the grimes' visit

The Grimes family came to visit us last week for vacation. We had LOTS of fun!!

We started out with a Diamondbacks game.

the whole gang
We also had some days of playing, swinging, and swimming.
wagon ride

painting

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Then we were off to Disney!!

disneyland-day1

We left Phoenix very early Tuesday morning and drove to Disneyland.

We checked into our hotel and headed to the park.
It was our lucky day...Mickey was right there when we walked in.

(Jack didn't care much for the characters as you can see---you will notice his absence in most of the character pictures.)

Mickey, Mommy, & Maddie

We chatted with Mary Poppins & Bert.

The kids loved the tea cups.

We ate dinner then stayed for the street party.

After a long day driving, I think we all were happy to go to bed that night.

disneyland-day2

Our 2nd day at Disneyland started at pixie hollow to see a couple fairies.

We saw SilverMist and Tinker Bell & Terrance
Then it was off to see the princesses.

Belle

Ariel

and Tiana

We visited Minnie's house...Maddie sat in Minnie's chair for the 3rd year in a row.

While John and Maddie rode a roller coaster Jack played in Mickey's car.

After nap time, the girls received a call from Mickey.

We played with Goofy in the lobby.

We then headed to California Adventure to see the Pixar Play parade.

We ended the evening with a carousel ride.

disneyland-day3

The kids wore matching outfits...

we rode lots of rides...
found Jasmine, Aladdin, and the Genie.
The day ended with dinner at Goofy's kitchen!

Goofy signing the Grimes' book on John's head.

Minnie was at dinner...

and Snow White...

along with Princess Aurora...

Jackson was at dinner also, just less than thrilled with the princesses!

Finally, we saw Chip & Dale.The night ended with matching jammies!

disneyland-day 4

We used our Toontown morning madness passes and entered Toontown an hour early. We finally found Donald...Jack's favorite!

We watched the celebration and become honorary citizens for the day.

Saw Mickey once more at his house

We all rode on the Dumbo ride

One last stop to see Mater and McQueen

Disneyland 2010 was a blast...

*****

who knows, maybe we will have to make it 4 years in a row.

detour 2010

We left Disneyland at noon and headed to the cars. After a quick stop the get gas and grab a bite to eat and we were on our way home. So we thought...

at 2:53pm...we had been on the hwy for over an hour and still had 352 miles to go
traffic backed up on 91...we would later find out it was due to a tanker explosion that happened earlier in the day

Assuming that we would just be rerouted around the accident, we followed the lane closures to exit only to be told that we could try a different route or wait on the side of the road for 3-6 hours. After 4 hours and driving only 30 miles, buying a California map, and plenty of highway recommendations we were on our way to San Diego...

... except there was more traffic!!

lots of traffic

an unexpected view of the ocean

It was 8:46 pm and we still had 368 miles to go...

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...after 13 hours in the car we finally made it home at 3am!!

swing

Our new & improved backyard got a swing in the tree this weekend. How much do we love it...Maddie told us when we picked her up from school today that she wanted to "go home to the backyard and swing"!

Maddie is kinda a 'swing hog' so Jack plays in the house...mostly he puts rocks in it!