After weeks of secretive planning we had too much fun implementing! At 4:30am we went to each kids room to wake them up and tell them we were going on a suprise vacation! We made a video of their reactions. Each kid were so dang confused (Levi said he thought we were waking him up for 9 o'clock church, like that is really THAT early) and with sleepy expressions they made their way downstairs to find out the location of this surprise vacation! After laying our some character books they were so excited and immediately knew it was Disneyland! We saved the final surprise for later! We picked up Bada on the way telling the kids that we were giving her a ride somewhere. Mom distracted the kids up until we were pulling into the airport. Then we broke the news that we were flying. None of our kids remember flying and most have never flown. So they were almost just as excited about this surprise as the first!
Now for the airport adventure. It was quite the stressful event getting kids through security not having done that in, well ever. We got to the terminal and decided to run the kids to the bathroom before boarding. Well right as Dan took the boys they started calling out for boarders to line up. I got a tad worried and grabbed our stuff and me and Makayla went to the bathroom. This is where the confusion hit. I passed the stuff off to Dan on his way back and ran Makayla to the bathroom. We were running naturally because I wanted to make sure we got on when we were supposed to so we could sit together. Well, apparently I left my phone in the bathroom. I thought it was on the stroller with Dan. We were loading the stroller on the plane when I realized it wasn't anywhere. So Dan ran back to the bathroom as I loaded the kids on the plane. He was the last one on and no phone in sight. Within those few minutes someone stole the phone. We suspect and airplane employee as it stayed there till that evening (we thought maybe in lost and found and my parents could get it later in the week), and then it went to a house in West Valley. Kellie who was tracking my phone late that night got ahold of a detective who called us and tried to knock on their door. They didn't hand it over and there was not anything else they could do without hearing the phone, so I was out of luck!
Back to the flight! The flight is short and the kids were very entertained with all the airplane things. If mom wasn't so upset about her phone, she could have enjoyed it a little more! Graham fell asleep as the plane was pulling in. It was quite the struggle to get all the kids/luggage off the plane, to pickup up all the luggage and carseats at the baggage claim, wait for the bus and load onto the busy bus while carrying a sleeping guy. But, with our older boys help, we made it! The bus took us to a parking lot, where we waited for a van that took us to the car rental place. That is wear they shed their jackets! We were in warm weather at last! My stress level sank as we were loaded into the van. We were a little early for lunch, so we drove over to the LA temple and walked around. It was a good way to get wiggles out and it is always fun to see the different temples. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed over to the Santa Monica Pier. The kids played at the beach for awhile. They could run away from waves all day. It was a tad chilly, but that didn't stop them. After finding some small shells, we wandered over to the pier. We found some small crabs under the pier as we walked along. We decided to go on top of the pier too. Their were some interesting people performing, and some very pretty views. The kids just soaked it all in. We wandered back to the car when they were tired out, and headed to the hotel!
We were offered a themed room or not. Naturally mom chose the themed, which was a princess theme. The boys were THRILLED! HA! This hotel was a little further down the road, but gave us a good price for a 2 bedroom. Everyone got a bed and it was worth it! We decided to check out the Toy Story Shuttle in preparation for the next day and went to get dinner in downtown Disney. We didn't know Dancing With the Stars were going to be there that night, so getting in was a nightmare. But, we walked around the Lego store and Disney stores and grabbed some pizza. We hit the hay early to get ready for our first day at the parks!
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