Grandma and Grandpa Malan–April 7-8

The second weekend in April, it was spring break in northern Utah, so Christie, Mark and Melanie (Shane’s mom, brother, and sister-in-law) all had school off.  They all came out to visit us with Kent (Shane’s dad) and Ames (our 9-month-old nephew). 

When they first got there Thursday evening, it was my big FBLA conference that I recruit judges for, so I didn’t get home until later that night.  Friday, I had to be at the conference all day, so Kent and Christie were great and watched the boys all day.  They had fun playing around the house, going on a walk, picking up pine cones, and just playing together.  It was glad that they could spend the day with them instead of a babysitter! 

Grandpa tickling James and playing pat-a-cake with him

 

Cousins James and Ames are less than a month apart.  They were so fun to watch playing together. James loved to crawl up to Ames and try to talk to him or get right in his face.  It will be fun to see them together as they grow up!

Friday evening, after I got home, Kent and Christie treated us to Gustav’s for dinner.  It was super yummy and nice to not have to cook after my long days.  After dinner, we came back to our house and had fun visiting together. 

 

At the restaurant, and Ames pretty tuckered out after a long day!

The three brothers and dad, (with Mark making a silly face for his mom taking the picture)

A Day at the Beach–March 24

Thursday morning, after our three days at Disneyland, we were all quite worn out, so we were glad we had one more day to relax before making the long trek home.  My great friend Becky Trimble and her cute family drove from 2 1/2 hours away to meet us at Huntington Beach.  It was so much fun to see her and her cute kids, and to enjoy the nice sunny beach.  It wasn’t super warm, but it was in the high 60’s, and honestly about as warm as a warm summer day at the Oregon Coast, so we felt right at home.  Except for Hope (Becky’s daughter) losing her glasses when a big wave knocked her over, the kids all had fun playing in the ocean and the sand, and we had fun visiting and catching up.

 

Two cool beach dudes in their sunglasses, and Shane out in the water with the boys

   

James enjoying crawling around in the sand, and Davis and Landon beginning to bury themselves

 

Landon and Davis always like to be buried in the sand!

   

Mom went out to wade her feet with Davis, but she got a little more wet than she planned on when a big wave came and got both of them! 

We ended the day by heading back to the hotel for the BYU basketball game, but there’s not really much more to say about that.  We did finish off the night by getting some more Pinkberry ice cream, which helped brighten the evening.

Disneyland–Day 3–March 23

On our final day at Disneyland, it was just our family and my parents.  We asked Landon and Davis what they wanted to do again for our last day, and tried to plan our day around that.  We started out at Disneyland, and we did the Buzz ride and Autopia again.  We also rode on the Jungle Cruise again since we had done it before at dark.  My mom and dad stayed with the boys for lunch while Shane and I did a fast ride on Space Mountain again, and then we joined them up for the Tiki room, which we hadn’t done yet.  Probably their favorite thing we did that day was to go over to Tom Sawyer’s island.  I don’t ever remember going over there, but Shane remembered enjoying it when he was young.  The boys loved climbing to the top of the tree house, walking across the hanging bridge, crawling through the caves, and finding the pirate’s treasure.

    

Landon, Shane and James on the Jungle Cruise, and stopping for lunch

           

Pictures on Tom Sawyer’s Island

We also headed over to Toon Town before we left Disneyland.  The boys had fun walking around and seeing Mickey’s, Minnie’s, Donald’s, Goofy’s, and more houses. 

           

I had to put in a few pictures of James in the stroller while the boys enjoyed Toon Town.  They were just too cute, so I had to put all four in!

One final picture of our family before leaving Disneyland and heading over to California Adventure.

Just as we left Disneyland, we started to feel the rain coming again.  We were more prepared this time and got our ponchos on before it really started raining, so we stayed much dryer and warmer.  We went straight to Talking with Crush, which was an indoor activity, so it actually worked our pretty good. Landon and Davis really enjoyed that, and then they of course wanted to go to Toy Story Mania one more time.  The line was outside for about half of the time, and it was raining pretty steadily, but they had umbrellas that kept us covered as we waited in line.  When we finished that ride, we went to get dinner.  We weren’t sure what to do after that because it was still raining a lot, and we had tickets to the World of Color show at 8:00.  We were supposed to be there about 45 minutes before, but we knew that would be too long to wait in line with the boys in the rain.  We finally decided to ride on Toy Story Mania one more time instead.  The line went really fast, and when we came out, the rain had stopped and the World of Color was just starting.  We found the area we were supposed to be in and we were able to catch most of the show. 

 

Shane and Landon in their rain gear again, and Landon and Davis waiting in line at Toy Story Mania.

 

Davis and Shane on one last Toy Story ride, and the World of Color

As we headed out of the park, it was a little sad that last day, not knowing how long it will be until we return to Disneyland, but we all had a great time and it turned out much better than we were expecting.  As you can see, the boys were all quite worn out, and I think we adults were feeling the same way too!  We can’t wait to go again!