Aug. 13-15th Moving on to Northern California

August 13th

After packing up this morning, we left Anaheim behind and started driving to the San Jose area of California.  We were going to stop at Josh and Tanya's house and stay there for a few days on our way home to Oregon.  The drive was about 6 hours.  I think we left around 11 and got there about 7:30 that night--due to many stops for gas, restrooms and eating.  When we got there, they had a yummy dinner ready for us.  It was so nice to eat a home cooked meal since everything we had eaten for about 2 weeks was from a restaurant.  We got all the kids settled in for the night, then the adults stayed up talking till about midnight.  It was nice to just sit and visit.  

August 14th

I got up at 7 with Noah to help get him dressed, but then he just played with the other kids and I went back to bed until about 9.  So nice!  We had pancakes for breakfast.  The whole day was pretty much hanging out by the pool and swimming.  They have a beautiful house up in the mountains of Soquel.  It's actually the home that Tanya and her siblings grew up in, so that was pretty cool.  It's a beautiful piece of property! Tanya had ordered a trampoline that happened to show up that day, so Garrett and Josh helped put that up.  

 Caleb and Noah

 Bella

 Lydia going down the giant slide

 These two played so well together!

 The view off their deck

 View of the house from the deck

 This is their front yard.  The boys had fun riding bikes

 More swimming.  Paige going down the slide.

 Josh and Garrett having a war with each other.

We all got out and cleaned up and then we decided that we wanted to go down to the beach and have a bonfire.  We went and ate first at a yummy Mexican restaurant.    

 But by the time we got down to the beaches, all the bonfire pits had been taken.  You can only have fires in certain areas of the beach.  

 So, we just got out at one beach and had the kids play in the sand.  It had cooled off quite a bit.

 Beautiful sunset behind the shops

 Paige, Hannah, Caleb and Maggie

 Lydia

There were so many boats out on the water.  

We then headed home and got the kids in bed.  Our three little kids slept in the same room as Hannah and Caleb, so it was a big party.  I'm not sure how much sleep they actually got though....

That night we stayed up and watched Divergent.

August 15th

 This morning after sleeping in again, we had breakfast and then we all went on a little hike up behind their house.  It was beautiful!

Lydia checking out the view...

 The whole gang minus Tanya (taking the picture)

Garrett, Luke, Josh and Caleb

walking back down

Josh and Luke

After we got back, we all went swimming again--even me.  It was really nice!  We had a yummy lunch out on the back deck and hung out for a while.  

Paige and Hannah

Bells

Paige jumping in

Bella loved the water

Then I went to shower and started packing things up because we had to leave that evening.  There was a Youth Barn Dance in Tillamook on Saturday night that Maggie really wanted to go to.  This was a very sore subject for us because Garrett really wanted to stay a couple more days and hang out, but Maggie was sad that she was missing so many activities with her friends.  I know Garrett was very sad about leaving and I felt bad because I was pushing for us to leave (not just for Maggie) but because I wanted to get home and work on some projects.  

Uncle Josh going down the slide head first

Then Garrett and Josh were being goofy and trying to do toe touches as they jumped in the pool.

Bella body surfing

The gang.  I was in the shower and Lydia was taking the picture.

We left their house around 4 and then drove to Redding, California that night.  That was like a 5 hour drive and it was pretty late by the time we got to the hotel.
August 16th
Today was spent driving.  Long day.  It was 8 hours of driving and I don't remember how many stops.  We got her to Tillamook about 20 minutes before the dance was about to start.  I don't know how we timed it so well.  We made sure she had a ride home with someone and then we took off.  We stopped at the Tillamook cheese factory after dropping her off and I remember seeing a bunch of youth in cowboy boots/plaid shirts.  They were all headed to the barn dance--it was so funny to see so many of them!

Noah and Paige at the Tillamook Cheese Factory
After getting ice cream, we drove the LAST LEG HOME!  It was so awesome to be back home.  For this part of the trip, we were gone almost 4 weeks.  I think Garrett calculated that we had driven 3500 miles round trip.  We spent 11 nights in a hotel and were in the car driving for 8 days.  Whew--good trip!!

August 12th: Last Day for Disney

August 12th

Last Day at Disneyland

Josh and Tanya left to drive back to their home today, so it was just us on our last day.  We slept in a little bit and didn't get to the park until around 10.  The past 2 days, the kids have walked everywhere because we never stopped to rent a stroller.  So we promised them that we would get one today.  Man, there was a huge line for strollers.  When Garrett came back, about 40 minutes later, he only had a single stroller, so Bella and Noah fought over riding in it all day.  Not sure it really helped anything, but at least we had a place to put our backpack!  :)

 I cannot remember all the rides we went on and in what order, but I'll do my best trying to remember.  It won't matter to you guys reading this at all I know, but it bugs me when I can't remember.  

 We started out in Tomorrowland, since we hadn't really done anything in this area.  Our first ride was the "Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters"  

 Then we headed over to something called "Innoventions" because they had displays and interactive meetings with The Avengers--Captain America, Thor and Iron Man.  Maggie is a huge Captain America fan (actually all of them, but especially Captain America), so we stopped in to see it.

 We saw all the Iron Men suits first--they had them all on display from the very first to the latest.

 I don't think Iron Man was there, just his suits. 

Then we went to wait in line to meet Captain America.  

Maggie was pretty giddy to have her picture taken with him, even though it wasn't really Chris Evans.  She thought he was still pretty cute.  

 After that, Garrett and Maggie went to get in line for the Matterhorn and I took everyone else to Alice in Wonderland.  They had really been wanting to go on it, so I figured it was time.  It was cute!

 In line for the Matterhorn.  She was hoping that it was going to be like Expedition Everest, but she said it was nothing like it.  Kind of disappointing.  Oh well.

 Another picture with Eugene.  Her favorite!

While we were in Fantasy land, the smaller girls wanted to get a toy, so we did a little shopping and got them each a toy.

 When we were done with Alice, we headed over to Jedi Training to watch.  None of my kids really wanted to participate, but it was fun to watch the other kids.  I don't think Paige had quite gotten into Star Wars yet.  If she had, she would've been all over this!

 Darth Vader!

 This little girl was so cute fighting Vader.  She had no fear!  While we were watching this, Garrett and Maggie came back and then Garrett took Lydia to go ride Star Tours.  I think I took the other kids to ride Pinochio.  That was a big mistake.  You'd think it would be a nice, fun ride for little kids.  Nope, they have to make it dark and scary with weird music and scary images.  My two youngest have never seen Pinocchio and really didn't like it at all.  Go mom!

 When we all met up again, we found the kids a little corner to hang out in.  We had Lydia watch them for a little bit while Garrett, Maggie and I rode on Space Mountain.  I really don't like this ride, but I thought I'd give it another try.  The other time I went on it, I felt like I was going to hit my head on something, so I kept trying to sink down into my chair.  This time, the ride was completely pitch dark and I couldn't see a dang thing.  I didn't like that.  I really felt sick during the whole thing.  So, I don't think I'll ride that one again.  

 We did a little more shopping before we left Tomorrowland--for t-shirts and such.  

 Then we went to ride Mr. Toad's Wild ride.  Garrett went somewhere by himself, but I can't remember where.  Anyways, I love this cartoon and I thought it would be cute for the kids--they have seen it and like it too.  It was fine until the end when Mr. Toad ends up in HELL for some reason.  That's not how the movie was, and so once again my little kids did not like this ride either.  Why do they add that things like that?  Is there another version of the show that I have not seen?  Oi!

 Anyways, after that I think we all got ice cream and sat down to watch the Mickey Mouse show that Garrett had watched with the little kids two days before.  (Mickey and the Magical Map)

 Rapunzel and Flynn in the Magical Map

 Catching the end of the parade.

 Riding the carousel again

We walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle after this and took some fun pictures of the scenes in there.  

I honestly can't remember what other rides we rode, but we did a bit more shopping and then I think we left.  I'm sure I'm missing something but when you are 5 months behind, you tend to forget things.