Happy Halloween!

Hope you have a spooky Halloween!

Love,

Disneyland

Chad had a 4 day weekend and we had gone back and forth on what to do.  Finally, we decided--we were going camping.  I packed our bags, bought the food, got the wood ready, and we were set.  But at 6:00 the night before, there were promises of solid rainy days and flash floods where we were headed.  

Change of plans!

Our friends, the Browns, offered us their house in Rancho since they would be gone for the weekend, so we traded our rain jackets for flip flops and swimsuits and left at 4:00 the next morning for Disneyland to use our annual passes one more time.  

It took Caden a while to get things cleared up, "So we're going camping at Disneyland?...We're going camping after Disneyland?...Oh, I see, no camping."  We snacked on graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate bars in the car and headed out.

We drove straight to the park and were able to spend the majority of Thursday and all day Friday there.  

 Although I was pregnant for the trip, I did sneak on a few of my favorites (Splash Mountain and Cars). I couldn't help it!  It was just too tempting with Chad and Caden having all the big-ride fun.

I have so many pictures just like this one of the boys at the end of a long Disneyland day:  Caden out cold in the stroller while Bryce munches chips or cleans up the candy stash.  It kind of says something about each of their personalities.

On Saturday we hung out in Rancho and visited our old neighbors, the Douglas'.  I took a quick solo trip to LA to load up at the fabric district, then we visited some of our favorite places--the mall, Redhill Park and Costco for pizza dinner.  

I expected the trip to feel surreal since we don't live there anymore. Chad and I kept asking each other, "Does this feel weird?"  but it never did--I don't think we've been away long enough.  It just felt like us spending a weekend in Rancho like we did for 4 years. 

I was really sad on Friday night when we left Disneyland, knowing we can't just go anytime we want now.  As we drove up the 57 and across the 10 that night around midnight, we couldn't help but take the long way to the Browns and drive past our old house.  I did get emotional seeing it but not going in and carrying our sleeping boys up to tuck them in their beds there like we have so many times before.  Life in California was so, so good to us.  We grew in many ways as a family and learned many lessons, and yet sometimes it just felt like a 4 year vacation to me.  I think a bit of me will always be homesick for our life in Rancho Cucamonga.