Good to Be Back

 It sure was good to go back to The Happiest Place on Earth.  These two boys were so excited to see each other.  We arrived in Anahiem around 10pm and they spent the next hour wrestling and laughing in the hotel room.  The next morning they were up and ready to go long before the park was open so grandma took them over early so they could run around between the two parks.  They ran and laughed and wrestled until it was time to go in.

We spent the morning at California Adventure where Brigham's favorite activity was the splash pad in Bug's Land.

We visited Cars Land and it was so much fun! It looked like it was straight out of the movie.  

Radiator Springs Racers was awesome.  

 Some of the boys spent the afternoon at the USC/Oregon football game while the rest of us enjoyed some time at Disneyland.  We managed to ride a few of the classics, eat corndogs, and see Fantasmic before the park closed.

Sunday we had a day to rest up for the next two days at Disneyland.  We got to spend the evening at the Newport Coast Villas with some of our cousins.  I love this place.  It is so beautiful.  We had a BBQ and roasted marshmallows while the kids played in the sandbox, on the basketball court, and on the putting green.  Thank you Stanton girls, yet again, for being associates of Marriott and sharing your benefits with us.

 We spent the next two days running around California Adventure and Disneyland. 

We saved Fantasyland to do during Magic Morning Hours on our last day there.  Luckily we were able to get in most of the rides before they closed it for the rest of the day while they were filming a movie there.  Tom Hanks is playing Walt Disney in a movie called "Saving Mr. Banks" and they were filming at Disneyland that day.

I believe Brigham's favorite parts of the trip were:  Jake, cuddling with grandma at night, the splash pad, Toy Story, Dumbo, Finding Nemo, Winnie-the-Pooh, the giant plastic watermelon outside of Goofy's house in Toontown, the Disney Junior show, glow sticks, the train (especially the part with the dinosaurs), and the Pixar Parade.

Apparently his favorites did not include posing for a picture by our family's brick.  But Lexi seemed to enjoy the chance she had to get out of the stroller and snack on some leaves.

A few of my favorites from the trip were seeing Cars Land, riding the swings in a double swing, Fantasmic, watching Brigham dance to the Disney Junior show, hearing newsies sing Seize the Day with Mickey Mouse on main street in California Adventure, riding space mountain with Johnny, splash mountain, the Monte Cristo and garlic parmesan fries in New Orleans Square, the Ghiradelli chocolate samples, and eating the chocolate bread pudding suffle at a late night dinner in Downtown Disney.  Of course none of these things would have been much fun without my family and travel companions.  I sure do love all of them.

Did I mention how excited we were to have Johnny with us?  He has missed out on the last few trips, and boy did we miss him.  I forgot how much fun California Screamin' and Space Mountain can be with my baby brother.  He can scream like crazy and makes the rides so much more fun.

 Not to be a downer, but there were a few things on this trip that we didn't love.  First, our kids waking up at 5:00 in the morning because not only were we in a new time zone, but daylight savings ended.  Second, the park didn't open until 10 on our last two days, so we had to entertain the kids for 4-5 hours before even getting in to the park.  Third, it was over 90 degrees in November.

  My guess is some of Aaron's favorites were the football game, corn dogs, toy story, Buzz Lightyear, being away from work, and upgrading our tickets to annual passes (well, maybe not the last one).  Lexi seemed to enjoy all the people watching, anyone that would smile at her, riding in the double stroller with her buddies, and being taken out of the stroller and being held.  She is pretty easy to please.

 All in all, another great trip to Disneyland.  The kids were awesome, the company was great, and the park was a blast.

Our Little Monsters

Halloween with little kids is pretty awesome.  We had a lot of fun with halloween celebrations during the last week.  Over the weekend we went to two different halloween parties.  Our monster costumes were a huge hit.  Brigham looked so cute waddling around in his, and Lexi was adorable crawling around in hers.  

We visited Hee Haw Farms with cousins and friends.  Brigham loved seeing all the animals, riding on the big slide, swinging on the horse swings, riding on the hayride, picking up pumpkins and throwing them, riding the little train, and especially playing in the corn box.

My mom hosted her annual chili dinner and had the kids dress up so she could see their costumes.  She helped me make Brigham's costume.  And by help, I mean she did most of it.  I designed the face and painted the hat.  She did the hard stuff like come up with a pattern and sew it all together.  I love the way it turned, out and I love that she was willing to help me on sort of short notice.

Sully

Mike Wazowski

On Halloween I took the kids to a pumpkins patch with my mom.  It was a great time to go because we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Brigham could take his sweet time walking through the patch admiring the pumpkins and corn stalks and goats and chickens.  He would point things out say "wow" and then start jabbering about them.

 Brigham loved wearing his costume around, especially the hat.  He would waddle around and pat his stuffing.  It was pretty funny to watch him try to sit down and stand back up while wearing it, but he got pretty good at it by Halloween night.  He looked really cute walking around in it, but we only wanted to trick or treat to a few neighbors and some of them were a couple blocks away.  We didn't want it to take forever (he gets super distracted when walking around the neighborhood) so we decided we needed to transport him with some wheels.  We had borrow a bigger stroller to make room for him.

He liked knocking on the doors as long as there wasn't anything too scary on the front of them.

He was so excited to get glow sticks, M&Ms, and 3 Musketeers.  It was such nice weather that we were able to keep the monsters outside on the porch to hand out candy to the trick or treaters.  Eventually we got Brigham to come down from his sugar high (picture him running around the house using his glow sticks as drum sticks on his hard hat) and go to bed for the night (with his glow sticks clasped in his hands).