Make Me Smile!

On this very wet and rainy day here in Washington I am trying to find something that makes me smile!!! I decided to post these pictures that I had taken of the kids' last fall. Jennifer Short is a very talented photographer and is one of my sister-in-laws friend and neighbor. She has taken several pictures of my nieces and nephews that I love. I decided to have her take these pictures and I loved how they turned out! It was so hard to decide which ones to buy!!! Jennifer is very talented, sweet and does amazing work! Check out her web site @ camasphotography.com. These picture definitely make me smile on this gloomy day!

Spring Break @ Disneyland!!!

(Warning: long post feel free to skim and/or just look @pics, remember this is my journal also:)

It has taken me one week for me to recover from our trip to Disney! Last week was spent doing endless loads of laundry, cleaning, being sore from teaching again, VT, grocery shopping, catching up on all my TV, driving to gymnastics, soccer, basketball, dance, track, and just getting back into our routine! And now I am finally ready to blog about our fun trip! We left on Saturday morning March 27 at 7AM. We drove, drove and drove all the way to Fresno, CA with a few stops along the way! The kids were great in the car. Brinley and Maddie took over the back bench. They played with each other the entire way there and home. It was a complete disaster back there but they were happy! The three big kids took the middle bench and controlled the DVD player! Thank goodness for electronics! Someone always had some movie, game, or music playing! Jon drove the whole way there and back except for about 2 hours and I kept everyone stocked with snacks, drinks, and candy! Jon and I usually like to listen to a book but we forgot to get a new one before leaving. We instead played games on his Iphone like "Price is Right" and "1 to 100"

That game saved us when we got really tired! On Sunday March 28 we had only a short drive to the LA area. We made it to our hotel by 2:00 PM to get checked in. We walked over to the Disney area and made it to Downtown Disney (it has several stores and restaurants that anyone can visit without going into the park) The kids wanted to shop at the HUGE Disney Store. As Temple and I were in the store with the kids, Jon and Jeff sat towards the front of the store to relax and NOT SHOP! As they were people watching one of our best friends and his family from Michigan walked by! The guys quickly retrieved us from the store and we were all so shocked to see them! We spent the next several hours visiting, eating dinner, and laughing together! It was so great to see them again!

Every morning when we were at Disney we woke up early! We wanted to make it to the park before it got too crowded! The first day we were there right when the park opened at 8 AM to hit the rides. We went on Pirates of Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain (my favorite ride @ Disney!) and Pooh Bear all within the first hour!
We headed to the famous It's a Small World, then Buzz Lightyear, and King Arthur's Carousel. While heading to lunch both Maddie and Mark fell asleep. I had to get a picture of it since it was the first day and only four hours at Disney.

After lunch we saw Minnie Mouse. Brinley wanted to see many of the characters to get their autograph and picture. Maddie wanted to get their autographs but was scared of some of them. And Brooklyn wanted ME to get her book signed while she went off with everyone else to the rides!

We went on a few more rides including Autopia:which is Jon's favorite ride before heading back to the hotel to swim and order pizza. The first thing that Jon said when the alarm went off on Tuesday at 5:30 AM was "This feels a little like the movie Ground Hogs Day!" I responded by saying "Oh honey this is only Day #2, we got four more days of this!" The next few days were pretty cool for CA. It was only 48 degrees when we left for the park that morning! I was glad we all had hoodies and that I also had on a jacket! We hit many of the rides again at Disneyland like Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain! This was what the kids did to pass the time as they waited in line:They got really good by the end of our trip. Everyone went on Splash Mountain this time even Mark and Maddie!
Jon and I then took Brinley and Maddie to Fantasy Land while the big kids went with Jeff to other rides. We rode the Casey Jr. Circus Train, Tea Cups, Carousel, and Dumbo.

Everyone was getting hungry so we bought the kids a snack. They loved their Mickey Mouse ice cream treats!

And Jon and I watched in amazement as Brooklyn devoured her Carmel apple!

We left Disney and headed over to California Adventure. Jon had the idea of taking a picture of me in front of the letters that spell N, I, C. (right in front of CA Adventure are big letters that spell California). We went inside the park to hit the rides. The big kids went on Grizzly River Run and Muholland Madnes while I took Maddie on Jumpin' Jellyfish and the Carousel again! Everyone that was tall enough tried the Maliboomer. I was shocked that Brooklyn was so willing to go and that Mason refused!

Many of the big kids went on this ride 5 times in a row since there was no line! I went twice which was enough for me and Mason eventually went three times the next day! We then went on California Screamin which was a favorite amongst many of the older kids! Brinley was about 3 inches too short and was bummed that she couldn't go! I was glad because I can't imagine my little girl who still wears size 5 pants being whipped upside down! After many rides that took my stomach and every one's to new heights I was ready to be done for the day. We enjoyed a yummy dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We then let these three girls head back to the park by themselves, YIKES for two more hours! We kept tabs on them through their phones and went to go pick them up at 11 pm.
One Wednesday morning we went to Disneyland early and I headed straight for the Disney Princess Fantasy Faire. This is where you can meet the Disney Princesses. I stood in line with Maddie while Jon took the other girls' on Matterhorn. It took us about an hour total to wait in line and then see them (which is good because the wait can be up to 2.5 hours!) You have no idea who you are going to meet, they change constantly and we could only meet three Princesses at a time. We saw Cinderella, Princess Aurora, and Snow White.
Madelyn was very excited to meet them but bummed that her favorite's Ariel and Belle weren't there. This was the closest she got to Ariel,only a picture of her! That was one thing she had been asking for daily, to see the Princesses, I was so excited for her, we also got it on video! We spent time wandering around the princess store and getting smashed pennies of our favorite princesses!
At Mickey's Toon Town we went into Mickey, Minnie, and Donald's Houses and rode on the Go Go Coaster (it's a short roller coaster for toddlers). I timed how long it was and the entire ride only took 40 seconds! We hooked up with the rest of our group there and wanted to go back to CA Adventure for lunch and rides. We decided to go on Hollywood Tower of Terror first! Everyone in my family was tall enough to go even Maddie. She told us that she wanted to go but as we waited in line I was feeling nervous for her since she had NO IDEA what the ride was like! I told Jon we are such bad parents for making her go on this ride!!! Here she is waiting in line just happy as can be!And then here we all are just minutes before entering the dreaded elevator!

Everyone loved this ride, except for her. She was a trooper and actually went on it twice! We then went on several kiddie rides in "Bug's Land" and always love the 3D movie "It's Tough to Be a Bug" Some of us went back to the hotel for a late dinner while Temple stayed with the bigger kids for more Tower of Terror and the Electrical Parade! By day #4 we wanted to do some of the rides over again that we loved like Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain RR, and the Jungle Cruise.We also finally waited in line to autographs from Goofy, Pluto, and of course Mickey Mouse!Jon took Brinley and Maddie back to the hotel to rest so we could stay up late for the fireworks show! I stayed with the olders to just go, go, go on as many rides possible. I'm so glad we decided to watch the fireworks show! It's an amazing firework display to music with the Disney Castle in the background. It was cold but worth the wait and the crowds! I stayed late with Morgan, Paige, and Brinley while everyone else went to bed. It was fun to be there at night because it's not busy! We went on Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Matterhorn! Day #5 came and we (the adults) were pooped!!! We pressed on and straight to CA Adventure. We went to the Toy Story Ride which is new and super fun! The line gets really long so we literally ran to that ride and were able to ride it twice! We also finally made it onto Soarin' Over California (one of mine and Jon's favs)

It's a very popular ride where you are suspended in the air right in front of a huge IMAX screen. You feel like you are flying over many sights in California! We then kind of scattered and did our own thing. Jon, Temple, and I took the three littlest kids to the Aladdin show while Jeff took everyone else to Animation Academy. We then kind of scattered and everyone one did there own thing like more Screamin, Tower of Terror, Monsters Inc, Jellyfish, Bug's Land, Grizzly River Run and a picture in front that ride!

We went back to the hotel for one final evening, dinner, and packing. After that was done Temple took Morgan, Brooklyn, and her big kids to the park for one more late night. They were able to hit six more rides (Splash 3x, Tower 2x, and Indiana) and got home after midnight! Saturday April 3 was our last day at the parks. This was our sixth day and we were ALL ready to be done. We met up with our friends' the Dustins just for a few hours. They were only going to be there for one day so we hustled from ride to ride with them. We got in the park by 7 AM that day so we were able to get many rides in before the crowds came. Our last ride of the day and the whole trip was "It's a Small World". What a great ride to end our Magical trip with!!! We all picked out one last treat while Jon went to check out of our hotel and then we hit the road! It took us two days to drive home which seemed so much longer than the trip there. We were very anxious to sleep in our own beds on Sunday evening. We had such a great time and created so many fun memories that we'll cherish for years to come! All my kids' especially Mason wishes we were still at Disneyland. Just last night he said "Mom, I love Disneyland because I feel so free and don't have to worry about anything, like homework!" For now, I am SO done with Disney but will want to go back someday again!