Happy Halloween! - 2011

How can it already be the end of October???

We watched The Addams Family (the newer version with Cristina Ricci) about 6 months ago... and that is when Ally decided that Wednesday Addams was her costume. Amazing, that 6 months and she never changed her mind... unlike her little brother.

Doesn't she make a VERY convincing Wednesday?

Devin started out wanting to be Buzz Lightyear... crazy me, I bought the costume over a month ago. He changed his mind so many times... but mainly wanted to be Mario. Well, he got to be Buzz anyway. :o) And he really loves his costume so much that he wore it for 4 days straight... the only problem was getting him to take it off for church on Sunday.


We did our annual pumpkin carving...



Went to Ally's school Halloween parade...


Trick-Or-Treating was a lot of fun this year. This is the first year that Devin wanted to participate. In fact, he wanted to go again the day after.

Hee Haw Farms

Before Halloween my friend, Brandy and I took our kids to Hee Haw Farms. It was really cute and a lot of fun.

There was fun slides and tunnels to crawl on.



There was a petting zoo that the kids loved!





They got to ride on little animal cars pulled by a tractor.



We bought our pumpkins there.


We took a hay ride pulled by a tractor.



There was a huge corn maze, but it was getting dark and cold so we didn't attempt it. I don't think the little kids would have made it anyway!

Disneyland Days 2 and 3

We had originally planned on going to Disneyland on Tuesday and Thursday, but when we woke up the next morning and Devin was begging to go back, we thought, "Why not?" And we packed up and took off and bought 2 day park hopper tickets.



We started out in California Adventure Land... we ran to The Tower of Terror first, because the wait on that ride can get really long. Ally really didn't want to ride this ride... but like mean parents we told her she had to try it once. We even told her she should hit us in the arm if she didn't like it....

She hit us in the arm. :o)

We went on a bunch of calm rides after that... the look of horror on Devin's face on the ride following Tower of Tower, sums up how he felt about it.


We spent most of that day at California Adventure.

Here is Devin meeting a few of his heroes.



The new Ariel ride was a hit with my kids. We rode it 4 or 5 times because the line moved so fast.


Another ride that we all loved was the Toy Story ride... but the line DID NOT move fast, and they don't offer fastpasses for it... but we still rode it 4 or 5 times those 2 days.



One of the most memorable parts of that day, was seeing Mickey. We were lucky and happened on him when the line was really short. Devin ran up to him and through his arms around him. Of all the characters I thought he would love to meet the most, it wasn't Mickey. But his reaction was the best and he LOVED it!


The following day he got to meet a couple more of his favorites. I thought they would be his favorite... and while he loved him, he still loved meeting Mickey more.




He wasn't as fond of Buzz... personally I thought he looked a little creepy, so I totally understand!


We wanted to buy our kids the traditional Mickey Ears... only Devin fell in love with Sherriff Woody's hat, so he skipped tradition and went for love!


Those above pictures were taken while waiting in line for Disney Junior Live On Stage. It was one thing I really wanted to take Devin to see, because he loves to watch Disney Junior! I wasn't sure if he could sit still that long... but I was so wrong! It was completely interactive and fun! He LOVED it!!! That is one other thing I HIGHLY recommend for little ones!!!

We finished the third day off watching the parade.


I have to admitt I was a little sad when it was all over. It was the best experience I have ever had at Disneyland... and I didn't want it to be over, sore feet, exhaustion and all.

I hope my kids remember this vacation as fondly as I do!

Disneyland - Day 1 - Mickey's Halloween Party

Disneyland... it really is the happiest place on Earth!



Thanks to a friend we heard about Mickey's Halloween Party on Tuesday night. We weren't sure about going, but it was the best experience we have ever had at Disneyland and I highly recommend going! If you are going for the candy, you will wait in really long lines but get more candy then on Halloween. But if, like us, you just want to ride the rides, you will walk on most every ride. Amazing!

The official party starts at 6 pm, but they let you in 3 hours early, so we were standing at the gate waiting to get in at 3 pm.

We wanted to ride Pirates first... it's tradition. But it is closed until Christmas. So we went to The Haunted Mansion first... probably not too smart, looking back.

It was really amazing. They had completely transformed it to a while new ride! It was all themed from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Riding in the elevator to the ride terrified Devin, and I was really worried we would be done... but no, as soon as we got off he said, "Let's Go Again!!!" This kid is made of steel!

One of the great things this year is Devin just met the 40 inch height requirement. This meant he could ride every single ride in Disneyland, except Indiana Jones.(the only problem with this is he got measured on pretty much every ride).

Here are a bunch of our monents captured through the night:








We can't leave out Devin's favorite ride, Buzz Lightyear, that we rode about 10 times over the 3 days.



Finally was the fireworks... pretty amazing. Devin was a little terrified of the Pumpkin King's big face that appeared in the sky... he had already been scared by him at The Haunted Mansion.


We stayed until 10:30 (which was 11:30 Utah time)... Devin fell asleep on my lap on the shuttle to our car from Disneyland.

It was such an amazing experience!!!

Six Months of Waiting

We made our reservations 6 months ago and have been counting down the days until we could go on our vacation to California.

We left after the Fun Run and drove to Mesquite. We parked in a casino parking lot, and ate at McDonalds (gag!). We were getting ready to go to bed when we noticed out batteries were too low. So we packed it all up and headed over to buy 2 new batteries for our trailer at the local Wal-Mart. Two hundred dollars later and we were back in our parking spot and fast asleep.

The next morning we got up and drove to Barstow. We didn't really need to take 3 days to get there, but since Alex had Friday off we decided to take 3 days instead of 2.

It was nice and warm there, in the 90's... so how in the heck was the swimming pool so COLD!!!???

Oh, how I wish I would have gotten a picture of the look on Ally's face when she jumped in without testing the water first!



Sunday we drove into San Juan Capistrano at Dana Point. We stayed at Doheny State Beach. Oh the beach... every time I go I am determined to never leave!

Sadly this is where my complaining about losing pictures comes in. We bought a new camera, a small point and shoot. I love my big Nikon camera but it is just not practical to carry it hiking or around Disneyland. So during my learning curve I lost a bunch of picures. All of them from the beach. :o(

Fun Run

Ally's school does the same fundraiser ever year and it is my favorite!!! First of all I don't have to buy anything stupid like expensive cookie dough or wrapping paper, meaning 100% of my donation goes to the school. But it also requires the students to run for 2 miles... promoting physical fitness. So I am ALL about this fundraiser!!!

This year it was on the Friday before we left for vacation, so Alex took the day off to run with her. Give Devin a few years and the 4 of us can run it together!

This is her cute class this year:

(did I mention I got suckered into being room mother again this year?)

First mile, looking pretty confident:


Second mile, "Daddy's pushing me too hard!"

Alex is pretty competitive and he wanted to win... even though there are no winners in this race.

They came in as one of the top in her grade... Alex says he is going to start training her next summer and they are going to WIN next year. (insert me rolling my eyes here!)

But it's all good in the name of fun!