San Francisco Trip - Part One

So after the chaos of stomach flu at Disneyland, we couldn't just go home and rest and recover.  Josh and I had a business trip booked in San Francisco and flights we had to make.  The plan had been

to drop our kids off at Josh's parents' house in St. George along with our van, then rent a car to drive

back up to Provo to fly out to SF.  We had an extra day, luckily, so even though it made our time a little crunched, we stayed an extra day in Las Vegas to give everyone a another day to recover before

going to Grandma's house.  It helped a lot and everyone felt much better once we got there.  With all

the craziness (and the extra day), we waited to long to reserved our rental car, and there were none

left in all of St. George!  Out of desperation, we drove out to the airport car rental just to wait and see

if anyone brought one in or they had one.  Somehow, they had one left - a red convertible!  They were super nice and gave us the "budget" car price and we were good to go! We hightailed it back home to wash clothes and pack.

During our short time home we got a handful of strawberries from the garden!

The next morning we turned our rental car in at the Provo airport

and caught our flight to San Francisco (technically Oakland airport, first)!

We arrived at Oakland, and picked up our rental car there.  Then we went 

first thing to the Oakland Temple.

Afterward we crossed the Oakland bridge into San Francisco.

 Instead of a hotel, we had found a great deal on a little vacation rental.

The hills in SF were crazy!  Our little place was on this steep hill.

It ended up being such a cute little apartment.  We were pleased with it.

After we got settled, we drove toward Fisherman's Wharf and found

a place to park.  One thing about SF is you pay for parking wherever you go.

We walked up this HUGE steep street for a long time (we had planned this walk).

When we got to the top, we could see the famous Lombard Street which curves 

all the way down the other side of the hill.

Famous San Fran Trolley

Lombard street.

Alcatraz Island in the distance:

Next, we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf.

It was so cool to see all the fresh seafood for sale.

Dungeness crab was there big thing.

We stopped there for dinner.

Fresh sourdough bread (another SF must try food)

We decided to splurge and try the dungeness crab.

It was delicious.

After dinner, we stopped at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory

on our way back to the car.

Disneyland Trip - June 2014

As soon as school was out for the summer, we hit the road to go to Disneyland!

We made a quick stop in St. George to have lunch with Josh's Grandpa and Nana.

We spent the night in Las Vegas, and continued on the next morning.

We got a great deal on a hotel room with a separate room and bunk bed for the kids.

Even the alarm clock was cute. :)

That afternoon we decided to check out Downtown Disney, as we had never

been.  The boys had to check out the Lego Store of course.

That night, Quinn woke up with a bad stomach bug. :(  It was so sad.  He was

three years old and it was his first time ever throwing up, so it scared him a little!

We had plans to go to Disneyland in the morning, but he was way to sick, so we made

a change of plans in hopes of giving him some time to get better.  He had been SO 

excited for weeks to go to Disneyland, and I was just praying he would feel like going!

We also had tickets for one day to Knott's Berry Farm, so we decided to have Josh take the other 

boys there, while I stayed at the hotel with Quinn.  They had a fun day, but it was sad

to have to be separated.

The next day Quinn was feeling a lot better, although still a little weak, poor guy.

We decided to go ahead and go to Disneyland.

Poor Quinn had fun, but did a lot of resting in the stroller.

We had a disability pass for Bryce because he has a hard time waiting in long

lines, but it ended up being useful for Quinn this time too!

Thunder Mountain Railroad!  The only roller coaster I actually like...

didn't get to go this time though since I was pregnant! :)

We got to watch the parade.  It was nice to take a break from

the sun.  We definitely wished we hadn't had to book our Disney

trip during the summer this time! (We usually go during fall break, but

not this time with baby coming)

It was super crowded and super hot!  But of course we were 

grateful and happy to be there anyway. :)

Gotta love It's a Small World!

Playing with the big water ball.

We got to see the fireworks that night!  We didn't end up

with a very good view because we got there too late, but it was still cool.

The next day we went to California Adventures.  This ended up being probably our best

day of the trip because Quinn was feeling back to himself (mostly) and no one else was 

sick yet (spoiler!).

Bryce loved looking at the map:

 Loved this shot of all the kids looking at the map. :)

We got to see Mickey Mouse first thing!

The army guys from Toy Story put on a fun little show.

I loved the tile work by the Little Mermaid ride (probably my favorite ride at

California Adventures).

We got to see the new Radiator Springs land!  It was so fun!

I didn't get to go on the main ride because of pregnancy, but everyone

else said it was awesome!  Can't wait to try it next time!

Ready to go on Astro Blasters:

The Jellyfish ride:

Swings:

Mickey Mouse pretzels!

This was such a cute ride at Radiator Springs.  It was Mater the tractor

and was kind of similar to teacups.

That night, Josh woke up really sick. :(  The day was our last day

at Disneyland, so we decided the rest of us had better go and make use of our tickets, 

so I took the boys while Josh stayed at the hotel.

We saw a fun Barbershop Quartet and had to take a picture

for Josh since he loves those. 

Cute shot by the castle.

We tried to catch the rides we had missed the first day, and

went on the Teacups (another favorite).

And we had to try pulling the sword out of the stone!

Bryce started not feeling well while we were there, and after lunch ended up throwing up. :(

Parker started feeling sick then too, so we ended up having to leave early.

It didn't take long for Isaac to start feeling sick too, and the next day driving home we had some

pretty sick (or recovering from sick) kiddos in our car.  Josh was feeling better, and I somehow

managed to not get it!