What a crazy, fun week! We left home at 2:30 am on Sunday, March 25th. We made it it Anaheim by about 1:30 pm California time. We only stopped a few times and didn't hit too much traffic going out of Vegas. Our hotel was directly across the street from Disneyland and around the corner from the Anaheim Garden Walk (like The Gateway in SLC). The day we arrived we had massive amounts of rain and terrible wind. We were hoping for better weather the rest of the week! Later in the day it cleared up enough that we were able to go around the corner and go through the Anaheim Garden Walk. It was pretty dead (it was Sunday evening and many shops had closed due to the economy), but it was still a lot of fun. We found the store Lush. If you haven't been, you must go! They told us they opened a store at the Ceder Creek shopping plaza in SLC and I might have to visit now!
On Monday we spent a staggering 15 HOURS at Disneyland! On the bright side, we saw and did almost everything we wanted to! The weather was nice - a bit chilly (we had to buy sweatshirts and a blanket for Sam), but nice. After having a 3 day park pass, I will tell you that if you ever go to Disneyland, go on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & go when the gates open. We went on Monday, Thursday, Friday and there were a ton more people there on Thursday and Friday. However, the longest line we stood in the entire three days was only 45 minutes!
We visited the Princess Fantasy Faire and saw Ariel, Belle, and Tiana. Then we walked over to the little shop & Sam got her face painted. The lady that did it was quick and she did a good job too!
We went to the Princess Coronation Ball after visiting the princesses. Here we learned how to wave like a princess and do a princess dance.
We rode on lots and lots of rides! Nykelle & Sam became pretty good little friends.
We ventured over to Downtown Disney on Sunday night and bought the kids autograph books so we could get autographs while we were at the park!
At 6 pm we found seats for the parade and chilled out for thirty minutes before the parade. These were Sam's favorite dresses in the parade.
On Tuesday we drove out to Long Beach and saw where Cindy & Tom grew up. We saw what their elementary schools are like - SOOOO much asphalt! The high school had more grass than the elementary school! Weird! We visited a Trader Joe's and a Smart & Final. Then, we ventured out to Seal Beach. It was fairly windy but Sam tells me the water wasn't too cold. She and I wandered the beach for quite awhile looking for treasures. We found some shells, but nothing like when we were up in Oregon.
Also while we were out in Long Beach we visited the Long Beach Aquarium over at The Pike. These guys had sting rays as long as I am tall!
This shark had a saw like nose. It was so weird!
We made many, many, many trips to Downtown Disney. I found a gigantic Lego store where I picked up a few things for Nash.
On Wednesday Cindy went to California Adventures with Greg, Stephanie & their kids. We took her car & I drove us back down to Long Beach. Yep. Didn't even wreck or anything! We had GPS or I never would have done it! We went back to The Pike and checked out what the shops by the aquarium were. We walked down the pier too.
We bought tickets and went whale watching. Before we even got out of the harbor we saw dolphins (lower left).
Sam made good use of our 2 1/2 hour whale watching trip...she took a boat nap while using grandma & I as wind blocks!
We did see a few fin whales as we were turning around to head back to the harbor. It was amazing!
When we got back by the harbor there were some sea lions hanging out on the buoy.
After whale watching we walked along the shoreline village shops. Sam found a ride she had to go on.
Back at Downtown Disney she decided she wanted to get a character drawing of herself. She ended up having them make her into Alice from Alice in Wonderland. It's super cute. I should take a picture of the final thing. Apparently Alice is her new favorite (good thing with that Halloween costume already done!). She ended up doing the trading pins and has about 7 Alice in Wonderland ones now!
On Thursday Sam danced at California Adventure so that's where we spent our day. We rode lots more rides.
Grandma & Cindy rode rides with us too!
Cindy came with us to California Adventure because Greg & Steph had headed home. Plus, she wanted to watch Sam dance. We discovered the turkey legs. Oh my! If you are ever at Disneyland, you MUST try these! They are $10, but worth every penny!
On Friday we were back at Disneyland for Sam to dance again. I video taped her dance on Thursday and didn't get any pictures. On Friday I took pictures instead of video taping. The video is 26 minutes long so it's too long to upload! They did a better job on Friday than they did on Thursday, but they cut Sam's hip hop routine out on Friday.
I took 184 pictures on my camera (they are all on my facebook if you want to see them all) and Sam had 2 disposable cameras. I think she has 5 pictures total left (27 pictures on each camera). Plus, my mom & Cindy both took pictures AND I bought the photopass CD that we had nearly 50 pictures on! When I get the cd with the edits I made on it I'll post some of those pictures too. There is an awesome one of Sam with Belle.
On Saturday we went to the swapp meet at the Orange County Fair Grounds. That was fun. Reminded me of the flea market in Florida but much smaller. We headed home around 10 am or so and made it back home around midnight. We stopped a few more times coming home than we did going out. Nothing traumatic except for some pretty good wind gusts. I drove us from the California/Nevada line to Mesquite. Cindy drove us the entire way there and except for when I drove on the way home she drove the rest of the way.
The boys had only been in bed a little while when we got home so Travis got them up. They were really excited to see us and we were really happy to see them. Brooke was sleeping when we got home but ended up waking up as I was ready to go to bed. She was running a slight fever and was very clingy. I chalked it up to teeth and let her fall asleep on my chest before I put her in her own bed. Sunday she was running a very high fever and was just not herself. I finally took her to Instacare around 7 pm or so. I had given her ibuprofen around 6:15 pm and it was about 7:30 when we got in. They took her temperature and it was still at 101.8! They told me she had a double ear infection and that the right one was worse than the left one. I was glad I already had an appointment with the ENT scheduled for today. They put her on omnicef and eardrops 2 x a day.
We went and saw the ENT today. He told me that her left tube is open and looks ok but it's on the verge of being questionable. Her right tube was clogged...again (it was a week ago too when we went in for the two week post op appointment). He ended up getting the clog off her tube and injecting ear drops directly into her middle ear. He said that that will usually make a difference. We are to keep on the omnicef and do drops in each ear 2 x a day and go back in a week. The dr. seems to think if we can get the fluid to drain so her tubes can stay clear that she'll do well. I'm crossing my fingers we don't have to do two sets of tubes in each ear like we did for Sam. I'm not holding my breath though. He said he used titanium silver oxide coated t tubes that NEVER clog - I told him never say never with my kids! He smiled and told me he's starting to see the familial tube issues arise. I'm just glad he's a good dr. and is good to us! Cross your fingers her tubes are clear in another week! I told the nurse I brought Brooke home a cute minnie mouse outfit and she brought home a double ear infection! She thought that was pretty funny! Good thing I have a good sense of humor!
