Disneyland 2014 Part 3!

Sorry I've been breaking our Disneyland trip up into so many posts! I just have so many photos I want to share (and these are not even close to all the ones I took! I really have to pick and choose just a small amount to share on here!)

The 2nd day at Disneyland, my parents had made a reservation for just the 2 of them at the Blue Bayou, and Bryant, Sage, Colter, Sawyer and Kenna all went to get in the 2 hour line for Radiator Springs Racers. I decided to stay with the kids and get some 1-on-1 mommy/kid time with them in Carsland. We rode a few rides there, and 1 in Bugsland, ate lunch together, made a bathroom/diaper run for the both of them, and then took a leisurely stroll around and shopped for a bit.

It was nice to get to spend that time with them at one of my favorite places, with no real rush to be anywhere. 

I met up with everyone, who all wanted to go on Grizzley River Rapids. I didn't really want to get wet, since I had spent a large portion of the day before completely drenched from Splash Mountain, so I decided to head back over to Disneyland and meet my parents when they got done with their lunch. I hopped on the train with the kids and met my parents at the New Orleans Square station, and we road the train all the way around the park. My plan was to have both kids fall sound asleep on the train, but that didn't happen. Both of them were so tired though. Savannah probably would have fallen asleep, if she hadn't gotten so wound up when we were in line waiting for the train to arrive. She met a little boy and kept asking him if he liked unicorns. He was getting annoyed after she had asked him about 10 times, and then Savannah sat down right next to him, held his hand, and laid her head on his shoulder. He got this silly look on his face that looked like it said "what am I supposed to do with this unicorn loving girl on my shoulder?!" So, so funny!

And now, for some photos in no particular order:

 ^^This was our first time seeing Carsland, they were still building it the last time we were there. It's so amazingly cool! I loved it!^^

 ^^This is probably my favorite photo from the whole trip. Both kids giving Grandpa hugs!^^

 

^^Kenna and I randomly decided to run into the animation academy and go to one of the drawing classes. We loved it! We took everyone back on our last night to do it again!^^

 ^^Showing off our sketches of Pooh^^

 

^^Trying to get this guy to take a cute photo with you is like trying to herd cats...^^

 ^^Main Street at night.^^

 

^^DJ and Grandma on the tram!^^

^^Disney Junior Live on Stage! If you have young kids who love Disney Jr. Go see this! It was so fun and cute, and it's nice to get to sit down for a bit! I had to laugh when I realized that I'm no longer going to concerts and singing along with bands, now I'm going to Disney Jr. shows and singing the theme songs to kids shows! (even this morning, I was in the shower humming the theme to Special Agent Oso.)

 ^^Luigi's flying tires, is basically a giant-sized version of air hockey!^^

^^Grandpa got him his first set of ears!^^

 

^"pretending to be dead" is one of her new favorite games^^

 

^^She loved any ride that was high or fast. At the end of our first day, we were in the car and Savannah said to my mom "Grandma, I just wish I was bigger so I could go on all the roller coasters"^^

 ^^Did I purposefully wear the same shirt to match my 10 month old son? Yes, yes I did. (sans drool, of course)^^

 Ok, sorry for the overload on photos! And guess what? There are more to come! woo hoo!

But I will post them later! Have a nice day everyone!

Disneyland 2014, Part 2!

Alright, here we go with Part 2!

So our first morning at Disneyland, we had an early morning entry ticket, so we went an hour before the parks "officially" open to ride everything in Fantasyland. 

I thought Savannah would love all the little kid rides like Snow White and Pinocchio. Turns out, those rides are kind of terrifying to a 3 year old...

She got really scared on a few of them (she liked Dumbo though!) and actually didn't want to ride anything else. I thought I had pretty much ruined the whole trip for her in the 1st hour of our 1st day by making her go on the scary kids rides. We headed over to meet my family in Tomorrowland and I thought that if we went on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, that she would be fine, since she loves Toy Story and would better recognize Buzz (I don't think I've ever had her watch Snow white or Pinocchio...) but she was crying and telling us she didn't want to go on any more rides. My dad finally talked her into going on it with him, and once we got inside the line and saw Buzz, she got really excited and started talking to her wrist (like Buzz talks into his communicator) and was saying "Mission control, this is Savannah, I'm on my way!"

We were back in business!

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Savannah's favorites were Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story Midway Mania, and the Gadget Go Coaster in Toon Town.

 

^^Don't let this face fool you, DJ LOVED Dumbo!^^

 

^^Bryant and Savy Waaay back there^^

 

^^Took a selfi on Mr. Toads Wild Ride with Dad^^

 

^^We went into the hat shop and she tried on just about every hat in there, and chose this one all by herself!^^

 

^^A little nervous about going on Buzz Lightyear, but it ended up being one of her favorite rides!^^

 

^^In line for Star Tours^^

 

^^Bryant in line for Star Tours. Fun fact: I'm so short, that my feet are just barely too short to touch the floor on this ride, so my legs kept swinging all over the place and my feet would get caught in the mesh basket under the seat.^^

 

^^Meeting Eyore! We couldn't get Deagan to look at the camera.^^

^^Pooh was extra sweet!^^

^^A few shots from one of the parades^^

Ok, that's all for right now! More later (as soon as I find some time!)

Disneyland 2014! Part 1!

Yay for Disneyland! 

So as you all know, we went on a Disneyland trip at the end of March with both kids, My parents, siblings, and my sister-in-law, and my in-laws all surprised us by coming and spending the last day there with us! If you missed the exciting post about that (and the earthquakes!) then click HERE.

I was really excited for this trip. It was Savanna's 3rd trip to Disneyland, but this time, she was finally old enough to ride a lot of the attractions, and she was able to recognize almost all of the characters (Disney channel is pretty much all we watch at this house!)

Savannah has the Disneyland app on the ipad, and we talked a LOT about Disneyland for months before we went so I think she had a pretty good idea what it was. The night before we left, she wouldn't go to bed and I told her that when she woke up, we would go to Disneyland. The next morning, we drove to California and had dinner with my Dad's cousins and that night, I told Savannah we had to get ready to go to bed, and that when she woke up, we would go to Disneyland, and she said "But I already woke up today! You said when I woke up today we would be going to Disneyland!" She wasn't very happy that she had to wait one more night!

Both kids did AMAZING on the drive there. I've said it before and I'll say it again, my kids are traveling rockstars! They were made for road tripping!  My kids eat 10 hour drives for breakfast!

^^Stopping for gas outside of Las Vegas^^

Back to dinner. So our first day we got to California, we checked in and and unloaded our stuff at a house we rented about a half hour away from the parks. I tell you what, if you have more people than will fit into 1 hotel room, renting a house is definitely the way to go! It cost us about the same as getting 2 hotel rooms, which we would have all been really cramped in, and Bryant and I got our own room with the kids, we brought DJ's pack and play, and we made a bed on the floor of spare blankets for Savannah, and my parents, and Sawyer and Kenna both had their own rooms too. Colter and Sage slept on the couches downstairs.

^^The cute house we stayed at!^^

It was nice having a full kitchen, and laundry room too. I didn't have to worry about packing "extra" sets of cloths for the kids (I usually pack enough for 2 outfits a day plus jammies when traveling) because if I got down to the last day or 2 worth of clothes, I could toss more in the wash. We stayed a bit further out from the park, like I said it was probably a half hour drive, but it really wasn't bad at all.

After we unpacked, we drove to an Asian buffet restaurant to meet my dad's cousins Lisa and Cory. It was really great to see them and catch up! I wasn't there when everyone was in Arizona together last year, so it had been a long time since I had seen either of them! Thank you Lisa and Cory for coming out to see us!

Sorry, that's all for tonight! I have a TON of photos from our trip, so I'll probably split up our days at the parks up a bit, and I'll write a separate post about our trip to the beach. 

Goodnight everyone!

 

I'm here, I Promise!

I just spent 6 hours shampooing my carpets and my couches.

Wowzers! Talk about gross!

Lets not even talk about the bathroom or the dishes I have to tackle tomorrow. 

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. I have a midterm, and a final in a week and a half, Bryant's parents and grandma are coming into town for the weekend and I've been busy trying to stay caught up on homework.

Oh, and my dryer broke.

So look for a few posts in the coming couple of weeks. I'll work a little bit on them each day and try to get one out a week. I need to still write about Disneyland, our trip to the zoo, Savannah's birthday, comic con and Easter. Geeze Louise, I'm so behind!

Until then, have a lovely week! And if you're in Utah, don't let this crazy wind blow you away!

Aaaand here's a cute picture of DJ eating a cookie for you  :-)

Savannah Says

Here are just a few things Savannah has said, the past couple of days. I'm writing them down so I don't forget:

Bryant went in and woke her up this morning and said "Savannah, I'm heading to work, come give me a hug and a kiss goodbye" And she sleepily looked up and said "How about you just come give me a handshake while I stay in my bed?

"Dad, we need to get on an airplane and fly to Brazil"

While rushing her to the bathroom at the BYU art museum I said "Whew! We made it!" and she nodded her head and said "Indeed".

"Mom, these shoes feel weird, it's like they are made out of sticks!"

 

^^Using her "binoculars" on The Jungle Cruise^^

"California has some good money jobs mom, lets move there so we can go to Disneyland for 5 times".

"I can't finish my bagel, I'm too scared to eat! If you make me spongebob mac and cheeses, I won't be scared anymore."

While tying a rope around the legs of the coffee table "Its a booby trap. Don't tell dad, he's the monster I'm going to catch!"

"You and dad need to get married. Kiss! There, now you're married!"

"Ahoy matey! There are mountains straight ahead!"

"I'm so jealous of you mom, you get to sweep the kitchen floors!"




I was getting Dj buckled in his car seat and I asked Savannah about 5 times to get in her seat and wait for me to buckle her in. I got frustrated and said "If you don't get in your seat right now, I'm going to leave you here at the grocery store." She climbed into her set, waved her hand dismissively at me and said "Blah, blah blah". I told her not to give me attitude and she said "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever mom..." (3 going on 16?)

(Sitting in her toy box) "No Mom, I'm not sitting in a toy box, I'm sitting in my ship and all the toys are just barnacles!"

"This is ridiculous!" (She says this a lot nowadays) 

This silly girl always comes up with the funniest things to say. Her imagination is incredible!

One Disneyland Ride I Didn't Pay For.

We got home really late last Sunday night from our Disneyland vacation!

I will be writing a separate post with photos and all the happy, fun memories, but right now, I'm going to talk about the scariest part of our trip!

I'm going to give you a little bit of a background story here, so you fully understand the extent of my fear here...

I had the WORST 5th grade teacher on the planet. And her favorite hobby was making my life a living nightmare. My mom tried so hard to get me transferred out of her class, and we ended up in a meeting with the principal who told us I couldn't leave her class because too many students had already requested to be taken out. 

Now, this teacher LOVED to scare the pants off of her students. She constantly talked about earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and all other types of natural disasters. She would show us videos, read us news articles, and go on and on about how devastating nature could be. And this wasn't just a unit we were studying for a couple of weeks, this was almost DAILY for the entire school year! I went home several times crying because I was so scared that there was going to be an earthquake. Earthquakes have been my biggest fear since the 5th grade. Only taking 2nd place after I had my kids (something happening to them is now my #1 fear).

Throughout the last 15 years of my life, anytime a big truck passes my house and my windows shake a bit, I freeze in fear and my heart races. Any time Bryant rolls over in bed, I wake up panicked that the ground is shaking. It's constantly on my mind.When my family took a vacation to Universal Studios, I couldn't even go on the "earthquake" ride.

Because I worry so much about earthquakes, anytime I'm in Southern California, I'm especially anxious. The morning of our 2nd day at the parks, I fell asleep with my phone under my pillow, and when my alarm went off, my phone vibrated and I woke up shaking, thinking there had been an earthquake. Little did I know I'd be experiencing one in just a few hours...

That evening, Bryant, my brother Colter and I had some fastpasses to ride the Radiator Springs Racers over in California Adventure. We left the kids with my family at Disneyland and ran over. While waiting in line, Bryant was teasing me about my fear of roller coasters (fear #3 on my list...) and was trying to convince me that I should ride Screamin' with him. When I protested, he said "Why are you so scared of rollercoasters? Nothing can happen while you are on it!" and I said "Well, what if there is an earthquake while I'm on it!"

We hopped onto Radiator Springs Racers and when we got off, they closed it down. 

When we got back to Disneyland and met up with my family, we walked over to Space Mountain and saw that it was closed. My Mom said "Did you guys feel the earthquake? They closed down Space Mountain because there was a 3.4 earthquake." 

I immediately started to panic. I sat down on a bench and asked Bryant if he felt anything. He said he didn't, but as soon as we got off the Racers, he heard people talking about it. But he said he didn't want to say anything to me so I wouldn't worry. Which means the earthquake happened while we were on the ride! Just like I had said might happen!

Bryant told me to sit and take a minute to calm down while he ran and got some pizza for dinner. The kids were asleep in the stroller, so I just hung out with them, while the rest of my family went to ride Buzz Lightyear. Bryant came back with dinner and we sat and ate for a few minutes. I asked him if he thought there would be an aftershock, or if maybe that was a forshock to a bigger quake. He said "I don't think so, at least not large enough that we would feel it."

Right that second, while I was mid-bite in a pizza, my legs went one direction, and my body went the other, then both went the other way and the ground started rolling, like it was made of large noodles floating on water. I looked at Bryant, who calmly said "You're alright, lets get up and move".

I don't know what happened to my pizza, I don't know if I dropped it, set it down or threw it, but I grabbed the stroller, and Bryant held onto it and steered us out from where we were sitting. We had been sitting under the roof of the exit of Space Mountain, which has large glass windows in front of us. My instinct kicked in and all I could think was "I need to move the kids out into the open". Bryant steered us out and to the side, away from anything tall and away from people. I was trying to run, but he kept saying "You're alright, lets just move here and stay put, don't move, lets just ride it out."

He was so amazingly calm! I was not. As we were walking out from under the roof, we could hear what sounded like something was crashing, and like plastic was cracking and snapping. Then everyone was screaming and running out and pointing up. It looked like a godzilla movie. Lots of shaking, people running and screaming and pointing. The rocket at the entrance of Space Mountain was swaying. 

Once it was all over, we headed out to find my family. We found them after a couple of minutes and we all moved to a corner where there weren't a lot of people. There was a "cast member" who was working at an information podium thing, standing next to us. He told us that he was watching the "people mover" track when it happened and that it was moving side to side. He had an ipad with the news pulled up, and informed us that the quake registered as a 5.1 at the epicenter in La Habra, and a 5.4 where we were. (Fun fact, earthquakes ripple like a pebble in water, they get bigger the further out, then start to diminish. I think I saw somewhere that we were 15 miles from the epicenter)

He was really awesome, he kept us updated on everything for the next 2 hours, while everything was closed down. He even handed us 2 fastpasses that would allow up to 6 people each onto any ride. When things started to open back up, everyone went to ride Space Mountain (I refused. I was still shaken up pretty badly, and I didn't want to leave my kids, who had slept through everything peacefully in the stroller.) And he gave me a free voucher for 2 ice creams (which I actually forgot to use, dang it!)

It took me a while to calm completely down. At one point, I had to use the bathroom, and I was too scared to go by myself, so I made Bryant wait out by the door for me. As soon as I walked in, I felt like the ground was shaking and ran as fast as I could back out. He assured me that nothing had happened and that I was ok. Needless to say, I don't think anyone in the history of the world used the bathroom as quickly as I did that day. 

At one point, another lady came out and told all of us that we had to leave Tomorrowland and head towards Main Street because it was the safest place to be. When we started packing up and walking away, the guy we had been talking to asked where we were going. When we told him we were told to leave, he said "I'm going to tell you to stay here. There are on average 50,000 people in the park at a time, not including about 30-40,000 in California Adventure, and they are all on Main Street right now. You're probably safer right here." We were relieved that we were ok to stay, away from the large crowds. The last thing I wanted was another earthquake to cause a stampede of 50,000 people, and little old me trying to wrangle a double stroller through them all. Not to mention our phones weren't working very well. I could finally text after about an hour and a half.

The best part of this whole situation was that while we were waiting around, Bryant's parents came and surprised us!!! We had absolutely NO IDEA that they were coming! It was such an awesome surprise! I was sitting on the wall texting my brother-in-law, when Robyn jumped in front of me. I saw her shoes and was confused as to what random person would jump that close to me, and when I looked up, it was Robyn! I started screaming so loud in excitement that I woke up Deagan! They had come to the park after the earthquake to buy their tickets for the next day and asked if there was anyway they could come into the park to look for us. They gave them free complimentary tickets for that evening! They were able to find us because my brother-in-law had texted me asking how everything was going and what we were doing, and I had told him everyone had gone to ride Space Mountain. I had no idea they were there! It was awesome that they had all flown down to spend Saturday and part of Sunday with us!

I was grateful that I was so exhausted by the end of the night that I fell right to sleep when we got back to the house we were staying at. If I wasn't so tired, I probably would have been up all night worrying about more earthquakes.

The next day, My parents, sister, Ed, Robyn and I took the kids to watch "Micky and the Magical Map" which is a cute, short musical show. Right as the show started, it felt like someone started to jump on the bench we were sitting on, and the show immediately shut down. It was another earthquake! This time, it was a 4.1 (just some earthquake FYI: each number that the earthquake registers at is x100. So a 5.1 is 100x stronger than a 4.1.) I called Bryant, who was with everyone else waiting to go on another ride. He said he didn't even feel it and that none of the rides were shut down.

We didn't feel anything else the rest of the trip, but according to the news, there were over 100 aftershocks ranging up to 3.4's.

I guess I can now say that I've lived through one of my biggest fears, and I handled it a bit better than I imagined I would. I always thought that I would be so scared that I would just pass out. So not passing out is considered a win in my opinion! And I was proud that my instincts kicked in to get somewhere safe, and I didn't just stand there panicking. And I'm even more proud that my first thoughts were making sure my kids were safe, and my seconds thoughts were making sure the rest of my family was safe.

Let's hope I never have to deal with that again though, ok?