Epic Spring Break Adventures: Downtown Disney, Knott’s Berry Farm, & Adventure on the Harbor

For a trip that began on a Saturday, we have now reached the point of Wednesday, and the fun's not over yet (my apologies - you're gonna have to deal with two more vacation posts).

After the Touch of Disney experience on Monday, Nicky hadn't quite had his Disney fix, so he begged to go back to Downtown Disney. We had some unscheduled time Wednesday morning, so we obliged. Tim and Amber stayed back at the condo and met up with us later. 

We walked over to the Disneyland gates for a photo. When we went in November, they wouldn't let us very close to the gate, but this time, they allowed us to go right up to the gate for a photo. 

We did a bit of shopping. The kids got a few souvenirs, and Scotty and I couldn't resist picking out a puzzle or two.

Okay, three.

Since we had annual passes to Disneyland when COVID hit, we are now considered "Legacy Pass Holders." Basically, annual passes no longer exist, and we were given a prorated refund, but to make us feel better, Disney has given us a special name. 

As "Legacy Pass Holders" we get the perk of receiving a special car magnet, and we could have gotten a customary button from DCA, but the booth was closed by the time we got there. A restaurant in Downtown Disney was offering a special shake for "Legacy Pass Holders" only, and since we're suckers, we had to go get one!

Ten dollars right there.

When in Disney...

After our morning in Downtown Disney, we went to Knott's Berry Farm for the Taste of Boysenberry Festival. This event was not hard to get tickets for, thank heavens! Because Scotty had actually bought tickets for Tuesday, and we showed up on Wednesday! Oops! We were so fortunate - a manager was able to swap our tickets. 

At Knott's Berry, we each got a badge with a QR code. Adults were able to get five food items, and kids were able to get three. All of the food items had some sort of boysenberry included. I had a shrimp taco with a boysenberry salsa. Nicky had a hot dog on a boysenberry bun. There was boysenberry cheesecake, boysenberry ICEE, and even boysenberry sriracha ketchup. 

The food... was not great. It was mass-produced theme park food. But it was still fun to look over the menu and pick what we were going to try. The kids enjoyed getting to choose whatever they wanted.

One thing Amber and I discussed when we planned this trip was that we wanted to do some things in California that we'd never done before. Amber proposed that we rent a boat in Balboa. We looked into it and made our reservation, splitting the cost. 

On Thursday, April Fool's Day of all days, we spent the morning at the pool. Then we headed to Balboa for our boat ride. Tim and Amber took off early, and we left shortly after. We ended up not being able to find anywhere to park. We drove around for about half an hour trying to find somewhere - we weren't sure if we were going to make it. We ended up having to park a bit far away, but we got there right at the last second. We boarded our boat with Skipper Tim and took off in the harbor.

Things started off well enough (don't let Eva's face fool you - that's just what she does). We admired the houses and the yachts - the likes of which we'll never truly know. Then Tim started saying it felt like the boat was going slower. We chocked it up to a head wind, but then we started noticing all the other Duffy boats passing us. Eventually, we weren't sure if we were moving at all, but the boat was still ON and was still putting off a slight vibration through the floor.

With all the fancy boats and yachts in the bay, it's a little unnerving to be drifting around without full control of your boat. That's what brought us to this moment of Scotty attempting to save the day...

That didn't accomplish anything, so Scotty called the number on the paperwork and talked to a guy named Doug. The boat was still moving ever so slightly, so he told us to just work our way back to the rental company. We tried (though it would have taken us about two hours), but eventually, the boat really wasn't moving, and Tim couldn't control the steering. Scotty called again, and Doug had to send his employee out to rescue us. The employee, whom we refer to as Captain Morgan because he came to save us in his skiff like so...

...towed us back to the dock where we were kindly offered a refund. 

It worked out great because even though we traveled at the speed of a geriatric turtle, we still had a blast, and we got to do it for free! 

We had to laugh that it happened on April Fool's Day, of all days!

That night, we had our traditional April Fool's dinner at the condo. 

Tim and Amber were willing participants, though they made sure to eat pizza beforehand, and we may have caught Amber trying to hide her peas. Though she is a legit adult, Amber eats like a toddler (she’s all ketchup, nuggets, and bologna).

Sadly, that was our last night in the condo. We had to bid farewell to Tim and Amber (who, for some reason, didn't want to see us off at 6:00 the next morning), and try and catch some zzzz's before our next adventure. 

TO BE CONTINUED...

Epic Spring Break Adventures: A Touch of Disney & Corona Del Mar

Shortly after we booked our trip to California, Disney announced that they would be doing a "Touch of Disney" event, which happened to take place while we were there. We knew tickets would be high in demand, so we weren't sure if we could actually go, but we figured we'd at least try. Tickets went on sale early in March, but Disney is sneaky and doesn't announce times (I don't blame them one bit!) so from midnight on, Scotty was checking their website regularly until he eventually ended up in an online queue for several hours. The system crashed repeatedly, but by some miracle, after about 11 hours, he was able to get tickets! They had a limit of 8 - which happened to be the exact number we needed!

Touch of Disney (TOD) was held in Disney's California Adventure (DCA). Basically, it allowed us into the park to shop, eat, and just... be. A rip off? Well, yes! Essentially we paid money to be allowed to go into DCA to spend money! 

But that's okay! We were just so happy to be there, and you know what? It was magical even without the rides (though they teased us a bit and were running the rollercoaster). 

Each ticket came with a $25 food card, so we had $150 to spend on Disney food! And boy, did we eat! You had to order the food via app, and you had to select a time window. Some items were scheduled pretty far out. It was a lot like scheduling your fast passes except instead of saying things like, "We have to be to Guardians at 4:55 and Incredicoaster at 6:10," you'd say things like, "We have to be to Dole whips at 3:15 and corn dogs at 7:00." We had one food reservation that was pretty bad (it took well over an hour to get our food), but other than that, things were smooth, and we got to try some park food that we haven't had before. I went off the deep end and drank a ton of soda on this trip, but let me tell you why... Coke tastes so good in Disneyland. The 20 oz bottles are served right off ice, and there is nothing better in this world. My only disappointment was that they weren't serving soup and bread bowls - one of my favorite things to eat at DCA. 

By the end of the night, we were all sick, and that's when Scotty showed up with two plates of funnel cake fries announcing, "We still had $40 left!" 

We were at TOD from about 3:00 until they closed at 8:00. When we left the park, who was waiting for us outside the gate? None other than Mark, our fellow Hamilton and Disneyland fanatic and commissioner of the event known as Brocation. A few days before spring break, Mark's daughter and her friends decided to hit up Mark for a trip to Anaheim, and well, he was pretty easily convinced. 

While Disneyland has been closed for COVID, they've been working on some new security procedures. They have a new area for trams (which are not in operation currently), and now, in addition to bag screening and metal detectors (and temperature checks, which should just be temporary, but heck, who knows anymore), you now have to walk two by two and be checked by a dog. I'm all for safety, but how sad is it that we live in a world where these procedures are necessary?

Since the trams weren't running, we had to walk about a mile from the designated parking area to DCA. I was really nervous about all the walking and wasn't sure if I was going to be okay. They had wheelchair rentals at the parking garage, and I had to seriously contemplate whether I needed one. I ended up pushing onward. My body was sore and fatigued (I'd describe it as "five days of Disneyland body" without the five days at Disneyland) but other than that, I felt pretty good. I was able to do all the walking, and I moved from sitting to standing without experiencing a lot of pain. At the end of the night, I felt amazing. Sore, yes, but it was tolerable, and I could move! I walked the mile back to the parking garage and got in the van, amazed that I did it!

Then my entire body went haywire and by the time we got back to the condo, I couldn't move. 

There is something about Disneyland! I've teased my mother-in-law about it for years. She deals with chronic pain (and boy am I ever learning a life lesson about having compassion for people who experience chronic pain), and when we have gone to Disneyland, it's like her pain doesn't exist! Then when we leave Disneyland, she can't function.

Well, my friends, I experienced it first hand! There is a Disneyland healing phenomenon. Is it mental? Probably. Or maybe there's something in the churro dust. 

That night and through half the next day, I was pretty messed up. In addition to the pain, I also developed some serious edema (it actually started before the vacation but got increasingly worse after being in the car and on my feet so much). So the next day was the perfect day to hang out on the beach. We stopped by Jack in the Box (per tradition) and bought way more bags of food than 8 people would ever need and then spent a few hours at Corona Del Mar. 

The beach ended up being quite the educational experience because we kept stumbling across these little gelatinous blobs that looked like they might be jellyfish. After doing some intense googling, we think they might have been salps. We also found some velella (velellas?) Turns out, Scotty has a weird habit of smelling things he can't identify - which is something I'd never realized until Amber pointed it out. I was quite amazed at how frequently he would pick up things on the beach to sniff. But I guess it's worth the risk because he properly identified some tar (which ended up stuck to all of us on either bare feet or the bottoms of our shoes) and a mango pit. 

After the beach, we went back to the condos, and the kids swam at the pool for a while. Then we went to Ruby's Diner for dinner (we love the Crispy Green Beans there!)

TO BE CONTINUED...

Epic Spring Break Adventures: Parowan, Hoover Dam, & Calico Ghost Town

Over spring break we had the chance to go on a little adventure. Our spring break was pretty long this year - our kids were out of school for 12 days. When I saw how long they were going to be out of school, I texted my sister-in-law Amber the dates. She'd said (maybe to her ultimate regret) that we should find a time to go to California again, and California has just announced that they were starting to re-open, so... we booked it. Amber and I were pretty proud of ourselves for planning a vacation eight weeks ahead of time and then waiting patiently for it to arrive (as opposed to last time, when we planned an insta-vacay because we DEMAND THINGS IMMEDIATELY). 

Amber booked a condo for Sunday through Friday, which meant we had two weekends bookending our trip. Why settle for Sunday through Friday? So Scotty booked us some additional hotel stays and stops on the way to and from Newport Beach. 

We ended up leaving early on Saturday morning. Our first stop was in Parowan, Utah. We ate lunch at a place called Calvario's, which was great! The food was delicious (they had everything from breakfast platters to rolled tacos), and the employees were so friendly. From there we went to the Parowan Gap where we looked for dinosaur tracks and saw some petroglyphs. 

My Mystery Condition was very present on this trip, so hiking around was really hard for me, and I was in a lot of pain. I don't want to spend much time on that, but it definitely brought challenges to traveling. 

From Parowan, we headed toward the Vegas area with plans to stop at Hoover Dam. First we went to a little free museum at a historic hotel in Boulder City. 

Hoover Dam was originally called Boulder Dam

Then we went to the dam. We walked across the dam and went up on the suspension bridge. They aren't doing tours right now due to COVID, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to do a dam tour with four kids anyway (torture for all involved!)

Nicky in front of the dam

Standing in front of the suspension bridge

This was the first time I'd been to Hoover Dam. Scotty thought he had been before, but it turned out, he actually hadn't. As Scotty has gotten older, he's started struggling with heights, so he was a bit disoriented and jittery. He couldn't bring himself to look over the wall down to the bottom of the dam. 

After we saw the dam, we ate dinner at the Chicken Shack on Main Street in Boulder City. Boulder City is a charming little place, and I would like to have spent more time there exploring, but we were trying to pack in way too much (and already had to cut our visit to the Clark County Wetlands Park). While we were eating dinner, we saw a coyote crossing the street, so that was pretty funny. 

We spent that night in Las Vegas, then got up bright and early for more adventures. 

There were a few hotels we wanted to stop at on the strip, but our dreams were bigger than our time window, so we decided to just go to the Bellagio. We've been to Vegas a lot, so it wasn't our kids' first time seeing the Bellagio, but it was our first time without a stroller and with our kids behaving! So that was pretty epic! And none of the girls really remember the Bellagio, so it was all exciting and new to them. They loved the conservatory.

Zoe took my phone and snapped photos of all the flowers

From there, we headed to Yermo, California. We got caught up in spring break traffic, and it ended up taking us two hours longer to get there than we planned. It was brutal, but it was better for us than for Amber who passed through a couple hours after us in even worse traffic. 

In Yermo, we went to Calico Ghost Town. We ended up spending several hours there, which surprised me because I didn't think we'd be there very long. It was bigger than I thought. 

We took a little train ride and did a walking mine tour. The kids did a little craft in one of the shops, and we browsed through all the buildings (most of which are replicas). 

Walk-through mine tour

Doing a craft

The highlight of the Ghost Town was the Mystery Shack, which was absolutely crazy to me. It's a little crooked house built for entertainment, and it messed with my mind so bad. The second I stepped foot inside, I couldn't process anything that was happening. I struggled to stand, let alone walk! I can't even describe to you what the heck happened in that shack because I don't even know! I'm just glad I made it out of there.

Scotty in the Mystery Shack

That night, we rolled into Newport Beach and met up with Tim and Amber at the condos. I was feeling pretty miserable at that point, so I unpacked what was necessary and then went to bed. Everyone else stayed up (or at least tried to stay up - not all the kids made it) to enjoy some Jack in the Box tacos from Door Dash. 

TO BE CONTINUED...

Pandemic Palooza: One Year

Last year I started calling our quarantine time "Pandemic Palooza." I had a much smaller time frame in mind. Then I read up on the Spanish Flu and realized that two years was a much more likely timeline than two weeks. So for the past year, I've had the mindset that any pandemic that lasts less than two years is pretty sweet!

The schedule I wrote out the night before the earthquake. All plans were dropped as soon as the earth started shaking. 

When the pandemic-versary came along, I didn't really have the heart to write about how things are now (my brother-in-law passed away that week, and I was also dealing with health issues), but I hoped to be able to later. Here are how things are a year + two-ish weeks into the pandemic.

My current COVID mentality...

I'm in a place of waiting. For the past month, I haven't been following the COVID news as closely as I used to, so there's a lot going on that I'm not current on. I haven't checked the case counts in weeks. 

I'm just hanging out. Waiting patiently. And that's fine. 

(I've also been pretty distracted by other things going on in my life, so COVID isn't at the forefront of my mind). 

Masks...

Masks have been mandated in Utah since fall of last year. They have been mandated in Salt Lake County since July. The state-wide mandate is scheduled to end April 10. 

Things I don’t hate about masks...

• If I want to get “all dolled up,” I really only have to put on mascara.
• I smell a lot less of other people’s breath.
• If I have a horrendous zit, it usually gets covered.
• I post more photos of my kids on my blog.

Earthquake things...

I'm still a little jumpy about any vibrations in the earth. When planes fly over our house or semi-trucks go by and things shake ever so slightly, I do this thing I call my "earthquake stance" where I plant my feet firmly on the floor and stand in such a way as to assess the rumblings to see if it's an earthquake. I started doing that habitually during the earthquakes last year.  I also have earthquake dreams pretty regularly. I don't feel like I'm paranoid or irrationally afraid of earthquakes, but I've taken on some habitual earthquake responses. 

Things that make me laugh...

I remember a few weeks before lockdown when Costco announced that they were going to stop doing samples. Now I think it's hilarious that Costco let’s you look at samples. You can't try the food, but you can look at it behind a plastic partition. 

Church...

We are now able to attend sacrament meeting every week (first we weren't and they we were and then we weren't). Two weeks ago, our youth started having Sunday school and YM/YW lessons in-person on Sundays. Our ward is not currently holding any in-person activities. The adults are not meeting, and the primary is not meeting. 

I still have two callings - primary music leader and ministering secretary. I'm on deck, just waiting to be activated (though I have to confess, I've forgotten a lot of the lyrics to primary songs). We got a new primary presidency recently, so when we do go back, that will be different.

A text message to my sister-in-law from her friend on the day of the earthquake

Restaurants...

Some of the restaurants we've been to recently no longer block tables for social distancing. The first time I sat in a booth with someone's head right behind mine kind of freaked me out. I've spent the last year of my life keeping my distance from everyone, so having a stranger a few inches away from me made the hair on my neck stand up. I love me some good eavesdropping, but I felt like I was sitting right in the middle of someone else's conversation. 

Vaccines....

As of this week, the vaccines in Utah are open to all 16+. Scotty and I will be getting the vaccine. This is a decision we have made through research and prayer. 

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One thing I have loved so much about having a blog for over 15 years is that it provides me with a record of my life and the growing years of my children. Posts like this become so important to me later when details fade. I'll probably continue adding to this post as I think of additional things I want to document after a year of COVID.  

Speaking of Pain

Let's talk about the Wong-Baker pain rating scale.

Because you guys, this thing stresses me out.

The first time I was ever presented with the faces and asked what my pain level was was when I was in labor with Nicky. In the years since having my first baby, I've had the opportunity to rate my pain in labor and non-labor situations, and I always overthink it. 

I might feel like a 10, but there's no way I'm ever going to say that! Worst possible pain? How do I know? Sounds like an opportunity to be proven wrong!

So I can never be a 10. 

But if I'm in very serious, all-consuming pain, I need to rate it as close to 10 as possible while still allowing space in case it gets worse. That makes me lean toward 8 as my highest possible initial rating. That way, if it gets worse, I know I have room to progress to 9.

Then there's the matter of being taken seriously. I don't want to give myself any rating that doesn't match my behavior, so if I rate myself an 8, I want to make sure I'm acting how an 8 would act. I don't want a doctor hearing "8" but seeing "5" and then disregarding me as a credible pain evaluator. So that makes me prone to underrating my pain. But then I worry if I'm too low on the scale, my pain isn't severe enough to address.

Then again, if I'm able to sit and think about it in this depth, I'm probably not in 9 or 10 sort of pain. I think if the pain is that bad, you just shout "TEN!" You don't take the time to think about it. 

Perhaps what really matters, though, is not the way your pain compares to someone else's or even to your own pain of the past, but how it compares to itself before/during/after treatments have been applied or time has passed. 

In that case, I still can't ever be a 10 because there always needs to be space for things to get worse.

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I've had many of you reach out after my recent post about being in pain. Thank you so much for your love and concern. There are some things in the works that could be helpful, but it will take some time to know for sure.  

It’s Not Easter Yet

We’re over a week out from Easter, and I have to say, I feel like Easter should have already happened. I blame the stores. With how early the merchandise is put out, by the time the actual holiday arrives, I’m just confused. 

(By the way, if your baby needs an outfit for a 4th of July BBQ three months from now, Target has you covered!)

We don’t really have a solid way of doing Easter at our house. The Easter bunny comes, but he doesn’t do the same thing each time. Sometimes he hides things. Sometimes he brings Easter baskets. Sometimes he brings church clothes. Sometimes he brings swimming suits or sandals. Sometimes he brings water toys for summer. He just flies by the seat of his pants each year based on what kind of mood his in, what the kids need, and what his budget is.

Last year, Santa Claus accidentally left two toys behind, so he graciously donated them to the Easter bunny. That was very helpful since we were in lockdown for COVID. The Easter bunny enlisted the help of Amazon to track down two more gifts, and each kid had to hunt around the house to find their gift on Easter. 

This year, we’re not in lockdown (thank heavens), but the circumstances of our Easter are going to be kind of unique still (explanation to come in a later post). The Easter bunny is hiding eggs this time, and as I’ve coordinated our holiday with the Easter bunny, I’ve considered how to do an egg hunt. 

Among our extended family, Scotty and I have experienced Easter hunts in different ways.

In my mom’s family, all the various goodies are hidden in piles. When you find a pile, you take one item. In the end. You have one of each item. 

In Scotty’s mom’s family, your name is written on your stuff. You’ll find hundreds of things that aren’t yours, and everyone shouts out everyone else’s names. It’s a cooperative effort. Then there’s random candy lying around everywhere that’s free for all.

In Scotty’s dad’s family, you are assigned an egg color or type, so you look for soccer balls, or farm animals, or pink eggs. 

Each method works, but I decided that for this hunt, we would write names on the eggs. I decided to help the Easter bunny out a little bit and get the eggs filled nice and early. So about two weeks ago, I stuffed the eggs - probably about 100 of them - and wrote the kids’ names on them. Then I put them in a box and put it high up on the shelf of our storage room. 

About a week later, Scotty and I heard a weird crashing noise. Then one of the girls came to us and said, “There are Easter eggs and candy all over the storage room floor!”

This is such a classic example of how my life goes that all I can do is laugh. Of course the eggs fell off the shelf and split open! Why wouldn’t they? Never mind the fact that no one was in (not had been in) the storage room, and there was no explanation for the box falling.

So lucky me, I got to clean it all up and re-stuff all the eggs. That’s one more reason it seems like Easter should have come and gone by now - I’ve done the prep work twice! 

Goings On

I have a small 20-minute window before I need to begin my day's adventures, so I figure I'll quickly re-cap some of the happenings around here lately. 

Zoe and Eva are obsessed with Art for Kids Hub on YouTube, so my house is covered in their artwork. I bought Zoe a sketch book and sketch markers. 

by Eva

We are getting the ball rolling on some orthodontia. Daisy will be getting her braces next month, and Zoe just had three teeth pulled (I think that make 9 for her now, and she will have to have 4 more pulled later. Poor girl!). I always have Zoe sedated because A) she is difficult with any medical procedures and B) after her tonsils hemorrhaged, she got even worse about medical procedures, especially in the mouth. 

Waiting for the juice to kick in

My mother-in-law has a rule that you can't play in water until the snow is off the mountains. So... July??? 

She was a little distraught that my kids were jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler the other day in 50 degree weather. 

My sister-in-law turned 50 last weekend, so we had a 70's themed party to celebrate her. I let my kids tie-dye shirts to wear to the party. 

Four kids and tie-dye. 

It's as bad as you think it is. 

But it was still fun. 

I decided to try and be festive for Saint Patrick's Day, so I shaped my meatloaf into a shamrock. 

Before baking

After baking

Meatloaf is never pretty, so my expectations were low. We got a good laugh out of it. Nicky ate the stem - i.e. the most poo-looking piece. 

I also made green rolls and didn't even have a baking catastrophe! WHAT?!?

We also celebrated Pi Day - which is just a great excuse to have pizza and pie for dinner. I messed up the pie, but it still tasted good. 

I read that butterfly clips are coming back in. Sure enough, here they are at Target!

The Animorphs book inventory at the thrift store was hot last week!

We are waiting for Scotty's grandpa's house to be torn down. I drive past every day and wonder if it will be gone. The other day I snapped a quick photo. For now it's still standing, and it's in rough shape. 

The Utah Jazz honored my brother-in-law at their game on the night of his funeral, so we were able to attend the game, and the Jazz provided our family with a suite. 

Over the years, Nicky has acquired some of Doug's hand-me-down Jazz gear, so we all squeezed into Doug's old clothes for the night. It was a bittersweet evening - wonderful to be together, but sad for the circumstances. 

Well, I'm off to take my van to the shop now!