the pribyl family: 01/07/12

Two weeks of Heaven is what Christmas Break is for me. Free of homework, early morning scedules, and extracuriicular's. I literally have been looking forward to this break since the first week of school. I remember after many frustrating nights helping Aubrie with her long list of homwork telling myself, "Just get to Christmas, just get to Christmas!" This year, since Christmas fell at the very beginning of our vactaion, we decided to extend our typical New Year Utah trip, by following it up with a trip to California.

Orginally, we planned on leaving the Thursday after Christmas, but Ben came home early Wednesday and talked me into leaving that afternoon. I quickly packed and we left around 2:00. The trip went really fast, until we were on the 20 pass almost to the 15. Our back suspension went out AGAIN and we had to drive the car that way for the 2 remaining hours to Provo. Poor Aubrie took the very back seat this trip, and she got the brunt of the bounding. We stayed the night at the Provo Fairfield, where we typically stay for the 4th.

Ben woke up early and dropped our car off at the dealership, and rented a car. While we were waiting to hear on our car, we all piled in the rental car for our errands for the day. Our first stop was the hospital. We got on our way to Utah the night before that Amber was in labor. She had her baby that night, so we got to go and visit her first thing in the morning. Aubrie was elated over her new cousin. Her and I didn't want to stop holding her. I LOVE newborns and certainly could not get enough of her. Boston held her for awhile, and Ethan and Sophia just watched. After our visit with Amber, we headed to Great Grandma/Grandpa Jenkins. There we visited with them, gave them our gift, and the kids and Grandpa played the piano. We then got lunch at Brick Oven, per Aubrie's request. I only got the soup and salad this time, and the kids all got the pasta bar, except Boston. He got a burrito from Taco Bell on the way there. LOL After Brick Oven we headed to the BYU bookstore. We all picked up some BYU parofanlia. Boston replaced the hoodie he lost, and the girls got shirts. I think Ethan got a football. Oh and Sophia got a dress. ( This week she finally wore it, and Ben asked her if she was going to wear that when she met her husband at BYU and she said, "NO! THIS IS A 4T! WHAT IN THE HECK ARE YOUR TALKING ABOUT?" haha) After BYU we went to Sub Zero. It is an ice cream store that freezes your ice cream with liquid Nitrogen. We had never been there before and thought we would try it out. First you pick your milk base (non-fat, etc), then any flavors, and then your add ins. They mix it in a bowl as they add liquid Nitrogen. It was very cool (double entandra)and yummy. We then went to check to see if our car was done. We still had about another hour to kill so we went up to Rock Canyon and walked around. We were very lucky that our car was fixed so quickly, and that it stayed fixed this time. We were almost convinced that the Lord was trying to tell us to get a new car, after we swore that if anything happened to it this year, we would trade it in that day! Once we got our car, we headed up to Centerville to stay with the Godowns. The first night there, the kids played, and Aubrie hung out with the adults and played a new dice game similar to Yatzee. Things got a bit crazy later that evening, so we called it quits and went to bed, to get ready for our long day that was ahead of us.

Friday we spent up in Midway. We headed there around Noon, after a stop Costa Vida. It is like Cafe Rio, but not as good in my opinion. Our first Midway stop was the ice skating rink. Aubrie LOVES ice skating, and so do I. Boston didn't last long. He gets frustrated when things don't come to him naturally, and he doesn't like doing things he isn't good at. He takes after his father a bit in that area. One of the reasons he never likes to water ski:) Ethan and Sophia weren't doing well at first, but they picked it back up and were improving by the end of the session. Aubrie also started getting her backward skating down. The ice wasn't as smooth as it was last year, because it wasn't cold enough to freeze fast enough. That made it a bit harder to skate. That should have been a sign that the sledding slopes wouldn't be the greatest either. After skating we had some time to kill, so we went to a nearby park and played for a bit. Then we headed to the lodge to get ready. It's quite the process getting on snow clothes for 4 kids who are not used to the order of things. "No, Gloves then Coats!" Sledding was fun, for the mere fact that all the kids could go this time. FIRST time EVER! I think Sophia would have been happy with the just the lift. She thought that was so cool. We had fun throwing snowballs at one another on the 5 minute lift ride. That made up for the slushy slopes. Every run included us getting stuck half way down, and having to give the kids and ourselves a push for the other half. Nothing like the times we went so fast we were practically hitting the fences at the end of the run. Still good memories though, and nice tempreatures! :) After the slopes, we finished with dinner at Dairy Keen. The kids already love that place, with the indoor train, lego table, and icecream. However their affection for that place increased as we walked in to find not one, but TWO Coke 100 Flavor, machines! After a yummy dinner, that ended with shakes (my fat jeans are fitting more by the minute), we headed back to the Godowns. The kids went straight to bed and we stayed up at watched a movie with the Godowns.

The following morning we slept in. It felt good! We ran to a few places in the afternoon, including lunch at JJ's. What yummy sandwiches! Then we all took a hike up one of bountiful's trails. The houses leading up to the trails were HUGE!!! The kids were all in awe, and when we got out of the car Ethan said, "Mom, I don't feel rich anymore!" First of all, I'm glad he feels we are rich, bc that means he recognizes how blessed he is. Secondly, I think it is funny how a kids perspective can change in a second. The rest of the day we just hung out till evening. Then Aubrie babysat all the kids while we we traveled North to Roy for some great Sushi! It was a great time! The sushi was delish, and the company was even better. We had a great time. To finish our date, we stopped at a famous burger joint called Burger Bar-Home of the Big Ben. Scott saw it on TV and heard tehy had not only great burgers, but shakes. It was FREEZING, and so we sat in our car eating our shakes. We started reading the menu and realized most everything had "Ben" in it. It was hilarious reading it, thinking of Ben at the same time. We were all rolling, and decided Ben had to get out and get a picture next to the menu. We then headed home, to find Aubrie had been the fantastic babysitter she always is. She cleaned and sweeped the kitchen, cleaned up an huge blanket fort in the family room, and cleaned up the entire basement family room. She also tackled a running poopy diaper, and manged to calm down a hearbroken boy, who felt dissed by Sophia as she was spending her time with another brother. Aubrie is such a responisble babysitter. She was happy to finally get paid, since when she sits for us, her payment is her gymnasitcs tuition, etc. etc.

Earlier that day, when we made a Walmart stop for a toothbrush and pack of underwear for Ethan (a few things he forgot during our mad rush out the door), I picked up a large pack of fireworks. Natalie and I watched the kids and the Dad's shoot of the fireworks from inside, through her Dining room window! It was SUPER cold, and I was done with it! The kids all had fun taking their turns lighting the fireworks. Afterwards, they had hot chocolate, and we put them to bed. I fell asleep laying down with them, and woke up at 11:15. The adults talked till Midnight, and then we went to bed. We had a LONG drive ahead of us. We had a good time with the Godowns. They have been good friends to us.

New Years Day we headed to California. We made GREAT time all the way to Vegas. Then we hit BIG traffic. We ended up being in the car about 12 hours! We all couldn't wait to get to the Hendrickson's and our of our car! The boys had fun out on the Hendrickson's new Christmas present, a trampoline, and Aubrie had fun catching up with Jamie and Cori. They are really nice and great examples to her. I had fun getting the tour of their new house. There is a lot more room with a great bonus room upstairs with lots of storage. Just the right amount of space to make all the difference. Once the kids were settled into a movie, we roped them into watching the last few episodes of Arrested Development we had yet to finish on Netflix! We finally got to be close to Midnight. We had to get some sleep for a day of Disney ahead of us.

We decided our time of departure was 9:00. We got up at 8:00 and were all out the door, with lunches packed by 9:00. Not too bad for 12 people....8 being kids! Wehn we arrived at the Disney parking lot, the lines were ridicoulously LONG! I texted Lou and she said she had never seen it that busy. I instantly thought how the day of rides was shot. We all decided to start over at California Adventure, and it ended up being a good decision. We sent the girls to get fast passes for Soarin' while we headed for the Toy Story Mania line. The line was 40 minutes, so the kids jumped in the Screamin line and rode the roller coaster, while Lou and I held our place in line. When that ride was done, we sent the girls for Tower of Terror fast passes while we waited in line for the Ferris Wheel. After the Ferris Wheel we met up with Jon's brother and his family, and did the swings. Then we all went over to Grizzly Rapids. Sophia was a hair short of going, so Ben kept sneaking her in line, until we finally got her to the front. She was so excited that Dad was "sneaky" and got her on! We all had a great time on that ride, and Sophia thought it was hilarious how wet we were getting. After the Rapids we hit Soarin, and then headed over to Bugs Land for a kid ride, while we were waiting for all our fast passes to be ready for Tower of Terror. Sophia chickened out and so Ben got a parent pass, and gave Jon's sister and son (who also showed up) their fast passes. We 17 in our whole group. We almost filled the whole elevator. We decided we would all do something similar for the picture. Here it is! We thought we were so funny! It was a fun group. After the ride, Ben took Aubrie with his parent pass, we headed home for dinner. It ended up being a good time, despite the crowds, and we got all the good rides in.

When we got home, we got pizza for the kids, and then headed out to favorite Mexican Restaurant to meet the Hellwells. They just had a baby, and I was super excited to hold her! We got their a bit earlier than them, which worked out perfect, because I was done eating early, and had PLENTY of time to hold her while we talked. It was nice visit that had to end early, because their kids all started back to school the next day, and Jon has to get up early to teach Seminary. When we got back we watched the final episode of Arrested Development, and then they went to bed.

The next day we thought would be less crowded at Disney b/c school was in. The parking lot was pretty empty when we arrived and so we thought we were GOLDEN. Then around 10:00 everyone started showing up. It was CROWDED by 11:00. However, amongst the crowd we were lucky enough to run into Matt and Nicole, and neither one of us knew the other was going. It was a SURPRISE to say the least. We met up with them later at California Adventure for Toy Storia Mania and California Screamin. Then we split off and the kids talked me into doing the Rapids. It was only a 5 minute wait because it was dark, and since we were going home right after, I figured it would be ok. Then two really large people joined our raft, and we all got SOAKED! It was a fun time, though, and we were in the car with the heater on within 15 minutes.

After two busy days at Disney, we decided that we would skip Disney on Wednesday and drive straight home. We packed everything up and headed out. I checked the wait times on my Disney app out of curiousity, and they were are very short. The next thing I know Ben is pulling into Disney. By the time we got there everything was long (go figure) but we decided since we were there, we might as well get a few favorites in. We parked at Downtown Disney, and rode the monorail in, as to surprise the kids. We told them we were just getting breakfast at downtown Disney, and that we were going to ride the monorail really quick until the restaurant opened. They were totally falling for it, until the announcer said that it was a one way trip to Tomorrowland. Darn, the jig was up. We were glad we took the monorail, because we have never done it before (except when I was a kid), and it was cool to see the park from above, and ride close to the Matterhorn. We rode rides until around two, grabbed lunch at ToGo's (YUM) and headed home.

Overall, it was a great trip. When we pulled in to our garage, Ben told me we had travled 2100 miles in all. I find it an accomplishment that for the most part, the car rides were peaceful and uneventful! What a great Christmas Break....Do we really have to start school again?!