Disneyland Trip with Brayden and Grandma Sue!

OK, this post could get long, but I think I’m going to make a Shutterfly book all about this trip too, so I won’t go too much into detail here! 

So this Disney trip all started way back last November when I was talking with my mom about how fun it would be to go on a trip with her and Avery. Originally, Avery was supposed to go to New York City with her orchestra group from school and that was gonna happen over April/Spring break of 2026. However, the more we looked into the prices and what the whole orchestra trip would entail, the more we decided that it was gonna cost a lot of money and only be for three days and also not be super fun! It was literally going to cost us probably at least $4000 for just me and Avery to go and stay there for the weekend with all of her eighth grade orchestra friends plus, I knew that I would get roped into babysitting a bunch of eighth graders the whole time! So at one point, I think I had jokingly said to my mom, “We could probably go to Disneyland for cheaper than that!” and she had replied, “Yeah, and it would be a lot more fun too!” and so with that we decided to start looking into it!

We decided to go the same weekend that her New York trip would’ve been because it was when our school was off for spring break, so Avery and I flew from Idaho Falls to the San Diego airport on Friday, April 10. We rented a car and I drove us to the hotel that we had stayed at when our family went in June 2023 (Desert Inn). It was right across the street from Disneyland and wasn’t super nice, but it was super convenient because we could easily walk to and from the Disneyland parks whenever we wanted to. My mom and Brayden flew in on Saturday night, so Avery and I picked them up from the airport and brought them back to the hotel late that night.

Because Avery and I had all day Saturday basically to do whatever we wanted with, we decided to drive to a beach and also do a bunch of shopping! I think Avery probably felt like an heiress because I probably spent more money on her shopping than I ever have that one time in one shopping trip before! We found a really nice outdoor shopping mall that had all of her favorite stores: PacSun, Aeropostale, Brandy Melville, Abercrombie, American Eagle, and more.  Then we drove to a nearby beach in Newport called Crystal Cove I think. We walked on this a little hike and then it went down to the beach and we just kind of sat on the edge of the water for a little while, and walked around. It was pretty chilly to actually get into the water, so we didn’t really swim.

We went back to the hotel, showered and got our pajamas on and then drove to the airport at about 9 o’clock to collect Grandma and Brayden.

The next morning, it was Sunday and we began our very busy three days at the Disney parks! My mom had bought us the three-day hopper passes with Jesse's military discount, so we decided to do our first day at Disneyland and our second day mostly at California Adventure, and then use our third day to kind of go back-and-forth and do whatever we had missed!

So on Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early and got to the front gates of Disneyland by about 7:30 AM! We stood right by the castle and waited for the rope to drop and then ran to the Star Wars ride first! I really think Brayden and Avery were some of the very first ones running at the front of the pack to get to that ride first! Me and Grandma fell a little behind so we didn’t get there quite as fast! Brayden and Avery had gotten on and off the ride by the time we were in line, but they maybe only had to wait about 15 minutes for us to ride the ride and then we were done too, so it wasn’t that bad.

We used the Disneyland app to constantly book our next lightning lane passes. Disneyland has gotten a little more stressful than it used to be before smart phones because you feel like you always have to plan ahead for your next ride to avoid waiting in line, but it really does make it so you hardly ever have to wait at all. It was also a little rainy that first day, and in retrospect, it really helped the lines to be a lot smaller so that was nice. I think we wrote about six rides before it was even noon. Some of our favorites that we did that morning were the Indiana Jones ride, the new Tiana‘s Splash Mountain ride, Big Thunder, Mountain railroad, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the two Star Wars rides. Then we made our way over to Tomorrowland and Space Mountain on some of the other rides over there and then did Fantasyland and all the other stuff.

I can’t remember exactly what we did each night but I know we had a dinner reservation for one of the nights in Disneyland and we ate at a restaurant on Main Street. Then after that, we kind of decided we were just gonna eat wherever we decided to in the spur of the moment and we didn’t really make any other Disney Dining reservations.

The next day we started out at California Adventure. When the gates opened, we decided to run to the Cars ride first. It kind of felt like a repeat of the day before because Brayden and Avery were at the front of the pack and me and Grandma were trying to speedwalk but fell a little behind! But we actually ended up catching up to them and all getting on that ride at the same time! So after we rode the Cars ride, we did Guardians of the Galaxy, Monsters Inc., the Cali River Rapids water ride on the big tube, Soarin’, the Incredicoaster, and more. We stopped for lunch and got some food at the PixarPier area. I think one of my favorite things that I ate the whole time I was at Disney this time was the clam chowder bread bowl! I think we had that at least three times during our trip!  We also probably rode the Incredicoaster at least four times!

I really think with the lightning lane passes, you get to ride the good rides at least a few times without waiting in line. We got to the point where we had basically ridden everything at both parks and then were going back and just doing our favorite things twice or three times even! I really don’t think there was a single ride at California adventure or Disneyland that we didn’t do except for the giant Ferris wheel, which we were too scared to do! Haha 

Just so I remember my thoughts for the future, I want to make notes on a few rides. First of all, things that DisneyLAND has that Disney World doesn't have: Indiana Jones, the Incredicoaster, and Alice in Wonderland. Those are all some good rides that enjoyed. Also, there are a few rides that are better at Disneyland. The most notable one is Space Mountain. I do NOT enjoy that ride in Florida and always feel like my back is thrown out after riding it, but it's one of my favorite rides at Disneyland. It's so smooth and is really fun in the dark with all the stars and the music. However, one ride that is TERRIBLE at Disneyland is the Matterhorn bobsleds! It looks like a ride called Expedition Everest at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, but it is NOT THE SAME. It is super old feeling and it throws you around and wrecks your back like crazy. 1 out of 5 stars. That was one ride that was closed in June 2023 (the only other time we have gone to Disneyland) and so I was looking forward to riding it on this trip and it was a serious let down. Also, the redone Guardians of the Galaxy (used to be Tower of Terror) ride at Disneyland is NOT my favorite. It just goes up and down and up and down and you feel like you're going to barf. The one at Disney World is still the Tower of Terror and I like the whole theme of that ride better AND it's more of an actual ride that goes THROUGH the hotel, not just up down up down. SO! I need to just plan a Disney World trip again now. We haven't been there since January 2018! Avery was only 5 1/2 years old, so she reall doesn't even remember much. We will have to take that trip in the next few years...

Anyways, back to the trip, on the third day, we went back and did some things from both parks and it was a lot of fun, but by Tuesday night, we were very exhausted and even Avery was feeling like she was ready to go home. It also got pretty old sharing a small hotel room with four people and only one bathroom. So on Wednesday morning, Avery and I drove Grandma and Brayden to the airport and they flew out first at about noon. Then, me and Avery still had a few hours until our flight needed to leave, so we did a little more shopping and then got to the airport by about 4 o’clock.

Unfortunately, our flight at home wasn’t a direct flight like the one on the way out had been, so we first had to fly to Phoenix and then sit there for a few hours and then our second flight even got delayed a little bit so we didn’t get in the Idaho Falls until almost midnight! We were pretty exhausted as we drove into the driveway about 1 AM! Luckily, we still had four more days of spring break to recover before going back to school on Monday!

Overall, it was a great trip and I’m glad we did it instead of going to New York City with the entire eighth grade orchestra class! Avery had always wanted to do a Disney trip again, and I think we can honestly say she was definitely more spoiled on this trip than she would’ve been if it would’ve been with Dad and the boys! We got so many Mickey pretzels, churros, many souvenirs, and did lots of other shopping outside of Disney! Hopefully it will be a trip that she always looks back on and think about how fun it was!

Caleb's Spring Break Trip and More

A few other things happened in April besides me and Avery going to Florida!

Caleb's Spring Break Trip to Florida

While Avery and I were in California, Caleb was in Florida! The way that happened was that my dad had been bugging us to come visit again for quite some time and with all of our other plans including me and Avery going to Disneyland and Gabe getting home in July and then going to Wisconsin at the end of July, and then going to Spain in September, I just really wasn’t seeing a possible way that our whole family could go visit Florida this year. We all went as a family last March when we were going on our cruise with the Matthews and so I just said, “Maybe Caleb can come out there and visit you by himself.” My dad had really been emphasizing how much he wanted to see Caleb specifically before he leaves on his mission so I went online and I was able to use some Skye miles and book. Just Caleb the ticket to fly from Jackson to the airport near my dad‘s house in North Port, Florida. Caleb actually left the day before me and Avery, which was Thursday, April 9, and he stayed there for about four days. He came home on Tuesday, April 14 I think. He spent time riding around on the golf cart in my dad‘s neighborhood, going to the beach, going to church on Sunday, and also visiting with my uncle Jim and aunt Terry. He actually stayed at their house the first night he flew in because their house was close to the airport and it was late at night and then the next day they drove him to my dad’s house. Then he stayed there again the night before he flew out. He actually had a lot of fun there, and I think would consider going out again and staying with them too!

A Visit from Joao's Mom and Sister

Another crazy thing that happened in April was that Gabe’s mission companion, Elder Cabrera, had messaged us and told us that his mom and sister were actually going to be in Utah around general conference weekend! I guess his older sister lives in Utah and his mom had flown out to visit her for a couple of weeks from Brazil he said that they would love to meet us and that they would be willing to drive up to Rexburg and spend Saturday afternoon with us so on Saturday, April 4 they drove up here and we had some lunch ready and we chatted for about an hour then we got in Josh’s truck and drove around up to the campus and stopped at the temple and showed them all around Rexburg. I wonder if part of the reason that they wanted to come visit was because Joao has talked about coming to school at BYU Idaho and they probably wanted to check us out and see if we were normal too! His mom and sister were both very nice, but we couldn’t really talk to his mom much because she didn’t speak English. His sister, Nicole, spoke English well, and so we would communicate through her though. At the time, Elder Cabrera was still with Gabe for about another week and so his mom was flying home from Utah and then he was getting home a few days later from his mission! It was fun to meet them and to show them around. We will see if Joao ends up coming out to school here!

Easter and General Conference

For Easter this year, we were watching General Conference a lot of the weekend. Like I said, Joao’s mom and sister were visiting on the Saturday of General Conference. Then the next day was Easter Sunday. We watched conference at home and I actually created what I thought was a very fun Easter/conference activity! I had a list of words hanging on a sign from our fireplace. These were common words that were often said in conference, such as “atonement”, “ priesthood”, “ repentance” and about 30 more words. I had hidden about 60 eggs outside and each egg had some money in it. Most eggs just had one dollar, some had a five dollar bill, a few had a $10 bill and I think two had $20 bills. Every time Caleb or Avery would hear one of the words on the list they would get a checkmark and they could go out during the song and they would find that number of eggs and bring them inside and open them. It was supposed to motivate them to listen to conference, which I think it did until all of the words had been said, which Caleb seemed to get most of them first! In the end, it worked out with them getting almost exactly the same amount of money, though, which was good! I think I had spent about $120 total on all of the eggs and I think they each ended up with about $60.

Josh's 46th Birthday

On April 18, only a few days after me and Avery and Caleb had all gotten home from our trip trips, we celebrated Josh’s 46th birthday. I honestly can’t even remember what we did, but I think we just went out to dinner and then had some cake!

March and some of April - Gabe's 20th Birthday, Basketball, and more!

Here are some updates from spring!

Basketball season!

Technically, basketball was going on in January and February too, but I feel like Avery didn't really start wanting to go watch basketball with me until closer to the end of the season! One night, the kids at the junior high even wanted to make an ESPN banner, so that's what that picture is of. (I provided the markers and the paper...) Avery is starting to make friends with some more people this year, which is good. One of her friends from our ward, Paxton, is on the basketball team, so I would often sit by his mom, Ashley at the games. I always like going and cheering on my students, but it was even more fun to have Avery there too!

Koda Getting Bigger!

Koda kept getting bigger all year and I want to say he was pushing 70 pounds by March! His birthday is April 20, so he was almost one year old.

Avery's Orchestra concert

Avery was playing the viola all school year and had a spring concert in March. She decided later on that she would not continue playing the viola in ninth grade, so this was her second to last concert probably forever! :( But I'm glad she at least tried it for a couple years!

Gabe Still in Granada and His 20th birthday!!

I can't believe Gabe is 20. No longer a teenager. :( He spent his birthday with Elder Cabrera in Granada and some Venezeulan members. They made him dinner and a cake! There was a video he shared of Elder Cabrera walking into the room holding a cake with candles on it and everyone was singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" to him. It was super cute! I didn't have us or his friends do any special video like I did last year, but we sent him some things on Amazon Spain and we put some money in his account for him to go out to dinner with Elder Cabrera! I am excited that his next birthday will be spent with US! I also included on picture of their visit from Abbie Jensen, who was a sister missionary in their zone, but she went home in March and then came back to visit with her parents and they took Cabrera and Gabe out to lunch. She might end up marrying Cabrera, but time will tell!