Vacation Day #1

The day we have been saving, planning and looking forward to for two years is finally here!  WaHoo!!  We are such fun parents, the kids woke up that morning and we told them they had to go to school.  They didn't mind knowing that mom and dad were busy doing last minute packing and loading the van.  Actually we had quite a bit of packing done the night before...I had an awesome cousin (Steph) come up with an idea to make her California vacation a little easier and I had another friend tell us to make sure we put our kids in matching clothes...at least while we were at the major theme parks...it would make it easier to find kids who accidentally wonder off! 

So we combined both ideas and we put matching outfits together and then taped one whole day together! (even though Shawn didn't seem totally sold on the idea at the time, I think he realized how nice it was when we were trying to quietly get all our stuff together for the day at 6am while the kids were still sleeping!  Just grab one stack and you had all four matching outfits!)

I LOVED it!  It was so easy to manage....It also proved so helpful for all the kids to be in the same color.  Well mom and dad don't have a shirt selection with a rainbow of colors (why?) so we were the odd ones out sometimes and we got called on it every time!-- "Oh matching shirts, what a smart idea, where are mom and dad's shirts?"  But it worked great for the kids, one time we lost a kid for about 5 minutes or so...I turned around and Josh apparently hadn't followed us!  I looked at the other kids and knew right away what color shirt I was looking for and headed off to go find him!  See?  Very useful!  It was also great to do a quick scan to make sure all your kids were close by-especially when it got really crowded...1--2--3--4 bright orange shirts!!!  Got 'em!

So after we sent the kids off to school we started to pack the van and look for any last minute items that we forgot.  We had a quick lunch at home and then got to school to check the kids out an hour early.  They were SO excited...we checked to make sure they all had gotten their homework, piled in the car, said a quick prayer for safety and hit the road!

I wish I would take more pictures than I do...I did something fun for the kids (well I think it was fun).  The kids were SO SO SO very excited for the trip but at the same time we also know how much "fun" it is to be stuck in a car for hour and hours, especially if you're uncomfortable or squished!   So I had bought everyone a new DVD to watch in the car...I had wrapped them individually and then put them in a gift bag that happened to have Mickey Mouse on it! I had the bag hidden in the front by me and as we were driving down I-15 I pulled it out and surprised them with a present to open!  We decided to watch them in order of age so Rusty's was first!  He got Scooby Doo ($5 bin at walmart!), Then Wesley had opened Zauthura (another $5), Mily's was the new Hoodwinked 2 and Josh got Diaries of a Wimpy kid 2 (which I liked much better than #1!).   New movies certainly made the trip more manageable.  Then we also had several new car games that Grandma Crabb had given us just before the tip (thank you!).  They also had their homework, so there was always something when the landscape got a little boring and after we had watched all the videos twice!!

After a few rest stops, we finally made it to our first destination!  St. George, Ut! I started pointing out the red rock and the palm trees...they were SHOCKED when they found out they were still in Utah!  (hahaha). 

First we went to our hotel room, unloaded our van and then headed next door to BK for a quick dinner.  Afterwards we headed to the Tuacahn Theater to go see The Little Mermaid!  It was everyones first time to the theater, first I've got to send out a big thank you to my sister Yvonne for letting us borrow her GPS, we drove right there even though we were pretty confused the entire time..."it said, take a left...so just turn left!!"  Tom-tom totally got us there!

We stood around watching the pre-show for a few minutes and took some pictures as we waited for the doors to open.

Mom, dad and Rusty also took a turn with the cut-outs while Josh took the pictures, but unfortunately he wasn't paying too much attention and they were REALLY blurry!  Oh well, we didn't have to wait long before they let us go to our seats!

Got all settled in just so we could sit and wait some more!  Although the view was great!  It was so neat to look out at the beautiful red rock and once it got dark, to also look up and see the amazing stars! 

I really appreciated the guy who came out to start the show, he talked about the VIPs who were in attendance that day, then he mentioned that there were a few more special guests sitting in the audience and would we please cheer them on as he asked them to stand...then he invited members of the military past and present to please stand...and the crowd went WILD!  It was really great, it was a fantastic way to start off a great show full of magic and wonder...really they did some amazing stuff with that set!  And how about that ocean that they swam through...how neat is that? Well done indeed! 

We happened to notice the line for Flounder was pretty short so we got a quick pictures with him after the show got out...

and we waved at the other actors as we left!  (Ursala was great!)

I wonder if Prince Eric gets anyone in line to see him?  My boys would have if he wasn't standing next to the princess who had a mile long wait!

We decided that we were so glad that we decided to get a room instead of drive to Las Vegas that same night!  It was a perfect little hotel room, the kids loved playing around...they were even excited to go to bed in their new spots! 

First day, lots of fun...ready for more fun to come!