Viva la Varner: 2011

Rotorua is a must see if you are ever in New Zealand! The pictures are a little backward, but here are Raven, Kia and Keaka at the hot spring pools.

Macy loved the perfectly warm pool.

Keaka was so kind to take us to the skyline buffet. NZ has awesome seafood at all of their buffets...too bad I was pregnant.

THe big hit of the day was the luge. You sit on these little roller cars and you go down the mountain on concrete trails. I was able to take Macy with me down twice on the beginner trail. She LOVED it and loved riding back up the mountain on the ski lift pointing to all the cows on the mountain side. Kainoa watched her the last trip so that I could go on the intermediate trail...soooo fun. I smiled the entire time.

Of course in true NZ fashion, there was beautiful scenery.

After my little kiwis went to stay with Marcus and Tami, my little sister and her friend, Marissa, came down from Idaho. Julie just finished her semester and BYU-Idaho and was picking Macy and myself up on her way down to California. Our plan was to drive the entire way to CAlifornia on Monday, but Marissa's dad was put in the hospital and was in pretty bad shape, so we decided at 11 that we would leave at noon. I thought it would be a good idea to stop in Las Vegas and stay with Clark's Uncle Eric and Aunty Keahi...it's also where his mom lives. We arrived just in time for dinner. I was sad though, because that night we were supposed to have a family dinner with Clark's family and Raven and Erana were going to be there. I wasn't sure if that was the last time I was going to get to see them.

My family has a couple of friends that work at Disneyland, and my hope was that we could get one of them to sign us in. Erana had never been to Disneyland and Raven hadn't been since she was around 6. When we got to California, I put out all of my feelers and really worked on getting someone to sign us in. We had a possibly on Saturday, so I called my mother in law and told her. Then by some kind of miracle I got a text that a family friend, Laura would sign them in on Thursday at 4 pm. It was late, but we would still have 8 hours because the park didn't close until midnight. I hurried and called, and plans were made for them to get to California on Wednesday night. I was stoked!

In the meantime, Julie and I hung out with some of her friends and got our nails done. My mom didn't get in til Tuesday evening, so we were on our own for a little bit. Julie had an interview for an internship on Wednesday at my father's company so we went and met him for lunch at Islands and waited while she interviewed and got a drug test.

Wednesday night, the girls arrived and I was so happy to see them! The next day we had a little time to kill, so we went SHOPPING...and man can those girls shop. I loved watching them go through the stores and pick up item after item...they are gonna go back with a lot of loot.

We finally made it to Disneyland, but about 30 minutes early, so we waited in the hot sun and took pictures. After Laura signed us in, we thought we would go to Splash Mountain because we were so hot and we didn't want to get wet late at night. It was closed. Huge bummer since it is one of my favorite rides. We then went on Haunted Mansion because it is right next door. Macy rode between my mom and myself. I was a little worried that she would get scared, but she didn't, and she actually danced to the music.

After the Haunted Mansion, we headed over to Pirates of the Carribean. We started off with the little rides so that the rides would just get better and better.

Julie, my mom and Macy waiting in line for Pirates.

Erana and Raven waiting for some Yo Hoing.

Macy and me on Pirates.

After the ride, Julies friend called and told her to go get in line with her at Space Mountain, so she, Raven, and Erana ran on over. While they went on Space Mountain, my mom and I took Macy on Jungle Cruise. Macy loves animals, so we expected she would love the ride...which she did.

Macy would squeal and point at all the different animals she would see. I just loved seeing her excitement. Disneyland is definitely a magical place for little ones.

We had the perfect spot on the boat where Macy had a great view of everything.

After Jungle Cruise, my mom and I wanted to get in line for Indiana Jones. We asked about the child swap, and to our pleasant surprise they told us that we got to go through the fast lane. When the girls got back to us we hurried through the line and made it to the ride in no time. This is where the fun rides began. I just loved seeing the girls reactions on the rides. Erana was especially entertaining to watch and made me laugh all day and night.

Macy waited patiently with Grandma while we were on Indiana Jones. Once we got out, my mom went on the ride and took Raven with her. The rest of us headed over to Thunder Mountain. This time I waited while the rest of the gang went on the ride. Once they finished, Erana went back on with me. Again, we got to go in the fast lane...how awesome is having a baby! We laughed and screamed the whole way; Disneyland is so much fun with someone who has never been.

After Thunder Mountain, we were hungry so we headed over to California Adventure to get some grub. After Raven, Erana and I were done, we wanted to go get on Screamin' the rollercoaster...to our utter dismay, it was closed for the rest of the night and so were all of the rides on that side of California Adventure. I was so let down; I wanted the girls to get to go on the one upside down rollercoaster at Disneyland. Atleast Hollywood Tower or Terror wasn't closed. We headed over and got in line while my mom stayed with Macy. On the ride I couldn't stop laughing because Erana was pumping her fists in the air due to the extreme fun of the ride. After, Erana went back on it with my mom and my mom said that Erana looked like she was at a sporting event with the way she was swinging her arms...so funny.

We headed on back to Disneyland and took the must have pictures in front of the mickey face. Then we headed to the Matterhorn. Raven said that it was her favorite ride.

After, we had time for one last ride and the girls wanted to go back on space mountain. We headed over and got in line. A man came around saying that they were having technical difficulties. A bunch of people got out of line so we got to move way up. The ride started working shortly after and we were able to get on super quick. We screamed the entire time and lived up our last ride.

After the ride we did some must needed Disney shopping. It was late, and we headed home, but not with out a stop by McDonalds.

We all had a blast and were completely pooped the next morning. This was such a fun day for me and I really hope that it is an experience that Raven and Erana will never forget, I know I wont.