Cute Kids

My kids are exceptionally cute and talented. That is all.

October 23, Life After Disney

Well. Regular life has resumed. We were all exhausted for several days after getting home, but by about Wednesday after, Sylvie got up, got dressed in one of her princess shirts, and announced we were going to Disneyland and that we still had tickets. This Friday she wore her Minnie shirt and asked "Are we going to Disneyland?" When I answered that it was too far away, she replied "We could ride the bus." Basically, we are all still in a post-Disney glow around here. But we did have to get back to our regular--school, church, house cleaning, laundry, etc. Jens was happy to get back to school and see his friends. He seems to be doing great academically and is learning a lot this year.

I am doing FAME and clay with Jens's class. Somehow I'm in charge of both. With FAME it is no big deal--there are a few other docents who help with teaching and the lesson. With clay, though, there is no set program and I am the one who knows how to use the kiln and shows up, so I am kind of doing everything. We just finished jack-o-lantern pinch pots, which turned out very cute, but I have to go back in November and come up with a winter/holiday clay project that first graders and kindergarteners can do. Any suggestions would be welcome. The glazing seems to be the hardest part--it is tricky to paint details with glaze and first grade fingers. So something that can be all one color . . .

Last Saturday Mike and I rode our 100K bike ride in Davis.

Laura earned our eternal gratitude by coming and spending the night so we could leave early in the morning. She took the kids to Jens's soccer game and kept them entertained all morning. A big thank you shout out, Laura! I have been fearing it for months now, but when it actually came around I really enjoyed it. The weather was beautiful and the ride took us through fields and pastures. We enjoyed seeing walnuts being harvested, horses running, tomato and carrot fields, and the leaves starting to turn. The ride was well organized and attended. Our one big bummer was the Mike crashed at mile 12. He toughed out the rest of the ride, but has a separated shoulder and some grizzly scrapes and bruises to show for it. The last 15 miles was definitely a challenge for me, but overall it was a positive experience, and something I would do again. Mike, surprisingly, has a good attitude about it all even though it has thrown a wrench in his marathon training. Hopefully he will be back to running by the end of this week.

I have undertaken some big cleaning jobs lately, too, most notably our backyard, which was a disaster, and my closet. Both look very nice. Well, the backyard looks as tidy as it ever does, but nice might be pushing it. I also cleaned the carpet in the front room, but that was due to a potty training disaster. If you really want details on that, you can call and ask me. Lets just say we are taking a break from all things potty related and Sylvie is wearing diapers for the next month.

The weekend we are so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa here visiting with us. They arrived on Friday, so that night we ate out at La Fiesta (Jens's choice) then walked down to the river and finished the evening at Snook's for candy and ice cream. Saturday we crammed in all sorts of things--Farmer's Market, Apple Hill, where Jens and Sylvie rode horses and picked pumpkins, Jens's soccer game, and the BYU game. Today we are home from church, and Jens is learning to finger knit. We also painted one of our front windows with Halloween themes. It looks oh-so festive.

Disneyland Day 3

It is our last day!

Matching shirts and lip glosses today.

Well. We had such a great morning on Friday that we decided to scrap all beach plans and spend a third day at the park. We got there as it opened on Saturday morning and again enjoyed minimal crowds,

walking on to Dumbo,

the Carousel, Matterhorn (Mike took Sylvie and did the boat tour of Fairytale Land instead, which she loved), Small World, Alice and Wonderland, and Gadget's Go Coaster again, twice. We played the drums with Pluto, toured Aurora's castle, and we happened upon some princesses at the castle--a real highlight! Sylvie did let Aurora know that Ariel was her favorite princess, and was in fact very distracted during this picture because she was admiring Ariel, who was standing next to us.

Doesn't she look thrilled and happy? Well, she is on the inside.

Ariel in particular was so sweet with the girls, spending time to talk to each one and make them feel special. We were their last family to greet, so we were feeling very lucky.

Met Aladdin (lacking in charisma--princesses are much better at this sort of thing)

--this is what Jens was doing while we were meeting Aladdin--

ate lunch--finally soup in bread bowls!--rode Thunder Mountain again, and rafted over to Pirate's Island, where the kids loved running and exploring. Sylvie was about to turn into a noodle again, so after an island-wide search for Emi's blanket, which got left behind at some point (successful, phew!), Kristin and I took the little girls back to the hotel for naps and quality visiting time/candy eating while the dads stayed to take the kids on Splash Mountain one more time.

The dads and big kids came back, too, and rested as well. Then we went back just to really wear everyone out. We ordered dinner from Red Robin (3 nights in a row!) and ate standing at the bus stop so we wouldn't miss the bus. We got there just in time for the last parade (one of Sylvie's favorite things--can you tell? That is a genuine smile!).

Afterwords we took the Disneyland train all the way around the park to say goodbye. Then

we took the kids shopping to pick their one fun thing to take home from Disneyland. Jens picked an Indiana Jones Cap Pistol and Sylvie picked Minnie's House, complete with little figures and furniture. Then we watched fireworks and marveled over how Tinkerbell could fly around over the castle, then ate treats--the Pineapple whip float is TOTALLY recommended.

Sylvie didn't love the fireworks--they made her a little nervous. I was REALLY delighted to have her filthy blanket, which moments before had been spread on Main Street, on my head.

We got back to the hotel at midnight.

This trip was more fun than we ever imagined. Everything went so smoothly, no one got lost, the kids were mostly cooperative and cheerful, even though they were tired, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The kids loved being there and let us know they were having fun. Being with the Johnsons worked out perfectly--our kids blended well, the group wasn't too big, we met up and split up into all sorts of configurations that worked for everyone, and it was really fun to have friends for everyone, even the grown-ups!

Some of our favorite highlights: Jens, skipping happily around the park and telling Mike "This IS the happiest place on earth!" Eating churros. Jens, confiding to Mike in the elevator in the Haunted Mansion "Dad, I'm scared." And after the ride, "Dad, remember when I said I was scared? I was just trickin'." Eating cotton candy. Sylvie, after every ride: me: "Was that fun?" She nods her head. "Do you want to ride it again?" S: "NO!" Sylvie dancing like crazy in front of the Small World clock. Sylvie breaking into 'Small World' randomly at home.

The ride home was probably the worst part of the whole vacation. We left the hotel at 10 after taking it easy in the morning. Both of our kids threw up in the car and the drive seemed long, even though we made good time. The kids were exhausted--Jens slept for 3 hours in the car and went to bed at 7:45 when we got home without a fight. They both napped on Monday, as well. But now we are all recovered.

I will admit that since we have been home, Mike has pulled up the Disneyland Christmas tickets at least once and we have already talked about a return trip--we originally thought we could go every other year, but now we are thinking that isn't quite enough . . .

Disneyland Day 2

(Do you see how few people are in the background here?!?)

Okay, if you thought there were a lot of pictures yesterday, you were wrong. We got to the hotel after day one and Mike was cranky with how few pictures he'd taken and vowed to do better the next day. Friday was what we thought Thursday would be like. For the first 2 hours, we walked on to every ride we wanted to try, starting with Ghost Galaxy, aka Space Mountain. Kristin and I took Jens and Matisyn while the dads took the little girls to do Buzz Lightyear. They wanted to sit together instead of with their moms and we let them, although I think we were both worrying about them the whole time/thinking "I can't believe they are big enough to ride alone!!" As we were getting in, I asked "What should we do if we get scared?" Jens cheerfully said "Cover your eyes like this!" (and showed me) and Matisyn suggested "Or you could hold hands!" They were all smiles.

Then we did the Astro Orbiters (barf),

tea cups (I opted out),

Small World (which Sylvie liked better this time) then we went to Toon Town to see Mickey.

The line was pretty short and the kids were excited.

Afterwords, they explored Chip and Dale's treehouse and rode Gadget's Go Coaster 3 times. I even talked Sylvie in to riding it, and she went on it twice. She even put her hands up!

Then everyone went to Jedi training except Sylvie and me. She was on such a roll that I just let her pick what she wanted to do. We rode the tea cups again, the carousel, and then I tried to talk her in to the Matterhorn, which she agreed to, until she saw it. Then she cried and said she wanted the little red Matterhorn, aka, Gadget's Go Coaster, so we went and did that one more time instead.

Jens really wanted to get picked for Jedi Training, but he didn't; however he didn't want to wait around to do it again, preferring riding more rides instead.

They weren't close enough to the front. So they watched and then did Autopia, which he thought was very cool.

We had lunch (Mexican!) and each family took turns going on Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Then we went to California Adventure where we checked off the ever important Tower of Terror! (Jens went on it but did NOT like it and didn't want to ride it again).

While the dads were doing that,

Kristin and I took the little girls on two very short rides in bug land, with a very long lines.

The dads took all the kids on the Ladybug Boogie ride (lots of spinning)

we did the Ariel ride, which got stuck right in front of Ursula for a minute. Around this time Sylvie turned into the biggest, limpest noodle in the world. She wanted to be held so she could suck her finger and close her eyes every once in a while. So we went to the huge ferris wheel and waited 20 minutes to do that. Then the dads took the big kids to do the swings while Kristin and I took the littles to do King Triton's Carousel, which has beautiful fish to ride. Sylvie looked them over and picked:

Yes, the never popular purple bench. I explained to her that it wouldn't go up and down and she reassured me: "It's okay, it goes around." We rode it again after that so she could ride a whale.

We took turns doing Soarin' Over California, which was really amazing, then split up.

I took Sylvie to the parade (which she loved) and then back to the hotel for dinner and earlyish (read: normal) bedtime, Mike took Jens back to DL to ride some rides again until they got kicked out because of Mickey's Halloween Party, and the Johnsons stayed at California Adventure to do a few more things. We were all very tired, but not so tired that we didn't want to go back for one more day!

Disneyland Day 1

Thursday was supposed to be our empty day at the park. It was the day EVERYONE else was supposed to stay away. Unfortunately, it intermittently on Tuesday and all day on Wednesday, so there were an awful lot of people who had been hoping for a sunny day to end their vacation on. So the park was packed from the very beginning of our "Magic Morning " (we were supposed to get in an hour before the park officially opened, but there were a LOT of people using their magic morning passes that day, too.)

We still managed to fit a lot in, starting with pictures in front

and with Minnie, who looked too cute in her witch costume. (Jens refused to have his picture taken with her.)

Then Peter Pan, Dumbo,

the carousel (Sylvie's favorite), Pinnochio (which was, frankly, terrifying! It is an awful ride.) the little train, Small World, several princesses (this is the happiest face we have out of all of the pictures with princesses),

Pooh and friends, the Pooh ride,

the Jungle Cruise,

the Tikki Room, as well as with lunch and junk food. We made the mistake of taking Sylvie on the Matterhorn and she spent the rest of the week talking about how she did NOT want to go on the Matterhorn, or any ride, for that matter. She didn't even want to repeat Small World! Jens also did Space Mountain,

Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, and the Haunted Mansion.

We also caught the parade, which was hands down Sylvie's happiest moment of the day (she's actually smiling!!).

She LOVED it.

Disneyland: Pre

Sorry, everyone. Prepare yourself for a blow-by-blow account of Disney. We had such a great time that every day is VERY well documented! We cleaned and packed on Tuesday night, then left Wednesday morning. It rained for a large part of the drive, which meant traffic was slow and there were some accidents, including a jack-knived truck in the North bound lane. It shouldn't have slowed us down, but everyone had to stop and stare, which made going slow. We stayed in the Marriott Suites and the Johnsons were already there when we arrived. The kids were very excited and VERY noisy!! It was good that we had something planned for that night so we had a place to go away from the hotel. Otherwise I think we would have had some very annoyed neighbors. We ate at Goofy's Kitchen that night. The girls all dressed up in their princess dresses and felt very fancy.

We were greeted by Goofy and then had a buffet meal.

There was a lot of dessert. Jens's favorite treat of the whole vacation was eaten there--gummy worms. Yum. While we were eating we met Minnie, Snow White, Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Belle.

The kids were so excited and enjoyed it so much. They all ate too much dessert, though, and by the end of the night Jens was asking for his blanket and Sylvie wanted to go home and they all said their tummies hurt. They did have fun getting their books signed, and it definitely put us in the Disney spirit. The last thing we did on our way out was a dance with Goofy and friends. Sylvie got into it.

We will definitely do that again!