Day 1 of Disneyland

So it turns out that our hopes of having a nice cool weathered trip to Disneyland, did not turn out that way. The first day that we were planning to go to Disneyland it was 105* and really humid. Since it was so hot we decided to swim at 0ur first hotel until we could go and check in at the place where we would be staying the rest of the trip. The girls were happy with this idea, and they had a blast at the pool.

Matt and Emily in the pool. Emily was of course a little fish, and did not want to get out of the water. She got some excellent swimming practice in.

Later that day we went and checked into our room at the "Peacock." We were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was when we walked in. We weren't excpecting anything fabulous. The girls thought that it was so neat that it had two seperate rooms, and Ali loved that the tissues were made into a flower. Once we checked in and got settled we all took a nap and got ready for our first adventure at Disneyland.

When we got there we hooked up with the Jorgensens. They were troopers and had been there all day in the blazing heat. We got mocked every day for not joining them in the heat, but hey, we wanted to save the rest of our days for a little bit cooler ones. Needless to say, our time was precious when we were there at the park with them.

When we got there we met everyone at the Jungle Cruise ride. Our boat driver was so funny that night. The rest of the trip Ali would compare the other drivers to the one that we had this night, and none of them lived up to her.

After the ride we went and scoped out a good spot to watch Fantasmic and the Fireworks.

Gearing up for the big show. Emily was so excited.

Nana and Emily ready to see Mickey Mouse come out for the show.

Fantasmic was really neat, and surprisingly enough Emily and Ali made it through the whole thing without complaining that it was scary.
After Fantasmic was over they had their "Dreams Come True" firework show. They were incredible.

Marianne, Shane, Matt, Emily, Me, Lex and Ali.

After the show we went and rode some kiddie land rides until they park closed. Small World was one of our first hits. Emily was in a really weird mood and was crying that she did not want to go. Nana and I knew that she would love it, so me being a mean mother, I pried her hands from the stroller and drug her on the ride. Of course she loved it, but I think that people were thinking that I was really mean for doing such a thing.

Nana Sue bought the girls these awesome light up bubble blowers after we rode

"It's A Small World." They had so much fun with them. Ali

The carousel was one of Emily's favorites of the night.

Ali was so excited to get to go on the Tea Cups. This was her favorite ride the last time we were in Disneyland. This year she has a new favorite, stay tuned to hear about it.

She was brave enough to really make it spin this year. She made me a little sick.

We were all so tired when we left the park. We were there until 12:15 a.m., then we still had to catch the tram back to the car and drive to the hotel. They slept like logs that night.

Our first day in California

On Saturday, the 25th of September we headed out of our house around 1:00 a.m. for our long drive to Disneyland. The drive went so smoothly. The girls slept for most of the trip, and were really very good during the time that they were awake. We all made it there with our mental states in tact. When we got there we could not check into our hotel yet, so we went to a lame timeshare meeting for $100 Disney dollars. This was a rather boring way to spend some time, but hey, we got some free money, and a sandwich out of the deal.

After that we were able to go and check in our hotel for Saturday night. We were all really tired, so we went and ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and then walked around Downtown Disney for awhile, then we all went back and crashed. Oh, and by the way, did I mention it was really freaking hot while we were there. It was not too bad on the day we got there, but it got hotter and hotter as the days went by.

After dinner we walked around in their outdoor mall called "The Anaheim Garden Walk." It was finally nice and comfortable outside at this time.

Our whole gang.

Emily, Nana and Ali. Best Buddies.

While we were at Downtown Disney, the girls got to see this Lego statue of Woody. They loved this, and I think that they wanted to take it home with us. If only Woody would have fit in the car with us.

Stay tuned for day 2 picuters soon!

Howdy Pardner!

Last Saturday we got to go to Lex's 8th Birthday party. He had the coolest cowboy party ever.

My two adorable cow girls.

The girls thought that wearing their cowboy hats was pretty cool at firt, but later they were retired to the picnic bench. Ali's dress was really trouble that day. She kept pulling on the straps so it got all stretched out and really low. It looks rather riskay!

They had a pony at the party, Andy was his name. This was the only time that Emily got on the horse, and she did not even go anywhere. She just sat there on him long enough for me to get a picture of her.

The kids had a great time playing on the playground, they got all nice and sweaty.

Cute Isabel and Emily are best friends. Isabel loved the pony, and was all smiles.
Marianne had tons of fun games planned. They had a relay race with stick ponies, Cow Tippin' which was like bowling, a rubber band gun game, and the best of all for the last game was a snake in the boot. Ali and Emily loved this one. They stood on a picnic table and dropped rubber snakes into her boot.

Oh, and don't forget the food. She had Cafe Rio for dinner, and a bunch of fancy cookies, cupcake pops, trail mix, and the sugar crystal suckers.

Chuk E Cheese

Wednesday night we went to Chuck E Cheese with Cooper and his family. We had never been there before, let me just tell you it was quite the experience. Ali was all thrilled and excited and Emily was a little frightened by the Chukee that they had walking around.

When he walked by our table I made her get a picture with him, as you can see she was not very happy about the whole thing.

The whole gang. Matt, Cooper, Ali, Chuckee and Emily.

Ali with the robot Chuckee. She thought that he was kind of creepy and this is as close as she would get to him.

Emily really happy to be riding this horse. I think that it was her favorite thing the whole night.

Ali giving Cooper good by hugs.

Baby Sophia

We are so happy that baby Sophia gets to come over to hour house and play during the day. She is Emily's best friend during the day. All she wants to do is hold her and help me take care of her. She is such a happy little babe, we can't wait to see how her little personality changes as she gets older.

Summers' Last Harrah's

The last couple of weekends we have been trying to enjoy as much of the nice weather as we possibley could. This has included going to the lake with Nana, Jake, Jaime and Sophia. Swimming a lot and going to Lagoon A Beach.

The crazy girls gettin' cozy in a seat. Notice the Cheeto mustache on Emily, boating is just not boating without the Cheeto's.

Emily and Jake after a nice cool dip in the lake. The water this day was probably about 60*. It was soooo cold, I don't think you really got used to the water, I think that you pretty much just went numb. Ali did not participate in the swimming this particular day.

Ali relaxing on the boat. I thought this picture was funny because I caught a little bubble that she was blowing.

Emily loved hanging out with Sophia, they both took a lovely nap together in the bow of the boat.

Matt was excellent with his sweet wake boarding skills as usual. The water was so smooth. There were hardly any boats on the lake.

Next up was Jaime, she did awesome for her first time.

Then Jake was up to show us all how to marathon wakeboard. He went on the longest run ever.

Ali, Emily and the Nans.

Nana bought the girls this awesome octopus float that they love to play with in the pool.

The pool has been so dead lately. I think that people must be afraid to go swimming in September it is bizarre. The water is so nice and warm and we pretty much have the place to ourselves.

We had our last trip to Lagoon A Beach three weekends ago. It was so fun to get to go and do all of our favorites again before it is closed for the winter.

It was a little cool that day so we spent a lot of time laying out on the tubes listening to the groovy tunes.

The many faces of Emily!

Need I say more!