Disneyland!

We took our maiden voyage to Disneyland a few weeks ago. We kept it a surprise for the kids, mostly because I love surprises and so that we'd prevent Kara from asking every 5 minutes, if tomorrow is the day we go to Disneyland. Colby had it all figured out, but tried really hard to not let me know. What a sweetie.

We got to do the Disney give a day, get a day program so Cameron and I got in free!  You know I love me something (anything) free!

We had the best time and can't wait until we can take the kids back.

Our trip in pictures. Lots and lots of them.

Airplane to Orange County on Tuesday night. We took the late flight and all three kids slept nearly the whole way.

We stayed at a hotel that was right between Disneyland and the coast. It shuttled us to and from the airport and Disneyland and to nearby attractions within a 3 mile radius. On Wednesday we got shuttled to a huge mall, did some shopping then we were on our own to get to the beach. This is us waiting for the good ol' bus. I love the bus.  Again, kids slept the whole way.

Collecting shells. We made it home with PLENTY of shells to share with everyone.

 This is Kara's standard picture pose. She's in her new tutu swimsuit that she loves.

This is what daddy and Ty did while the kids played in the sand

Playing in the waves. And by playing, I mean barely letting the cold water touch their toes. It was overcast most the day, but still soooooo nice.

Ty wasn't feeling good for most of the trip and even had a fever both Wednesday and Thursday. This actually made him really mellow and much more manageable than normal! He mostly just hung out in the stroller content to watch everything around him.

Thursday was our Disneyland day. It was a perfect day. Low 70s, only 10-15 minute waits for rides and kids that were in heaven.

Teacups

We went  with our friends Bodi and Amanda and their 2 little girls, Sophie and Laynie. Since it's been 10 years since Cam and I have been, we pretty much just followed them as they took us on the Disneyland tour. They knew all the best rides and where everything was. Thanks for being great chaperones you guys!!

Sophie and Kara waiting in line to see the Princesses. Kara was sooooo excited to to see them, especially Cinderella.

As soon as she saw the first princess, Kara whispered to me, "Mom! They really are real!"

Kara thought it was so cool to get autographs in her book.

Unfortunately, Cinderella wasn't at the Princess Walk, but Kara kept her eye out for her the rest of the day. We never saw her and as we were leaving the park, Kara said, "I guess Cinderella just wasn't at Disneyland today." She was such a good sport for how much she wanted to see her.

Colby was pretty stoked about getting some autographs of his own.

We ate at Goofy's Kitchen that night. It was so fun and cute. A bunch of Disney characters come to the tables while you're eating and sign autographs and take pictures with the kids. They had a great spread of food which the kids loved. I turned into "trip mom" and let my kids have whatever they wanted (I'm kind of a stickler about how many treats my kids have- okay, I'm a nazi about it) so when I told Colby to grab a plate and get whatever he wanted, he came back with a plate full of desserts even before he ate any real food.

Goofy comes out and dances with the kids for a few minutes. It was cute and Colby totally got into it!

We tried to hurry back for the parade, mostly to see if we could spot Cinderella. It didn't matter because Kara was out and would have missed her anyway.

We had enough time to ride Splash Mountain a few times before the Park closed. This is Bodi. Oh, and Amanda, Colby and me which is nearly impossible to tell because of camera hog Bodi.

Colbs really wanted to go to the Lego store before we went back to the hotel.

It was such a fun trip and are so glad we decided to throw it together and go, in typical Richins fashion.

Reunion/Summer "Vacation"

Last weekend we went to Bear Lake for a family reunion and a much needed getaway with my whole family. We attempted camping with little Ty, but only made it one night. Thanks to my parents, I was able to sleep in their condo the next 2 nights and save the rest of the campers from an ornery little guy.

We had a blast playing on the big grassy area, eating lots of amazing food, hanging out at the beach and catching up with cousins and aunts and uncles.

Colby playing with my cousin's little boy Carter. They became best pals during this trip.

My cute nieces Katie and Mia wanted to hold Ty non-stop. He was a pretty good sport about it- most of the time.

Kara and my mom


My mom after Ty pooped all over her. He was the life of the party until he pooped a little and then nobody wanted him. Just a bunch of fair weather baby lovers.

The second night we were camping, a big thunderstorm moved in over our camp. It was complete mayhem for a few minutes while we tried to keep everything from getting wet and get ourselves into our cars. I can still hear Rich yelling for everyone to save themselves... This picture was my attempt to capture the lightning on camera.

It was so great to have my mom ready and willing to take over Ty for me. I think she changed more diapers than I did

Colby playing in the lake with his cousin Ryan

Kara playing in the Lake

Bring your kids to work day

We survived our first "bring your kids to work day" as a family of 5. I've been itchin' to get out and Cameron had a long layover in Arcata California so I packed up the kids and off we went. Even though Cameron would be piloting our flight, I was on my own. Just try to visualize 3 children, one adult, one stroller, 3 carseats, one diaper bag, and 3 backpacks trekkin' through the airport. And then try to picture a tired and grumpy Kara who wants to be carried, a very hungry Ty who wants to be fed, and a crazy mom who doesn't have time to wait in the blasted long security line in terminal two so makes her way to the international terminal where there's usually no line while divulging the secret to a lady and her daughter in a wheelchair, only to find that the international terminal is closed, then having to make her way to terminal one where she should have gone in the first place, while trying to find the mom and daughter to let them know that the international terminal is closed so they aren't cursing her name. Crazy you say? More like insane. Needless to say, we got many stares and many comments, but it ended up being really fun and worth the trip.

You should know that there are many pictures to follow...

Ty's first airplane ride. The kids actually did great. I was a little nervous for the plane. I knew Kara might struggle a bit but was hoping Colby would be my little helper and Ty would sleep the whole time. Here was Colby...

And here was Ty...

This is Cameron and the kids greeting the passengers as they exit the plane.

When we got to Arcata (a small town on the coast of Northern California), we rented a car and started driving up the coast. After about 5 minutes of driving we decided we were hungry so we stopped and ate at this tiny little coastal town and walked down to the beach.

After that, we made our way to the Redwood National Forest. It was beautiful. We hiked around a bit looking at all the amazing Redwood trees.

What is $59.99 per pound and something I actually bought?

Salmon Jerky.

They had signs for it everywhere so we decided we'd better try it to make our little getaway as authentic as possible. It wasn't bad. Not real good, but not bad either. And since it weighs nothing, I only had to spend 2 bucks for a little taste.

The skeleton cave. Colby swears there were skeletons inside.

Colby kept climbing up all these huge, death trap rocks. It was freakin' me out.

The kids LOVED the beach. Even with cold water and cold, gray sand, it's always a hit.

I think I got my "getaway with 3 kids" feel and won't expose myself to all that insanity again for awhile. But I am glad we did it and I love that we have the opportunity to do things like that because of Cameron's job. Thanks for inviting us Cam!

*Karla- thanks for the post title that I totally copied!

Finally, a stamp in my little blue book

This may be the longest post ever posted so please proceed at your own discretion. You're sure to find massive amounts of pictures and description, most of which may bore you to tears. I promise I won't be offended if you just skip this post because like Amy Rosenthal said in her book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, "in the end, no one really wants to hear about your trip." But of course I am dying to talk about it to whoever will listen and of course to document our splendors since this blog is my scrapbook. With that lovely introduction, our little tale begins like this...


I finally made it out of the country! And besides Cameron's mission to Korea, this was his first time also. Like all our trips, we decided less than one week before leaving that we were going to give it shot. My sister agreed to take both the kids for the entire time in return of us watching her kids so she and Rich could finally go on vacation.

Delta added a direct flight to Paris in February. Since then Cameron and I have talked about going, but never really thought it was possible, at least not so soon, until we found out the flight was being cut back in October. This was our last chance to go. With very little time to even plan what we'd do once we got there, we tried for the Saturday flight and failed. Since we had all the arrangements made to be gone for nearly a week we decided that we'd go somewhere else. Flights were terribly full to almost everywhere so we just went home. Even though the flight to Paris looked worse than the day before, we decided at the last minute to go try again on Sunday. You never know when flying standby. We barely said goodbye to the kids and Cameron even told them, "we'll be back in a few hours." Well, we weren't. Miraculously, we were on our way to Paris!! And seriously, it was a miracle. The flight was oversold and they were asking for volunteers to give up their tickets. We've learned when flying standby to never leave the gate until that plane is taxing out to the runway. The flight was full and there were still 2 standby passengers ahead of us with more seniority. Right before the doors were closed, the gate agent yelled our names and told us to hurry up, cause we were on the flight. They whisked us so fast, I didn't have time to think. I had to hide my phone in the airplane just to text my sister that we got on. We're not sure how 2 seats magically appeared and the 2 people in front of us left the gate when we all thought the airplane was full. It did not hit me until the plane was taking off that we were actually going to Paris- a dream of ours since we got married.

The flight was not fun. Despite taking a sleeping pill, I barely slept 30 minutes in my tiny little middle seat (not that I'm complaining or anything) during the 10 hour flight. We arrived in Paris at about 3:00 in the morning, Utah time, but were pretty stoked that we were there. We had no place to stay. We didn't speak French. And we didn't know how to get out of the airport. After nearly 3 hours trying to use the Internet, make a phone call, asking mean people questions, being frustrated out of our minds, and maybe a few tears from Cameron (all right of course it was me), we finally got ourselves on the train to go to a hotel that we hoped existed, but had no reservations for. After all this, I still had the energy to shop at the first store we saw that was actually in the Metro station and I bought something! My mood started to brighten slightly.



We got off the wrong Metro station and walked for what seemed like miles with all our baggage until we got to the Hotel. It was one I had found on the Internet at home. We didn't have a reservation since we didn't think we'd actually make it there. Thank goodness it was vacant and we able to book it for the next 3 nights. It was bare bones, but all you need in Paris is a place to sleep and shower, right?


Quickly after changing clothes, we headed out. After not sleeping for nearly 24 hours and being frustrated to tears and walking up set after set of these stairs,

I encountered my first little "taste" of Paris.

A jambone and fromage (ham and cheese) crepe.

Already, I was in heaven. Shortly after, we saw this.

The Sacre-Coeur Basilique, or Church of the Sacred Heart.

And that was all it took for me to be in love. A crepe and the most beautiful church I had ever seen. Paris was my new favorite place.

This is the view of Paris from the church. This actually ended up being my favorite place of the whole trip. Maybe it's because it was the first thing I saw and maybe it's because it was around the most quaint part of Paris that we went. Little streets with people wanting to paint your portrait and tons of crepe stands. What is better than that?

After making our way down all the steps, we got on the train for more site seeing.

We bought a 3-day metro/train pass and definitely got our money's worth. We rode that thing nearly 20 times a day. That metro system is amazing. I don't think we waited for a train more than 3 minutes ever.

We saw the grande palace the petite palace, walked along the Seine river, all on the way to the Eiffel tour

We saw somebody do this we we copied them.

The Eiffel tour was amazing and of course, so awesome to see in person. After this, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe.

This is Cameron's most triumphant pose.

We headed home pretty early that night to get some much needed rest. The next day, we headed to the Louvre. We didn't know it was closed on Tuesdays. Darn

So, you know, we're all about flexibility (ask Cameron how good I am about that) so we headed to Versailles. This is a famous palace where monarchs lived lavishly and extravagantly while the pheasants were starving. We walked around the gardens first.

This crazy manicured tree looked so smooth. Don't be fooled, though. It's poky.

This is just a tiny part of the gardens. Tiny.

The grounds extended for at least a couple miles behind us.

Cameron eating his jambone and fromage baguette outside the palace. This dang sandwich was so flippin' good. Please, tell me how you make a sandwich that contains only ham, cheese and bread, and tastes that good. No mayo, no nothin'. I wish that someone who spoke English could have told me what kind of cheese that was.

This is a chapel inside the palace

And in almost every room, was some "art work" from Jeff Coombs that was being featured at Versailles while we were there. Alright, is it just me, or does crazy modern art not really fit inside the room of an ornate 1600's palace? Pictured, is a sculpture of a lobster-shaped blow-up floating device that was hanging from the ceiling. We-ird.

The famous Hall of Mirrors. Wow. Obviously the picture doesn't do it justice. It was breathtaking.

After our Versailles tour, we headed back to down-town Paris to see the Musee de l-Armee and Napoleon's tomb.

Napoleon's tomb was under that dome.

The next and final day we attempted to go the the most famous Paris flea market which was near our hotel. We got incredibly lost (not the first time on this trip) thanks to the poorly labeled streets and our awful sense of direction. We finally got there and were sorely disappointed. Lots of really overpriced Adidas jackets. We left that and went for more sites.

This is the Egyptian Obelisk, a tower that is the oldest man-made object in Paris. This was near the place de la Concorde which is where the guillotine, during the French Revolution, took place. This is were Marie Antoinette was be-headed.

This is Notre-Dame. I don't think I've ever seen a building like this in my life. It was so intricately detailed, I couldn't believe my eyes.

Get it? The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. We thought we were funny at least.

Crepes and sandwiches. This is what we lived on. Yum. I love french food.

I looked all over to find classic scenes of Paris which were harder to find than I thought. I thought this was pretty close.

Cameron and the Seine River

We ended up at the Louvre Wednesday night. This is the inverted glass pyramid right before you enter the museum.

After Cameron disappeared for awhile, he showed up with this.

After the never-ending walking and stair climbing, my knee was killing me and I had been limping for the last few hours. This is my pathetic look about how pathetic my body is. But, Cameron is brilliant because all my knee needed was a rest. I enjoyed the Louvre imensly while being pushed around the entire time.

A bunch of cool statues.

This one of the rooms of Napolean III's apartments inside the Louvre. I thought these rooms were every bit as extravagent as the rooms at Versaille. It's hard to believe that people actually lived this way and still do.

After the Louvre, we checked out the Eiffel tour at night. Definitely cooler at night.

We ended our trip with a walk up the Champs-Elysees, a really popular walk up to the Arc de Triomphe. It has lots of shopping and seemed to be the heart of Paris.

After almost missing our flight (2 hours at the airport was not enough by the time you figure out what terminal you are going out of since they don't label them, go through customs and about 3-4 other people looking at your passport and asking questions), we got on with no problem. In fact, the flight was so empty that we got first class. Oh baby. What an ending to a perfect trip. If I have complained about flying standby (I'm pretty sure I swore I'd never do it again after our miserable experience in February), I vow to never do it again. How lucky we are that we got to fly to Paris and finally live one of our dreams on a very tight budget! And, can I just say that first class on an international flight is real living. There's a reason they draw a curtain so that the miserable coach passengers can't see what's going on. I'm pretty sure we were involved in some kind of dance party with the flight attendants and captian.

And of course, it's time for my thank you's. First of all, a huge thank you to the sucker non-revs who left the gate a little too early and gave their seats to us. If you are reading, we really enjoyed your trip and NEVER EVER leave the gate until you see that plane moving.

To Katrina. My hero for the time being. With my kids, she had 6 total for nearly 5 days straight and did it without breaking a sweat. She's one of those people that just seems to have it all together and you don't know how. Thanks a ton. I can't wait for you guys to finally go on a vacation again. And, I will nag you to death about going, so start planning sister!