It's a new year, and a new chance to get out and see the world a bit! A time to set new goals and to accomplish what we can this year!
So excited to go skiing with these cute kids on Saturdays!
Always being busy and climbing on things.
After being isolated and together and doing very minimal group events during covid, we all are vaccinated and felt like it was an ok time to face some crowds. What better way to face a crowd than a trip to Disneyland?! We still had to wear masks on the airplane and at Disney, BUT we were out! We took our first trip as a family out of the state of Alaska since we had moved here a year and a half ago. The kids were beyond excited, and it didn't even matter that we had to wear masks.
On the shuttle.
It was a really long flight, but we were excited to see Grammy's orange tree in Nana and Papa Pat's back yard and to start exploring. We can sleep later right?
Your cousins kids are still your cousins, so the kids were very excited to see some cousins!
Nana's face is always a joy to see what expression she comes up with.
It was fun getting to do some exploring with Grammy and Mark.
My hottie and I on a windy beach. Nothing better.
We can't visit California without stopping at Tommy's! Best sloppy chili burgers on the planet and the best of memories to go with it.
We sure love this family of ours!
We of course had to find a few blue bellied lizards while we could.
Our hotel had a pool, so we had to get wet the night before Disney!
All dressed up for day 1 at Disneyland!
Then off to the Millennial Falcon for Smuggler's Run and a flight through space.
Kael and Mark on space mountain. Probably good they had masks on, or their mouths would be hanging wide open.
We love Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. It never gets old shooting a gun on a ride.
We made several trips back to Star Wars land.
It took a couple tries, but we got on the new Rise of the Resistance ride. It was very interactive with live characters and videos and was really quite fun!
It was hard not taking pictures of everything. It was so new and fun!
One thing is for certain, Connor is not afraid of rides, and is a thrill seeker. It is so much fun being able to go with the kids and all of them a little more excited for the rides.
The kids were all super brave and tried the Incredicoaster for the first time!
One of the days we were able to buy a few photos from the park. It was pretty fun getting some X-wing fighters in our pictures in the sky!
We have a new love of riding roller coasters with all 4 kids!
I feel like Kael's face got better and better each time he road the coaster. He really doesn't love fast rides or heights and he got braver and braver until he could strike a cool pose for the photo! The kids were awesome!
We were nervous getting on, but excited and terrified, and then we always had a BLAST!
On Spiderman with Grammy and Mark.
We got to watch Doctor Strange do a show. It was cute.
Can't go to California Adventure without stopping by Radiator Springs!
It's incredible the kids can ride together and are old enough we don't have to sit right next to them. I remember thinking about this day and sometimes that it wouldn't happen and sure enough it came.
Kael and Derek making Kael's official lightsaber! He saved his money so he could have this experience.
Derek got to tag along for the experience.
My Aunt Denise's family were at Disney at the same time as us, and we were able to meet for a quick hello amid all of our adventures while Derek and Kael made Kael's lightsaber. It was so fun being able to see some Heaton family as well. There is never enough time to see and do all we want, but we were so grateful for our hello!
Just a couple more rides!
We aren't competitive at all seeing who got the highest score?!
Only Eden and Connor wanted to brave the drops on this one!
Eden saw pictures of her with a sucker from Disney when she was around 3 and has to get one every time now just to keep the memory alive.
The trip was needed in a bad way for us. We needed to see family and have these amazing experiences.
But our fun never ends. Our love for exploring Alaska will never grow old. We invested in ice fishing equipment and got to work catching our dinner just a few days once home.
Alaska's beauty never ceases to amaze me.
We caught so many fish! Now to learn how to properly fillet all these fish!
Eden got to go to the temple for the first time this month!
We went with our friends the Schreiner's Angelica and Willie. Homeschooling makes it so they can do baptisms for the dead during the school day, which is a pretty neat experience and makes it more possible to get the kids to the temple more often. We are so blessed!
The kids still endeavored to make Valentines Day boxes!
The kids dress up the pug dogs whenever they can.
Some of us have loved skiing more than others. It can be difficult to learn, but learn the kids did. We were missing Elara this day. So grateful we could do this sport affordably with having the military base so close. My kids don't feel a need for speed, or to do anything extreme, so we take it nice and easy on the slopes. They really don't love race days because they don't want to have to go fast. I'm just glad they learned to stop and turn and now have the ability to go slower if they want.
I'm just grateful I can do so many activities with the kids and have this time with them.
We do miss some "school" things from homeschooling, but we have ways to still have fun experiences. The kids do so many projects and we have friends that will celebrate holidays with us.
We had so much fun this January and are so glad to be moving out of isolation from covid. I will never take back that time that we had, the memories we created, the people we met, but I was ready to move on.
So many things came from having covid 19 in this world, but the best thing that came from it was the time with my people, my family and the ability to enjoy being with them even more.
