over to do the Ariel ride and again it was so great that we got right back on! This one had virtually no line either time so it went really fast. Della's face lit up when she saw Ariel and Lia waved at Ariel and Prince Eric for a very long time haha.

We then decided to go over to Cars Land and we rode the Tow Mater ride. I was a little bit unsure about this because it spins around, but I thought I could handle it so we did it. It was fun and the kids were giggling uncontrollably the whole time! I felt a little sick afterward, but nothing crazy so we just took a break and got some food from the Cozy Cone Motel. We got the chili cone queso and the bacon mac and cheese cone. They were pretty good! We filled up our water bottles in Flo's Restaurant and went to the bathroom in there. It is a really cute little place; I love old diners like that. We saw Lightning McQueen driving down the road and I had just told Della that the cars weren't real and she said that I was wrong because Lightning was moving all by himself and there weren't any doors on it haha. After our snack we went and did the Luigi Rollicking Roadsters ride and it was really cute! It's kind of similar to the Tow Mater one, but the cars dance in unison and it was fun. The girls laughed and laughed, and every time I saw Henry (he was on his own car) he was grinning.

To finish up for the first part of the day we did Monster Inc. one more time and then went back to the hotel to take a rest. Again, staying at these hotels is the best thing ever and being able to come back and take a rest/nap is wonderful. We came back and had calm down time for a while and then took a nap for an hour before we went to the Storyteller's Cafe for brunch. It was a late brunch, at 1:15, but I was really impressed! The reason I booked it was because the cast comes and says hi. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Henry was so happy to see them, and Della was pysched about Mickey and Minnie but that's it. And Amelia was unhappy about all of it. She went behind the wall and screamed, "I DON'T WANT HIM!" when I asked her if she wanted a picture with Dale. Haha. Poor Amelia. The food was yummy and I finally got to try the Mickey waffles!

After lunch we came back to the hotel and watched Toy Story 2 and then had some play time before we headed back out for round 2 at around 4:30. I got the genie plus pass for Web Slingers so we went and did that again and then we did the Radiator Springs Racers. Henry and I went and then Rusty and Della went. Three of us loved it and Della cried and absolutely hated it, the poor thing. While they were riding it Henry, Amelia and I saw some of the Lunar New Year parade with a Chinese dragon and dancing, and Mulan and Mushu were on a float! That was pretty exciting. Then we went and got Senor Buzz churros and rode the carousel again. We met up all together again and I went and rode the Incredicoaster while Rusty took the kids to do the spinny Inside Out ride that I couldn't handle haha. They all loved their ride, and I loved the Incredicoaster! It was so fun! Rusty got a turn to ride that one and the kids went with me to get some corn dogs and ride the Zephyr. We got all the way to where you get on the ride at the Zephyr and Della changed her mind. She got so scared on the Radiator Springs Racers that she was timid for the rest of the day, poor thing. Henry and I were going to ride Goofy's Sky School but it shut down. We all went on Ariel one more time and I was so happy Rusty got to see the girls' faces just light up! We felt done for the day so we headed home!

January 27: Disneyland Day #3

Today we slept in! What?! I had been getting up and leaving the hotel by 7 in the mornings, but today Rusty's work set up a tour for us that started at 10. We decided to just hang out at the hotel before we did the tour, and it was good because Henry got sick last night with a really sore throat and cough and so him being able to sleep in this morning was really helpful. We went over and met up with Guy (the new CTO) and his family, who we were sharing the tour with. Our tour guide's name was Adrian, and I had no idea what to expect for a tour. I ran over to Starbucks and got some breakfast sandwiches for us and met them over at the Astro Blasters. Basically Adrian's job was to get us into rides as quickly as possible. What?! I didn't know that they did that, but it was super amazing. We did the Astro Blasters (which was Henry's favorite) and then the adults went and did Space Mountain while Adrian took me and the girls to do Autopia. This may not be a very exciting ride, but it did end up being one of my highlights of the trip. Lia wanted to drive (and Della did NOT want to drive) so I put her on the side with the steering wheel, me in the middle with the gas peddle, and Della on the other side. I saw the track that the cars go on so I just assumed it was mostly a gas thing and she could pretend to drive. NOPE. Big fat nope. The track is skinnier than the car so you can bump aaaallll around that sucker. We were banging and hitting that thing so much and we were all giggling and having so much fun hahaha! Eventually we all wanted me to take over and I drove for the majority of the ride, but it was so funny at the beginning.

We all met up again and went to Fantasyland and did Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and met some princesses! We got to go in a secret door into the castle and we met Ariel and then Snow White. This was another highlight of the trip for me because the girls got so excited. It was so fun to watch their faces light up! Henry was decidedly not happy about it and told me that he wished he had stayed outside with the other guy in the group haha. Then we did another split and the adults went and did Splash Mountain and Rusty took the kids (including Henry haha) to do Winnie the Pooh. After that we did Pirates of the Caribbean (which turned out to be a favorite for Henry and an absolute disaster for Della who just cried the whole time) and then we did Haunted Mansion. I don't think I've ever done that one before, but it was all decorated like the Nightmare Before Christmas still and it was really cute! I didn't really care for the ride though. Then we went to do a big ride: The Rise of the Resistance. I stayed out with the little girls and they came back all so happy and in love with the ride that I asked if there was a way that I could do the ride too. Maybe Adrian could get me in the fast lane and then everyone could leave and I could just catch up? But Adrian asked if anyone wanted to go a second time and everyone except for the dad said yes haha. So we all went and did it again. It was a really cool ride, I'm glad I got to do it! The drop comes out of nowhere haha!

Mary Poppins on the Carousel

Cream cheese bagel- honestly a let down

We hit up Thunder Mountain, Rusty was a champ and stayed with the kids for this one, and then we went to the Blue Bayou for lunch/dinner at 3. I was really excited to eat here because we floated past the restaurant when we rode on Pirates and it looked so cool! Also, I really wanted to try the Monte Cristo sandwich there. I guess I didn't really understand what it was; I had no idea that it would be sweet! It was tasty, just very rich. Probably a once in a lifetime thing, or at least once in a few years haha. We did have delicious creme brulee and Rusty got the 100 year chocolate cake. Della got a "petite steak" and it was hilarious on that plate haha! It was so tiny! And even the carrots were tiny. Lia's was the same with a tiny bit of roast chicken and tiny carrots haha. What in the world.

After we ate we told Adrian and the group that they could go over to California Adventures without us. I didn't get the kids a park hopper pass, and we'd just be trading off over there anyway, and the kids were getting tired. So we let them go be free and Adrian gave us some lightning passes which was awesome. We went and did Jungle Cruise again, but this time the guide was not super great and we got stuck on it for a while. After that Henry and I went to do Space Mountain and Rusty was going to take the girls on Nemo but Della said that her stomach was hurting so they just hung out. After the ride was over Rusty went to the bathroom and I stayed with the kids, and Della started puking! Luckily we got it in a bag, but man I was not expecting that. We were walking over to do the carousel and she threw up again, so I stayed with Henry and Della and Rusty took Amelia to do the carousel one more time. She is absolutely obsessed with this ride and I wanted Rusty to get to see how excited it makes her. Rusty took the girls back to the hotel and Henry and I stayed to do some big rides! We started with the Matterhorn, which we learned is a completely different ride depending on which line you go to. The best way is to go to the line to the left! After Matterhorn we went and did Peter Pan again, and then we decided to try Star Tours. Adrian had said that it wasn't very cool, but we had pretty much done all the rides and the Rise of the Resistance didn't accept fast passes, and Thunder Mountain was broken. So we went for it and I am really glad we did! It was actually really fun. It was unique and surprising and Henry particularly loved it. We decided a great way to end our day (and our time at Disneyland) was to do Pirates. This is a classic ride and it did not disappoint! It was so fun to do these rides with him and spend time with him. After Pirates we decided we should go home so we weaved in and out of people giggling and chasing each other past the rides and the beautiful lit up castle, and it was one of my favorite things ever.

We got home and I traded Rusty so that he could go see this really cool new show that was being shown for the first day tonight. We even had VIP seats for it! Ahh, I was sad to have missed it. Rusty said it was absolutely incredible and there were fireworks, music, and images projected. It was a homage to the last 100 years of Disney being a company. He was really impressed with it and had a great time, and did the Millenium Falcon afterward before coming home. Della threw up quite a few more times that night, but by morning she was feeling a little better. Henry was still hacking up his lungs when he coughed. I was so sad that Della was sick because at dinner someone in our group asked Della what her favorite part of Disneyland was and she said, "cotton candy" which she hadn't even had yet she was just so excited haha. I bought her some before Jungle Cruise and before she ate any she was throwing up. Poor thing.

January 28: Flight home

Today I got up and left the hotel around 7:45 to get a massage! WHAT. The hotel has a spa in it and Rusty set up a massage for me this morning. It was magical. Just truly magical. I've never been anywhere like that before! I walked in and checked in, then a woman took me over and showed me a bowl full of four different kinds of rocks and told me to pick one that was speaking to me. I chose pyrite and she said that meant that my goal for today was to find peace and relaxation. Um yeah, that is absolutely what I want haha! Then I stepped over to a big rock and she told me that I needed to give back to the Earth and give my rock back to the bigger rock. It was kinda weird, but in the moment it all felt very cool. Then she showed me the dressing area, which had all kinds of cool things. I was there early enough I thought I'd give the eucalyptus sauna a try. I went in and sat down and nothing happened. I've never been in a sauna before, but I was pretty sure nothing was going on. I sat in there for a little just breathing in the good smell and then went out for my massage. The massage was excellent! She did a great job. After that I went into the relaxation room and sat in a chair and drank cucumber lemon water and ate a blueberry scone while I listened to the water fountain. It was so relaxing! Then I went back into the dressing room and sat down at the vanity and brushed my hair and put on some face lotion. I decided to shower there in the beautiful huge showers and then after I got out I heard a woman talking about the sauna. I decided to give it another try and I opened the door and could not see a single thing. Not one single thing. It was full of steam and then my eyes were burning (I assume from the eucalyptus) and I just had no idea where I was or where that lady was sitting! What if I sat on her! And people are naked in saunas! I took tiny steps to get to the bench and then sat down trying to calm down and take deep breaths with my eyes closed. I felt like I was drowning and blind so I lasted about thirty seconds and then got up to leave haha. I got dressed and then sat at the vanity again. For some reason brushing my hair at the vanity felt so luxurious and peaceful.

After my massage I went back to the room and we got everything packed up and got an Uber to the airport. We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen by our gate and then boarded! The flight was so fast and easy, and then getting Bailey and getting home went perfectly well. It is nice to be home! But it is cold.

Henry's Highlights:

Obsessed with Super Smash Bros
Rusty and I were talking about the gear for ice fishing. Rusty said, "Do you want to get the insulated tent or the normal one? The insulated one is twice as much." I said, "We can insulate ourselves with our coats, I don't want to spend double!" and Henry says, "You're the only one who has a potato coat! You're the warmest potato in the family, it's not fair for you to say that!" HAHAHAHAHA. I just got a new coat that has a lining on the inside that looks like aluminum foil and it traps all of the heat.
When we were in line for the Star Tours ride we got close enough to see where people were getting on and Henry looked at me and sang, "At last I see the ride!" like the song from Tangled haha
He says "literly"
They watched Cinderella 2 and he said it was "magnificent"

Adeline's Adventures:

After we got home from California Della said that her body forgot what it is like to be cold haha
On the drive from the airport home I told the kids that we would just be having a relaxing night, nothing crazy, no TV, just calming down. Della says, "At home, if I puke is that relaxing?" hahaha what
There was a Disneyland ride that I knew she would be excited about. I talked to her about it and she said, "Shut up!"
Della has started to be the best listener. She also has the kindest heart and is so wonderful with her sister.
Her teacher is the worst and I had to go talk to the principal.

Amelia's Updates:

Loves the Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark book and Nibbles and Chika Chika Boom Boom
Lia pooped in the tub in California with Della. Rusty was there and took care of it, but I guess her poop was really hard and she just picked it up. Della started screaming "POOP!! POOP!!!" and Amelia just held up her poop for Rusty and said calmly, "Look, I pooped." She is getting ready to potty train though, and this time she told Rusty she had more poop and he put her on the toilet and she pooped. I do not want to do potty training again but she is ready.
"I want to tell you something."
She says "it's my favorite" all the time
"Nuggle" for snuggle
Says "'scuse you!" when she thinks someone is in her way as she shove them.
Wants food first thing in the morning every morning
Says "What's in your mouth? What are you eating?"
They were playing a game and Henry pretended to shoot her and she got so mad she yelled "I WILL PEW YOU HENRY! PEW PEW!"

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