you better stop the things that you do

Here are some pictures from our California vacation.  We left on a Friday afternoon and the kids had found all of their Waldos before we even hit St. George.  I told them the story about how Brigham Young hated the steeple of the St. George temple, but they put it on anyway, and then after Brigham Young died lightning struck the steeple and burned it down.  I actually sang the story to the tune of "I Love to See the Temple" because I'm talented like that.  

We drove them down the Strip so they could see what a weird, wild place Las Vegas is.  They were suitably impressed by the architecture, especially Caesar's Palace.  

 Our boys enjoyed the ABYSMAL breakfast at our hotel in Henderson.

We went to Little Corona del Mar beach and looked at the tide pools.  They were pretty good.  I'm just glad we got a picture of Emmett crouching like Gollum. 

Ike is being rakishly handsome.  

Willa being a good sport about the many sharp rocks and her being shoeless.  She never quite got brave enough to touch an anemone.  

We found this weird bug about the size of a June bug crawling around on the patio of our rental house, which we quite enjoyed and would use again.  

Grant and Landon are psyched for Small World.  

Willa on the BORING carousel.  Lagoon's is way better.  Even King Triton's carousel has different kinds of sea creatures.  Get it together, Fantasyland!

Our children look like demons in the courtyard of Medieval Times.  

Emmett got barfy sick and missed out on a few days of our fun times.  Thank goodness we got those four-day tickets.  He finally got better and enjoyed the Lego store very much.  

This is the best picture we got of our whole family, thanks to Ike and Willa being weirdos.  

We even took a picture with some princesses, but only because the line was so short. Don't get me started on princesses.  

ESPECIALLY Ariel.  Ariel is probably my least favorite princess of all.  She's ungrateful and sells her most precious attribute to get the attention of an inconstant, weak-minded boy.  She and Eric deserve each other.  

I hate when my pictures won't rotate.  This is Willa's macaroni at the Cafe Orleans.  I am so easily pleased.  The slightest incremental improvement over blue box is much applauded, and this was quite good macaroni.  

And this is the Monte Cristo that I ate and enjoyed every bite of, but I think it might still be in my stomach.  John and Richard took the boys and Emma to the beach, and Jenny and I were there with just Kate and Willa, and I decided to seize the day, since it would probably be a long, long time before I was in Disneyland without so many kids that eating at a restaurant would bankrupt me.  So Jenny and I ate our terrible, wonderful sandwiches and saw our works that they were  good.  

It was a wonderful vacation.  The drive wasn't nearly as horrifying as I feared, we had a great house with plenty of room to kick around in, we were there with great friends, and we left right as Kate and Willa were starting to come apart from all their missed sleep.  Just the right amount of time.  I would do it again.