Since we have no family around, and because our biggest Thanksgiving feaster is on a mission, we usually travel to California or Arizona. This year we decided to take a trip to Disneyland as I have never been there during Christmastime. IN addition, my dad, brother, sister-in-law and niece met us there (they live in CA) - Double treat!  My dad loves Disneyland just as much as me.

My brother, Anthony, kept referring to me as the "Target" woman. I guess there is this Black Friday commercial that comes on every year showing this mom prepping for the sales. She's on a treadmill and pumping weights to get conditioned to beat everybody. Well, I am a serious Disneyland fan. I choose my routes ahead of time knowing which ride we will ride in order and when to get fast passes for which. You have a two hour wait from your first pass before you can get the next. I had fun directing Matt and Anthony to different attractions to get those for us.  I mean, I am serious!! Waste no time - get it all in.

We thought we would take advantage of the short lines and no crowds - ha, ha, ha!  Not a chance. It was just a busy. When is it not?  Anyway, I thought I would simply post some photos for those of you who have never been during Christmas time - DO IT!  It is truly beautiful.  Disneyland, I must admit is one of my most favorite places. I feel like I could live there and enjoy the magic, escape the world and just be a kid again with my kids.

Here we are at Sleeping Beauty's castle. It is truly the most beautiful at Christmas time. At night during the Christmas fireworks show, it lights up with different colors synchonized with the music and fireworks. Breathtaking

It's a Small World is probably my favorite ride, I must admit. What can I say, I 'm just a big kid. During Christmas, they sing Jingle Bells and It's a Small World and every doll and country is decorated for the holidays - pretty amazing. 

The Princess Walk is always at least a 50 minute wait.  Matt didn't want to wait to save a spot for the parade and I was determined to be front row and center and at the beginning so I waited. It was great traveling with other adults also so that they could watch the kids that were to small to ride a ride or too scared.  :)

At 7:30 am I wasn't about to ride the tea cups but the kids were dying to and neither Matt nor I did. Can you tell who won?

I love this photo for some reason. 

And now, the Christmas Parade!  Yay!  It was so wonderful. It's obvious the people in it have to have a certain look to make Disney's cast. They are all so wholesome looking.  I love it.

This, of course, was the best. Aidan's jaw dropped and he said he hoped Santa knew he tried hard to be good this year. Ella is beginning to be more quiet about it. I'm so sad.

Yes, that's me with the big smile. I have to laugh at myself sometimes

My wonderful family. What a great Thanksgiving!

The next day, the type A in me got all the Christmas decorations up and made gingerbread cookies and candy cane cocoa. It's great to be home.

I know, on with Thanksgiving but . . .

So, I'm a week late. Here are some photos of our Halloween festivities.

Mummy hot dogs. I love to make different "goulish" dinners during Halloween. We also did "tarantula" tacos where I made the olives look like spiders. Way cute! The kids loved eating these.

Graveyard pudding for dessert. Bwaahh, ha, ha, ha!

Just some good old fashion pumpin carvin'

Jack O'Lantern pizzas anyone?

Me and the kids get ready for some trick or treating! It's was kind of funny how many people liked my costume. It was just stuff I had except for the hat. I had a blast trick or treating except I could barely keep up with the kids in my high heel boots. Can I just say blisters?

Happy Halloweens-giving!

UEA Weekend!

Okay, call me the Blog slacker because I certainly am. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about because my life is very full, maybe a little too full is the issue.

Anyway, we had a marvelous UEA weekend. We usually leave town but we learned everyone else does also so this year we decided to stay close to home and just do a few mini-trips. Ella and Aidan had a fabulous time. So did I but can I just say - "exhausting."

First stop: Hogle Zoo. We were going to try and squeeze in This is The Place Monument but didin't make it. I love the zoo everytime we go. I have never been to a zoo where you can get so close to the animals. Ella, always the princess was determined to get on the snow leapord. We even waiting an extra "turn" when it was taken so she could have first pick. Oh, now what am I creating here?

We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather this weekend. Can you tell?

After the zoo, we ate dinner at Costa Vida and used our free kids meal coupons. Don't you love those from the schools? We then went to see the play "How I became a Pirate. " I was pleasantly surprised and the kids laughed out loud. Way to go, Scera theatre!

Saturday, we put on our BYU gear in preparation for the game. We're headed to our annual tradition of Cornbellys!

First stop was this cute corn maze (we did three that weekend) for little kids where they got goodie bags and met characters along the way with more treats to hand out and not all candy. They got these cute capes and masks.

I love the focus on Aidan's face - determined to win at this duck race.

Seriously, I can't believe how fun this was and how hard! I thought I was in shape but after bouncing this huge inflatable horse I'm not so sure. I couldn't stop laughing. I love this photo of me and the kids.

No matter where Ella goes, she will always find a horse!

This was also fun. We played volleball with this huge, heavy cornball. They had these haystack to throw over and I didn't want to leave I was having so much fun. Aidan could barely get his arms around the thing.

We always end on these giant bouncy pillows. Very fun! We also went on a hayride and another train. I was a little disappointed at how scary one of the mazes was. They said it was daytime so the kids would be fine but once we went inside, it was dark, there were scary noises and statues that looked like people. Ella actually started crying and had to be picked up. I was carrying Aidan and lost Ella and Matt and tried to gain my composure while I covered Aidan's eyes and he covered his ears. Sheesh! Never again on that one.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and feel so blessed to live in such an area where so many good people live and wholesome entertainment for the family is at our fingertips.

Happy Halloween - coming soon.

Vacationing in California Plus

So I have been planning a little visit to my family's this summer in Californina - I mean little as in short and sweet and before I knew it, it turned out be quite a vacation with a very happy surprise. Read on to see what it is.

We started with a visit to my mom's in San Jose where I get my long awaited dose of Korean food! We visited the Japanese Gardens there and he we are. At 73, my mom is still adventurous enough to climb a fairly steep and slick rock.

We spent one day in San Francisco. Here we are at Pier 39 in front of Alcatraz. Matt and the kids enjoyed some clam chowder in CA sourdough bread bowls while I devoured the fruit stands. I was saving my treat time for Ghiradelli chocolate and boy was it a treat or two or three . . .

I always like to visit this lefty store when I come but now I have a reason to! There are so many cool gadgets that make life for "Lefties" a little easiser.

We loved our walk around Golden Gate Park. This tree was truly beautiful. Ella reminds me of me when I was a little girl; when she sees a tree she just has to climb it.

We spent one day at Santa Cruz Beach and Board where we met my dad and nieces and nephews and rode dozens of rides. Oh, you know, we just went on dozens of rides, splashed in the ocean. The kids were bored stiff :)

We then spent a couple days at my dad's in Los Banos and spent more time in the water at a neighbor's pool. It is amazing how many wonderful people there are out there. We didn't even know these people and they invited our whole family over for a barbeque and swimming all because they wanted their little 5 year old to have some friends to play with.

I look forward to being with all the great people who have crossed my path of life if even just for a short time. The kids are loving every minute of this "California" visit Grandma and Grandpa thing.

And now for the SURPRISE!!

26 years after my baptism in 1985, my sweet mother decides to join the church. This is truly a happy moment. She has always felt something special about the church and particularly with the members. She especially felt something when she was here for Nicholas' mission farewell. Nicholas was quick to get started on his missionary work with Grandma and bore his testimony to her. She was already searching for truth and after her experiences here then having the missionaries sent to her in San Jose, she decided this was the right church.

This, of course, was the highlight. I love you, Mom!

And now for the end of our trip - Lake Tahoe . . .

Beach, water, sun - life doesn't get better than this.

Aidan spent so much time trying to touch these geese that just swam in the water with us. It was so cute to see his determination.

I absolutely love this photo of Ella. She is my little fish and monkey. She loves to swim and climb so of course when she saw this rock in the water she had to swim over to it. I caught her in this meditative pose and had to capture it.

Me and my beautiful girl.

We must have spent an hour getting this shot. Aidan spotted these squirrels near our spot on the beach and was determined to touch one but these guys were so shy regardless of the people they must have been used to being around. We got out some sunflower seeds and threw them to them. They were so darling to watch as they would hold the seed to their mouth and shell it. We were able to finally get one of them to trust Ella and have one literally eat out of her hand. She was in heaven and Aidan, well Aidan cried. He wanted to be the ONE but we weren't about to spend another hour at this point. He got over it.

Hooray for summer!!