Disney Trip 2025!!

 June 2nd Pete's group went from San Diego up to Legoland area and went to the Castle Hotel where David and Anica and the boys stayed at. They swam then went to dinner. June 3rd and 4th were Legoland days for Pete and group (Pete's input: I enjoyed the rides and asking around for pop badges with the boys.) 

Alice had track practice on the 2nd, and her last track meet on the 4th. She ended up only doing three events because she was still not 100% from her walking pneumonia. She did the long jump where she got her best length of the season at 6 ft 6 in. She tripped in hurdles, but still got third place in her heat, and she got 5th in her 100 meter dash (but improved her time there as well!). With having pneumonia / effects from it the whole season it definitely put a damper on things for Alice's track season. She's been running a bit so she can do the one mile race for Good Neighbor Days next month. 

 

We headed out early on the 5th fly out to California for our big family trip! Pete and the boys/Anica picked us up from the Long Beach airport. We dropped off our cars and went over to Downtown Disney for a bit before grabbing dinner and letting the kids have some pool time. 

We woke early to do rope drop at Disneyland on the 6th. We booked it over to Star Wars land to start out our day. We got on the new Rise of the Resistance ride and the Millennium Falcon. From there we went on Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Alice loved it so much that Casey happily took her on it again while the rest of us went over to the Haunted Mansion. From there we went to Pirates and then went on the Pirate ship and the Jungle Cruise before lunch. After lunch we went on the new Minnie and Mickey's Railway Adventure, Thunder Mountain, and some went on Indiana Jones while I took Alice to get custom designed ears, see inside the princess castle and hang out in Fantasyland for a ride on the Merry Go Round and the Tea Cups. We all rode Dumbo and then broke for dinner. After dinner we hit up a couple of more rides and then went up to Star Wars land for the evening. We did the single rider line for the Millennium Falcon and waited for the light show and fireworks show they put on up there. We got friendly with a couple of cast members and they let the kids be apart of the show where they let the kids hold light sabers and "help" make things light up. It was such a neat experience!! We decided to stay for the second paint the night parade. We set up in the area by the entrance that is usually reserved for the first parade / fireworks, but was open for the second one. ( I was lucky to celebrate my birthday at Disneyland this year. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me at breakfast, and I wore a birthday badge so cast members wished me Happy Birthday throughout the day as well. We did have dole whips and churros to enjoy for the day, but a definite highlight was getting my siblings to reenact a photo from our childhood Disney trip! )

  

   

   

 

  

 

 

We did another early morning on the 7th, but headed over to California Adventures. We started off with Soarin and then went to Pixar Pier to ride the Toy Story ride. Some of us got in line for the Incredicoaster, but it shut down when we were part way through it. The littles road on the Little Mermaid ride and then we all met up over in Cars Land. I got treats for my parents while the others waited in the Cars ride line. We were all able to ride together though! We did the Luigi ride and then headed down towards the Avengers Campus for a bit. After lunch we went over to the Grizzly River Run and then shot back towards the arts area to do Monsters Inc and the boys met Perry the Platypus. We watched the character parade in the early afternoon then made our way back to the Avengers Campus for the Guardians ride and the Web Slingers rides. After an ice cream treat we headed back over to the pier for a few rides including the Incredicoaster and another round at Toy Story Mania. After a later dinner we stayed to watch the color show on the water. A cast member saw our awesome shirts and let us into a VIP area to see the show! We were singing along to all of the songs and having a blast! 

 

 

 

Sunday we let the kids sleep in for a bit. We went back to Downtown Disney. Pete and Alice made personalized Lego figures and Kendal bought a little Lego castle. We had lunch there at a sandwich truck before heading back to the hotel. We made our way to the beach for the afternoon and let the kids play to their hearts content in the sand and water. Alice collected a ton of shells. The kids dug holes, built castles, and had a blast! It was late when we got back so we ordered some pizza and let the kids get in the hot tub for a bit.

We went back to Disneyland on Monday the 9th! We were going to jump up to Star Wars for the Rise ride first, but it said it was closed so we headed to Tomorrowland and got in the Buzz Astro Blasters, and a Star Wars ride before heading up to Star Wars land. We did end up waiting in our longest line of the trip (about an hour) to ride the new Star Wars ride. We jumped on the Millennium Falcon right after as well. We headed back towards Tomorrowland and did Space Mountain, the submarine ride, and Autopia. Alice was not a fan of driving the cars. We did the train ride around the park for a long break and went on It's A Small World. We fast passed a few more rides in the afternoon (Pirates, Thunder Mountain, etc.). My parents went on the steamboat while we did that. We split up a before dinner. Katherine, Alice, and I went up to Fantasyland, and Casey, Pete, and Kendal went over to Tomorrowland to build lightsabers with the boys and go on the Buzz ride again. We watched the Fantasmic water show.  My parents, Katherine, and Andy went back to the hotel while Casey and Pete went with the boy crew back up to Star Wars land to make a droid and watched the shows there a bit. The girls and I tried to head over to see some fireworks near the castle but we didn't have much success. The girls were exhausted (We averaged about 10 miles a day on our trip) so we stopped by a sweet shop after fireworks and then headed back to the hotel. 

 

Tuesday the 10th we flew home. This trip was all thanks to my wonderful parents. They gifted us this adventure together and we're so lucky and blessed that they were able and willing to do this for all of us! This trip was full of so many lasting memories and we are so grateful to my parents for making this happen!  Casey was our master navigator and fast pass guru the whole trip (it was a lot to manage, and he's amazing for doing so). 

So long school year, hello Summer

 Alice started track the last week of school on the 19th. She's been excited to have her turn this spring (even though she still only wants to do the shortest races possible). That night Kendal had her track banquet to end the year. Alice got to join her Activity Day's group and go for a walk to the evil Knievel site on the 20th. 

On Wednesday Pete and Casey had their 7th grade field day in the morning at the park. Pete made it a few rounds in the corn hole tournament, but didn't got out in the semi final round. That afternoon Alice had her first track meet. She had a cold and that affected her running, but she still did her best. She ran the 100, 200, hurdles, and did long jump. 

Thursday was the awards assembly and carnival for the Middle School. Pete got recognized for his work with the Sources of Strength club! Casey ended up being one of the dunk tank teachers which he usually doesn't mind, but his sciatic nerve was acting up and made for a not so fun week. Friday was a field day for Alice at School, the Nat So Pa trip for the Middle School kids, and poor Kendal had two tests the last day of school (she had five tests the last week of school and was not thrilled about it to say the least). Luckily she did get out early Thursday and Friday after she took her tests. My week was filled with inventory and end of year happenings at two schools and I was honestly pretty stressed and stretched out with it all. 

Kendal ended her year keeping her 4.0 standing intact! She'll have a summer PE (duel credit class) this summer. Can't believe she'll be a sophomore / 16 this fall. Pete kept himself in the high honor roll this whole school year and was a great student as well. He loved getting to have his Dad as a teacher this year and even got to be his aid this last quarter. Alice had an emotional end of school year, she has had a great year with Mrs. Heimdal and had some really good friends in her class. She's one smart cookie and will go into 3rd grade with a 5th grade reading level! 

  

Casey and Pete went up to State track on the 24th to help and support the middle school athletes. They both came back tired and really sun kissed from the day, but they were glad they went. 

To kick off Summer break - we went with the Dansie family to hike Box Canyon on Memorial day. It was a beautiful day and not to hot for a hike. All of the kids did well on the way down. We played in the water (everyone but Breah and I went all the way under the fridged water), and had lunch before heading back up the canyon. Poor Alice started back and within minutes couldn't get in full breaths and was struggling so hard to make the uphill in any way. I gave in and had her ride piggy back for a while, before Casey (who had reached the top with the older kids) realized we were back to far and came looking. He was my champ and carried Alice the rest of the way on the most steep parts of the hike. We stopped by the creamery in Buhl for ice cream on the way home. I was worried about how Alice's breathing was so I dropped everyone off at home and took Alice into Insta Care. She was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and told if her breathing became any more labored to take her to the ER. We were given a few prescriptions and she got a breathing treatment to go into the week. That evening we went over to the Dansie's for dinner and the kids played wiffle ball in the backyard into the night. 

 

  

  

Casey and I headed in to the school to finish work on Tuesday. I knew I had a lot on my to do list and it took me till midday on Thursday to get everything done. Once Casey was done with his room he helped me here and there on my bigger projects, but it was still a lot of work. Kendal and Pete have got some runs in this week. Mostly though we let the kids sleep in, take it easy a bit, and have a good first week of summer. The kids did go to the Library kick off event on Wednesday and made library totes. 

Alice had her second track meet on the 28th. Because she still wasn't 100 percent we just had her do the long jump, hurdles, and 100 meter dash before we headed out. It was hot so it was probably a good thing that we left. Alice continues to cough, but her breathing continues to improve everyday. Since this was part of the high school track fundraiser Kendal has helped the whole time at the meets this year with timing / long jump pits. 

Pete got in a lot of friend time the first week of summer and even had a summer kick off party at the Hunts boys' house on Thursday. I took him to Logan on Friday so he could fly out Satruday with Andy, Campbell, David, Anica, Elliot, Isaac, and Emmet to go early on a trip before our Disney trip next week. He got to go to a MLB game last night. Today he's at the San Diego Zoo and has sent us lots of pictures so far. (Lego one is from the airport).