The Vacation - Part 1

After four years of deployments, babies, and work we finally decided it was time to take a nice family vacation. Glen had a 20 year class reunion in California and we decided it would be a perfect time to make it into a nice big trip including Disneyland, San Diego, and Arizona, despite the fact that I was eight months pregnant. We weren't sure what to do with the kids while we went to the reunion, so we ended up inviting my parents with my sister's two kids, Mike and Brittany, and my brother, Bill, and sister-in-law, Jenny, with their daughter, Grace, who is the same age as Ella. Their son Porter stayed home with Jenny's parents.

After months of listening to the kids ask in eager anticipation when we were going, the day finally came on Wednesday, June 18th. We woke up early and when we asked a sleepy Ammon "Do you want to go to California?", he promptly said, "OK!", and jumped out of our bed. Of course there were similar responses from Isaac and Ella as well. We met up with the rest of the family in Lehi, not completely behind schedule, and after switching some kids around to make the trip more enjoyable, we headed out.

We made it all the way to Santequin when Isaac asked, "Are we there yet?" Hmm, how to explain to a five and a half year old that we weren't even close to being there yet. Time to put a movie in. With stops every couple of hours we still made really good time and arrived in Big Bear, California, where we were staying, right around dinner time. We have a time share there and because our time share in Anaheim was completely booked, we felt like it was the next best option. In hind sight it would have been better to just pay for a hotel in Anaheim, but oh well.

Thursday morning we all got ready and headed down the mountain to Disneyland (about a two hour trip). Everyone was pretty excited despite the long drive the day before, but it proved to be a little overwhelming for some of my kids. Ella refused to pose for a picture with the rest of the kids and this proved to be her attitude for the whole trip. Getting onto the tram from the parking lot, Ammon completely freaked out and caused quite a scene, but he calmed down a little bit once we were moving. My mom stayed back with us, but the rest of the family had gone ahead and were already in the park and riding rides by the time we got there. So a couple little bumps along the way, but we were still looking forward to an exciting and fun day. As we got into the park I thought, hmmm, we should all go to the bathroom before we start getting in lines that we won't want to get out of. Simple enough, right? Well . . . I went into the bathroom with my mom and Ella and after showing Ella to a stall I went to my own, not thinking much of it. I finished, washed my hands and told my mom to go ahead and go out, I just needed to check on Ella. Still not done.

"Ella, are you almost done?" "No." "OK, sweetie, hurry up so we can go ride some rides." No answer. A couple minutes later. "Ella, are you ok?" "No." "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "Ella, we need to hurry, there are people waiting." "I don't want to do anything!" Big sigh, oh this was going to be fun. "Ella, do you need some help?" "NO!" OK, maybe she was having a hard time, I'd give her a couple minutes. No change. "Ella, are you ok?" "Yes!" "Are you almost done?" "No!" This was getting ridiculous. After about fifteen minutes my mom came back in to see what was going on. I had no idea except that Ella was locked in the stall and just sitting on the toilet doing nothing. My mom tried. "Ella, you need to hurry so we can go ride the rides." No response. I told my mom to just go with everyone else and ride something, I'd wait with her. After twenty minutes more, I was still in the bathroom with Ella feeling like a total fool and basically in tears wondering if I was going to spend the entire day at Disneyland in the bathroom. Should I ask a custodian to break the lock, should I ask someone with small kids to have them crawl under the door and open it for me? I was in no position to do it myself or I would have. Everytime I tried to command, bribe, plead, and threaten Ella to open the door or at least tell me what was wrong I was given the same response, "I DON'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING!" That's our Ella, the sweet princess one minute, and the fiery dragon the next. Finally after 45 minutes, my mom came back with a new plan. She had found Grace and we sent her under the door. After Ella and Grace chatted for a minute (good grief!) Grace opened the door and I was able to get to Ella. Though I wanted to choke her, all I could do was cry and ask her what was wrong. I think it shocked her that I was crying and when I told her to get off the toilet she said that she needed to wipe. "So get some toilet paper." "I can't, it's stuck." I was ready to scream. If this was the reason she had sat there for 45 minutes I was going to shoot myself. Two minutes later she was washing her hands as if nothing had happened. Needing some time to calm down, I sent Ella with the group to ride the train and I sat in the shade and waited some more. I could hear Ammon screaming in protest as they got on the train and was glad that I had opted out of that adventure. What did I learn from this whole experience? Don't let Ella go into a bathroom stall by herself, and I didn't for the rest of the trip.

The rest of the day actually went pretty well. Glen's friends Mike and Sheila Parker came to the park and helped show us around and rode with us and the kids on the rides which was a big help. Our group had basically split up and so it was just us with our kids, my mom, and Mike and Sheila for most of the day. We hooked up a couple times to eat with everyone else and for a couple rides and then we all met up at the end of the day for the fireworks show by the castle. The highlights:

All the kids loving the Buzz Lightyear ride

Forgetting about the stomach dropping drops on Pirates of the Caribbean, but still enjoying it

Riding the Winnie the Pooh ride with the lights on because they were fixing it and we were able to take pictures inside.

Isaac getting a big thrill from Thunder Mountain, but being a little scared.

Isaac getting an even bigger thrill from Space Mountain, deemed his favorite ride ever!

Ella letting a Chinese couple hold her and take her picture while she smiled perfectly (this would be in opposition to the fact that she wouldn't let us take her picture hardly at all)

An incredible fireworks show at the end of the night.

An exhausted Ammon and Ella falling asleep as we walked back to the car.

All in all, an interesting and good start to the vacation.