Disneyland Trip Day 1

We went to Disneyland October 20, 21, and 22. Grandma Nancy flew down from Spokane to spend a few days with us before we all loaded up in the van and drove to California. Our first day there was a Thursday. Anyone who has gone to Disneyland with me before knows there are a few ground rules for the trip, the most important being: We will be in line at the gates waiting for Disneyland to open at least 20 minutes before the park opens. All three mornings they let us onto Main Street to wait at the end before taking off to our rides. Here we are waiting for Disneyland to officially open.

We had kind of a rough start to our first morning. Our original plan was to ride Dumbo first so we went right past Peter Pan, which we could have walked on, and got to Dumbo. Where we saw that it was closed. Bummer. By the time we got back to Peter Pan, there was already a huge line, so we headed to Alice in Wonderland instead. Not anyone's idea of "The First Ride" of the trip, but it was still fun. This was our magic morning, so only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were open. After Alice we rode Matterhorn, which all of the kids seemed to enjoy, although I don't think it was Grandma's favorite. Then we did the carousel, which turned out to be Finley's favorite ride.

Sareny got to ride Jingles.

Isaac showing "no hands." Poor Isaac got totally scraped up when he dismounted his horse. It was kind of bad, but he was pretty brave.

Then we headed over to ride Dumbo, which had finally opened.

The kids all posed in Dumbo.

Then we headed over to the other side of the park where we had big plans that included Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, and Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately, those plans were dashed to pieces when we got over there and found out that every one of those rides and Indiana Jones to boot were all shut down. Pirates was also shut down for maintance, but we knew about that one beforehand. This basically meant that half the park was broken. We tried to make the best of things, but it was pretty annoying. We rode Winnie the Pooh and Jungle Cruise.

Jungle Cruise is actually Keith's favorite ride, and I thought they had a few fresh new jokes I hadn't heard before.

After Jungle Cruise and the fiasco occuring in the rest of the park, I was ready to get the heck out of Dodge. We headed over to California Adventures, where they had attractions that were actually operating. I took Finley to ride the Monster's ride while the rest of the group did Soarin' over California. When we got off, she said, "I don't want to ride scary ones." I asked her if Monster's was scary, and she said, "Yes." Then we saw Sully, so we got in line to have our picture taken with him. She does not like to get too close to the characters and tried to run away from him, so I grabbed her and a worker took our picture. Later she was telling me that Sully can't close his mouth.

Isaac had been talking about riding Tower of Terror for months leading up to the trip, and even wanted it to be our first ride. Okay, so my Dr. may or may not have sort of suggested that I not ride this one, but this was the first time Isaac was tall enough to ride it, and I just didn't want to miss it. Keith and I took him, and I was a little concerned about how he would do. Especially when I looked around in the line and he was by far the youngest child I could see. He ended up loving it though! He was totally grinning in the picture they took, and all the people crowded around the pictures pointed at our picture and were like, "Look at that little guy! He loves it!" It was pretty funny. Even though he loved it, he didn't actually want to ride it again. Keith took Sareny on it, and she did not love it.

While we rode Tower of Terror, Grandma took Sareny and Finley to ride Heimlich's Chew Chew Train and Francis' Ladybug Boogie. Then they took a few pictures. Finley used her fingers to make her smile bigger.

While Keith drug Sareny on Tower of Terror, I took Isaac on the rides the girls had done earlier. For reasons unknown, Finley opted to wait with Grandma at the Tower.

We rode Toy Story Midway Mania, which everyone in the group really enjoyed.

Finley saw the Merry Go Round, and there was no way we were walking by without taking her on it.

While Nancy and I used the switchoff pass to ride Soarin', Keith took the kids to the Redwood Creek Challenge area. They had a blast running around.

They saw this dog whom I can never remember his name, but he is from the movie Up. I like how Finley is looking at him so suspiciously and making sure her hand is far from him.

Then we headed back over to Disneyland to ride some of the things we missed earlier, including Star Tours which we had fast passes to, and Haunted Mansion which we did not, and sure wished we did. I have always loved It's a Small World, and the kids were singing along and loving it too.

Since the park closed at 9:00, we decided to tough it out and not go to the hotel for naps. (Not that Finley would have napped if we had gone there.) But in the Tiki room she leaned her head on my arm, and a few minutes later I looked over and saw her head bobbing. I grabbed her just in time, and she spent the next couple of hours like this.

And just in case you are thinking this sounds like the perfect time to visit Disneyland, let me put those silly notions to rest. It was packed. The lines were so long just to get a Dole Whip, we didn't manage to get one. I think people were waiting over an hour for that line. Basically, Utah had fall break and the entire state decided to plan their family reunions for that weekend at Disneyland. I am only slightly exaggerating. Despite the crowds though, we had a great trip. Okay, interjection done. We also went to Toon Town and rode Roger Rabbit.

Isaac busted out of the Toon Town jail.

The kids got a little crazy in this car.

Finley did not appreciate their craziness.

Then we hurried back to Fantasyland where we got perfect seats to watch Mickey's Soundsational Parade. We actually got to sit on a ledge with a back, so it was surprisingly relaxing and comfortable. The parade was awesome and we all really enjoyed it.

We had a great first day and stayed until the park closed. At this point, I told Keith to take the kids back to the hotel and I would meet them there, because I wanted to talk to someone at City Hall about our morning. He really didn't want me to. I think he is embarrassed that I speak up if I am not happy about something, but at any rate, I did it anyway, and we were all glad that I did. The guy at City Hall was really nice and gave me several readmission passes which would allow our whole group to ride any attraction we wanted, including those that don't have fast pass lines. These were a huge help for avoiding the gigantic lines for the rest of our trip. Which once again validates my theory--if you're not happy about something, say something to the right people, and they will almost always do something to make it right. Much better than just fuming amoungst yourselves.

School Days

Here is a group photo of our preschool kids, except for Finley, who only gets to particpate when it is at our house. Rachel, Halle, Finley, David, Isaac, Andrew, and Matt. We had preschool at our house for the letter 'C,' and one of the things we focused on was colors. I helped the kids make their own "tie-dyed" shirt, and they all turned out so cute! This is a really fun craft idea that is pretty cinchy to make. First, tie your shirt off with rubber bands. Then let the kids color each shirt segment a different color using Sharpie markers in a variety of colors. This is what Rachel's shirt looked like before I took off the rubber bands.

Once each segment has been colored, take a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol and squirt all of the colored sections. Let them dry, then remove the bands. We made this project on Tuesday, and the kids had a lot of fun and were pretty excited to see what their shirts looked like when they came back on Thursday. I like how Finley is copying David giving a thumbs up in this picture.

As a side note, Tuesday was another poor, poor Finley day. I had warned my kids that the spray bottle was not filled with water and not to touch it. I even emphasized--Do not spray this in your face or it will burn your eyes. I later realized that Finley was actually sleeping when I made those dire warnings, because right after preschool and before I had dumped the alcohol out of the spray bottle, I heard screams coming from the kitchen. She had climbed on the counter, gotten the spray bottle down, and sprayed it directly into her eyes. I felt terrible. We rinsed her eyes out and I even called poison control, who told me to have her take a shower. Fortunately, she had already stopped crying by the time I called poison control, and she ended up okay. Whew. I cleaned that spray bottle out immediately.

Sareny's school had a ribbon cutting ceremony, and her grade got to sing a couple of songs at the celebration. The first one was in spanish, and it was really cute. This part they were saying, "Oh no, something something..."

Then they rubbed their tummies when the whale ate a sardine.

She was so excited to be able to go and she did a great job.

Despite our continued daily drama and trauma with the uniform, I think she is liking school and learning a lot.

Poor, Poor Finley

The other night, Finley fell out of bed. I was pretty quick getting to her, since I was already laying in bed unable to sleep (hate that.) I comforted her a little bit and let her sleep the rest of the night in my bed, but I never turned on the light or I would have seen her poor little cheek! Keith noticed it the next morning when he went to give her a kiss goodbye while she was still sleeping. Upon further examination of the evidence, I decided that she fell off the foot of the bed and landed face first on a Bugs Bunny bookend that features a scratchy tree. Her little cheek was so abrased and looked pretty bad for about a week, but it is finally starting to look normal again.
Then, a week ago we had preschool at our house, and Finley got bumped on something and was crying. I again comforted her as best I could. I thought she was showing me she got bumped on her forhead, but later that day evidence showed up that it was, in fact, her eye. These photos were taken a full week after they happened, but you can still see the bruising on her little shiner.

Fortunately, you can also see that her cheek looks much better, and she is still smiling!

This poor girl has looked so beat up lately!

Crackle!

I bought some silver crackle/shatter nail polish, and as soon as we got home with it, we gave it a try. I thought it turned out so cute! Finley had hers over hot pink and Sareny had hers over black. I had black on my hands and pink on my toes. We thought it was a lot of fun, and would love to try some other colors. Sareny's and my hands.

Fin's cute little hand.

We Went to the Temple

On 9-10-11, we went to the Mesa temple to see our good friends get sealed there. Unfortunately, we didn't have a babysitter, so I went to the ceremony while Keith waited in the visitor's center with the kids. I gave him the camera with instructions to take some pictures of the kids. Afterwards, I saw him snapping a few as they walked towards me. Those were the only ones he took. Oh well, they are still cute! And the kids are such posers.

Love this one.

First Day of School

Sareny started second grade on August 22nd, and we documented the day with pictures. This is the first year she has had to wear a uniform, and she is still not happy about it, but we are making do.

In front of her school, which was still under construction when school started.

This year her teacher's name is Ms. Lizarraga. She is learning spanish and seems to be having a great year.

The day after labor day, Isaac started preschool. We are doing a co-op preschool with 5 other moms, and so far it is going great.

Four of the students are already five and the other two will be by December, and they will all be attending kindergarten next year, so it is a perfect group. When preschool is at our house, I try to teach them as much as possible to help them get ready for school next year. Isaac loves going to school with his friends and looks forward to it each week. In fact, when I woke him up on Sareny's first day of school to go get in the van to take her, he ran down the stairs and put on his backpack and went to the pantry to grab himself a snack. It was so cute.