Disneyland 2011

We got to have the most AMAZING vacation of our lives this month. My parents treated us all to a DISNEY CRUISE. It was to honor and remember my Grandpa Madsen who passed away 2 years ago. After his death we began to plan this trip. Since he loved to travel and loved even more to take people on cruises, my parents thought that it would be great to take us all on a cruise. Over the last 2 years, I have saved and prayed to make it on this trip. Everything worked out and all of my sisters and all our kids and my parents were able to make it. Our family's trip started on Wednesday, October 12th. I'm glad that we were able to fly down to California. Our voyage started at 4:00 in the morning when we woke up our girls and my nephew, who doesn't travel well by car, and lugged their tired little bodies to the van. My dad dropped us off at the airport and we had lots of fun playing with new princess toys while waiting for our flight.

Emily and Gwen love to have "plays" and "parades" with their toys.

Gwen loved being on an airplane. For months before our trip she'd make me tell her a story about what our trip would be like. We had to go over every detail step-by-step and if I started anywhere in the story except at the airport, she'd make me go back and start over.

Emily and Andrew holding hands across the aisle. So, how was the notoriously bad traveler, Andrew? Perfect for the flight, of course. The big stinker was Emily who screamed for the last entire 30 minutes of our flight. She's so 2 sometimes. The moment they told her she couldn't stand up and run around the plane and had to sit with her seat belt on she freaked out. Even though she'd been sitting quietly playing for the entire hour prior to that.

My kids LOVE meeting the characters. We got each of them an autograph book and had fun running into different mean guys all over Disneyland. This is the Queen of Hearts.

Foul Fellow. Better known to our family as Honest John from Pinocchio.

The girls dog-pile on Andrew. He's loving it and has the biggest grin on his face. At the end of the trip we had him for another day while his family made the trip home by car. Gwen asked if we could steal him and keep him for our brother. I guess she liked having him around.

We had lunch with Ariel and her princess friends at Ariel's Grotto. One of our favorite Disneyland traditions. Beats having to wait a couple hours in line to meet them plus the food is actually pretty yummy, not that the kids ever touch it.

Meeting Cinderella.

Snow White. Emily's favorite princess, can't you tell by that great grin? Try seeing if she smiled in any of our vacation pictures.

Princess Aurora

Princess Belle who actually kissed Emily straight full on the lips. Right after Emily hacked and coughed for a couple minutes - she was getting over a cold at the time. You could see this look of terror in Belle's eyes as she thought, "What have I done?".

Jessie the cowgirl. Emily wanted to know where her Bulls Eye was. Apparently, 104 degrees is too hot for some of the Disney characters. Yes, over 100 degrees for Wednesday and Thursday at Disneyland. We all look a little like we're melting in our pictures. Jonathan's trying to give her a kiss on the cheek but he just looks a little bit creepy instead.

At the Playhouse Disney. Emily took her shoes and socks off and stunk up the place. My kids have the stinkiest feet. At least it was inside and cool for a moment.

Thursday morning we tried to wake up and get ready and be there early. We managed to make it there 5 minutes before the park opened. At least that meant that the line to meet the fairies was short. We only got to meet Tinkerbell which was a let down because usually you get to meet at least 3. Later on Thursday we met up with Jonathan's sister, Lisa and her daughter Kat. You'd think I would have thought to get a picture of or with them, but I guess not. We went to dinner with them that night at Rainforest Cafe who have greatly improved their menu. We stayed late and watched Fantasmic which Gwen deemed "mostly scary and a little not scary when the princesses and big boat came out".

Emily having a tantrum outside Mickey's house. You'd think by the second day she'd by more used to waiting in lines. She wasn't. Plus, in true 2-year-old fashion she didn't believe that things like fenced or barriers meant that she couldn't just climb over them and enjoy them from the other side.

Mickey Mouse. Somehow, I remember him being taller.

Minnie Mouse.

Waiting in line for Rapunzel was the longest line we did - about 40 minutes in mostly sunlight. We're trying to keep the kids from melting by having them sit in my shadow and eat frozen yogurt. We also bought a fan/squirt bottle that was a life saver that day.

Gwen wanted to tell Rapunzel all about how she's going to be in a play about her. Rapunzel asked her to come back and tell her how it went. Anyone up for another Disneyland trip in a couple months?

The Haunted Mansion all decked out for the Holidays. Jack and his friend's from Nightmare Before Christmas have taken over the mansion and made it a whole lot less scary for the kids.

Made me realize how close we really are to Christmas. YIKES! That was the scariest thing of all.

Marry Poppins. The girls got to wear their princess dresses I brought from home on our last day. I got them out the night before and let them see them - they were a surprise. Both the girls slept with them that night.

Going down Main Street toward the castle. We bought a stroller for Emily to use since the first day there she made me carry her instead of doing any walking by herself.

Ran into Aladdin after watching the Tiki Room show.

Gwen's before picture at the Bippity Boppity Boutique. It was worth the money to watch her have so much fun listening to her Fairy Godmother-in-Training and sit still to get her hair done.

She didn't even look like my little girl when it was over. She loved it and the hair-do lasted for 4 days until I got grossed out and made her wash it.

Tigger. We had to choose between getting Pooh to sign or Tigger and Eyeore. You can see who my kids and husband chose.

Eyeore. Jonathan's very favorite character.

I dragged, quite literally, Gwen onto Splash Mountain. She was so scared and made me hold her tight but after she declared that it was the funnest ride in Disneyland but she didn't want to go on it again with her daddy.

We went to the Phenius and Ferb dance party and I even got to be a part of it by hoola-hooping it up for all the grown-ups out there. The kids got to learn all kinds of dances.

Jonathan's favorite thing to do was to leave me with the kids doing the little-kid rides while he ran off to ride the grown-up rides by himself. He got to ride all the ones he wanted to and the kids didn't have to wait around while he did. I guess I'll just have to wait a few more years until the girls are both big enough to go on all the big rides with me.

Another Tough Break for Emily

A couple weeks ago at church during nursery Emily broke her leg . . . again. Luckily? It was the other leg. She broke the right one near the ankle in February climbing up our dresser and pulling it on top of herself. This time she injured it in a mystery way since no one seems to know exactly what happened. They think she was jumping off the table and catching other kids doing the same, but who knows. It was actually broken right below the knee but the ER doctor and the orthopedic at Primary Children's missed the break. Not me. My gut told me that it was broken and it was her knee that hurt. The ortho guy said he'd cast it for three weeks to make us feel better but that it was probably overkill. It wasn't until we wen back, that they said they totally missed the break. It had healed just fine but it's no wonder she wouldn't walk in her cast for a couple weeks.

This is Gwen's favorite new toy. Her big wooden castle she got for her birthday. It's just perfect for her little princess toys that she loves to play with. Emily loves playing with it while Gwen's at school.

For our wedding anniversary this year we put a spin on our old classic tradition of going to the fair. We went and saw Weird Al Yankovic at the State Fair. Jonathan loves him and has all his CDs. I promised him that if he ever came to town we'd go see him. Turns out it was perfect timing.

Can't go to a concert without getting a shirt to prove that you did.

Gwen's favorite song of Weird Al's is "Fat" so I got a picture of him in his fat suit just for her.

First Day of Kindergarten & Gwen's Birthday

Last big Lagoon day of the summer. Grandma and most of the grandkids enjoying one last big splash in the summer on our traditional Wednesday afternoon. This summer we tried to get together at our favorite summer spot each week usually on Wednesdays.

Gwen practicing "diving" with a new friend at the pool. I love that she was even more daring this summer, rarely wearing her water wings, but mostly staying where she could touch the bottom. She did practice diving under the water for objects and doing somersaults.

Gwen's first day of kindergarten! Boy was she ready. Her school is only a couple streets away so we usually try walking there. The walk there with her takes about 25 minutes. Without her on the way back, it takes about 15 minutes. She is my little dawdler.

In line (sort-of). There's a lot of boys in her class. None of them very cute she reports.

Meeting her in the hall after her first class. Her impressions were that it wasn't long enough and her teacher, Mrs. Schofield, was very nice.

Gwen was probably the only 4 year-old in her school that first day of class. She turned 5 two days after school started this year. I made her a surprise Tangled cake and we had a beach party with her cousins at Lagoon-a-Beach. Notice Emily's cast. More on that next post.

Summer Pictures: Part 3

One fun thing we got to do this summer was go camping for one night at Tony Grove with the Witkamps. We got to spend more time with my sister Linda and her family this summer than we ever have before. We had spent four days with them in their in-laws condo in St. George for Jonathan's birthday. It was fun to spend time with them. My kids just love their silly cousin, Mason, who can make them laugh harder than anyone on the planet. They both are completely in awe of how good he is about getting shots multiple times a day for his diabetes. Gwen just adores Kim and loves how "grown-up" she is and what a good little artist she is. Emily and Andrew fight like mortal enemies at times. They constantly find little reasons to cry about what the other one is doing, or did, or might sometime in the near future think of doing. You know there's trouble brewing when you here Emily declare "An-rew!" This picture is funny because in the blurry background you can barely make out the little image of my Emily finding a good "pouting spot". She hates getting her hands dirty, but loves a good tantrum. She usually goes for the throw yourself on the floor type of tantrum, but couldn't because of the dirt. Instead she wandered around camp until she found a big enough and clean enough rock to have a tantrum on.

The Hole. I think the kids were convinced that this was a rabbit hole just like the one that Alice fell down. Gwen tried really hard to fall down it. Instead, she settled for taking a picture of it.

Gwen got glasses this summer. Cute, isn't she?

Emily and Andrew right before I'm sure one of them pushed the other off the rock.

I let the kids borrow my camera a couple of times. When we got home I discovered 174 pictures on my camera. About 75 of them were of the campfire and another 50 were of people's butts - thank you Mason. I guess the kids were pretty fascinated by the fire.

Silly cousins, big rock. We had fun playing hide-n-seek around the forest. Luckily, my kids stink at hiding. They tell you were they're hiding and if it takes you more than a moment to find them, they come and get you.

Emily noticed that the woods are full of bugs.

Wow, they're holding hands and not being mean to each other. I just had to capture the moment on film.

Emily the climber. She was not content to walk down a trail on our hikes. She needed to climb up the mountain. That meant that we quickly were left behind most of the time.

There the rest of the group go down the trail. What a pretty lake.

Up and up goes Emily.

Me with a concerned look. I'm sure I was wondering just when the batteries on the camera would die, and just how many pictures I'd have to delete later.

Gwen.

Jonathan.

There are big fields just filled with the prettiest wild flowers you've ever seen. Mason took this picture for me proving that there's more to camping than fires and butts.

The MANY adventures of Winnie the Pooh. For our birthdays' my older sisters' and I had a dinner at the Parker's house. Emily found this giant Winnie the Pooh and took him on many adventures.

If only Andrew and Emily could get along as well as Noah and Gwen do. There are times when Noah gets too rough with Gwen, but they usually have the best times playing with each other. It helps that they're both very imaginative and love close physical contact.

Jonathan and Mason love to play video games together. Jonathan especially loves to help Mason with the Zelda games.

For my birthday we went to Logan and Preston to visit Cookie Grandma (Jonathan's mom) and Farmer Floyd (Jonathan's step-dad). Preston was having their big rodeo and I was super excited for it. I love rodeos. I guess that love has trickled down to Gwen because she also loved the rodeo. She rooted for the cows and yelled at them "Good job for getting that cowboy off". She even liked the rodeo clown, but not his very loud fireworks.

Gwen was riveted the entire time we were there and was sad when we had to leave because it was getting so late. Her favorite part were the rodeo queens - of course. She told me a few weeks later that we would have to go to another rodeo soon, only this time leave Daddy and Emily home because they don't like rodeos. She said she likes rodeos because there's "half a cowgirl and half a princess" inside her.

The only part of the rodeo that Emily really liked was climbing the bleachers - and watching the "jumping horsies" when they came close enough.

During our trip to Logan/Preston, we stopped for the afternoon at the American West Heritage Museum. They have a lot of things to do there. We found some cute little kittens to harass.

A place to lock up the kids.

Some fun wooden toys.

A white peacock.

Some silly pictures.

Ponies.

It was a fun trip and I'm really glad we went up a day early so we could do everything we wanted to. The girls had a sleepover with Cookie Grandma, while Jonathan and I had our first evening away from home without the girls since Gwen was born.

Did I mention that Gwen got new glasses? Just kidding. These are some funny glasses that Daddy bought a couple years ago. Now the girls take turns wearing them and being the dragon while the other is the knight and gets to slay the dragon.

It rained and rained for the first part of the summer. Then it got warm pretty fast. That meant flooding in a lot of fun places, like Murray park. We went there one evening just to get out of the house. We aren't big news watchers so we didn't know it had flooded. I guess the day before we went this park was under a couple feet of water.

There are lots of fun spinning toys. Gwen is fun to get dizzy and watch fall down.

See how high the water still was?

This summer was extra great because Daddy did 90% of the cooking and we just had to show up and eat.

Dinner is always entertaining with these two around.

Swimming and more swimming.

Even swimming in the street. This semi-permanent puddle formed right by our townhouse this summer. Gwen learned how to undo the locks on the door and would escape to do some swimming in her puddle.

Emily eagerly joined in the fun. Ewww. Muddy, filthy, puddle water dripping down your face. This was what I came home to after a run on this particular day. I went inside and asked Jonathan, who was supposed to be watching the girls, if he knew where they were. Yup, he sure did and he was taking advantage of the peace and quiet in the house to surf the internet.

One day, we were getting ready to go somewhere and Gwen asked if she could go play in the puddle. She was wearing a dress, so I asked her not to get her clothes wet and to make sure Emily didn't either because we'd be leaving soon. After a few minutes I went out to collect them and there they were sitting in the puddle - stark naked. Gwen reassured me by pointing to their piles of clothes far from the puddle and saying "we didn't get our clothes wet, Mom." We then spent the afternoon explaining why we don't run around naked outside.

We love to go to the Murray City parade in the morning of the 4th of July. This year we forgot about it and slept in missing the first half of the parade and went without Daddy. We still had fun and this year it wasn't very hot since it was overcast. Emily showing off the fruit of her efforts at the mad candy dash. She would only grab one at a time and then bring it to me to be unwrapped and immediately eaten.

Gwen giving Emily a little advice on candy grabbing technique. We didn't get a lot of candy but we had a lot of fun.