Disneyland!

Chip or Dale?

Star Tours. The boys favorite this time around-how fitting for Jedi warriors!


Brother Bear

Being silly at Thunder Mt. Railroad
Just getting there

Woody!

Broc, Addie, Grandma Jo and Hayes on the Teacups

Dax and the Mouse

Sea World

Hayes and Grandma Jo petting the stingrays. This was Haysies alltime favorite thing we did. He even brought home a pet stingray he named SkullRay :)

We were lucky enough to go on vacation during an absolutely gorgous week in California. The temp was around 85 degrees and we didn't really have to fight any major crowds. We literally walked right onto all the rides, met a lot of characters and even got picked to be in some of the shows. So if I try and not think about all of the hold-my-hand-hurry-up-watch-where-you're-going-don't-EVER-walk-where-I-can't-see-you-STOP-whining-hold-still-you're-kicking-the-person-in-front-of-you stress of taking kids somewhere like Disneyland, it was the best week ever:) That and I would really like to forget about the fact that after arriving in California first Hayes then Dax developed PINK EYE IN DISNEYLAND for pete's sake and then promptly passed it on to Camille and then Addie Jo. But really, in spite of disease and the occasional attitude, we really did have an awesome time together. (Is 'awesome' still an acceptable adjective? ) Thank you so much to Grandma Jo for getting us all there on a plane, which was waaaay better than driving.

And a seriously big Thank You to LeeAnn, who not only watched Asher for 6 days and 5 nights- which is a really long time to have someone elses's two-year-old in the first place- but who watched Ash even after he developed pink eye AND a raging case of the flu, which we didn't know about until we got home because LeeAnn is the nicest person on the planet and didn't want to tell us and ruin our vacation. Thank You Thank You Thank You. I can't say it enough. Thank You for taking care of my baby:) And thank you to the rest of the Rupps for watching Kung Fu Panda with Ash approx. 38 times over the course of the week. After about 8 times it gets pretty rough. You guys are the best. Really.

While we were at Sea World, the adorable Addie Jo was asked to participate in the dolphin show, but she really didn't want to. So Camille told the guy we had two more kids with us and he said send down the five-year-old. Hayes refused to go also. So, by process of elimination, Dax and Tyler were in the dolphin show! It was pretty cool. Take a peek:

As you may all remember, we like Star Wars just a little bit at our house. Disneyland now has a Jedi Training Academy, where a lucky few can learn the secrets of the Force. You can imagine the importance of the Geldmachers attending a training session while there. Yay for us, it wasn't a very busy day and both Dax and Hayes got picked for the same session:

And again, a BIG THANKS to everyone who helped watch kids, dogs and work so that we could go. We had a blast:)