10/23/11

Disney Trip: Day 2

Today we were up and ready to go by about 9:00. We had all our bags ready it was just a matter of getting dressed, eating some oatmeal, and getting the boys in the van. THEY WE JUST BUSTING AT THE SEAMS! and honestly I was pretty excited as well. Aaron and I had never been to Disney together, his last trip was 17 years ago and I has only ever been to Disney world.
We parked in the Toy story parking lot and then got on our bus hand headed to the gates! I'm not sure if I was more excited about being there myself or seeing the looks on my boys faces when we arrived.


Me and Mom tried to take a picture of the two of us.......TO CLOSE!That's better!And then we were there! It was awesome!!!! I am not going to lie I almost cried when I walked through those gates and took it all in for the first time. I was just so excited to be there with my parents and my family.


When we walked in all the original characters where in town square dressed to the nines in tehir halloween costumes.The boys where so excited and could stop point out all the diffrent characters, it was so cute! AJ loved goofy and Miles was pretty excited about Donald Duck. We got in line to meet goofy, I was really intrested to see how the boys whould react once it was our turn to actually go up and meet him. The closer we got the more resistant AJ became to the idea of actually meeting Goofy in person. Miles was still excited saying, "goose, goose!!!!"No one else wanted to see Mickey at this point but I wasn't passing up the opportunity!
This also marked the last day of their summer hours so the park was pretty busy. We never had to wait for more than 20 minutes to get on a ride but there where a lot of people around! The boys where excited about all the new things they saw on main street but nothing was quite as exciting as the ducks floating in the mote....REALLY?
This is one of the only group shots we got. One hour in and everyone is still smiling.Next up was the rides. I was sure that Miles would love them just as much as he loved the characters but I wasn't to sure about our little Age. He is not really a fan of the dark or anything remotly scary so.......yeah. We just got in line at the first ride we came to, snow white. Turns out snow white is a little scary and right before it was our turn both boys decided that rides where not such a great idea! lol, we jsut kind of scoped them up and buckled them in, I was sure they would like it if they just gave it a try!?! False, they did not warm up to it!

But it wasn't so much teh ride but what they saw during teh ride so we made them go on Peter Pan next and that went much better! AJ went with grandma and grandpa and loved sorring over the little city. He said he felt like he was one of teh stars. Miles seemed much more impressed with the nan, the dog and the crocodial that was tring to get Hook. In the end they both really enjoyed it.
We hit up a few more rides and tehn decided it was time for Dumbo. Miles love Ell-pints (or as you may call them Elephants) so he was really excited about this one. I went with AJ and let him move us up and down while Miles and Dad had a great time flying high. Miles did not want to come down, ever! It was like pulling teeth to get him off that thing!We tried letting him play on the stationary dumbo but that was'nt good enough!It had been a long morning of riding rides and teh boys were getting sick of standing in line and sitting on rides so we went over to toone town where the boys could run and play. On teh way we stopped to pet the goats and you will never beleive who was hangin' out practicig his magic tricks, WOODY!!!!! He was all alone and no one had really noticed him yet so we took the boys over for a little one on one with their favorite cowboy. I couldn't have asked for a better meeting, they had been asking about him all day and then we found him all alone! They were so excited! This is about as close as Miles got. Right after we snapped this photo Miles melted into a pile of hystarics and had to be help 10 feet away by Dad. Guess full size Woody was just to much for him to take!Of course AJ was over the whole "fear of characters" he was so excited for this opportunity to snuggle up with his idole, it was so cute!This was deffinatly a trip high light for him.
Speaking of trip high lights here's one of mine: TURKEY LEGS!!!!! I get a lot of looks when I have little Nate in the wrap becasue a lot of people haven't seen then befor but I think almost everyone we passed stopped to stare at me with the wrap on and eating this thing. My Mom was laughing so hard at all the looks I was getting but I didn't care. The only thing that matter was me and that Turkey Leg.Aaron had never had one and I must say he was pretty inpressed with it! Yummy!
Eventually we made it to Goofys house and the boys got so run off a little energy.

Whiel they did that me and Aaron kept working on....THE LEG!After meeting goofy (Miles still wasn't into meeting characters) Grandpa gave AJ one of his first driving lessons.
I went to the Mothers room to feed Nate while the rest of the family toured Mickeys house and meet the mouse himself. They boys really liked seeing all sleepy since we skipped his nap and it was about time for our dinner break.


By then it was time to head home for a swim in the pool and some much needed nap time. The boys had done so great but we new that it was going ot be a late night with the fire works and fantasmic so we wanted to at least give Miles and hour or two. It was actually really nice to take some time of our feet and BBQ up some dinner befor heading back to the park at about 5:00.

This time we parked in the Mickey and friends lot and got to take the tram over.AJ and Miles really like the tram ride and so we parked the for the rest of our visits.
When Miles woke up the first thing he said was, "Miles go Di-knee-land?" he was pretty excited to be going back to the parks.*Grandpa Helps*
They boys had a second wind so we headed over to tomorrow land to hit up the Buzz lightyear ride. It was only a 5 minute wait, which was much to short for Miles. He wanted to stop at every poster and point out each character and all the little aliens. He loves those little green aliens almost as much as Buzz and Woody! The best part for him was the big Buzz with the hollagram face. He was in awe as was AJ.

This was the first ride our whole family fit on which was pretty awsome, it was fun to see the boys pointing everything out to eachother. AJ was a little scared of Zurg though. Aaron on the other hand was not afraid, he was actually REALLY INTO IT! see:Smile boys!!
We wanted to get good seats for the fireworks but we didn't want to sit around for 2 hours, but Grandma and Grandpa offered to stay and save seats while we went to explore a little more and see Fantasmic. I felt bad leaving them there to do nothing but the were insistant and we really appriciated it! First thing we did was the Tiki room. Holly has been raving about these Dole whips for YEARS so we thought we better go check them out. You get tehm outside the Tiki room while you wait for the show to start and it was seriously delicious!Can you beleive these things are dairy free????? What the heck is it?
The boys didn't think so but we didn't care that just ment more for us!!!!

We didn't take any pictures in the Tiki room but it was so much fun. AJ had teh biggest smile on his face teh whole time and Miles jsut kept point our all the birds he saw. Since there are hundreds this lasted the entire length of the show, lol.

After consulting our "Holly guide" we thought it would be fun to let teh boys run through Tarzans tree house. STUPID! This basically ended up being a horrable leg work out for me and Aaron after a long day of already walking. I had Nate in the sling and Miles on my hip while Aaron piggy backed AJ for about 200 staris up and the 200 stairs back down. Talk about feeling the burn! top of the tree:

Playing in a gift shop:
Here we are waiting for Fantasmic to start:

I think that Fantasmic was probably our favorite show. There were charactures and hollograms, a gigantic inflatable Dragon that started the water on fire, Peter Pan and Hook fighting on the boat as it sailed by, and then it ended with ALL of the chracters on Mark Twains river boat singing and waving. AJ actually had drool running down his face because he forgot to swallow in his awe stricken state. ha ha ha. here we are watcing:

Then we had 5 minutes to run through the park before the fire works started, so we eah put a boy n our sholders and we quite literally ran through the park. We must have looked hilarious but whatever!

I love the fireworks, we were first row right in front of the castle and it was a blast. I am not affraid to admit that I had a little tear as I watched tiker bell fly around in the night sky. (even knowing that it was a man up there in that fairy outfit didn't wrech it for me) and then it was time to head home. It was 10:30 and we were all happy but exhasted! Grandpa asked AJ if he was tired and he said, "No way Grandpa, I want to stay here all night!!!!"
Here he is 30 seconds later, seriously 30 seconds:
Lol he cracks me up. Anyways our first day was even better than I imagined it would be, tomorrow CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE!

We're going to.....DISNEYLAND!!!!!

2011 is proving to be a big year for our family. Aaron and I have been married for 5 years, we upgraded from a family of 4 to a family of 5 with the arrival of little Nate, Aaron will be graduation and becoming a Doctor of Chiropractics, we will be moving back to Canada, and we are all healthy and happy. We have been seriously blessed and we decided it was time to CELEBRATE!

My Mom and I started planning back in April for our Disneyland adventure. We were able to get cheap lights with our flex points earned over the last three years paying tuition, hurray! Then we rented a house with Mom and Dad, and Mom got some really great deals on 4 day Disney passes. The plans were made and then we had to wait, and wait, and WAIT! It seemed like forever away and then all of the sudden it was here.So on Saturday September 24th we got up, got ready, and Holly took us to the Airport for our 10:00 flight. The check in went smooth and the boys LOVED watching all the planes come and go while we waited for our flight to board.
I took AJ and Nate while Aaron braced himself for the 2 hour flight with Mr. Crazy pants himself, Miles. It actually went pretty smooth, jet blue will give you all the treats you want and each seat has it's own TV with 37 channels and movies. The last 30 minutes Miles was doing all he could to escape from Aarons arms but with the help of some chocolate chip cookies we made it.
Grandma and Grandpa had flown into Sacramento a few hours earlier and we waiting at the tiny Long beach airport when we arrived.We were hungry so we hit up a little In-and-out burger, found a park to play at and wasted about an hour until it was time to check into our house. The house we rented was about 2 miles from Disneyland and we couldn't' have been more pleased with it. It was spacious, clean, and best of all had a fabulous backyard with a beautiful pool which we made sure to try out immediately! It wasn't heated all the way yet but Aaron and Miles had a great time swimming around and jumping in the deep end. AJ and I chose to stay in the hot tub that day!

We also did our grocery shopping, cooked up some hot dogs and packed our bags for our first day in Disneyland the next day. We we all so excited but also tired so it was early to bed, Goodnight!

10/1/11

Read me.

So much has changed over the last eight weeks I am still having a hard time wrapping my mind around it! We have lost a lot of sleep, gained a lot of snuggles, and are still searching for the moment we get to stop and catch our breath. Going from one to two kids was definitely an adjustment and took some time to figure out but it wasn't long before we were back on our feet and in control. However going from two to three was a whole other story! We are out number now and there's just no going back! lol, I don't think that I will ever be fully in control again!

Just wanted to give you all a little update on me and Poy. Aaron has now officially completed his last classes and tests that he will ever write at the University of Western States! Didn't he just get his acceptance letter in the mail like, yesterday!?!3 years, two kids, and a million memories later here we are! Aaron has worked his tail off in school so that he was eligible for the preceptor ship program. He will be working in Doctor Harden's office with him for the next 2 1/2 months under his licence. This will give him the opportunity to treat "real" patients and get the feel for office life. He is so excited about this experience and I am so proud of him for all the hard work that he has put in to become such a fantastic Chiropractor. He passed part A of the Canadian boards in Toronto this summer and will be flying to Calgary in October to write parts B & C.

He is still serving as the 1st concealer in the Young Mens presidency and assistant Scout master, the boys love him and he loves serving them. He drives our old blazer which is somehow still running and dreams of being back in Fort Mac playing Hockey. We take shifts at night with Nate and he often gives Nate two bottles instead of waking me for the second feeding so that I can get more sleep. Poy loves his boys and takes them out to do grown up things like play tennis or Golf. That's right everyone, he gave Miles a tennis racket! lol, no one was hurt.They cry when he leave and so do I, what a great husband and Dad!

I also am doing and feeling great. Little Nate has wrapped me around his finger just like his big brothers. The transition to three children came with some major changes for me but I have finally accepted them and am now feeling happier than ever! I have a tendency to over due. I like to bake two or more times a weeks, make dinner every night, go to the pool everyday, keep the house completely clean, go to the Zoo every week or two, and take a lot of outings. I always have these long To-Do lists on my white board at the start of each day and I just LOVE crossing things off as I get then done. However three kids really slows things down, it's not as easy to get out of the house with three little boys or to keep them all under control once we are out. You need to have more supplies, a defiantly plan of where you are going and what you want to get done, and then you have to be ready for a million twists, turns, and tantrums along the way. I now understand why some Moms Grocery shop at night, WITHOUT THEIR CHILDREN! lol.

My lists have gotten simpler, my house a little messier, and my time has been more focused on the important things: AJ, Miles, Nate, & Aaron. I have learned to leave the dishes in the sink or the laundry in the dryer and sit down to paint with AJ while the little boys nap or play trains with Miles while AJ is out and Nate is sleeping. I enjoy my time nursing and take a few extra minutes to snuggle Nate up while he'll still let me. We go on walks, paint, play cars/Lego/toy story/cowboys/ect., swim, wrestle, watch movies, make forts, read books, and just hang out. And you know what? None of them seem to care that the carpets aren't vacuumed yet or that we had Mac and cheese for dinner. They actually seem happier to have gotten a little bit more of my undivided attention.

I still find myself following them around cleaning up or wanting to get get the chores done first but I just have to take a minute and refocus or make it a fun project we can do together. Two is not to young to match sox or set the table, AJ love to help with ANYTHING and stickers are a great reward system.

Anyways this was a hard transition and I am still working on it but I love that I have learned to let those things slide. My boys come first and once they are in bed I can spend 30 minutes reorganizing the house and its all caught up, perfect! I really do love my life. My kids mean everything to me and I am lucky enough to have an incredible husband who feels the same way. We are growing as a family and we are happy and isn't that the whole point?