The Gooch Fam

3/9/11

DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

It finally came. Our makeup Disneyland trip. We figured that since we were rained out last year, we owed our kids a do-over. So our family packed up and headed for Disneyland again, praying that the weather would not show any rain. Sure enough, it was in the high 60's and the low 70's the entire week with it being 80 on Saturday. We were so excited to have our good friends coming with us this year. We arrived in California on Saturday night and got unpacked and relaxed for the evening. We stayed at such a kid-friendly hotel which had nightly kids movies in their kid theatre with all you could eat popcorn for the kids. We had a kid suite with bunk beds and a tv for all the kids. They also had a sport-court for the boys. What a blast! On Sunday we decided to go to the beach instead of Disneyland, but before we left, we decided to have a Sacrament meeting and Dave and Nate were able to get permission to perform the sacrament. It was great to know that Braeden and Kanon could pass the sacrament anywhere. After our lesson, we headed to Laguna Beach. All of the locals had jackets and sweaters on and here were our kids playing in the ocean. We spent a while in the water then decided to drive to Newport Beach for a picnic.

We went to Disneyland on Monday with very few people in the park. The very first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean. It was so fun because Eli could ride on it with us. We spent the day with Nate, Kelly and the kids switching rides, eating everything we saw and wearing ourselves out. What a blast. The entire week was perfect weather with very short lines. The longest line all week was the line I had to stand in to see the darn Disney princesses. An hour and a half later and we still hadn't seen Anna's favorite! Ughhh!! We did find Snow White on the way out of the park and she was happy. We saw so many characters that were not out last year. Pinochio, Gepetto, Mr. Incredible, Stitch, Sully, Goofy, etc....
We had our good friends Steve, Lisa and Megan Walker who came on Thursday to join us for the weekend. They doted on our kids so much that Anna told me that she is their favorite of all time. We are so grateful for the ability to go on this trip and for such amazing friends!!!!! This year Disneyland really was the happiest place on earth!!!!

1/19/11

Eli's blessing

January 2nd was Eli's baby blessing. What an awesome day! All of our family and friends were at our building to support the blessing. Dave gave such a beautiful blessing to Eli. I am so grateful for a husband who holds the priesthood and is in tune with the spirit. Mom and Dad stayed for the full meeting block and came to dinner afterwards. Poor Dave wasn't able to be there because he had to do Fast Offerings and Tithing. He got home about 6:00 that night. It was still a great day and I am thankful for our sweet little Eli. He has added so much to our home!

New Years Eve

This year Dave's entire family got together for a New Year's Eve party. It was so much fun simply because it was really low key. Tim and Shiloh were in town and we took some fun photos of Eli and Cohen. It is so fun to see them together. Eli looks so big compared to Cohen! We played some fun games and ate tons of food. I told Dave that night that I really felt old because I asked if we could leave right after the ball dropped at midnight! Man am I getting old!

12/26/10

Christmas!!

Christmas time always seems so chaotic with parties, shopping, hyper children and the all around hustle and bustle but we found time as a family to slow down a bit. We decided not to plan too many activities and did most of our shopping online so we wouldn't have to fight crowds and accomplished what we wanted. This year, I am mostly grateful for a beautiful family with my five kids, a roof over our head, good friends and family to share the holidays with and for my Savior Jesus Christ. I will let our photos tell the rest of our story of our Christmas.