Disneyland Wrap Up

Super pic heavy - I'm sick and want to go to bed...but here are the highlights...

 

I totally love this smile on Graham!

 

And this face on Dan made me laugh for the next three rides...he braved the Bug's Life Boogie with us and about threw up!

This made me laugh too - I love Beaker, he is so cute!  He looks how I sometimes feel.

 

We tried three days to get a shot in the "O" - not one person managed to get the whole "O" in.  

 

Getting ready for our favorite ride - Soarin' Over California!

  

 

(Yes, Patrick, there is something else you can do for me.... ha!) I have a HUGE crush on Patrick Warburton.  Dan knows about this and knows my chances of ever meeting him are slim and none. 

"Greg!  Let me take your picture...um, ok, I'll take a picture of your tortilla face in front of the factory instead I guess?"

 

Same thing as last year.  Should've known and the dumb thing already broke.  Dan re-engineered it to be Peter Pan's shorter sword.  Smart thinking boys!

 

Right before Graham accidentally whacked the nice Indian lady in the foot.  In his defense, she was in open toed sandals.  And then she sat in front of us and didn't even know how to paddle a canoe!  For the love of all things, do NOT try to paddle if you don't know how! Pick UP the paddle, don't drag and splat it!  She got us soaked (well, the rain did a little too) but I didn't feel so bad after having to deal with her in the boat.  

  

This is where I started to not like my children in Disneyland.  Oh my goodness, am I allowed to say that?  You BET.  The whining, the crying, the fighting, two tired boys and THEN we are the LAST in the line to meet Mickey.  Not wanting to cause more of a scene, I simply kneeled down and I did what every good mother does - I whispered to them if they waited patiently, walked in to meet Mickey happily and smiled for the camera NICELY (GREG!) Daddy would buy them an ice cream cone at the parade. 

Not bribery, rewards, friends.  Rewards. 

   

"Oh...you want two scoops? "

You know what mommy said next don't you?

Judge me if you want, I had had it and I got my two great pictures lickety split!  

Pun intended. 

 

 Mmmm...the payoff. 

 

This was about 20 minutes before some jerk kicked Greg in the head while waiting for the fireworks and having to listen to some couple yell at their daughter "Hannah!" for just as long.  I think the tired brings out the ugly in all of us sometimes.   Not ME of course, simply talking rude about other people here.

  

We finished up the night and this is when the boys win me over.  At bedtime.  Look at those cutie patooties.  Begging me to tell the stories..they sure are cute.

 

But this is the favorite picture of the trip.  Every night ended this way.  Tired boys are happy boys!

I'm starting to save next month for our next trip - this time LuLu will get to come along!  

I'm already more excited about this than the kids are!

Christmas at Disneyland!

We finally made it!  I love how Disneyland decorates for Christmas!  If you can't get in the holiday mood here, then there is no hope for you I guess. 

 First up is Dumbo - it's a tradition that we ride this very first on the first day and the carousel is always the last ride on our last night.  Just something silly I made up last time but the boys wanted to stick to it!

 They have their feathers ready to go!

 Trying to pull out the sword.  They had to do this every time we walked by.  I've heard that at certain times Merlin does come out and a lucky child is crowned and gets to pull the sword out.  I've never seen this happen though.

 Teacups!  I love how this ride always makes me laugh SO hard. 

The new Princess and the Frog show on the Mark Twain riverboat. 

This is pretty much what every picture of Greg looks like...silly goose. He's gotten to be quite the comedian lately. 

Scenes from A Christmas Fantasy Parade.  It was pretty cute.  Not such a catchy tune that I sung for days like The Play Parade, but still fun.  One of Cinderella's step-sisters came over to Greg, blew him a kiss and then fainted.  I thought it was so funny!  Greg was NOT amused.  

 

Santa Claus!

A tired mom and dad!

 

We capped it off by going on It's A Small World.  I have not been on this ride since I was 18 and I LOVE it!  They changed the music to go back and forth between the title song and Jingle Bells and it was so much fun!

Trying to Get to Disney

 

 We have had a Disney vacation planned for a few months - and of course a big storm was coming in so we had to leave a day early to beat it on the road.  Which meant I packed all five of us up in TWO hours! 

Crazy fun - (it was actually, very adventurous in a way.) 

We got Lauren dropped off at her Nanny's (I only cried until we got to the freeway) and we had a few patches of road on the way to St. George that it was pretty much a white out.  Could not even see the lines on the road.  Dan was a trooper and respected my request not to drive in the blizzard.  Thanks babe.

We got to St. George and had a great sleep.  Ready to go - we woke up to a flat tire!  WHAT?!  Better there than on the road at midnight, right?!  You know it! 

 Dan did his best to change the tire...but let's face it, he hasn't been hitting the gym lately like I have so he needed some girlie muscles to help him out.  

Totally kidding...I did nothing but put on gloves and laugh in this picture.

 Thankfully there was a Wal-Star-Mart up the road (that's what the boys call it.)  So I wandered with the kids, got Graham's haircut, got a pedicure, bought some shoes while we waited.  (Just kidding, sort of...)

 

And we were back on the road in no time!  We had great weather the rest of the way and it actually made the trip easier for the kids to break it up so much.  More of Disneyland later!!

Georgia on My Mind, Nebraska on My Grill

Miss me?
We just got home from a 12 day drive from Utah to Atlanta and home again.
With three kids in the car. And we all still like each other! A-may-zing!

After early morning soccer I am happily home singing a la Snow White while doing my laundry. Or maybe Dorothy?

There's no place like home!

Trip details to come when I can see the bottom of the washer!