The Happiest Place on Earth

Well it was a pretty happy place... Our kids had a blast at Disneyland. We wanted it to be a surprise for Allie so she just thought we were spending a few days in California. But on day #2 in Orange County we got up and got ready for the day like normal but then boarded the hotel shuttle. She still had no clue where we were going, she was just so ecstatic to be riding a bus. She tells me that she'll ride a bus to school when she's 5. Little does she know - her mom can't handle the unknown of what goes on in school buses or the possibility of her getting off at the wrong stop and being lost, so she'll probably be more like 15 before I'm ready for her to ride a bus by herself.

Anyways, we told her where we were going before she heard it on the intercom on the bus. She was SOOO excited. Her eyes got so wide, and she was just watching out the window to see when we'd get there. She had a lot of fun on the rides, and meeting princesses, and watching the parade. That was one of her favorite parts of the whole day. We had awesome seats and were right there and so close to all the characters. She waved to all of them, and called out their name as if they should know her. It was super cute. Dan and I each sat in the umbrella strollers and put the kids on our laps. Our legs were completely numb by the end of the parade. But it beat sitting on the ground or standing the whole time... Drew was completely content on my lap, because he had snacks and treats in a bag. He didn't move a muscle the entire parade.

Neither Dan nor I had been to Disneyland in a long time, so we were a little surprised at how busy it was. We did some research about less busy times, and this was supposed to be one of those times, but we waited and waited in lines for EVERYTHING. The longest line was to meet the 3 princesses and to get their autograph. We waited 1 hr and 15 minutes to talk to each princess for about 20 seconds and to get an autograph and picture. Seeing the look on Allie's face when she met them was totally worth it, but it was super tough for Drew to wait in a line for that long...

Drew loved all the other rides we went on. He was so good at sitting still and just taking it all in and enjoying the ride. He enjoyed meeting Pluto - the "doggie". He kept petting his nose and feet.

Welcome to Main Street, U.S.A. By the way, Dan is not pleased I am posting this picture of his "practical" walking outfit.

The castle was a bit disappointing. As a kid, I remember it being a lot bigger. Allie kept wanted to go inside of it, but you only really pass through it.

Allie and Ariel - the Little Mermaid smiling for the camera.

Aurora - aka Sleeping Beauty was so kind and asked her all about school and the things she likes to do. Allie was so big and answered all her questions. Allie was a little shy, but she did a great job talking to each of the princesses.
Allie and Mulan.

We come all the way to Disneyland, and this is what Drew wants to do... play in the water fountain.
Drew loved meeting Pluto "the doggie".

Allie is making a phone call inside Mickey's house.
Drew and Dan inside Mickey's house.

They wanted to spin faster and faster on the tea cup ride.
Allie enjoyed driving the car, especially because we got a purple sparkly one. Drew was happy to just go along for the scenic drive. He loves to go anywhere in the car, even a small one on a track. He always asks me to go "bye bye" and home and tries to reach for the keys, or climb in the car. He doesn't care where we go, he just wants to go...

She felt so grown up here. She was so proud of herself for making Dumbo go up and down all by herself.

Jessie from Toy Story.

Drew enjoying a Churro. I bought it for me, but I think he ate most of it...

Mmmmm pickle....

Dan had been dreaming about these big pickles from Disneyland for weeks. He loves these, and so did Allie...

The pink fairy from Sleeping Beauty came over and sang and danced her part right in front of us. Allie thought we was talking directly to her.

Allie kept calling out to Ariel. Ariel turned and waved to her - it made her day.

We tried all day to see Mickey or Minnie, with no luck. We saw them on our way out of the park right after the parade as they were closing for the night. We stood in line for 25 minutes for this picture and we had to run to not miss our bus back to our hotel, but we finally got to see them. It was a great ending to a magical day.

Temple Lights

This last Thursday night, we took our family to go see the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple. We tried to come see the lights before they officially began, but we got to the temple right as they turned them off. So, we just walked around anyways and looked at the temple grounds and saw the statue of Christ in the visitors center, and Luke II.

We didn't make it there last year, and so it was fun to go see them this year. The lights were so beautiful, and it was fun to see my kids in awe of all the lights. This was one of my family traditions that I loved growing up. We'd go see the lights and have hot chocolate and donuts.

Allie enjoyed the Nativity scene. When she saw the star way up above the stable, she pointed to it and said "My Grammie told me about that star. That one up there, when Jesus was born." She was almost as excited that she knew all about it from her Grammie, as she was to see the star. It was pretty cute. Drew liked the sheep around the nativity and the baby.

Afterwards, we stopped in at the Smith's for some delicious hot chocolate and donuts. Thanks Smiths for letting us drop in on such short notice! We had a fun time.

Allie looking at the new Star above the nativity.

Downtown Disney

So... I'm finally getting around to posting these vacation pictures from our California trip back in October.

We checked out downtown Disney to see if there was any fun stuff to do, and to find a delicious place to eat. On our way down there, Allie saw a bus that said "Disneyland" on the side of it. She recognizes letters and basic words, but it was too fast to really reach each letter. That didn't matter - she instantly knew it said Disneyland. We still hadn't told her we were going to Disneyland in the morning. We wanted to surprise her. She was just having fun in "California". But when she saw the bus, she said "that's were the magic makes your dreams come true." Me and Dan looked at each other and realized, she's probably been watching a little too much Disney channel...

Downtown Disney was pretty cool. The grounds were decorated with lights and Halloween/fall decor. The smell from the caramel popcorn vendors were to die for. We thought we'd grab some on our way out, but the lines were super long, and were starting to close down. So, we'll have to get some next time.

We all were pretty hungry and just wanted to find a restaurant without a ridiculous wait, so we narrowed it down to a Mexican food one and an Italian food restaurant. I lost... and Italian won out again. I'm out numbered and no one really shares my love for Mexican food. I'm still hoping Drew will come over to my side as he gets older. Allie and Dan have VERY similar taste preferences and dislikes. Drew's tastes are closer to mine. But, he doesn't crave a delicious bean burrito, chimichanga, or enchilada quite yet... But I'm working on it... He loves to dip, dip anything, and he can pound a couple avocados in one sitting...

Anyways, we ate at a delicious Italian restaurant, and then did a little shopping. We went into a skate store, and Allie found a beautiful gold bracelet she loved. She held onto it tight in her little hand. Neither Dan nor I knew she had found such a lovely treasure. We left the store and went to go get some caramel apples, and in the candy store, she showed me her beautiful bracelet that she "found at that store". Allie and I took it back, and apologized to the store for taking the bracelet. They were very nice and understanding, but it still is so embarrassing... But it proved to be a good little teaching moment for both of us...

The grounds all around downtown Disney were immaculately groomed and beautifully laid out. Allie got a kick out of these bushes...

This little gazebo was beautiful. There were fresh flower petals all over the ground - I think from a wedding... But Allie was in heaven. She delicately gathered up as many as she could grab as we were leaving. And carefully held on to them for most of the night.

Drew just stomped on the petals and wanted to climb up the stairs and check out what there was to climb on in the gazebo. Just another way boys are SO different from girls.

We stopped in the Lego stores and the kids had a blast playing, building and creating at the Lego tables.

Allie, Dan, and Drew thoroughly enjoyed eating some rainbow suckers from a candy store at Downtown Disney. They were a sticky mess after it, but loved every minute of it! We had to brush their teeth extra good that night to get all the coloring off from the suckers.

Laguna Beach

On our second day in sunny California, we found a beautiful beach to build sand castles, dig holes, and stick our feet in the cold, cold water. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. It was mid-70's all week. This beach had a park right next to it, so Drew was in heaven, swinging for hours next to the beach!

He loved to put his feet in the water and didn't seem to mind how cold it was. Allie would run after the water as it was receding back, and then high tail it back to dry ground when the water would come back in. She wanted to play, but didn't want the water to touch her.

We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed some wonderful family time. It's so fun to just hang out together and laugh. We love our kids so much, and thoroughly enjoy being with them. They are just so darn cute, and have these amazing (yet totally different) personalities.

My highlight of the day was building and decorating a sand castle with Allie. She collected all the beautiful sea weed pieces she could find. Each little piece was a treasure, and had to go on our castle. She's so creative and has such a fun imagination. I truly am so lucky to be her mom!

So, I look over at Drew and he's doing a head stand in the sand. Not just once or twice, but he kept doing it over and over. The sand was moist and sticky, so some of it stuck with him throughout the day.

Science Museum and Huntington Pier

*Sorry I've been slacking on my postings... Our California trip was in October. But I thought it's better late than never!

We decided to do a little weekend getaway to California. Our kids hadn't been to Disneyland, and we thought it was good timing to take them with naps and no little baby... They did great on the drive over. It's always so hard to be in the car that long, but they did awesome! We got to our hotel around 11:00 at night. The kids were so excited to be in a new place they had to check everything out.


After a decent nights rest, we decided to check out what there was to do in Orange County. They have a cute science museum in Santa Ana that was fun to explore and do. There were dinosaur bones to touch and see, a huge long neck dinosaur with the inside hollowed out so you can check out how it's body works from the inside. Of course, Dan found the grosses thing in there...

For dinner, we drove to the Huntington pier and walked down the the Ruby's restaurant at the end of the pier. The wind was blowing super hard and we were freezing halfway down the pier. We had an amazing view of the ocean from our table on the 2nd floor of the restaurant. It was beautiful to watch the sunset.


Allie still prefers to ride in the stroller instead of walking (I guess who wouldn't), but she always races Drew to the stroller and hops in it first. Drew usually is ecstatic that he doesn't have to ride and can roam free. But sometimes this is our solution when two kids want a ride, and we only grab our single stroller... What a good big sister.



Dan found the dinosaur poop. You can push a button and watch it go through the intestines. Weird huh!

Drew didn't want to sit still for any pictures. He wanted to press the buttons to make the dinosaur behind them make noises and move it's head.

This is our view as we ate our dinner at Ruby's.

Our sweet girl. She LOVES flowers - any kind. I think she smelled all the fragrance out of that carnation at our table by the end of her dinner.

There's no place like home...

I know this is probably the last year my kids will let me dress them up in coordinating themed outfits. But, I LOVE IT!!! Last year they were Cinderella and Gus-Gus.

This year (I’m not sure how) but I talked Allie out of being a princess again, and being Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I guess the sparkly dress and amazing red shoes helped J She even had to find a small basket with a little dog in it to be Toto. She carried Toto around all night long (along with her candy pumpkin). She was simply adorable. She's growing up too fast for me. She would walk from booth to booth doing each one by herself. (Well, thanks Papa & Grammy for a little help on some of them!) She went right up to the cake walk and knew exactly what to do. And knew she wanted one of their cupcake prizes.

Drew made my heart melt everytime I looked at him. He was the perfect scarecrow. I’m not sure why, but it completely fit his personality. He wasn’t too sure about the costume at first, but as soon as I gave him a piece of candy, he completely forgot about it. He ended up LOVING Halloween. He had a blast roaming around in the church parking lot at our ward Fall Festival. They rented a couple bounce houses, and he was right in there with all the big kids – holding his own.

After our ward party, we loaded the kids in the wagon and went trick-or-treating to a few houses in our neighborhood with Sarah & Gavin and their cute little princess Felicity. All three kids piled into the wagon and off we went. It was so handy – we’d drive them right up and they’d get their candy. One neighbor called it “Drive-thru trick-or-treating!”.


Drew wasn’t so sure about it at the first house. He didn’t want to hold out his pumpkin, but was curious what this person had just dropped into his bucket. As soon as he figured out it was candy, he said “tant too” and was excited to go get more! He loves candy way more than Allie ever did – or still does for that matter.

When Allie gets to go pick out a treat with her dad, they usually come back with movie theater popcorn. Dan insists Allie chooses it, but I’m sure he had a hand in it somewhere along the way… Just like the lemons, limes, pickles, olives… Happy Halloween!



I don't think we're in Kansas anymore... Drew, Allie, and Felicity (their cousin)

Our cute little Dorothy and adorable scarecrow.

Trick or Treating in the wagon...

Drive-thru service here.

Drew, Gavin (bro-in-law), Felicity and Dan at our ward party.

Allie with Toto...

Our cute little scarecrow.

Allie pumpkin bowling at one of the booths.

Playtime at the Gym

Finding indoor activities to escape the mid-summer heat can be challenging at times. Luckily, there is a super cool indoor gymnastics center a few blocks from our house. We went there with my sister Tricia and friend Jackie and their kids. Everyone had a great time- the kids got free reign to around and check out the various pieces of equipment.


One of the highlights is an enormous foam pit you can jump or swing into from a rope. They had a fun parachute activity that all the kids loved, especially Drew. He thought he was so big holding on to the edge of it like all the other big kids. They'd take turns running under it - Drew didn't ever want to come back out! Allie was listening intently to when it was her turn to go under, or what to do next.


The foam pit was so fun, but a workout to move around in it - or to get out of it! Drew let me throw him down into it, and he'd try his hardest to get his legs on to to crawl out, but it was like quicksand, the harder you worked to get on top, the more you sunk down into it. After minutes of squirming he finally gave up and just layed there...


And little Allie is so creative. She thought it'd be fun to create a castle with the giant foam blocks from the pit. She and Lyndsey were pretending to be princesses! I barely saw Allie the entire time we were there. She was so busy doing her own thing and playing with other kids - she's becoming so independent.



Lyndsey, Allie, Tricia, & Cannon at the parachute.

It's hopeless... He gave up trying to get out ;-)

Allie having fun in the foam pit.

Drew - trying to figure out what to do next...

The "Castle" and the princesses inside :-)

He loved to hang from these parallel bars. He'd hang on as long as he could, until his little fingers would slip off, and then climb back up again. It made him look so long and skinny!

So, we were leaving for California the next day, so most of Drew's shorts were packed. I put these ones on him (they use to fit a couple months ago, but he's lost his baby belly - so they are a little big on him). His shorts kept falling off him whenever he'd bend over, or climb up something, or just about anything. At one point, I saw him frustrated with them and trying to take them off...

This sets up the following video...