More Knott's Fun

(I don't know why this is blue and underlined!) Anyways...KBF was having a promotion for Spring Break called "Camp Snoopy" and they handed out maps to each kid and it had locations marked where they could pick up free gear, like a hat, bandana, wristband, and compass. The kids loved this! They looked so cute with their hats and bandanas on!

Me and Jocee had a blast on these spinning hats!! We went so fast that Jocee went flying out of her seat and onto my lap!! She couldn't stop giggling. She had too much fun!

Chad isn't much of a ride guy, but he agreed to go on the ferris wheel with Jordan. He was okay at first....
Here's me and Jocee having fun together... when we went down the first time, Jocee said "I feel like a tickle in my tummy!"
Then we both were stopped on the top while they load/unload people and I turned around and Chad looked a little worried.... I don't know if you can see, but he's got a death-grip on the lap bar and a nervous look on his face!! It was so funny!! Jocee and I kept yelling at them and trying to make them laugh.
Here they are on these semi-trucks they rode on. They wanted to be in the front, so me and Chad had to squish together in the back. They thought it was funny.
Peek-a-boo Jocee!!
Here we are in the back seat.

They are getting tired!! Good thing we took the wagon with us! I'm so glad we did. It was a very wise decision. It was much easier to pull around than pushing a double stroller! They really didn't even walk that much, they just let Chad pull them. Spoiled! I do admit--I even took a seat in it while the kids were on a ride. :)

Jocee also had a fun time on this Woodstock Air Mail ride! She saw this picture and said, "I'm sitting next to a cute little girl!"



This is me on the Sidewinder. It was so much fun! Each little compartment spun around while going on the roller coaster!! It was awesome!
I could hardly believe it, but Chad WANTED to go on this roller coaster!! He doesn't do roller coasters so I was shocked when he said he wanted to go on it. Unfortunately the kids weren't tall enough so I had to stay with them while he went by himself. He ended up going on it 3 times!!

Chad took this cute picture of Jocee.
Handsome boys!

Race Car Ride

This was their favorite ride of all. They went on it so many times. It was the last ride that Jocee went on the last night we were there. We were all the way across the park and they were getting ready to close in like 10 minutes and she begged to go on it one last time (Jordan had fallen asleep sitting in the wagon). Chad wasn't up for running with them in the wagon so I ran across the park-- nearly killing people and not even waking up Jordan, and we made it in time for her to ride it twice!! We were both SO happy! She would have been so upset if she didn't get her last ride before we came back home.

Fun at Knott's Berry Farm

Ahhhh!! Vacation is great!! We definitely need to do it more often! :) My mom was kind enough to take care of Katelyn and Callie so we could have a more enjoyable time with just the two older kids. I think she was mostly afraid of us losing one of the kids so that's why she changed her mind and agreed to watch the two girls. She kept telling the kids "Make sure you stay with Mom and Dad while you're there!! Okay!!??" She's funny. It was nice to just have the two kids though. I missed the other girls but there's no way we could have had a fun time with them all.

Here they are posing with Snoopy!! I was so happy they got to say hi to him!Here's the view from the front of our hotel. The park was just across the street! It was awesome. We could hear the screams from the roller coaster riders! This saved us money because we didn't have to pay for parking, plus we didn't have to buy food at the park either. We just walked back to our hotel and got in the car and drove down the street and paid the equivalent of a meal for 1 person at the park for our whole family! Plus when the kids got tired, we just went back to the hotel and rested for a while, then went back in to play some more!

We made it!!! Woo hoo!
This was the first ride we went on. (I know, it's blurry but oh well) Jordan was nervous about going on rides at first so I went on with Jocee. She was awesome!! She wanted to go on everything and wasn't a bit scared!! She's like a little version of me! Which I never would have guessed because when my dad swings the kids around and hangs them upside down, Jocee is usually the one who doesn't like it. She tells him to put her down. Katelyn on the other hand, LOVES to be thrown around! Maybe next time she can go have fun with us!
To get Jordan in the "riding" spirit, we all went on a little train ride around the kiddie area of the park.
Me and Jocee on the train.
Chad and Jordan in the hot air balloons. The kids really liked this one too. (And even Chad could handle it!)
Here's Jordan on a fun spinning ride. (Jocelyn's behind him.)
At first, Jocee wasn't too sure about this one because it goes up high and goes around in a circle. But I talked her into it and she loved it! (Can't see us in this picture but we're in there!)
Here's one up close on the bus.
Then we all went on this little kiddie roller coaster. Chad was brave enough to try it! (He HATES roller coasters!) He actually enjoyed it--mostly--besides the fact that the lap bar was jabbing into his stomach!

More pics to come....I'm going to bed for now!

Finally! A Vacation!

The last trip we went on was the Gardiner family reunion 2+ years ago in Utah! So when we got our tax refund, we decided that we should take a family vacation. I got online and found a really good deal on tickets to Knott's Berry Farm (Disneyland is pretty pricey so we're waiting till the kids are a little bit older so they can remember going.) and I found a really good rate on a hotel right across the street (it took a while to search out all the different sites, but I found it!). I figured that the kids would be exhausted after a few hours so we would probably have to go back to rest in the middle of the day, then could go back in the afternoon so a hotel that close would be great. I wish we could take the wagon with us to pull around 2 of them while the other 2 are in the double stroller because I know Jordan and Jocee will get tired of walking real fast.
We are really excited about going. I know traveling with 4 kids is going to be stressful at times, but hopefully I can be well prepared with games, movies, music, and food to entertain them for 5 hours! If anyone has any car games or entertaining ideas, I'd love to hear them! The kids are excited to go but keep telling us they want to go "TODAY!" I think I'm going to mark it on a calendar so they can count down! We're going to leave Thursday, the 20th of March and come home on Easter Sunday. It will be good for us to just go and have a fun time as a family. We get so caught up with every day life, that sometimes we forget to "stop and smell the roses" per say, so we're looking forward to enjoying some fun with the kids! (Maybe some day, when Callie's old enough to leave with Grandma, we could take a trip with just "us!" Someday...