CALIFORNIA TRIP - DAY ONE

Day One - Wednesday Oct 29th, 2008

We left right after school on Wednesday. We stopped at the store and grabbed lots of treats for the drive. We drove to Primm Nevada and stayed at Whiskey Pete's. We got there about 1130pm. The kids did great on the drive down. Parker and Max played the DS..you can see in the picture that they are sharing headphones. The kids watched movies and ate all their goodies. I made individual treat bags that included suckers, trail mix, fruit snacks, gold fish, and granola bars. Katelynn slept for most of the drive. I took the picture of her right after we left the house and she was asleep before we even got to the freeway. Parker, Carson, and Ashleigh were even able to get some reading in and do a little bit of homework. I was really nervous about the drive, but it went way better than expected. I thought for sure that the kids would be asking us every five minutes if we were there yet and Katelynn would be trying to get out of her carseat and screaming her head off, but my nightmares never came true.

CALIFORNIA TRIP - DAY TWO

California Trip - Day Two Thursday Oct 30th

We woke up, got ready and had breakfast. We made the mistake of eating at the casino. We were planning on eating a buffet but they didn't have the buffet open so we just ate at the restraurant. They were really slow and as you know 5 hungry and anxious kids don't sit and wait patiently. We were sitting next to a table of truckers and I was just praying that the kids weren't listening too closely to their conversation. I doubt the kids heard anything because the decibel level at our table was too high to hear much of anything. The food ended up being really good, but incredibly expensive. I think it was our most expensive meal of the trip. The kids all ordered french toast. After breakfast we went back to our room gathered our belongings and checked out. As we were getting all the kids loaded in the car a lady approached Kyle and asked him if she could borrow a jack because she had a flat tire. Kyle, my knight in shining armor (and this lady's as well) changed her tire for her. She was incredibly sweet and ended up giving Kyle $20 for his trouble. Kyle wouldn't accept it so she brought it over to me and told me to take the kids out to lunch. While Kyle was changing the tire Katelynn was chasing the birds in the parking lot. It was very entertaining for me and the lady and the lady's mom and sister to watch. Katelynn kept trying to get the birds to come to her and that is what she is doing in the picture above. We were back on the road in no time flat due to my husbands amazing tire changing abilities!!! We drove to our condo in San Diego, checked in and got the kids dressed to go trick or treating at Disney California Adventures.

Parker is Captain Jack Sparrow, Carson is a skeleton pirate, Ashleigh is a oriental princess, Max is Jengo Fett, and Katelynn is a 5o's girl. I love the picture above because of the amazing posing that is going on in it. The kids were very much in character. We had a great time at the trick or treat party. Throughout the park they had trick or treat trails that would have trick or treat stations throughout the trail and at each station they would give the kids not just one piece of candy, but handfuls of candy. They also gave out small bags of baby carrots and sliced apples. The park was decorated with really cool Halloween decorations which I wish I had pictures of. All of the Pixar characters were out and almost everywhere you turned there were characters. They played live music and all of the rides were open. Carson, Ashleigh and I went on the Tower of Terror in the dark. It was so awesome. Ashleigh was very nervous because of the atmosphere of the ride and so I don't think she enjoyed it at all, but she ended up being the roller coaster fanatic on the trip. Space Mountain and California Screamin' were two of her favorite rides. We also went on the Monsters Inc ride. Katelynn's favorite movie is Monster's Inc and although she was a little nervous of the larger than life robotics and loud music I think she really enoyed seeing her favorite characters come to life. It was definately a memorable night and we had a great time.

As you can tell the condo we stayed in was right on the beach. It was cool because we slept with our windows open at night and you could hear the ocean in the background. We could look out the family room and master bedroom windows and see the ocean.

I didn't get any picures at the trick or treat party or of Max and Katelynn in their costumes....because we had camera issues which we solved by buying a new camera the next day!!! YIPEEEEE!!! I had been dying to get a new camera for over a year, and so I knew exactly what camera I wanted and everything. My CF card died about six months ago and I lost a ton of pictures so I was just using the CF card that came with the camera which would only hold about 18 picures. Before we left for our trip we had bought a new CF card. The night of the trick or treat party I put the new CF card in but it wouldn't work because our old camera is 5 years old and couldn't read the CF card. I guess the CF card had too much memory for our old outdated camera to read. Anyway although I was sad not to get any pictures of that night I was very excited to finally get the camera of my dreams!!!

CALIFORNIA TRIP - DAY THREE

Day Three - Oct 31st - SEA WORLD

After a late start, because we stopped to get our new camera and our car battery died....I was trying to entertain Katelynn with some movies while Kyle transferred pictures and charged our new camera's battery and I drained the car battery...Opps. We finally made it to Sea World. When I was growing up I always wanted to be a Marine Biologist and train dolphins or killer whales at Sea World so it goes without saying that I love Sea World. Well I am happy to say that at least one of my children feels the same way. Carson loves Sea World and says that if he can't be a pro ball player that he wants to be a trainer at Sea World. It was Halloween and so we had the kids wear their pumpkin t-shirts which came in handy when we lost Katelynn after the Shamu show. SCARY but thankfully short-lived. They were handing out candy at Sea World as well so the kids were able to add to their candy collection. There were also lots of marine characters walking around. Katelynn, Carson, and I sat in the soak zone during the Shamu show which was a lot of fun and pretty wet. We watched the Muppet 3-D show which was Katelynn's introduction to that type of show and she didn't know really want to think about it all. It scared her when the 3-D images looked like they were right in front of your face so she watched most of the show without the glasses. Kyle, Carson, Parker, and Ashleigh rode on the Shipwreck Reef ride while Katelynn, Max, and I played in the tide pools. We watched the dolphin show and the Clyde and Seamore show and walked through the penguin and shark exhibits. Max loved the Wild Artic ride. I rode Journey to Atlantis with Parker and Ashleigh and we had a blast...Ashleigh rode it again with Kyle and Carson, but Parker said he didn't want to ride it again because he was already cold and didn't want to get any wetter. Well as we were waiting for Ashleigh, Kyle, and Carson he stood right in the spot where you get soaked when the boat plummets down and he was dripping by the time they finished riding...He was having a great time!!! We let the kids play on the big playground they have there and then we headed back to our condo exhausted but very happy!!!!

CALIFORNIA TRIP - DAY FOUR - UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

The Jurassic Park ride was a blast!!! Kyle and Carson went on the ride first and Carson loved it. Carson talked Parker into going on the ride with him and Ashleigh and me. The drop was incredible and the ride was so realistic and amazing. Maybe a little too realistic for Ashleigh...she was crying half way through the ride. This was one of my favorite rides of the trip and Carson and Parker really liked it as well.

Since I was finally taking pictures with my new camera I took a ton of pictures of the kids as we were waiting in line or for the older kids to ride. The picture of Katelynn was taken while Parker, Kyle, Carson, and Ashleigh rode the new Simpsons ride. Katelynn, Max, and I were waiting in the kid swap area. Parker loved the ride and I was able to go on it with him after he finished his first ride. It is a ride very similiar to Wild Artic or Star Tours but ten times better. This was Parker's favorite ride. The picure next to Katelynn was taken while we were watching for Kyle and Carson to take the huge plummet on Jurassic Park.

It was pretty rainy this day so when it started to pour we found refuge in the Curious George play area. It was alot of fun for the kids. They were able to shoot rubber balls out of cannon like guns. Ashleigh had a blast vacuuming up all the balls and once the vacuum was full it would shoot all the balls out from a huge volcano like thing in the middle of the room. There was a ball drop and lots of buckets for the kids to collect balls and carry them to the gun of their choice. The kids including Kyle had a great time in here.

We of course had to take pictures of the back lot tour which the kids found fascinating and also intense. The earthquake and shark scenes were very real to Max, Katelynn, and Ashleigh.

Max was pretending to be a mummy while we waited for Parker, Carson, and Kyle to finish riding the new Mummy ride. Carson and I were able to go on it once they finished up, but it was a little to intense for Parker.

The Stromberg's are BACK!!!

I am back!!! I fell off the grid for a while, but it was wonderful because I was on a glorious vacation to San Diego and Disneyland with my family. Time is so interesting. While we were on vacation it seemed as if time had stopped, and for me and my little family it had. Now time marches on and I will forever cherish the week and a half we had together in California, just the seven of us. We created some wonderful memories and fun pictures that I hope to share when I have more time, right now I am still knee deep in laundry and unpacking! Here are my top ten favorite things about family vacations.

1. Eating whatever you want whenever you want
2. Kids that are excited in the morning when they wake up
3. No schedule
4. Smiling and Laughing
5. Togetherness
6. No housework and very little meal preparation
7. Sharing new experiences
8. Finding out things that I didn't know about my kids.
9. Seeing new places
10. Life seems alot easier to handle when on vacation