So Thankful For...

These three cutie patooties! Love, love them!

Disneyland!

So, I'm seriously far behind on my blogging. It's taken a lot of effort to get myself to finally post about our awesome trip to Disneyland! I'm probably just going to have to forget about ever catching up on what has happened since our trip because there is no way I'll ever get it all done.

We had a fabulous trip to Disneyland this year. James and I have kind of started making it a tradition to go once a year, and this year we went with almost my whole family! That makes 15 of us! We went for seven days this time which made it so much more relaxing. We didn't feel like we had to be there from open til close every day, and we took a day at the end of the trip to wind down.  We absolutely LOVE Disneyland, and so do our kids! Even Ruby had a great time. In fact, I think she was a little bored when we got home! Isabelle keeps telling me that next week we're going back. I wish.

I broke our trip down by days, and took some of my favorite pictures from each day and put them together so I could remember what we did. I still have no clue, but I'll try to sum it up as best as I can.

Day 1- We had a great flight time- eleven a.m. or so, so it wasn't too horrible to get to the airport. I really liked flying Jet Blue because they have TVs in the back of every seat, and they give you unlimited drinks and treats.

Once we got to our hotel, we settled in and walked to an outdoor shopping/eating area called Anaheim Garden. We just kind of meandered around and ate at Johnny Rocket's for dinner (or Johnny's Rocket as my mom called it; we told her that was probably at the other end of town). We hung out there for a while then came back and turned in pretty early, tired from a long day of traveling.

Day 1 at Disneyland- Isabelle wanted to hit the teacups first thing! Small World was next. Ruby loved going on Small World- lots to see and good music! We went to the Princess Fantasy Fair where they teach the little girls how to be princesses and they get to meet a few of the princesses. It was so cute to watch Isabelle and Brielle's excitement when the princesses started coming down the stairs! Isabelle got to meet Mickey Mouse in Toontown  and we spent most of the day at the park. We went back to the hotel for a break and then came back later for more rides and fireworks.

Day 2 at Disneyland- This was the big day! The Princess Luncheon! I was so glad Isabelle again chose to be Belle (not that I swayed her, of course). We bought her pretty, pricey dress at Disneyland this year, and she looked adorable. The girls were all so excited to meet the princesses. It was a nice little girl's lunch out. I had hoped Isabelle's hair would be curly for the lunch, but it had pretty much lost its' body by then, and her putting water from a little waterfall in it didn't help, but she was still gorgeous, and her cousins were too!

It's funny to me that one of the things the kiddos enjoyed the most was a little splash pad in a Bug's Land. Kids find pleasure in the simplest things! We just let them enjoy, and they were absolutely drenched! They had so much fun playing in the water though! 

That night we went to World of Color. I didn't think it was as great as they made it out to be, but maybe that was because I had two very tired kids, and you have to stand the whole time, and be there like an hour early. Right after it started, Ruby got hungry, and when I got done feeding her, Isabelle had to go potty, so I didn't see much of it! We stopped at IHOP on the way back to the hotel, and as the girls did most nights, they zonked out in the strollers on the walk back, utterly exhausted from having fun!

Day 3 at the park- The most memorable thing about this day was Isabelle throwing up while we were waiting for the parade to start. If you know Isabelle, you may know that she has thrown up nearly everywhere, so why not on Main Street near a crowd of a billion people?! Poor little girl was starving! We got her some spaghetti and carrots, and in no time she was dancing with the Disney characters in the street! Funny little girl.
We spent quite a bit of time this day in Fantasyland where both girls could ride everything. Before we went back to the hotel that night, Isabelle wanted to spend lots of time taking pictures in front of all of the letters by California Adventure.

Day 4 at Disneyland- This was James' birthday! What better way to spend it than at Disneyland? We got off to a late start this day. We rode the train into Toontown with my cousin and her family who we happened to run into on the way in! We spent a while there, and then made the long walk to PF Chang's for James' birthday lunch (well worth the walk, and the walk was necessary for the calorie intake we made there). We went back to the hotel after lunch because everyone was a bit tired and cranky. We got refreshed and headed back to Disneyland for some more fun. We shared a piece of cake and sang to James. (We had his birthday party before we went on the trip.) I think he had a pretty awesome birthday! I even made him wear one of the pins they have that says, "It's my birthday!" He tried to get around it, but I made him wear it for a while!

Just so I remember, Isabelle's favorite rides were Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean (so she says), and the Buzz ride. Isabelle and I got to spend some time alone this night. We went on some of the rides she really liked again. We took pictures in Pixie Hollow, where Tinkerbell lives, and helped Buzz Lightyear defeat Zurg for the fifteenth time! Isabelle was holding the gate open for everyone after we got off Dumbo, and then the gate slammed on her ankle and hurt her. She told me that popcorn would make it feel better, so we got her a jumbo popcorn! We stayed in the park til it closed while Isabelle ate a hot dog, just having fun as a family!

Our last day at Disneyland-  We spent the morning finishing up rides in California Adventure. We got to meet quite a few characters this day- Buzz, Handy Manny, Frozone, Lightning McQueen and Mater.We had some fun in Tomorrowland in the big spinning building (I can't remember what it's called) but they have tons of stuff to see and everyone had fun playing Rockband for a while.

We bought a big picture of that they took of our family in front of the castle. It has a Disney border printed on it with Tinkerbell flying up in the top corner. When Isabelle saw it she said, "how did Tinkerbell get in our picture?" I told her she must have been there and we just didn't see her. She is so happy that the real Tinkerbell is in our picture!

I was definitely sad to leave the park that night. We went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe with my parents on the way back and Isabelle was just so tired. Ruby had already fallen asleep in the stroller. Isabelle ordered her food then told us, "everyone be quiet so I can go to sleep now," and she closed her eyes and was out!

Day 6- The next day James and I decided to rent a car and go to the beach. My parents and my sister's family wanted to go to a movie, and my brother's family had flown home the night before, so we decided to just do our own thing and go have some fun, and we were so glad we did! We went to Newport Beach and just hung out. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the pier, watched some guys fishing off the pier, and dipped our feet a bit. Isabelle and Ruby loved it. Ruby didn't love her first experience of having her feet in the sand. We played for a while and then drove along the coast on Highway 1 on the way back. When we got back to the hotel, James and Isabelle went swimming for a while (it was an outdoor pool and was a little too cold for Ruby) Then we went to dinner at Outback with my mom and dad. It was a super fun day!

Gotta love the cute butt crack picture!

Day 7- Time to go home :( Luckily our flight didn't leave til the evening, so we spent the day shopping in Downtown Disney. We picked up a bunch of goodies, had some lunch, then ran (we really did run) back to the hotel to catch our shuttle to the airport.

We had such an awesome vacation! We can't wait to go back! Thanks so much Mom and Dad for being so generous and wonderful and paying for our hotel and tickets! We made so many memories and had so much fun!

Preshool

My baby started preschool this past week. Guess she's not a baby anymore, although she'll always be my baby. (If anyone calls her a little girl, she tells them she's a big sister and she's three and a half.) She really loves school and has been so excited about it. She just goes two days a week for three hours, so it's perfect. I had a bit of a meltdown a couple of days before school started, but it's been good for all of us. It gives her the social interaction she loves, and gives me some one-on-one time with Ruby, and a chance to clean the house! Isabelle has always been an independent little girl, so she didn't bat an eye at us leaving her. In fact, she tells me she wants me to just drop her off and pick her up later. She is happy to see us when we pick her up, and Ruby is always thrilled to see Isabelle! It's hard to believe my little girl is this old!

All decked out with her new "packpack" and the car keys?

She got a cut on her lip playing on some slides on our mini trip.

Isabelle's cousins Ike and Brielle are in her class! So far no fights with Ike!

My beautiful princess

Still excited to go back on day 2!

The weekend before school started, we went on a spur-of-the-moment overnight trip to Park City. We had so much fun and we were so glad we did it. Since Isabelle called our last little vacation "Ruby's trip," we decided to call this one "Isabelle's trip," and Isabelle was sad we couldn't stay longer. We went to the Alpine Slides at both the Olympic Park and the other one, and James and I did the zip line too. We swam at the hotel and did some shopping at the outlets. My parents joined us the second day and we just had a lot of fun!

Summer Fun

Summer has flown by as it always does! I hate to think that it is so close to being over. We've been keeping plenty busy this summer, filling our days and nights up with lots of fun activities. We are certainly never bored! I have been horrible at blogging lately, so this is a quick picture-filled summary of what we've been up to...

 

We've had lots of fun swimming. My aunt has an awesome pool that we love because she keeps it warm!

I saw a lot of back fat at the pool that day, but Ruby's was the only one I wanted a picture of!

We have gone to Lagoon once a week the entire summer. We usually just head down after James gets home from work and always stay til closing time!  Isabelle still calls it Galoon, which I think is so cute.  Ruby loves the merry-go-round! We have so much fun at Lagoon and we're so glad we got season passes again.

Here are the three crazy horse lovers at the Horse 'n Hitch Parade! Isabelle and her cousin Brielle are so cute together!

Isabelle got to be in the Roy Parade with her tumbling class. She was SO excited and looked adorable!

Daddy and Ruby watching the parade.

The girls love to go on walks around the neighborhood. Isabelle has gotten super good at riding her bikes and scooter this summer.

We spent a fun-filled day in Salt Lake. We rode the Front Runner down, ate lunch at PF Chang's, shopped at the Gateway, Isabelle played in the fountains, we saw "Despicable Me," Isabelle made a pony at Build-a-Bear, and we were exhausted when we got home!

One of the best parts of summer... tractor rides with Papa!

And it's always fun just hanging out and playing with our beautiful girls! Ruby is changing so quickly and gets smarter and cuter every day! Isabelle is so creative and funny and I can't believe she'll be starting pre-school in a couple of weeks!

So those are a few of the exciting things we've spent our summer doing. We still have a huge list of fun stuff we want to do before summer ends. I hope we'll be able to fit them all in! We've spent a lot of time finishing our basement this summer (it's finally done!) and working in our yard, which we love doing. I'm so glad we've had the chance to be together and enjoy this time of year!