The Happiest Place on Earth! Disneyland 2010

(This one is a little of a doozy! Enjoy!)

THE trip has finally happened! Since Andy and I were married, we have been saving for the big Fraser Family Reunion in Disneyland! It has been a lot of "planning" and stress and worry and craziness, but when it was all said and done, it was the best thing we could have ever been able to do! Andy's family likes to set a tradition of doing a BIG family "vacation" (I put vacation in quotes because I see it as a trip, but his entire family calls it a vacation. If we are being honest, I need a vacation from this trip. Therefore, I will refer to it as a trip from here on!) It has been a labor of love. Andy's family is big into planning. Me? Not so much. I like to set a date and a place and see how it goes from there. I can see now, why planning is important. When there are 35 people, 21 of which are children all of which are under the age of 14, there needs to be some sort of a plan. We reached a happy medium and had a BLAST! I was nervous at first. All this hype for some dinky little kid rides and lots of people? Gimme a break! I was pleasantly surprised. It is one of my favorite places! I loved everything! (Especially the churros and Mahi Mahi Tacos) I am pretty sure my entire outlook on life has changed. I just feel happier. I want to make my family happy. Spend time with them more often. Seeing Will playing with his cousins made me and Andy so happy!

Our trip started off on the right foot with an eleven hour drive from Salt Lake City to Anaheim, CA. In ONE day. With Will. For the first time on a long trip. And we didn't even leave until about 845am. Most of Andy's other siblings had the luxury of driving there in two days. Can you say jealous? We stopped in St. George and had Cafe Rio for lunch, eating at a church yard. At the boarder town of Nevada and California, Will started to LOOSE it. He was freaking out. He was sick and tired of being in the car. So, We stopped at a place called Whisky Pete's and I hopped in the back seat. Lame Sauce. We reached our destination at about 630 Pacific time. And it was heaven! Our house was amazing!

Saturday we spend the day with the Watkins Family. We went to California Adventures. It was so fun! We got to ride Soarin' Over California and Hollywood Tower of Terror. Along with Monsters Inc., Bugs Life, The Muppets...all those good rides.

Sunday we went to Church and then did our grocery shopping. We had a family dinner that night. It was great to see Jake's face when he opened the presents Andy MADE for him. We pulled our resources together as a family and bought a Civil War Era bayonette and cannon shot. He LOVED it. Andy made a shadow box out of some old barn wood and stained it just a little darker. It was a great gift. I am glad I married such a "Handy Andy". He's always thinking of ways we can do nice things for family.

Monday we spent the day at California Adventure again. We got to spend time with all our family this time though! It was such fun, but large crowds MOVE SLOWLY!

Tuesday was our first REAL day at DISNEYLAND! I had never been before and I LOVED IT! It was so great that we were able to ride the majority of the rides together as a family. I have fallen in love with this place! We are planning a trip (with the help of our amazing Disney CC...credit cards are wonderful if you know how to use them and make them work FOR you!) to DisneyWorld in about 3 years! I have been on a Disney high since we got back. We had such a great time riding Dumbo and Alice and the carousels and eating CHURROS! The food was great! I would give anything if I could just have ONE fish taco!

Friday, our last day in California, we went to Seal Beach. It was my first time to a Pacific beach and Will's first time to the ocean, period. It was an overcast day, the water was freezing, and the waves were HUGE! I can say, I totally prefer my Gulf Coast beaches. SO much nicer! Will was freaked out with the waves until he realized they were just water. We played in the water for a bit, I lost one of our shovels, then fished it back out! (hahahaha! I am cracking myself up right now!) We were going to walk the Pier, then it started raining, as we were walking past the playground, it stopped. We played a little bit and just missed the major down pour. (Becky and Weston weren't so lucky!) We had another family dinner to end the big trip. It was a swimming party! The big kids were in the pool and the little kids with me, Andy and Cassie were in the "hot tub". (It was literally colder then any tub I would bathe in, but we have to watch out for the little ones!)

DisneyLand was a great adventure (and very much needed) and I am glad we were able to do it with our family. They have become so much more then just family though, we are all friends and we always have a great time. I realized how great and happy my life is, everyday. I have an amazing husband and a great son. I realize my responsibility to them both and want to do my best to be a great wife and mother. I DO need a vacation from this trip. I still have not caught up on my sleep! We crashed out every night as soon as we got back from the park! But I would not trade it for the world! If we could, we would go on trips like this all the time! We are slowing working up towards that goal, with our little camping trips. I want to see the world with my kids! They make life so much better and they are only little for such a short amount of time. I will make sure that I spend it with them as much as possible. I am so grateful for the opportunity and lessons I learned while spending time with The Frasers'. I will make my efforts to do these kinds of things with my siblings, too.

(I have pictures on Facebook. I will also post some on here as a different post!)