Happy Place

We had another magical trip to Disneyland this spring. We went with my entire family to celebrate Dan's graduation from Chiropractic school. He is now a Doctor!! I am so proud of him and this trip was a great way to celebrate with our family.

We are Disneyland junkies. I wish I could go every week. I know people say, "You would get sick of it", but I really don't think I would I love it!! I don't know if I will love it as much when I have to drag my own screaming children around the park, but I am sure I will do it.

I am NOT a morning person, but I love being in the park in the mornings. On our first day we were there before the park opened and we got to stand at the rope at the end of Main Street and do the countdown to the park opening. It was so awesome to walk to our first ride and walk right on two times with no lines. The park is quiet, peaceful and beautiful in the morning. It is totally worth getting out of bed for.

We had fun meeting some of our favorite Disney friends. I still love meeting characters and it was really fun to see the little kids interact with them. Dawson made this funny sideways smile every time he met a character. It was really cute.

We met Tink and her friend Terrence. I don't know if I like him. He was a little strange. I think I like girl fairies better. (I just had to google his name because I didn't know it)

This Mickey was so cute! He felt sad that I didn't have any pins with Mickey on them, but I have lots of Minnie! Dan didn't have his pins on, but Mickey insisted he put them on and show him his pins.

Minnie!!

Jessie!

Dan's favorite...Donald!

Mr. Incredible....look at my guns! Mr. I was jealous!

I love how Dawsie is holding Mickey's hand in this picture. Very cute!

Another great thing about Disneyland is the delicious food, beverage and TREATS that we got to devour! Dad and I enjoyed a delicious ice cream cone almost every night!

We enjoyed the Dole Whip several times as well. This it the most delicious treat and you can only get it at Disneyland and the Dole Plantation in Hawaii. It is so refreshing and smooth and delicious.

I love the food at Disneyland. I think it has improved leaps and bounds since I was a kid. When I was growing up it seems like it was mainly hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. Now they have so much fabulous food. My very favorite is the Sonoma Chicken and Apple Salad at the Pacific Wharf Cafe in California Adventure. It is a delicious salad that is served in a fresh sourdough bread bowl. I could eat this salad everyday of my life.

We camped out to get good seats for the Pixar Play Parade!

Here is the whole gang (minus me taking the picture). We really enjoyed being together. It is definitely a little trickier to navigate 15 of us around the park, but it was so fun to be together and enjoy the magic of Disneyland as a family.

My mom was having a lot of problems with her back and her knee and she was really worried about walking around the park all day. She did it the first day and was feeling pretty crappy. Dan and I took turns wearing a pedometer and we walked at least 9 miles everyday!! So, on the second day Dan went and rented a wheelchair for my mom. She had to drop her pride and sit down and enjoy the ride. Dan Pushed her for three days! I even got to have a ride after she went home one night!

Here are all the kiddos. We love these kids SO much. It was so fun to see each of them enjoy different things about Disneyland.
This is Dan and Olivia. She was such a good baby!!When she smiles she sticks out her tongue and it is very cute.

Ellie was a real cutie! She loves princesses and Tinkerbell and it was fun to see her excitement.

Dawsie! He LOVED Buzz Lightyear. He is still saying to his mommy, "I need to go shoot Zurg with laser!"

Jenna and Emma! The middle kids! What beautiful girls!

Kelsey and Jordan. The OLD kids! Kels is getting TC (too cool) for some stuff, but I still love her! Jordan just wanted to go on Space Mtn. and all the other fast rides.

Here we are. We LOVE Disneyland. We will probably be back many, many times over the next 50 years! (i hope)

Life

Life is returning to our neck of the woods. I love spring in Oregon because it always comes in February. It has been a beautiful week. The flowers are slowly making their way out of hibernation. The birds are chirping in the mornings. The days are slowly getting longer and it feels as if the earth is coming back to life after a long winters nap.

It has been nice to have spring this week to put a little sunshine in our souls. On Sunday we found out that our dear friends lost their four day old baby. There were complications with his birth and he spent four days on this earth before returning home to our Father in Heaven. We have shed many tears and our hearts are aching for them. We wish we could be there to support them during this difficult time. (They live in Utah) I am so grateful that I know we can have eternal families and I know our friends will be with their son again. They are the salt of the earth and I know they will get to be with their son for eternity. Even though we did not meet him or hold him we know he is a special spirit with a special mission. The spring flowers have reminded me that even after death their is life. It is because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we can one day be resurrected and live in eternal glory.

I hope that spring comes soon wherever you are and it reminds you of the gift of earthly and eternal life.

Thirty

Dan celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this month. He is now an old man! We celebrated by watching the Super Bowl (his birthday just happened to land on the same day....lucky guy!!) and my sister's family decorated the house with lots of 30's. There were 30's hanging from the ceiling, the walls and he got lots of 30 presents.








As you can see Dan loves his nieces and nephew and they sure do love him! We are so lucky that we live close to my sister and we love their kids. They bring us so much joy! I wanted to do something really big to celebrate the big 30, but my plans kept getting messed up. Dan kept insisting all he wanted was to watch the Super Bowl and hang out with the family, so that is what we did.



Yes, we made sure there were 30 candles on the cake. He did need a little help blowing them out!









I did get him a new watch and I know I did well, because a week later he is still telling me how much he likes it. Don't forget to notice his necklace of 30 paper clips!!

I love you Danny!

Twenty-Ten

Doesn't it feel like just yesterday we were "gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine"? It makes me feel old to think that it is twenty-ten. We finished off the holidays by celebrating in style...

We made some gorgeous hats out of news print, tempera paints, feathers and pipe cleaners. (can you tell that I am a preschool teacher?!)

We played a rousing game of charades...

We partook of a fabulous fondue dinner and dessert!

Then we rang in the new year with LOTS of confetti, cheering, running outside to catch a glimpse of the fireworks, a kiss and a hug and a New Years toast!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!