Disneyland 2016...

Once again Kate and I traveled down to Disneyland so she could dance in the parade and perform in their showase.  We left the boys at home because Zach's state cup soccer games started this weekend and Justin had continuing education classes he had to complete in order to keep his license current.   Kate and I were excited to get ourselves to California, but not excited to feel sick the entire trip.  We both came down with the worlds worst colds, but we rallied and made the most of it anyway.  Kate especially!  I am so amazed that she was able to perform through the sore throat and ackiness.  She is one tough cookie! Any time I begged her to take some medicine or asked if she wanted to go back to the hotel to rest she refused.  By Sunday afternoon I was wasted!  My pregnant self was worn out! But not Kate, she was determined to ride as many rides as possible and spend as much time playing with the girls on her team.

I managed to sneak in a few rides while Kate hit them all. I pretty much ate my way through disney.  Between the pulled pork at the Cozy Cone and the Dole Whip in Frontierland I was a happy pregnant girl, even if I was poppin' Zicam like it was candy in between it all.  Thank goodness my good friend Amber lives close to Disney and brought the entire pharmacy with her when she came to watch kate perform with her cute little girl Tessa! I had not seen Amber in five year so it was a great reunion!

Kate rode as many rides as possible with all her dance besties, Elle, Claire, Sally, Keely, Shae, Gabby...the list goes on.  These girls had a great time.  What a great trip despite our illness.  

Thanks to Zicam I was fine by a couple days after we got home.  kate on the otherhand ended up coming home and spiking a fever of 104 degrees, and was so exhausted with whatever the bug was going through her body, that she missed the entire week of school.  I am still amazed and happy we survived Disney again!

Oahu!

In anticipating the arrival of our fourth child I booked us a trip to Oahu for Spring Break. I just have this feeling that once #4 comes, we might not have as many opportunities to sneak a big trip in as a family. And Justin really needs the break from work but will never schedule one for himself. So like a good wife, I took it upon myself to schedule a vacation for him, for us, for the kids.  

We had never been to Oahu before, but had heard great things about it. Uncle Tyson has always told us we needed to go since attending BYU Hawaii, and our good friends vacation to Ko Olina every summer and swear it's their family's favorite place.  And they were both right!

Oahu is more commercialized than Kuaui, but once you are on the resort the difference is really not noticeable.  We stayed in an amazing two bedroom suite on the 13th floor of the Marriott.  We could have lived here for a month! The kids loved the ocean and the pool was  great too!  Ryan especially loved the hot tubs. We all did actually.  

We played mostly at the resort but took a day to drive up to BYU Hawaii, to see the Temple and visit the Polynesian Cultural Center. The church is truly amazing to me in all its facilities and actvities it provides to spread the Gospel to all who visit this island. We also spent an afternoon in Waikiki on a day that it decided to rain. It's like NYC but in Hawaii.  Pretty safe to say "been there, done that".  I won't ever need to go there again.  But we definitely will be visiting Ko Olina again! What a great trip!