Disneyland 2015!

Back in mid-November, we finally got around to taking the kids somewhere other than Bear Lake.  It had been a couple of years since we had gone to Disney, and when you are six, a couple of years is almost beyond memory.  So, we decided we would shell out the cash and make some new memories!  Lucky for us, Grandpa and Grandma agreed to come along and Grandpa let us use some of his Sky Miles to save us from the long and painful drive across the wasteland between here and the Magic Kingdom (thank you thank you!).  We hopped ourselves on our nice speedy airplane and before we knew it, we had arrived in the land of palm trees.

The freeway drive from good old John Wayne airport to the cute condo we rented took forever and a day, but we made it eventually and happily unpacked.  The kids were beyond excited to have such a fun place to stay:

By the time we grabbed some dinner and did some quick grocery shopping, it was getting pretty late, so we hit the sack so we could get up bright and early the next day!  

My mom has had an injured tendon in her foot, and her doctor warned her that she should NOT walk all over Disneyland, so whether she liked it or not (and she didn't), she had a wheelchair.  We loaded her in it and headed to the parks.  We had to cross a busy-ish street with no crosswalk (which we dubbed "The Dash of Death" after a particularly scary crossing) and then it was a short walk to the Mickey parking garage and the shuttle to the parks.  

Here we are, on our very first "ride" (the parking shuttle):

We decided to head to the California Adventure park first, since none of us had seen the new Cars Land or any of the other changes of the past few years (except Grandma and Grandpa, who go to Disneyland at least once a year).  Here is a picture of all of us!

Cora saw the Tower of Terror (or "Terror of Tower") as she called it looming over the park, and it made her a little nervous.  We let her pick the first ride, and she chose "Mater's Junkyard Jamboree," which was actually pretty fun, and I liked to hear Mater give instructions in Spanish with his accent.  After that, we headed over to the Paradise Pier area and rode the rides.  Preston and Dax are ready to shoot everything at the Toy Story ride (Grandpa always wins).

After some roller coasters for some of us and carousel rides for others (Cora and Grandma), and a mandatory stop at Corn Dog Castle, we headed over the Cars Land to ride the "Radiator Springs Racers."  It was fun, and we "won" our race both times we rode.  

Cars land was decorated for Christmas, and it was fun to see the way they used car parts (hub caps as ornaments, air filters in the wreath, etc.)

We usually headed back to the condo for a late lunch and a little rest before heading back to the parks to enjoy the evening/night.  We headed to Disneyland for a while as the sun was going down:

After a few rides (Haunted Mansion was a favorite, the kids love Nightmare Before Christmas, and Jack Skellington and his friends had taken over for the holidays), we headed back over to California Adventure and watched the "World of Color - Winter Dreams" show.  I didn't take any pictures, but it was so amazing and fun.  I stood by Cora and she was mesmerized.  After the show, California Adventure was closing and so we headed back to the condo.

The next day was Saturday, and it was CROWDED.  Long lines for the parking lot tram gave us a clue as to what we were in for the rest of the day.  We rode Thunder Mountain, and Preston even talked Cora into coming along for the ride.  Doesn't she look excited?

Yeah, that is how she felt afterwards, too.  She was a little scared of the "fast" rides, and decided not to try any of the other "Mountains" (Splash, Space, or Matterhorn).  Oh well, someday maybe.  The big kids loved it and declared it their favorite ride.  They rode it quite a few times while we were there.  Cora preferred "Winnie the Pooh."  While the rest of the group did "Indiana Jones," Cora and I played in Tarzan's Treehouse.  We were looking at the statue of the leopard, and all of the sudden it made a roaring sound and blew air on Cora.  She couldn't get out of there fast enough and vowed to never return to the Treehouse of terror.

She did agree to go on "Star Tours" and actually loved it. Arden got to be the Rebel Spy!  They turned Space Mountain into "Hyperspace Mountain" with a Star Wars theme...space ships were projected along with the stars, and it had the Star Wars soundtrack playing and was actually pretty cool.  Dax, as you may have guessed, ate it up and asked for more.

We compromised and did a little of both as the day went on.  We took our break at the condo and then headed back to Disneyland.  Grandma and Grandpa agreed to stake out a bench so we could watch the parade, and the rest of us went and rode a couple more rides.  Then we headed over to wait for the show:

The parade was pretty cool!  I felt a little nostalgic for the old electric light parade, but this one was much more impressive, I'll admit.  It had fun music too.  After the parade, the fireworks were going to start.  Dax decided that it was his bed time, and he needed someone to get him to his bed NOW, fireworks or not.  He convinced Preston and off they went, while the rest of us watched the fireworks as best we could with the hoards of people there for the same purpose.  After the fireworks, the girls wanted to keep going, so we did another ride.

We headed to Its a Small World at Cora's request, but after she saw the line was 15 minutes long, she declared herself too tired to wait.  Arden and Grandma and Grandpa wanted to stick it out, so Cora and I headed for the exit.  She wanted me to carry her down main street, which was pretty crowded with people leaving, so I picked her up.  She promptly laid her head down on my shoulder and went to sleep.  Awwww.  The line for the parking tram was very long, so I decided to just take the walking path to the parking garage.  It was probably most of a mile, and Cora was getting pretty heavy by the time I made it back to the condo, but how many more chances am I going to have to carry her around?  I didn't mind that much.

The next day was more of the same...ride baby ride.  The Matterhorn had been updated with new Yetis since the last time I was on it.  Fun!

Cora talked everyone into a few Bugs Land rides.  Looks like Arden doesn't mind:

We got a silly picture taken of us.  Don't catch us, Dax!

We did Cars again, and I was really impressed with how much scenery they put in!

That night we saw the a little play, "Mickey and the Magical Map."  The kids loved it, and I thought it was pretty cute.  Sitting down was nice also.  That night we got fast passes for "Fantasmic," but we were too late to get the tickets for the earlier show, so the one we got tickets for didn't even start until after 10.  We had been playing hard for a few days by now, and the kids (and Grandpa and Grandma) decided that they would rather not stay for the show and headed back.  Fantasmic is going to be closed down in January as they make room for "Star Wars Land," so Preston and I decided to stay by ourselves to watch the show.  It was kind of fun to be there without kids!  We watched the show, and then decided that since the lines were getting short, we would ride a few rides.  We did Indiana Jones, (Hyper) Space Mountain, and the Matterhorn before we decided to call it a night (mostly because they closed everything down then since it was midnight).  We dragged ourselves back to the condo and fell into bed.

The next morning we had to pack our stuff up since it was our last day.  We got everything out to the rental car, and after losing Cora for about 5 minutes, we headed back to the parks for our last few hours.  Grandma and I cut Cora a break and took her on the Riverboat while everyone else rode Thunder Mountain (again).  The Rivers of America are going to be closed soon, and they are going to make the river a lot small I hear.  It was good to take one more nice, slow ride around the river, and Cora looked so cute in her Mickey Ears grandpa got her:

We hurried here and there trying to make sure everyone got to ride their favorite rides one last time.  Except poor Grandma, whose favorite ride is the Tower of Terror.  Arden and Dax were troopers and went on that one once.  They both told each other they liked it, but both agreed that they didn't want to go on it any more times.  :)  At the end, the big kids and Preston and I did Indiana Jones, and Cora and the grandparents finally got around to "Its a Small World" because that is Grandpa's favorite ride (kidding, Grandpa).  Cora loved it and declared it her most favorite ride at Disneyland.

We met up at the castle after.  It was all decorated for the 60-year Diamond Celebration.

Then, it was time to head to the airport (booo!)  Here we are, on sad walk down Main Street (Cora didn't want to wear her ears anymore, so I had them on).

It was an uneventful trip home.  It was hard to get up for school the next day, but it was almost a rest to be back home where we had bedtimes and stuff like that.  It was a super fun trip!

Halloween Twenty-Fifteen

Now that it is almost Thanksgiving, I will finally get around to blogging about Halloween.  We did a few fun Halloween things, but I didn't seem to take pictures of all of them.  First of all, we made it up to the Pumpkin Walk on the Friday before Halloween, which is always fun:

 Arden liked the pumpkin that had a sun like the one in Rapunzel carved into it:

So many pumpkins!  We always love to see them all lit up, and it gives us good ideas about what we might want to carve our own pumpkins like.

 The next morning, the Saturday before Halloween, I ran the Haunted Half with my sister Val. It was cold at the start, but a beautiful, fun race.  I wore my Jessie-the-cowgirl shirt and some socks that were supposed to look like cowboy boots.  I braided my hair but there was no way I was going to try to wear a cowboy hat on my head for 13.1 miles.

 And have I mentioned that I like to run down canyons?  I do.  The medal was so fun too, his cape swung open and closed.

During October, we took the kids to see a couple of Halloween-y movies.  We saw Hotel Transylvania 2, which was fun.  We also saw "Goosebumps," which was only rated PG, but scared Arden and Cora.  Arden went to the bathroom two or three times during the movie, and her need to use the facilities seemed to coincide with the scarier parts of the show.  Hmmmm.  Dax ate it up though, and we all survived in the end.

Before we knew it, it was only a couple of days before Halloween and we still didn't have any pumpkins!  We finally got out to the pumpkin patch the day before Halloween.  I remember when all three kids would ride in the pumpkin wagon, but now my little guy is big enough to pull a wagon full of pumpkins all by himself!

The girls still like to ride though.  We each found ourselves a pumpkin, and the kids had fun running around the hay bale maze.

 This year they had painted one of their big farm machines like the one in the "Cars" movies.  Hilarious!

After a while, Cora got tired of the hay maze, and kept Preston and I company while we waited in line to check out.  Isn't she a cute little punkin?

We carved pumpkins all night on Friday night.  The kids were good helpers at scooping pumpkin guts, but everyone except Arden still wanted me to draw them a face and Preston to cut it out.  They told me what they wanted and I did my best.  Arden drew her face herself, but Preston was still a little uncomfortable letting her have a sharp knife, so he carved it for her.

Then, the big day was here!  Cora had her last fall soccer game that morning, no pictures.  Then it was time to dress up.  We headed north up to trick-or-treat at some Grandma's houses first.  When we got home from that I made them get their annual Halloween pictures.  Dax was a vampire this year.  Arden and Cora dressed up like characters from a Disney Channel movie called "The Descendants."  The show is about the children of famous Disney characters.  Cora dressed up as Mal, who is Maleficent's daughter, and Arden dressed up as Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White.  I warned them that people who don't live with a 9-to-14 year old girl with the Disney Channel would probably not know who they were, but they didn't care.  They told people they were "rock stars" if they were unfamiliar with the show.  They were happy, and that makes me happy.

Here is them being silly, so pretty much as usual.

We even made Olive dress up, poor thing.  She was a skeleton.  We didn't make her keep the hood on for very long, but she didn't seem to mind the rest of it, so she wore it trick or treating.   The weather was really nice, and we went down the street to the neighbor's house to have some soup before the trick-or-treating started.  Preston takes the kids around, and I stay home and hand out the candy.

I did wear my Jessie hat on Halloween, but forgot to have anyone take a picture of me, so I took a selfie while everyone else was out trick or treating.  Best part of the picture is the awesome Frankensteins the kids did in Jodi's art class.  I love them!

I also took a picture of our jack-o-lantern masterpieces all lit up while the trick-or-treaters were at work:

Cora got tired of tricking and treating after about an hour, but Preston agreed to take Arden and Daxton back out for a little longer.  That little longer took almost two more hours.  They didn't get back until about 9:30, and they had so much candy they could hardly carry their bags anymore.  Cora helped me hand out treats, and we had a lot more trick-or-treaters than usual too.  It was a fun Halloween, and we are still eating the candy three weeks later.  (I'll be surprised if we get it all done by Christmas.)  It was a fun Halloween, now bring on Thanksgiving!

Round One Done

Arden got her braces on right around her 8th birthday.  They were supposed to be on for about 15 months.  It has been a little longer than that, but the time is finally here!  Arden got her braces off a couple of weeks ago!  She gets to wear a retainer now at night, and also gets to have braces again in a few years after more of her permanent teeth come in, but she was happy to be braces-free, even if it is just for a while.  

Look how happy she is!  Have you ever seen a bigger smile?

Just kidding.  They made her put those things in her mouth so they could get some pictures, aren't they awful?  They also made an impression of her teeth for her retainer by shoving a tray full of clay in her mouth and leaving it there for a few minutes.  She took it like a champ, but I could barely look at her without gagging.

Here she is with just a regular smile.  Her teeth look so big and white!

Arden celebrated her new braces-free teeth by inviting a few of her friends over and eating lots of formerly forbidden sticky food, like caramel popcorn, Riesens chocolate caramel candy, and Hi-chews.  (One of Arden's friends that came over still has braces, poor thing, so she had some regular popcorn and alternate snacks.)

So far, Arden has been very good about wearing her retainer at night without being asked, and cleaning it each morning.  We are both glad she doesn't have to wear it during the day, though.  Less chance of losing it this way.  

Now Cora's permanent teeth are starting to come in.  She only has a couple on the bottom so far, and can't wait for her front teeth to fall out.  So far, they aren't looking like they are going to have much room, kind of like Arden's.  I guess I better brace myself (see what I did there?) for more orthodontist visits and bills.

We better eat all the caramel popcorn we can while we have the chance.

Fummer Fun

We are going to take a little trip down short-term memory lane.  We have made a couple of trips to the cabin in late September/early October.  The weather both times was AMAZING, and felt close to summer even if the calendar and the leaves said differently.   I'll call it Fummer (Fall+Summer).

The colors in Sardine canyon were pretty nonexistent this year, other than brown.  Logan canyon still had some oranges left though:

Once we got through the canyon we headed straight for the beach.  On the way, we found this giant hay bale minion in Garden City across from the park.  Whoever this farmer is, I love him/her and want to be friends.  (And what a beautiful farm in the background, no?)  And there are those cute kids again!

The cat tails were turning their fall colors too, and Cora talked Preston into picking her one.  I told her she could have one but could NOT bring it into the cabin.  We had an experience with exploding cat tails last year that I wasn't in the mood to repeat.

Olive and the kids were so excited to be at the beach!  Poor Olive doesn't get much beach time in the height of summer, since dogs aren't allowed at the beach with the boat ramp.  But she was determined to make up for lost time and loved to bound through the water like a deer.

She also figured out that she can actually swim, and swam around like crazy all weekend.  She even tried to swim after some seagulls, and made me worry a few times that she would swim out so far she wouldn't be able to get back.

The kids were excited to get in the water too, since late September Bear Lake is pretty much as warm as it gets.

 Another nice thing about Bear Lake in the fall.  The beach to ourselves:

The next day we were back at it again, at the Bear Lake West Beach.  My mom and dad came along this time, but somehow I don't have a picture.  I didn't take many pictures at all, actually.  Arden and Cora spent a lot of time collecting seashells (or I guess lakeshells) and trying to set traps for seagulls.  Dax followed Grandpa around as per usual.  We paddled the kayak around a little, and then I borrowed someone's paddle board for a quick paddle.  Preston took this picture of me after Olive swam after me on the paddle board until gave in I lifted her on for a ride.  Once she was up there she was too scared to shake off and got a little cold.  Silly dog.

The next day we laid low and cleaned up.  I re-painted our moose and bear, they were looking a little shabby before.  I thought the kids would help, but they were deeply engrossed in a "Lab Rats" binge watching session.  Oh well, I had fun.  I decided I need to name these guys, any suggestions?  (Dax shockingly suggested "Moosey" and "Barry.")

The drive home was a little cloudy, but still not too shabby.  Did I ever tell you that yellow is my favorite color?  It is.

We were back up for UEA weekend.  On Thursday, we all went for a bike ride along the Garden City bike path.  Well, I ran since I had a half-marathon in a couple of weeks, and everyone else rode.  Cora has a very small bike and has to peddle twice as often as everyone else, but she still made it about 6 miles or so!  No pictures, sorry.

The next day, my mom and I took the kids up to Bloomington Lake while Preston and my dad telecommuted from the cabin.  It was another beautiful day, and this little lake was really pretty, with a big cliff on one side.  The water was a pretty bluish green, kind of like Bear Lake.

 Miss Cora, with the sun shining on her like a spotlight.  I think my camera must have been a little dirty?

 On one side of the lake is a huge rope swing.  I asked the kids if they wanted to try it, but this lake was COLD!  We didn't have our swimsuits anyway, but a bunch of teenagers were swinging on it and it was fun to watch them.  They all screamed and swam back to shore quickly.  Crazy to think it was warm enough to even think about swimming here in mid-October!

 Nearly all of the leaves had already fallen, but we found one little patch of yellow (did I mention its my favorite?) on the drive down the canyon.  I made us all stop so I could get out and bask a little and take some pictures.  There were a LOT of deer hunters up Bloomington Canyon, so we didn't stray off the path too far though.

Now that Halloween is only a couple of days off, I think our Fummer is over.  Rain is in the forecast and the colder part of fall is upon us.  I had to turn on the furnace today for the first time :(.  Oh well, it was super fun while it lasted!  Bring on the sweaters and boots!

Cute Kids and Fall Leaves

Happy Back to the Future Day!  (For those who may not have heard..today, October 21, 2015, was the day Marty McFly traveled to when he went to the "future."  So, hey, where the heck is my flying car??  Little known fact: When I was about Arden's age, I thought Michael J. Fox was super duper cute.  I even had a poster of him up on my wall of cute boy posters.  I think this little infatuation lasted for a year or so, when I found out that I was already taller than him when I was in 4th grade. Anyhoo...)

Speaking of growing taller, these kids of mine are getting bigger and smarter all the time.  Wasn't it yesterday that they looked like this?

Those little cuties are long gone.  (I miss them sometimes!)  Now I have these big cuties, and I couldn't be prouder of them and their smart, beautiful selves:

Cora is loving first grade and comes home every day with stories of which boys chased her and which boys she chased at recess.  She makes me more than a little nervous sometimes.

Arden seems to be growing up faster and faster as the days go by.  She is still so sweet, but I feel those tween years coming up fast.  I dread the hormones and eye rolling and door slamming that is inevitably coming.  Plus, she is getting so beautiful and big!  This also makes me nervous. 

And wow, Dax.  He gets taller every single day, and his feet grow a size per month (or it least it seems that way to me).  He is doing great and really likes second grade so far.  He loves reading chapter books (once he gets started), and has a fun bunch of buddies he plays "wall ball" with every recess.

And here they are all together.  I love this one:

 Awwww....if they could only sit next to each other so nicely in the car on long trips.  Seriously, I sometimes feel like I should put up plexiglass walls between their seats or something so they can't possibly touch each other.  But look how angelic and beautiful they are!

Dax is taller than Arden by a couple of inches now.  Arden really doesn't like it when people assume he is older than she is.  Dax kind of does, though.

Here is a close up of Arden.  This is one of the last pictures taken of her with her braces on.  She got them taken off earlier this week, and we have to go pick up her retainer tomorrow.  She gets to wear that at night for a few years, and then she will enjoy round 2 of braces, poor thing.

 Here is a super closeup of Cora, her eyes are so pretty:

Dax kept pulling weird faces!  He either looked so excited it was a little scary, or just really not excited at all.  This is as good as we could get:

Sure love these stinkers.  Please stop growing up so fast!