Thanksgiving and California Dreamin'

I never thought I would eat my Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant! It seemed so against everything I believe Thanksgiving to be--time spent with family or friends gathered in a home sharing food prepared by one another. This past year though, we planned a trip to Southern Cal and so that we could get a head start in having fun, we decided to leave on Thanksgiving but not before enjoying a meal with friends at Claim Jumper. It just made sense. I can barely get out the door for a trip without killing myself trying to get all my laundry done and bags packed let alone cleaning my house, preparing a big meal and cleaning up after it. Claim Jumper did a pretty job and I especially enjoyed the orange cranberry sauce.

Afterward, we took time to take pictures. I don't know where this little girl of mine gets her moves.

Little and big kids wishing the playground next to the restaurant was opened.

Davidson Family along with Kelly and Raynee Fortier 

After our Thanksgiving meal, we left for Palm Springs, CA. We checked into the resort that night excited for a couple of days of warmer weather, relaxation, and fun!


We spent the first day at Joshua Tree National Park bouldering, climbing and hiking amongst cool rock formations.

Arch Rock

A Joshua Tree at the beginning of the Hidden Valley hike.

The second day we spent the morning at The Living Desert which is basically a zoo featuring animals from different deserts around the world.

My little bongo band enjoyed the use of our small camera taking pictures of all the animals. Someone gave us their carousel passes (from being members) so we took the kids on the merry-go-round before leaving the park. Little did my kids know that that would be first of many rides to come that weekend. We would be taking them to Disneyland before this trip was over!

The rest of our day was spent hanging out in the lazy river, swimming, and enjoying the other resort amenities. We did have a little scare at one point when Lyndsee disappeared for about 10 minutes. We were getting ready to head to the swimming pool and all the kids had headed out the door but when Eric and I came out a few minutes later there were only 3 of the 4 kids standing there.That was one of the scariest ten minutes of my life as we were on the fourth floor and had a pond on the other side of the building. We ran around helpless and frantic until we finally heard the kids yelling that they had found her. She was running down the hallway towards them where we had left them outside our condo door. We don't know how she managed to evade us for so long but I was never so grateful to have her back. It makes me cry again just to think about it even now!

We got up Sunday morning and went to church and then drove to Anaheim. The kids thought we were headed home at this point. They were very excited when they realized where we were and that the next morning they would get to go the Disneyland.

Walking to Disneyland the next morning

I had always wanted to go to Disneyland during Christmas and so I may have been just as excited to be there as my kids if not more so.

We were fortunate enough to meet up with our friends, the Davidsons.

My cute boys

At night, Disney really came alive for the holidays. We loved seeing the "It's a Small World" ride, Sleeping Beauty's castle and the Christmas parade.

We had up to this point enjoyed some incredible weather and short to no waits for the rides. California Adventure the next day would prove to be just as glorious.

Reagan's only character meeting but one of her favorites.

Silly kids Taylor, Reagan, and Will

It was so awesome to experience ALL the rides with Taylor this time round. She went on California Screamin for the first time and all the other "scary" rides. It was really cool being able to hang out with another family and Angela was very generous to sit off some rides and watch our younger kids while Eric and I rode with our older kids. The big highlight for them at Disneyland was that their son Jasper was tall enough for the first time to ride Grizzly Rapids. Congrats Jasper at being 42 inches! Reagan who is the same age wasn't even making the 40 inch requirement that a lot of the rides have. We hope that next time we go she will be 40 inches.