California

With our stint in Boston being only 9 months or so we didn't plan on making any trips back to the west coast. But, when Brittany and Leon made a date to have their beautiful little family sealed, we were fortunate enough to have it fall on the week in between Jake's finals and graduation, so we packed up the kids and braved the flight across the country. The kids were super well behaved and besides  Brenn soaking through her first outfit before we even boarded the plane (notice the wardrobe change below) the lengthy trip ended up going pretty smoothly (thank goodness). I hadn't been to California nor seen my Dad or Kelsie (with the exception of Skype) since her graduation the previous year, so it was super exciting to be heading back there.

The following day we gathered as a family at the San Diego temple to witness the Johnson family being sealed for time and all eternity. Kelsie was kind enough to be on kidlet duty, while the rest of us attended the ceremony. It was so great to see the family who came into town for the event as well as some of our close friends who made the trip as well. After the sealing we went down to La Jolla shores for a delicious beach side dinner of Fins (a must for whenever we go to San Diego).

Both Mother's Day and my birthday luckily fell on the week we were out there. We got to spend my birthday at the Happiest Place on earth and I was one happy girl at my second home. (We had season passes all growing up and went all the time...but since I've graduated from High School I've only been one time when Carder was 18 months). I didn't think I could love Disneyland anymore than I already did, but seeing the joy that it brought to my kids, it just brought that magical place to a whole new level for me!

The new star tours ride was a big hit with the boys

So I mabye earned worst Mom of the year award this day...(oops!) My mom had taken Carder and Jaxon to Disneyland when I was put on bedrest at the end of my pregnancy with Brenn. Anyway they all went on the Matterhorn together and let's just say the experience was rather tramatic. Ever since then Carder has claimed to hate roller coasters. Well we coaxed Carder into going on Space Mountain with us. I sat by him and held on to him. It's not until you are holding on to a little person that you realize how much that ride throws you around! Poor child just sat there with his little body crouched into a ball while I tried my best to hold him tight with my arm (as you can see below in the picture that was taken on the ride). Needless to say it was not his favorite. After we torchered him with the thrill of Space Mountain we decided to tone it down a bit with a visit to It's a Small World (big hit with all of the children) followed by Toontown.

The kids were completely mesmerized with Its a Small World

Some of our best friends from Boston (The Webbs) who had moved to San Francisco a couple months prior, came down for the sealing. Stephanie and the boys stayed a few extra days after and met up with us at Disneyland for a bit. The kids had lots of fun getting to play with their friends Brighton and Nixon again.

Exhibit 2 of worst Mom of the Year award...Some how we were able to talk Jaxon and Carder into going on Splash Mountain. (Jaxon backed out of Space Mountain about 5 minutes before we got on the ride). The boys insisted on riding in the front on Splash Mountain. We didn't tell them about the big drop at the end because we didn't want to freak them out. Jaxon ducked down, Carder was going to do the same, but I had him keep sitting up thinking in the end he'd think it was really fun, that was not the case. He got soaked and was shivering for the rest of the ride. I felt so bad! He let us know that Splash Mountain was the worst ride but Space Mountain was the very worst. Even though Jake and I are convinced we may have tramatized the child a bit that day, he was a trooper and didn't let his spirits get dampered one bit and we were still able to have a great day at Disneyland. We let him know how proud we were of him for being brave and trying some new things. All in all it ended up being a super fun day. 

 Jake had to go out of town for some interviews, so the rest of us snuck in a beautiful beach day in Laguna before we headed back to Boston. That is the beach where Jake and I had our engagement pictures taken, so it is always fun to go back there. The weather was perfect, there was hardly anyone else there and the kids were in heaven. Brenn was feeling sick, so she literally just laid on my shoulder the whole time. (I was sad for her, but I'm not gonna lie it was really nice to not be chasing her around!) Carder and I got to go explore the tidepools and were super lucky to discover all sorts of creatures. The kids had a jolly ol' time getting buried in the sand and Carder was the happiest kid in the world running in and out of the surf.

Poor Brenn...she looks miserable! She was such a little cuddle bug though. I guess the one up side to having a little sicky.

A few days later we headed back to Boston (Jake's Graduation was that weekend, so we had to get back for it). This is where the trip got rocky. On our way to the airport Carder is sitting in the back seat and throws up EVERYWHERE (shout out to Brittany for taking care of him as it all went down in the back seat!). We were almost to the airport, so we tried calling the airlines and tell them our situation and see if they couldn't bump us back a day or two so we aren't traveling with a vomiting child. They were horrible to us basically saying there was nothing we could do unless we wanted to pay some outrageous fee for changing the tickets. Since that wasn't really an option, we cleaned Carder up as good as we could and changed his clothes and made sure we had an additional change in the baby bag just in case we had a repeat during the flight. We made sure he was only consuming clear liquids etc. so in the event of him throwing up again it wouldn't be quite as bad. Well it happened. I was able to catch most of it in the barf bag located in the seat back pocket, but we still had to have him change his shirt. We were super lucky that due to him only having consumed gatorade that it didn't smell (because this was a decently long flight--first leg was San Diego to Chicago). People are of course looking at us like we have some sort of plague. I not so quietly let the flight attendants know that we had tried contacting the airlines and they wouldn't let us change out flight. They were a little more sympathetic after that. 

We had a layover in Chicago before we got on the last leg of our flight to Boston. Carder was still not feeling well. I took him to the bathroom (and Chicago I've gotta give you props, they probably have the cleanest airport bathrooms I've ever seen) but he was never able to throw up. Well we told the ticket desk our situation and they said they'd get us seated as soon as they started boarding. We go up there and I hear the cough, the one that you just know a vomiting spell is coming. I pull out a puke bag (I had stuffed my diaper bag with them at this point) and drop all my bags and lunge over to Carder. He'd thrown up so much at this point that it was just clear liquid. It's right where everyone hands in their tickets to walk onto the plane. The business class people are just walking over me like I am some parasite as I am trying to clean it up with some napkins. Brenn tried running away during this spell, so Jake went chasing after her. Fortunately, a kind soul brought me a handful of napkins from the food court. As soon as the flight attendant saw what was happening, she hurried us onto the plane and told us she would take care of the bags. We got him on the plane and you can tell people are not happy about us, the lady in front of us audibly said something like "I told you [I would get stuck sitting next to these guys]" to someone whom I assume she was traveling with sitting a few rows back and then looks at us. Ridiculous I tell you. It's like we trained him to throw up all over the airport. If I had any control over it, it would have been aimed at that lady! It just so happened that the gentleman who had brought me the napkins was also sitting in front of us. At the end of the flight he asked how Carder was doing and offered his sympathies. He apparently had two-year old twins and could relate to our predicament. We were super lucky that he made it through the rest of the flight. 

We waited to be the last ones off the plane just in case. Good thing too because just as we got off onto the tarmac, there he went again. At least no one except airport staff were around at this point, and they were super nice about it (which we so badly needed at this point). Poor Carder! Our home teacher picked us up from the airport and Carder made it home and threw up one last time on our porch. It's just so ridiculous that the airlines couldn't help us out some how so that not only we, but the other passengers as well as their staff, didn't have to deal with that. Lame American Airlines! Well, that will be one flight that we will never forget.