We are nuts!!

We are probably crazy but it was soooo worth it! Matt had to go to Vegas for work last week and we decided to make a mini vacation out of it with us and our 3 darling children. So Thursday afternoon we set off for a fun filled trip to Vegas the beach and of course Disneyland! I wasn't too worried for the drive because Max is usually really good but for some reason he screamed probably the whole way there. He maybe slept for an hour. Madi and Mia were perfect. Our first stop was Vegas. The kids loved driving up and down the strip looking at all of the lights. Max absolutely loved the giant Circus Circus clown. He just kept yelling whoook whoook and waving Hi to the clown and to the people walking on the strip. While we were there we stayed at the New York New York hotel which Madi loved because she could watch the big roller coaster right out of our window. We played a lot at Circus Circus saw the acrobats and won lots of prizes, we visited the lions at MGM which the kids thought was awesome, and went to the giant aquarium in Cesar's Palace. Obviously Vegas is not the best place in the world to take small children but we figured if we stayed around the family oriented exhibits we would be fine. Well as we were walking to our hotel room there was a giant picture of a half dressed woman. Madi just stared at it and then said Mom that lady is not very modest! I was embarrassed that she had to see that but happy that she finally understood the meaning of the word modest! (we have been trying to teach her that one lately!) And poor little Max doesn't have a chance he takes after his daddy as soon as we walked through the casino we was fascinated by all of the noise and lights. He immediately ran over to a slot machine and wanted to play. It was hilarious and let me tell you we had many people staring us down trying to figure out how old we were and why on earth would we already have 3 children and for that matter drag them along to Vegas!! After leaving Vegas we drove the 4 hours to Newport beach. The kids loved it! Madi was running everywhere splashing in the water building sand castles making all kinds of new friends. And Max was just running around the beach stealing everyone Else's toys and chairs. We walked down the shore and found some rocks with a whole bunch of star fish and Madi got to see the sun set on the ocean it was amazing! That night we got a really nice hotel room (thanks to priceline!!) We ordered pizza and went swimming. The next day we packed up and were off to Disneyland! Again we had many people staring at us like were nuts for bringing three small children to Disneyland but it was worth every minute. It was seriously one of the most happiest days of my life. I think for the first 10 minutes Matthew and I just cried!! (i know cheesy and Matt is going to kill me for writing it!!) But we were just so happy to be there with our own little family and to see how happy and excited our kids were. It was awesome! Madi wasn't really a fan of many rides in fact she was scared of most of them. But she loved the teacups and the Aladdin show and meeting the princesses. She also loved the Tiki room and could not figure out how on earth real birds were singing and how they made it rain outside and then stop. She truly thought it was magical. For the four weeks before our trip Madi had been saving her money and trying to earn enough for lots for souvenirs so on our way we cashed in her coins and she had saved $54.00 the first thing that she wanted to do when we got there was go buy a princess dress. Of course the dresses there are way more expensive then the ones at target or Walmart but I had to let her do it because it was her hard earned money and that was what she wanted really bad. So she proudly bought her dress and loved it! Well towards the end of the night Matt wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean Madi was scared to death and I think we permanently scarred her. She was freaking out in the line and Matt told her that if she didn't go on the ride then he would have to take her dress back. So she cried for a minute and then said ok I'll take my dress back daddy. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. Still thinking about it makes me feel so bad. Well we didn't take the dress back and we did get Madi on the ride. She says she liked it but she'll never go again!! The ride home was perfect max was so exhausted he slept for probably 4 hours straight. Matt got pulled over for a speeding ticket and convinced the cop it wasn't him who was speeding we had tons of treats and no problems!!!



I now have a new appreciation for my parents and for the many trips that they took us on. You don't realize how much time energy and money things cost when you are a child. I can just picture my mom and dad with us five kids at Disneyland!! I thought we got alot of stares I am pretty sure they got plenty more. And I can just imagine my mom and dad wanting to get us everything there and struggling to make the trip the best ever and feeling so guilty if there were some things that we couldn't get. I can still remember our big yellow van breaking down on the way there and all 7 of us cramming in a hotel room. And loving every minute of it. As a child I was never aware of the financial or stressful sides of vacationing but now as a mother I appreciate my parents so much more for their efforts and for the many wonderful vacations that we went on!