Sister Olsen, on to London, England

As some of you know, while we were in St. George my sister left on her mission. She is going to London, England for 18 months. So, my parents were going to take her up to the MTC and come back the same day. I decided to opt out of the emotional ride there and back. So, the night before she left I had JD say good-bye. I told him that she was going on a mission and wouldn't be back for a while. He looked at me and said, "Little Einsteins?!" For those of you that have younger kids, it's a little show on Playhouse Disney. JD loves it. Anyway, after explaining to him that she was leaving, I told him to go give her a hug and say good-bye. He went up to her, gave her a big hug, and said, " Bye, Aunt Jenn. I'll miss you very much." Jenn, my mom, and I broke out crying at his precious little words. Jenn glared at me, thinking I told him to say that (which I didn't). He does miss his Aunt Jenn, as do we all. Some pictures the night before she left.

Kisses for Aunt Jenn

JD and Sister Olsen

Rub-A-Dub in the Tub

My brother, Jeff, was gone for a week while we were visiting in St. George. A couple nights during that week, we stayed over at Beth and Jeff's house to keep Beth and Garrett company. It was really cute to watch the boys play together and it was really awesome to hang out with Beth. I hardly ever get the chance to just visit with her by myself. It was so nice to hang out with my sister! I love her to pieces! So, on one of the nights, JD and Garrett took a bath. I couldn't resist getting pictures of them in the tub. The last one is a little blurry, but we had to do a soapy mohawk hair picture!

Garrett and JD

Water is so much fun!

Soapy Mohawks!

Jumpin' Jack Fun!

On one of our nights in St. George, Utah, we visited this place called Jumpin' Jacks. This place was full of the inflatable slides and obstacle courses in it. There were between 5-10 in this place. We hit it with Grandma Eckman, Aunt Beth and Garrett, and Aunt Aubrey and Madison. JD and Garrett had such a good time! They were running everywhere and hitting any slide that didn't seem too tall!

JD is constantly talking about this place and that he wants to go back. It was a lot of fun!

Garrett and JD

JD sliding down one of the slides

I love this picture of my nephew. He's so cute!

Going down together! WHEEEE!!!

They are so cute!

Disneyland #4

On our last day of Disneyland fun, we made sure to hit Toon Town and California Adventures. After hitting every possible ride the day before, we were kinda all done with rides. We did small and easy going ones, only a couple thrilling ones. We hit the Muppet Show in 3D, and JD just loved it! We were all pretty tired, especially JD and Garrett. They were such troopers!

JD didn't wear his ears this day because he got a little sun burned the day before on his cheeks. It's unfortunate that he has sensitive skin like me, always having to protect it. The day before, Reed had told JD that if he kept his ears on all day that he would get him a lollipop. Well, we forgot that day, so made up for it on our second day. JD was definitely at a sugar high by later on in the day. But, that's the awesome thing about being on vacation!

Our main mission for the day was to find the main Mouse! Once we found him, JD was in almost shock! He just couldn't believe that he was with Mickey Mouse. Seeing your child's eyes light up when they get excited is the best thing ever. He was so happy. We were sad for the trip to be over, but we all have great memories of that trip. JD still talks about it to this day. Oh, and that his favorite ride was the Monorail! Of all the rides, it's that one. Oh well, we all had a great time!
Thanks Mom and Dad for such an amazing experience and the great memories.

JD trying to be strong!

JD and Garrett driving a car in Toon Town

Pluto and JD

This is the lollipop Daddy got JD

JD found WALL-E at California Adventures

Mickey Mouse and JD

The whole gang with Mickey Mouse

Disneyland #3 ( Character Breakfast)

To begin our second day of Disneyland fun, we went to a character breakfast. And there were alot of them there. JD didn't eat much food because he was too busy watching them walk around. The food was so delicious, and everyone really stocked up on eating the fresh fruit. My nephew, Garrett, fell asleep right before we got there, so he slept for most of the breakfast, but when he did wake up, he certainly ate his share. JD helped him as well. What a great way to start our day!

Minnie Mouse and JD

JD and Dale

My sister, Jenn, Reed, Chip, JD and me

Chip with my parents!

JD and Eeyore

Minnie Mouse with my brother Jeff, his wife Beth, and their son Garrett

We did find a character that JD was scared of. Captain Hook!

Garrett and JD helping eachother eat their breakfast

Disneyland #2

So, to finish of our first day at Disneyland, we hit almost all the rides that first day. JD insisted on going on the roller coasters with us. He went on Space Mountain (didn't want to go on that one again), Splash Mountain (didn't want to go on that one again), Star Tours (didn't want to on that one again), and Thunder Mountain (didn't want to go on that one again). As you can see, most of them he only wanted to go on it once. What a sport he was!

The first time I went to Disneyland, I was younger than JD. For the longest time, the characters scared me to death! I would scream and kick, trying to avoid any kind of contact with them. I was really praying that this fear hadn't been passed down to my son. Luckily, he was so excited to meet the characters that he had watched on TV and movies! I was so happy that he had no problem going up to them and giving them hugs. YAY!

The weather was absolutely beautiful. 70 Degrees for the weekend that we were there. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. We got alot of compliments on our shirts. My mom and sister made them with stencils and spray paint! It was really nice to be able to keep track of everyone. We were definitely a sight to see, eleven people wearing the same shirt. WE loved them so much we washed him after our first day and wore them the next. Thanks Mom and Jenn!

Garrett and JD on Casey Jr. Train Ride

Here we are with Tigger

Here's Winnie the Pooh!

Making music at Tarzan's Treehouse

My very awesome family

Disneyland #1

Okay, so I have been terrible with my blog this last month, but i have a good reason! I have been visiting family back in Utah the past couple weeks. During that time we took a trip to Disneyland and sent my sister on her mission to London, England. So, for the next couple days, I'm going to try and post more and more pics (since I took a ton!) so that you can all see the fun we had for our couple weeks out west.

So, my parents took the whole family to Disneyland. Last family trip before my sister, Jennifer, left on her mission. A couple days before we flew out to California to meet up with the family, I found out about a deal that Disneyland/Disneyworld was doing for their armed forces. We were able to get Reed in for free along with getting up to five people in with a three-day-pass for the price of a one day pass. The three-day-passes were around $150 dollars a person! One day was $94. We were really excited to help out my parents with this. We saved them a couple hundred dollars, and now a days saving is a great thing.

For a couple days, we were at Disneyland and we has so much fun! JD insisted on going on roller coasters! We thought that we would start out with some of the rides that always have a long line on them.

The Olsen family

JDs first Mickey Mouse ears. He picked out the color.

JD and his cousin, Garrett, trying to pull the sword out of the stone!

On the Carousel.

JD rode on Dumbo with his Aunt Annalisa and Uncle Ryan

Reed's flying scared me!

Like I said, I will be putting more pics on either tomorrow or in the next couple days. I have too many pics to put on just one entry! We had the best time ever and it was so great to finally be together as a family again.