California trip Nov 2011!

We boarded a flight on Thursday night with Patsy and Jay and went on a family trip to California! It was the first time the kids have been on a plane, (that they can remember, at least) and they were really excited to see everything out the window.
After we landed we drove to Mickey's Hollow, a really cute condo that we rented right across the street from Disneyland. The next day it was raining cats and dogs so we put off going to Disneyland and settled for going to Downtown Disney instead! We had a great time looking in all the shops, stopping at the theater and watching "Puss in Boots" and eating lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

Our favorite store by far was the LEGO store!!

Saturday was bright and sunny so we went to DISNEYLAND!!!

Here's Grandma and Isaak in front of the famous Mickey Mouse garden....

When we entered the park we realized that they were taping their Christmas Parade that day. There were lots of people lined up and down Main Street waiting for the parade to start so we took our shot at hardly any lines for rides!

Alice in Wonderland...

Teacups!

When the parade started we somehow got a front row seats and had a great view! We got about 10 minutes worth of great floats and entertainment before the parade was stalled and we got bored waiting and left for some more rides!

Donald!

Rupunzel and Flynn Rider (my fav!!)

Simba

Tiana and Prince Naveen

Louis

Tigger and Pooh!

I love this shot of Isaak and Grandpa!

Gimme 5!

A trip to Disneyland isn't complete if you haven't taken a ride on Dumbo!

The Carousel

C'mon Isaak, you can get it!

The jungle cruise was amazing. All the animals looked so life like. Definitely one of my favorites!

Uh oh, we're about to go in the Haunted Mansion!

And the part of the day that about made me cry..... Isaak and Lila looked so star struck when they got to meet Mickey!

After meeting Mickey, sweet Grandma and Grandpa took the kids back to the condo so Shaun and I could go on some adult rides!! Thanks again, guys!

Sunday was a great relaxing day. We started out by going out to breakfast, then taking a drive by the beach. After a long afternoon nap our little family went back to Downtown Disney and played for a few hours at the ESPN Center. We played lots of games and had dinner.

We were scheduled to fly back home on Monday night, so we took advantage of the sun and spent the day at Lego Land and the aquarium that is right next to it!

We went on a few rides....

And saw a lot of really cool legos!!!

The kids had a great time playing by this little fountain that played music when you jump on the circles....

Riding the train...

aaaahhhh!

I can only imagine how long it takes to put something like that together...
All Legos!

Wow! I've been gone as much as I've been home this last month. I love my vacations!

Halloween Weekend!

There was a lot this weekend to keep Batman and Robin, Cat Woman and Poison Ivy very busy! On Friday night we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden for some spooky Trick or Treating. It's always tons of fun, but I seriously forgot how LONG of a drive it is out there! The weather was great and we got some good candy while we got to see all the big dinosaurs. Here's some of our favorite pics from that night....

Check out those muscles, ladies!

And our trip isn't complete if we don't play on the playground for a little bit!

Then on Saturday night Shaun and I went to our friend's house (The Moffitt's) for a little Halloween party. There were a lot of our neighborhood friends there and the food, company, and games were great.

Here's Cat Woman and Batman on their way out!

On Sunday we got in our costumes again and hit Grampa Ric's and Grandma Jo's for some dinner. We loved Grandma's witch costume and Grandpa's clown costume.

Monday was Halloween! What a busy day. :) In the morning Isaak got to go to school and have the firefighters come visit his class with their big truck. Then in the afternoon we took off to do some trick or treating at Grandma Patsy's work. Then we took a quick visit to the Woodford home to show off our costumes to Papa and Oma. Then we went to go pick up our new car!! (pictures to come). Then we went to Sarah and Nick's house for some dinner and trick or treating with all the kids! What a fun day. I'm a little sad that Halloween is over, but we've got DISNEYLAND to look forward to in 3 days!!!!!

Here's Lila all ready to go to Grandma's work...

My Robin and Ivy...

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!

New Bike!

Isaak got this the day after we got back from Missouri and he's doing a great job learning how to pedal!

Missouri Oct 2011

This last trip to Angela's house was so fun. Kim came with me this time and our trip lasted 10 days. My kids have never been SO GOOD in the car! They did not cry once. They sat in the back seat and watched movies and slept the whole time. Seriously, I have the best kids in the world. 17 hours is a long time to be cooped up, especially when Mom runs into two closed roads and has to drive all the way to Kansas for a detour.
Melissa and Lincoln were already at Angela's when we got there and the fun started! We had a girl's night and went to dinner while Brady watched all the kids, we took a trip to Liberty to go to Costco, Michaels (so we could get yarn to make our socks!!), and Liberty jail. We took a trip to Jamesport and went in all the Amish shops and went to a GREAT playground there, took a daytrip to Kansas City to watch "The Help" (thanks to Super Brady, again!), one afternoon we painted some nutcrackers together, we had a scavenger hunt for the kids, and our AWESOME murder mystery dinner!! It was so much fun!!! Angela even showed us all how to knit socks and we spent a lot of time in the evenings watching shows and working on our socks. So much fun. I love all the open spaces around her home, it's seriously therapy for my soul, especially with all the fall colors! The kids had a great time playing with cousins, feeding the pigs, jumping on the trampoline, and wandering around her huge yard!
Here's some of my favorite pictures from this trip!
The cousins in Jamesport...

Lila and the piggies...

Mommy and Lila

Liberty Jail...

Me, Lincoln, and Lila

The girl's at our murder mystery dinner

The kids during their scavenger hunt.. I love how the little kids could never find the clues! At least Sam and Miriam could help them, Sam's got it there on the pole while the tiny ones just look at the piggies!

Run, find the next clue!

We have to run all the way down the driveway, and then down to the cemetary to find our clues!

We found our prize!! And here's happy Isaak with his candy necklace from our scavenger hunt. :)

Go Smurfs!