Cali in a nutshell..

What an amazing 10 days away we had. We are a pretty regimented family so when I told the kids Thursday that we were letting them miss class on Friday.... it was party time at our house. The only catch was... they would not utter one word of complaint that we were getting in one last workout at our gym before we left. They were stoked!

Friday, after our killer 5K run and Row, we slowly packed up the excursion and headed off to Campo to see Grammie and Grampie Alkire. There was only one rule for our entire vacation. NO STRESS TO GET ANYWHERE IN A HURRY. We took our time and made the best of the travel together. Not once did we hear a complaint at all. Thank heaven for DVD players and cards! I thought about packing the Nintendo DS's but forgot to charge them and figured that they would get lost in between places...so I hoped for the best with the little smooshies sitting next to each other. They were angels the entire time!

We were sad that Grampie Ken did not get his deployment orders to go back to Afghanistan. Alas, Disneyland was not an option for him. We spent Friday night at their house and Grammie loaded up with us and we headed to Disneyland.

Grammie Diane and Grampie Frank met us at our condo and we all hit the pool. The anticipation was building and we finally got back to our room to find that Mickey had arrived and left, "Presents," for the kids just like the last time we went on vacation there. Mickey tends to visit the Jensen family regularly since he shops online and gets the same presents (LIKE THE GOLD LIMITED EDITION MICKEY AND MINNIE AND POOH BEAR from the collages) that would have cost $50.00, at the park, for a measly $4.00 online. It pays to stock-pile those kinds of surprises for a year. Mickey ended up showing up to our condo every day that we visited the park... saving Mommy about $400.00 in souvenir costs.

Every day was just a blast. We ate at our favorite "Goofy's Kitchen" twice while we were there and got to ride a lot of rides we had never been on. Grammie Diane and Grampie Frank had to leave on Wednesday so Grampie could have his knee surgery. We were sad they had to cut the vacation short. Thursday brought on new family. Tommy's sister Michelle and her daughter Lexi came up for the night. We has spent the day at Disneyland just the 5 of us so we had a long 10 hours of fun there. We swam and hung out and got ready for a long Friday. We were so sad that the fireworks were cancelled on Friday night but made the best of all of our time with everyone. My poor Binky was devastated when Lexi had to leave after an entire day with us at the parks. Another final trip on the log ride helped her to stop her tears!

Saturday we packed up...or I should say shoved and shoved and smooshed as much as humanly possible into our excursion... and then threw all the kids in on top of it all and headed back to Campo. One more night at Grammie and Grampie Alkires and we finally headed back home to AZ on Sunday afternoon.

I love that my kids got to vacation with their grandparents. That was one of my greatest memories of my Hubba growing up. I know that this will now become a new tradition, since we already started planning next years vacation while walking through Main Street at Disneyland.

We were so lucky to have a safe trip and not one single argument or disagreement the entire trip. As for me, well, I was wrong when I told Tommy that Disneyland was not a vacation. It was a lot of work keeping 3 little ones together but it was the best time we have ever had. It was Pudgie's first real vacation and I am so happy that Tommy decided on this last summer. I would not have wanted to have gone anywhere else.

I am so thankful that Jax was happy to help with Brinkley when we hit a huge crowd. He never once complained that he had to hold her hand and was just amazing when Pudgie was let out of his stroller. I never have to worry when my little helper is on the job!

Now back to reality.
Luggage that needs to be unpacked....
and our down stairs air conditioning unit that is not working
REALITY.......
vacations are wonderful... but still

there is no place like home!!