The Bergeson Family Blog

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Our Week in California and Raegan's First Trip to Disneyland

Wow! A long time has passed since I have posted. I'm going to do my best to catch up. This particular post is going to have MANY pictures in it. Blake is going to print out a blog book for me as my Christmas gift, so I want to have as many pictures in there as I can (then I won't have to scrapbook as many :).

What an AMAZING time we had in California with Meagan and Mark and their family (Blake's sister)! We left on Blake's birthday, October 2nd. We spent most of the day driving (in our fabulous van that we LOVE--SO glad we got it). We stayed at the Marriott Villas at Newport Beach. Meagan and Mark have a time share in Maui (which has excellent trading power), and they were gracious enough to let us stay there with them. It was beautiful! The weather was in the 70's every day and there was sunshine aplenty--a wonderful break from the heat.
On Saturday Meagan and I went to the swap meet in Costa Mesa--AWESOME DEALS. My buy of the year is my $1 jewelry. One dollar for a necklace and earrings. Needless to say I stocked up. We stopped to get something to eat on the way home, and I had the best carne asada taco I have ever had in a restaurant. Yummy! I think we went back to that restaurant three times while we were there. We got home from the swap meet about 3 (honestly, I could have spent two full days there), and Mark and Blake left for Magic Mountain. They drove two hours, stayed until midnight getting their fixes of roller coasters (so hopefull they wouldn't want to ride any at Disneyland) and were home by two or two thirty am. The kids spent time at the beach (why don't husbands remember to put sunscreen on children?) and doing activities at the resort. Blake came home from the beach with a bruise all along his forearm. "How did he get it?" you may ask. Well, he was walking along wet rocks on the beach with Jonathan in the Baby Bjorn and FELL. He "sacrificed his arm" to save Jonathan. When I heard about that stunt, he was lucky the only thing he ended up with was just a bruised arm, because I wanted to strangle him (remember the fact that both of my kids were also bright red, they were sunburned so badly?). It was a good thing he left for Magic Mountain so I had some time to cool off. :)
The next day, Sunday, we tried, but failed to listen to Conference. You would think that at a Marriott in California, you would find Conference on the television. Nope. And the volume on the computer did not go up high enough to drown out kid noise, so no Conference for us. So sad! For dinner that night, we went to Meagan’s friend’s house (her name is Jennifer, too). The kids played, we ate a FABULOUS dinner and made some new friends. Jonathan was coughing terribly, so we left early from our new friends’ house and headed to Urgent Care. What’s a vacation without a trip to Urgent Care? Unbelievably enough, Jonathan did not have an ear infection, the flu (or the swine flu), pneumonia or even a sign of asthma! A miracle!

Monday we listened to the time share presentation at the hotel and got two free Disneyland tickets so we could go back. J After that we all loaded into a tandem bike and rode up and down the boardwalk along the beach. We drooled at all the beautiful beach properties as we rode by. That night we celebrated Blake’s birthday at a local pizza shop.

Tuesday and Wednesday were Disneyland. Jonathan was a trooper—poor little thing. Disneyland was everything we thought it would be—it truly was magical. We had a “pass” that got us to the front of every line, so needless to say, Raegan got to ride plenty of them. I am not a big fan of rides, so her dad went with her on most of them.

We spent our last day just hanging out. Meagan and I went shopping at a very expensive mall, and she almost convinced me to spend $180 on a pair of jeans. What was I thinking?! :) We spent our last night at Joe’s Crab Shack and had a fabulous dinner—yummy!

Lindsey, Raegan and Jonathan (Lindsey and Jonathan are two months apart)

Rocket Launching

A hug from Tigger. Apparently, Raegan was a "favorite" during one of the parades. Many, many of the characters in the parade came over to her and involved her in the parade.

Raegan in the conga line

A common look we received throughout our visit at Disneyland

Dane, Raegan and Drew with Belle

Snow White and the three dwarfs

Sleeping Beauty with Drew, Raegan and Dane

The Old Hag and Raegan

And everyone thinks she gets her antics from me. Here's proof she does not.

Uncle Mark, Drew, Dane

So happy to be on the Carousel

Waiting for the Dumbo ride

Jonathan's first french fry

So happy to be in Disneyland

Classic Castle Picture

Uncle Mark, Aunt Meagan, Drew and Lindsey on Pirates of the Carribbean

My sweetest boy!

The men of my dreams

Look at those choppers!

Scared of the Jungle Ride, Uncle Mark???

Raegan and Princess Jasmine

Getting Princess Jasmine's autograph

Day two of Disneyland--we got smart and rented a stroller for Raegan. Of course, it was her idea.

My little trooper. He was such a good boy!

California Adventure was almost closed, and we spotted Dopey. As we approached where he was standing, his character helper told us he was going home for the night, and we would have to leave. We were so sad! The next thing I knew, he whispered to me to wait a minute. After everyone left, he told me Raegan could not only get Dopey's autograph, but walk Dopey back to his "house." Raegan was THRILLED. This is a picture of the worker that made our Disney experience just wonderful. Thank you, David!

Getting Dopey's autograph

Walking Dopey home

Now this is a Disney smile

Lovin' the parade

Her first face painting. Of course, she fell asleep on her daddy's shoulder about 30 minutes later and smeared it everywhere. Oh, well.

I couldn't believe she could hold still that long. She really wanted her face painted.

Bumper Cars with Daddy

My Angel Baby

Such fun!

Mommy's FAVORITE Disney character-- M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

A picture of where we stayed. It was posh. Thanks again to Meagan and Mark!

Mama's sweetest boy

Raegan trying to escape the flash on Daddy's camera

Fun on the tornado slide

Lovin that lolipop

Ready for Disneyland!

Riding the tram was the only ride that wouldn't make Mommy sick

Getting Pluto's autograph

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Proud to be an American

I would call today a patriotic day. I had an interesting experience with "the cable guy" and read a very inspiring quote.
The quote comes from my Relief Society President. I found it quite refreshing and, like I said, inspiring amidst all of the negativity and pessimism about our government. NO, I am not saying I am for Obama's health plan. I just think we need to remember where we live and have faith in the promises made to our forefathers in regards to this chosen land. I also believe we have the responsibility to support and sustain our civic leaders (especially pray for them) even if we do not agree with some, or most, of their political views.

"Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all th world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won't fail. I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges. I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through." Harold B. Lee (Ye Are the Light of the World pg 350-351)

After reading this quote this morning, I then had a really neat experience with "the cable guy." I noticed Jessie (the cable guy who came to fix our broken dvr) had a big ole tattoo on his calf--covering his entire calf, mind you. So I asked him, "What's your tattoo all about?" He told me it was Psalms 91. He went on to say it was the Psalm that the chaplain would read to him and his buddies when they were on active duty in Iraq. He said it was their favorite. I also asked him what he thought about how the government, under President Bush, treated them while they were over there. He told me that the military personnel loved President Bush. He said he was treated very well and that he would do it all over again if they asked him to. He also told me that the soldiers felt very supported by the citizens of our wonderful nation.

I was so impressed! I felt so proud! What patriotism! I felt honored and humbled to be in this man's presence. What a great example of how we need to be ready and willing to sacrifice for each other's freedoms.
In the course of our conversation, he also told me his health care is paid for as well as his education, thanks to the military (and the new GI bill passed by Obama). That is EXACTLY how I would like my tax money spent! LOVE it!

On a side note, I also told him my husband was a stress engineer for Boeing and worked on the Apache. This is what he said about that, "There were times when I thought I was going to get stuck in a city. I would radio to get out, and if there was any dust or if flying conditions weren't good, the Marines wouldn't send out their helicopters. Just when I thought I was going to be unable to get out of a dangerous situation, I would hear the rotor blades of the Apache flying overhead. That was the best sound in the world to me then."

I would just like to say that MY HUSBAND busts his tail to see that the main and tail rotor blades on those helicopters are safe and efficient for those soldiers. What a compliment it was to hear Jessie say that "the best sound in the world" was the sound of those rotor blades. I am so proud of you Blakey!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Grandma and Grandpa Gustafson's

When we're not cooling off in the mountains, sometimes we head to Mom and Dad's for a dip in the pool and to rock out on the Wii.

No, Blake, we are not getting drums for the house. No.

Getting ready to swim with the help of beautiful Aunt Julie

Doesn't she look FABULOUS in those goggles?

Daddy and baby Jonathan

He's so fat he would have probably floated without this floatie. . .

The Bergeson Family Swim Party

The following is a totally unrelated photo, but I had no idea where else to put it. I just had to post it. . .

This is Blake at 4:56 on 7/8/9. Only an engineer would think of that. . .

Cabin Fun

For two weekends in July we have been able to escape the heat of Phoenix and spend a long weekend at my parents' cabin. It is absolutely beautiful up there and so peaceful. I love the blue, blue sky and the big, white, puffy clouds. It even rained on us while we were there. Raegan gets to play outside and all of us just get to relax. It's WONDERFUL. Here are a few highlights from both weekends: