Disney Day 2- California Adventure

On the second day of our park going we went to California Adventure. The weather was perfect again and we got up early and headed to the park. They have a new Frozen Winter Wonderland at California Adventure and we got all kinds of Frozen fun in! When we first got there we went and got Fastpasses to meet Ana and Elsa and then got tickets to see the Frozen Sing Along show. We had a little bit of time before our show started so Dave and Richard went to ride the Tower of Terror and the kids and I went to Bugsland. Quinn loves this splash pad and she played in it forever. I had to make her leave to go ride the rides! 

  

 

Quinn was a little bit of a stinker on this morning and it took some time before she was really into being at the park. She refused to ride Monsters Inc. even though she loves the movie. We finally got her in a good mood after forcing her to ride The Little Mermaid. 

 

 

The Frozen Sing-a-long was really cute and Quinn loved it. Then we headed over to see Ana and Elsa and she was so excited to see them. I love going to Disney and all the magic it brings. 

 

We took a little break for lunch and a band was playing and the kids had a blast. They were dancing and dancing. It was a nice break and fun to see them enjoying themselves. I already want to go back just so I can have a corn dog! 

 

 

 

 

Riding rides with Daddy and Papaw Richard.  

 

  

We had a full day of riding rides, seeing Frozen and we also went to the Aladdin show which was really great! Dave, Richard and Quinn all slept during the show but Leo and I enjoyed it. Disney is so much fun but it is exhausting! 

The parades at Disney are my favorite part I think. I really like the parade at California Adventure. The music is great and the characters are fun. We got a good spot and Dave and Richard held down the fort while Quinn and I went and snuck in a few rides on the flying Zephyr which she also thought was a Miles ride.

Leo loves the parade and Quinn loved seeing the movie characters she loves. Leo is a chick magnet and I think we got more attention from characters then we would have without him, they love him and he hams it up. 

 

 

 

 

  

One of the best parts of the day was going to Carsland at night. We went earlier in the day but I wanted to check it out at night before we left the park. It was fantastic! We rode rides, got snacks from the Cozy Cone shops and also got to dance with a DJ car. Quinn was in love and was dancing in the middle of the street for about 10 minutes. It was a great ending to our day! 

 

 

 

We were at the park from opening to closing again and we were all so tired by the end. I hated to leave because I knew our last day was at Disneyland so this was our day at California Adventure. It is a different park than Disneyland but I enjoy it and we had so much fun. Like always, we are talking about when we can go back! 

Memories are good, life is good 

TDY's are Lame

A couple of weeks ago Dave had to go out of town for work back to back weeks! I know this is not much compared to some of my friends whose husband's are gone all the time but Dave doesn't have to travel very much and this was hard! And of course he had to go when I was still having morning sickness most days. The first week he went to DC to work on some computer program and the second week he was at a base in Florida. Luckily he was able to fly home Friday night and because of a mix up he didn't fly out until early Monday morning. Having him home for the weekend was nice and made the next week easier. I thought I would document some of our adventures while he was gone. 

Quinn and I took a lot of selfies to send to daddy so he knew we missed him. 

At one point I was upstairs with Leo for all of about 5 minutes and when I came downstairs the living room, Quinn and Charlie were covered in baby powder. Here is the thing, I hate baby powder and I don't ever use it. Leo loves to get into their bathroom cabinets and throw everything on the floor. I saw the baby powder a few days before this happened and thought "I should just throw that away because I am sick of picking it up and putting it back in the cabinet." So after I cleaned up this mess and the poor dog, I threw it away!

 

The weekend Dave was home we packed in a lot of fun. We went to our favorite date night place, Twigs, with some of our friends. We ended up sitting outside enjoying delicious food and good conversation for hours. It was a perfect evening to be outside and all we were missing was Ashlee and Jason! 

 

On Sunday we went downtown to enjoy Potbelly's and then to the Aviary. Our friends joined us and Quinn loved playing with Finn. It was perfect weather and we had a great time seeing the birds and hanging out with friends. 

 

The weather when Dave was gone was beautiful (which is crazy because last week it snowed!) and we got to spend a lot of time outside. Leo loves his lawn mower from Aunt Danielle and the bubble maker was a great buy. 

 We did a little lot of shopping while Dave was gone. Some was at the local LDS thrift store. Only in Utah will you find signs like this. It was tempting but I had to pass on this little gem. My LDS knowledge is getting pretty good after our time here.

 

 

Sometimes when Dave is gone dinner is the hardest part of the day for me. I am tired, the kids are tired and we all just want to eat. They both take after me and when we are hungry we are in bad moods. On this particular night I let them have anything they wanted. Leo wanted pizza and Quinn wanted "leaves." 

 

 

My friend brought me a Starbuck's one day (yay!). I was laying on the couch counting down the minutes until bedtime. I could hear Leo in the kitchen and thought he was dumping all the kids dishes out of the drawer and onto the floor, which he does almost everyday. But apparently he was digging in the trash. He came walking into the room, drinking the remainder of my iced mocha. All I could do was laugh because if not, I would have cried! 

And this little gem was sent to me by our amazing babysitter. Luckily I had to work one of the weeks (the other was my spring break) Dave was gone so I got a little break from my darling children. Quinn was being a burrito that day. 

So those are some of the pictures I had on my phone from when Dave was gone. It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. It did make me feel very grateful he is such a wonderful husband and father when he is home because I sure missed him while he was gone! I feel complete admiration for my friends who have husbands deployed or that travel all the time or single moms because it is hard work when you have to do everything on your own! The Saturday after he got back he let me sleep in and I slept until 11, it was amazing! 

kids are good, life is good. 

Disney Day 1

Our first park day we went to Disneyland. Our condo was across the street from the Disneyland Resort Hotel and it didn't take us long to get there at all. We just walked across the street and then walked through Downtown Disney to the park. Monday was a little busy for my liking but since we had been there before we knew our way around and got a lot of rides in! I felt like we were so much more efficient this trip. Quinn was so cute because she remembered so much about the park. Of course, she wanted to ride Dumbo first and I really love starting our morning in Fantasyland because it is the most magical part of the park I think. Leo LOVES the rides and he can ride almost every ride Quinn can. Quinn had to have one of the expensive balloons they sell on Main Street and at first I was against it but I am so glad we bought it the first day of our trip. We tied it to our stroller and we were able to spot our stroller in the sea of strollers in no time because of our purple Mickey balloon. I think this will be something we do every trip to Disney, it really was a time saver and she loved having it attached to our stroller. 

 

Quinn loved riding rides with Papaw Richard and I think he enjoyed Disney also. 

 

   

Of course we got to see a lot of princesses and they all thought Leo was the cutest. We celebrated his birthday our first day there and he got lots of attention from the characters. Quinn gets so excited to see and talk to the princesses, it melts my heart seeing how happy she is. 

 

Quinn loves the tea cups but Leo is not sure of this ride. 

   

 

We had to go to Toon town and Quinn loved riding her favorite Mickey roller coaster. We didn't have to wait long to see Mickey or Minnie and it was nice to have a quick break from the heat while waiting. Leo wants to grab all the characters noses and is just full of smiles when they pay attention to him. 

 

  

 

 

We got so much accomplished before the parade. Quinn got to take a quick nap while we were waiting for it to start. I think the parades are my favorite part of the day. I love all the singing and the kids dance and get so excited when they see the characters they love. Leo is especially attentive during the parades and it is fun to see him dance and smile. 

 

 

 

Quinn currently loves the show Miles in Tomorrow Land so she decided the AstroBlasters ride was actually a Miles ride and we rode it several times. We thought this was a little too fast for Leo (even though he can ride it per Disney standards) so all the adults took turns riding with Quinn. She loves to go up and down and then yells out every time we pass the castle. 

 

This trip we got to ride the Finding Nemo ride (it was closed last time we were there) and at first Quinn was terrified and cried. We tricked her and got in line and then she couldn't change her mind. It was a little claustrophobic for my liking but she absolutely loved it. The ride is pretty cute and I'm glad we got to ride it this time. We also were able to see the Mickey Mouse and the Map show and Quinn loved all the dancing and singing. It was a packed day (we thought we might go home for a nap or not stay all day) and we stayed until parking closing. We finished the day with the evening show Fantasmic. It was amazing and I am glad that we stayed and fought the crowds. Day one was a blast and we walked so much! We got to ride a lot of rides, make lasting memories and even got corn dogs! I absolutely love Disney. I didn't know what all the Disney hype was about but now that we have been twice I am a huge fan! I am so happy when we are there and it is great family time. I am already planning our next trip! 

 

Quinn finished the day by stopping at a souvenir stand to spend her dad's Christmas money from Aunt Danielle. She thought daddy would like sparkly pink Minnie ears and Mickey suckers. The girl at the stand thought she was the cutest and gave us a Cinderella button that we didn't have yet. Day one was in the books and we were ready for day 2 at California Adventure and all the Frozen Fun. 

Memories are good, life is good