Pumpkin Patch

I decided to skip over my Disneyland pictures for now in order to get caught up on the October happenings. Don't worry, I'm still planning to blog about our trip but I am feeling seriously overwhelmed with all my pictures from the trip. Since Halloween is over I'm ready to get the old blog caught up.

This year we decided to skip our annual trek to McCall's pumpkin patch. We could not find a good weekend with traveling and football games and other commitments to spend an entire day at the patch. And since it is expensive to get in ($10 per person) you really do need to be able to commit the entire day. So... we visited a closer pumpkin patch that is used as a fundraiser for a local horse ranch here in town. The weather was perfect, the kids had a great time and we were happy to support such a great organization!

Isotopes Game

This summer my big kids participated in a summer reading program that is done by a local restaurant and the minor league baseball team in ABQ. They were so excited when they earned their tickets to an Isotopes baseball game. Because of pregnancy and vacationing we ended up going to one of the last games of the season last weekend.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous - slightly cool and breezy and we even got rained on a tiny bit at one point. We all had a great time but the kids especially loved being in the park. The kids split a bag of cotton candy and Al and I shared some kettle corn. There was also a fun park/play area for the kids that they had fun in. I think Carter's favorite activity was playing baseball with a bunch of other little boys on the grass near us.

{Don't ask, she would only let me take pics of her eating her cotton candy}

We will definitely try to hit a couple of games next summer and will participate in the reading program again. It was a great end of summer activity for us!

Zoo Music

Gosh, it has been forever since I posted anything on the old blog. We're just busy enjoying summertime - lots of swimming, playdates, popsicles, bike rides, afternoon reading, and trips to the park. I should take more pictures of our day -to-day activities but I never seem to remember my camera.

Last Friday we picked up dinner at one of our favorite local spots and headed over to the zoo for their Friday evening live concert. The zoo here has different local groups come in every Friday night during the summer to perform. We had a really fun time. We got set up in a shady spot on the lawn and enjoyed our dinner. We still had a little while until the concert started so we spent some time looking at our favorite animals (the adorable baby elephant, giraffe's and sea lions) and then settled on the lawn to watch the concert.

(ignore Al's full mouth in this picture!)

The group we saw was a Celtic group that were billed as Celtic rock. It ended up being VERY mellow Celtic music. Allen and I really enjoyed it but the kids were a bit restless. They ended up playing with the kids that were sitting next to us for most of the night. We'd really like to go again for a date night and hope we can squeeze it in before the summer is over. We will definitely be making this a family tradition every summer.

We only have a couple more weeks of our summer break so my posting will probably be minimal as we try to squeeze in as much fun as possible. And I hope to have my 365 blog updated in the next couple of days. I'm taking my pictures but am slow getting them off my camera!

Legoland Recap

On Thursday during our week in California we headed BACK to Legoland for the day. I mentioned before that we had promised Carter a trip to LL for his 7th birthday way back when we lived in AZ. Since it's quite a bit more effort to get there now, we decided to tack a day onto this trip instead of making another trip for his birthday.

We honestly had no idea what to expect but after having spent a few days at Disneyland we were kind of let down. First, a lot of the rides are water based and all of those were closed for the winter. Several of their other bigger rides were closed for annual maintenance. It was a bit of a bummer. Second, there were only a couple of really big rides and the rest were pretty tame. Unfortunately LL has really strict height regulations and Addie was only allowed on ONE ride the entire day. It was lame. Especially considering that a lot of the rides she was allowed on at DL were way less tame than the LL rides. So it was kind of a bummer all around since someone had to stay with Addison the entire day.

What we did like about Legoland were all the Lego creations they had around the park. It was pretty awesome to see what they built out of Legos. We also really liked that they had a lot of outdoor play structures and spaces (hence something to do with Addison during the day). We loved the mini factory tour and the delicious apple fries. The park was absolutely DEAD the day we were there so we got to ride everything a lot. On one roller coaster the operator just let us keep going around and around since there was no one in line!

Here are a few pictures of our day:

We Loved Lego Miniland. They replicated many cities all built out of Legos. Here are the kids in front of part of NYC. We found out that Al's current boss was the project manager over the creation of Miniland many years ago. Pretty cool!

Disneyland Recap

Get ready for the mother of all posts! This Disneyland vacation has been in the works for the past 18 months, since the last time we went to Disney. I told Allen during our previous visit that I wanted to go in December 2009 to experience it at Christmastime. We plotted and planned how to make it happen and in the end were able to do it very inexpensively (relatively, of course). We saved our credit card points for the entire 18 months and had just enough to pay for all of our tickets. Our hotel was also free due to all of the travel Allen did for work this last year. Anyway, long story short, we anticipated this vacation for a long time.

I had been watching the Anaheim weather for a few weeks and was so sad when I saw the forecast for the week we were going - pouring rain for all 5 park days. I was worried but we prepared the best we could with rain gear for everyone. We arrived on Sunday the 6th and met my friend Mindy and her son Charlie who were vacationing with us. We had also promised Carter that we would take him to Legoland for his 7th birthday (when we were living in AZ and LL was only 5 hours away) so we decided to tack on a day at LL as part of our trip.

Monday morning we woke to pouring rain, just as forecasted. We picked up Mindy/Charlie at their hotel and drove the 1.5 hours to LL only to get there and find that it was closed due to the weather. Ugh. We turned around and tried to decide what to do for the rest of the day and decided to just spend a half day at Disneyland. Once we got there and got everyone settled in their rain gear (the rainboots I bought for the kids on a whim were the best thing I did for this trip! Saved us!) we ended up having a GREAT first day. I didn't take many pictures this day since it truly did pour rain the entire day. Here's one of the kids right as we were walking into the park (No, I have no idea what Carter was doing here):

The silver lining was that we were able to walk onto every single ride that day. We rode more that first half day than you would normally ride in a couple normal days at DL. It was awesome!! And guess what? Monday was the only day it rained on our entire vacation! Woohoo! Because of the forecast the crowds were really minimal and we had such a great week.

On Tuesday we had sunshine and rushed to the park for Makenna's appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, which is new to Disneyland. As soon as I heard about it I knew it would be THE experience for Makenna. At the boutique you get to pick a hairstyle, have your hair, nails and makeup done, pick out a crown and jewelry, all completed by your own fairy godmother who sprinkles you with fairy dust at the end. At the end you get to keep all your makeup/nailpolish and get a princess sash and backpack. To say she was in heaven would be putting it lightly. She adored the experience!

The big reveal:

I could hardly drag her away from the mirror the entire day. At one point in the bathroom she was looking at herself and said, "Mom, I just look SO dang cute I can't stand it." She got a lot of compliments on her hair everywhere we went and loved when she got to meet the princesses all dolled up! It was a magical experience for her and as is typical with Disney, they did it right.

The requisite family-in-front-of-the-castle picture:

I spent a lot of the rest of the day waiting in line to meet the princesses and the fairies at Pixie Hollow while everyone else rode rides. We are definitely at a crossroads with the kids and characters. Makenna still LOVES meeting them and Carter is pretty much not interested. So Kenna and I met a lot of characters while Carter rode rides with Allen.

I have to say, the Christmas decorations were seriously amazing. They even change a few of the rides up for the holiday season. We LOVED riding It's a Small World as the entire ride is changed to reflect holiday traditions around the world. The haunted mansion was also AMAZING as it turns into the Nightmare before Christmas. We rode and rerode both of those rides.

Mind and I got these huge turkey legs this afternoon for a "snack" and had to take a picture because it was cracking us up. We both tried to stay as low carb as possible during the week and pretty much failed miserably:


And yes, I have officially entered the realm of Disney Dorkdom as I bought myself a pair of ears this trip. I just couldn't help it. I *heart* Disneyland!!!

We headed to CA Adventure for a couple of hours that night and wanted to get on the new Toy Story ride. It was another HUGE favorite for us and the only ride we actually had to wait in line for the entire week. (We loved it so much that the kids will be getting the Wii game based on the ride for Christmas this year.) Carter also discovered California Screamin' which ended up being one of his favorite rides. We rode that one a lot too. Such a fun, crazy roller coaster. Makenna was devastated that she was too short to ride and cried every time we left her to ride it. It was really solidified for us this trip just how big of thrill seekers our kids are. They weren't scared even once, even on the scary/intense rides. It made it so fun to ride and ride.

In front of the CA Adventure tree:

Wednesday was another early morning as we had a character breakfast scheduled at Goofy's Kitchen at 8:00 a.m. We ate there the last time we were at DL and had a great experience. This time we still felt like the food was awesome but that the characters were lacking a bit. We only met about half as many characters this time. We still had a grand time and ate waaaaaay too much.

I made these shirts for the girls. They were so easy and only took me about 1 hour to do both. I also had a girl in my ward make these darling Minnie Mouse bows. You can't see them in the picture but they were so cute. Makenna chose to wear her princess hair for the second day in a row:

Our group at Goofy's Kitchen:

Group hug while dancing with the characters:I have tons more pics of the kids with the characters at the breakfast but you get the idea. Before heading in the parks for the day we took some traditional shots.

Carter with the C:

Frost Family F:Disneyland Entrance:

We spent most of this day at CA Adventure and had a great time. We still loved Soaring over CA but really loved the coaster and TS ride the best there this time. We also ate at our favorite place in the parks - the Sourdough breadbowl place. Yum! (we actually ate there twice on this trip).

That evening we headed back to DL to see the holiday parade. We just happened to have really great seats and LOVED it. They redo the parade just for Christmas and it was amazing. Addie fell asleep in Allen's arms and he ended up holding her for about an hour while she slept.

Our family in front of Small World all lit up for Christmas. It was beautiful!

Thursday: Legoland. Will do a separate post for our day here!

Friday: We decided to pack in as much riding as we possibly could in both parks. I didn't even bring my big camera to the park this day because rain was forecasted (it never rained!!) and I knew we wanted to ride a ton. A few random ride shots:

M, Mind and I going into IASM (just look at that amazing garland/wreath):

Outside Tower of Terror. This ended up being both Carter and Allen's favorite ride out of both parks:We spent time going back and forth to the parks this day and tried to stretch kids later so that we could stay for the DL fireworks/holiday show. We almost gave a up a couple of times but decided to keep pushing them. I AM SO GLAD we stayed. I cannot say enough good things about the holiday fireworks. Both Al and I were in tears by the end (he will kill me for posting this). It's hard to adequately describe but it is fireworks to holiday music and was just awe inspiring. It was honestly the perfect way to end our week at DL.

We had such a magical vacation. I'm sure you get that from this post. This was a great time of year to go as the crowds were so low and magic is high. We rode every single ride in both parks at least once and just loved it! I am so happy we were able to make this vacation happen this year. Many, many fun family memories were made that we will cherish forever! And don't worry, we are already planning our next Disney vacation!

Be back soon with a Legoland recap! Whew!