More Theme Park Fun!

Orange t-shirt vacation day found Glen in the kitchen first thing in the morning fixing a pancake and bacon breakfast for the group. He was great at fixing breakfasts while I got ready for the day and then I would arrive on the scene in time to clean up the mess--with others helping out of course.

The Excell family in front of the castle mural.

 Cute Natalie holding our very own darling Snow White.

Our first ride of the day--the tram. It never gets old.

Doesn't our big group stand out in a crowd when we are all dressed alike? It is such a great way to keep track of everyone.

Still standing in line with the masses waiting to get into California Adventure.

Looks like Glen, Natalie and Ben made it through the gate. It was Ben's last day with us. The rest of the family soon followed.

 Precious pose of Ben holding Carson.

We got to see Sulley in person. Jacob's family made it a point to go around and see all the characters and get autographs and their picture taken with the characters. For the rest of us, it was a novelty if we happened upon a character in the park.

Enjoying a moment with my baby boy in front of a fake road. It was only real for the first 20 feet and then it was fake the rest of the way.

Glen taking a taxi ride with the Goldens.

Here we are in Cars Land. Eli loved it when he saw a car near him.

Snack time and reading-the-map-to-figure-out-where-to-go-next time.

Eli was intrigued with a guy who was shooting out bubbles into the crowd.

While Jeff and Eli went off to ride a ride, Sarah, Ben and I went off to ride some rides while Carson was asleep. Glen did a great job with him when he woke up. It looks like it only took two boxes of teddy grahams for him to keep Carson as happy as could be.

I didn't take any more pictures the rest of the day. It was probably because we left to take Ben to the airport and we were so sad to see him go. He had missed several days of school and really needed to go back home so he could get caught up on what he missed. We appreciated he took the time he did to be with us. It was awesome!!

Beach Day

Green shirt day was beach day. Natalie and I entertained ourselves by getting our picture taken in front of the castle wall in our castle shirts while everyone else was getting their swim suits and their shoes on.

Eli is drumming it out while he waits for everyone to get ready.

Claire, Abe and Ben look happy it is beach day.

We went to Newport Beach and parked on the street a few blocks from the ocean. Brooke emerged from the van with all her swimming paraphernalia on her body. She was a girl on a mission to find the water.

Laurie was good at getting group shots taken. She wanted one with all the cousins. (Just ignore Abe and Sarah in the picture...)

From left to right is sleeping Newland, Logan, Natalie holding Claire, Caroline, Luke, Emma, Carson, Brooke, Spencer and Eli. Note Brooke still wearing her swim ring. It was nice of her to raise her goggles so we could see her eyes for the picture.

The little kids were such good sports to stop for a picture because they were anxious to get to the sand and the water.

But first a little sunscreen application. Loved watching Emma using a sunscreen stick on Natalie's face.

Everyone dispersed--playing in the sand or the mud or going into the water.

Brooke made new friends--as if there weren't enough cousins around to play with. Notice how she keeps her goggles and swim ring in place wherever she is so she is always ready to go into the water.

Abe and Ben rented boards to go out in the surf.

They also got paddle boards to play with on the sand. Klarissa is showing her skills hitting the ball. I tried it a few times but wasn't any competition for Glen so I turned my paddle over to Jacob.

 At one point Rebecca and I walked clear down to the pier so we could use the restroom.

Once there, we saw a very strange sight--an odd contraption flying through the air and it was coming right at us. There were some men with remote controls directing it where to fly and where to land. Men and their toys--weird!!

More playing in the sand and the water.

At one point Spencer was sitting all by himself with a shovel by him. He put both hands to his mouth and yelled, "Come help me dig! Come help me dig!" He yelled that loud enough and long enough that Eli obeyed. Together those little boys were happy as could be digging like crazy in the sand.

Another memorable time was when we were all told Dallas had something disgusting for us to look at. Off everybody went to investigate.

Since I didn't venture into the water and wanted to see what was disgusting, Dallas brought his find closer for me to see. He would pull up a large handful of very wet sand and within seconds we could see lots of little sand-colored bugs scurrying around. Every time he pulled up a new handful of wet sand, we saw the same thing. It WAS very disgusting.

While we were all distracted down by the ocean, the birds flying around were having a buffet with the food we'd brought for lunch. The pesky birds opened up our sealed bag of Cheetos and were devouring them.

Once Brooke saw how much they loved them, she couldn't resist throwing some out to them and watching them scramble to see which ones would get the treat. Newland was enjoying the birds pouncing on the Cheetos also.

Dallas thought it would be fun to see if he could get the birds to eat from his tummy. Brooke was certainly hopeful, but it never happened.

Abe, Klarissa and Newland's trip was drawing to an end. They had a plane to catch back to San Francisco. Once again Laurie instigated a group family photo. First with the siblings: Jacob, Rebecca, Abe, Sarah and Ben.

Next with Glen, me and our children.

Last photo was everyone in the family--all 22 of us.

Jacob's family and Ben wanted to go to Disneyland for the rest of the day so that's where we went. Jacob and Laurie took their three younger kids to ride the kid-friendly rides while Glen, Ben and I took Natalie and Emma to ride some of the big, scary rides. Doesn't Ben look scared thinking of going on the Tower of Terror ride?

I had seen this deer crossing sign earlier in the day when I was walking around and wanted Glen to pose for a picture by it when he was with me. I didn't even have to prompt him. Once he saw the sign, he stopped and turned around and waited for me to get ready to take a picture.

Ahhh, how we dread seeing these signs on the road when we are driving since Glen in any car seems to be an automatic deer/cow magnet--especially when he's in brand new cars.

Natalie and Emma didn't mind riding on the big rides with us, but they also wanted to stop and ride some of the kid rides as we were walking from big ride to big ride. Ben was such a good sport and enjoyed every big and not-so-big ride we went on with those little girls.

Back at the shack (also known as the luxurious castle house) we were all exhausted, but the four of us were determined to get one game in since we had taken games for us to play every night. Didn't happen. By the time the kids got their kids to bed in the evenings, they were too tired to want to play.

We only played that one game that one night. It was Ben's last night there so we had to make it memorable.