Disneyland ’07

We had such a fun, hot, full, exhausting day at Disneyland yesterday! Rob was able to get a small discount through his office so we went for the park hopper passes. That meant we could also spend some time at California Adventure. I was very ready for a long miserable time in the lines. After all it was Disneyland in August, the height of the tourist season, on a Saturday.

We were surprised that it wasn’t nearly as bad as we had feared. There was a constant line at the new Finding Nemo submarine ride, and it was a 2 hour wait both times we checked in on it. It wouldn’t be worth it, especially in 95 degree weather with humidity that reminded us of North Carolina. So maybe next time. We did however hit a whole lot of other rides: Splash Mountain (my favorite of the day), tea cups, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, Carousel, Toon Town, Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Honey I Shrunk the Audience… etc, etc.

The highlight of the day for Sabrina seemed to be at lunch when a worker bee was hunting for food at our table. She loved the little bug, and kept laughing and trying to catch him as both Emma and Ciel squirmed and swished their hands quickly whenever it came near. She’s got a strong beekeeper’s gene from both sides of the family and it was fun to watch her enjoying the bees. Maybe we’ll get her a beehive for her second birthday 🙂

Ciel had a great time on her first visit to the park, and she seemed so happy walking around in her pirate goofy hat all day! Emma and Hunter kept arguing over who would sit next to her on the rides, so she was a popular addition to the family!

We walked over to California Adventure at dinner time and it was so empty! We loved it because there were no crowds to navigate through and no lines. A Bug’s Land was a great area with lots of rides that we could take everyone on including Sabrina. And the best part of all was literally no waiting! Amazing!

We did have a little trouble at the Ferris Wheel that was a much longer wait than anticipated so unfortunately those waiting for it missed the Electric parade. Hannah, Sabrina and I were able to catch most of it, and Hannah waved at the characters the whole time and just loved the princesses. Especially Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After the parade we went back to Disneyland and caught the last of the fireworks show and hit one last ride. By then it was almost 11:00 so we packed it up and headed home. This morning it was tough to get up for 9:00 am church, but we made it, and on time too!

Everyone had such a blast and I hope there were lots of good memories for the kids!

Utah Visit Part 1: Cousins!

Our kids were in cousin heaven on our trip to Utah! There are 15 cousins to play with when we all get together. There were visits to cousins houses, gatherings at Mammy & Pappy’s condo (I’m sure their neighbors just love us), a field trip to an indoor Soft Playground, sharing slushies from Mark & Mel’s “Slushy Kingdom” and rides in the big white 15 passenger van. And this is just part one!

Rob and I had a great time chatting and catching up with everyone while the kids played, and the week just flew by. We’re so glad we made the trip, and tried to brainwash all the kids into begging their parents to come visit us next. Click here for the complete set of photos from part one!

Newport Beach

On Monday night, after Rob got home from work, we took the family to Newport Beach. This is Ciel’s first visit to the ocean (not counting Guam where she was born). Everyone had lots of fun chasing the waves and collecting seashells. We’re so lucky to live close to the beach (only a 15 minute drive away). I’m not sure how often we’ll go, though, since we’re still working on getting the sand out of everything! For more pictures of our beach adventure with Ciel, check out our gallery.

Home Church

We’re home from our trip to Utah! It took us 14 hours to make the trip home, and we brought our cousin Ciel back with us too. She’ll stay with us for the next 10 days and we hope to show her a little bit of the Southern California sights. I know she’s glad she gets to fly home and doesn’t have to make that long drive again! We were all so exhausted from the drive and just couldn’t get up and ready for 9:00 church. We did have a nice “Home Church” though. We have had Home Church a few times in the past when we’ve had a large group of visitors or a lot of sickies in the family and it’s usually a good compromise.

Today we read and discussed Ether Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 3. It is all about how the Lord helps us solve our problems. The story is of the brother of Jared who was directed to build barges to cross the ocean to the promised land. He built the boats and found that there were two problems because of their design (Ether 2: 16-17). The first was that there was no way to get fresh air from the outside. The brother of Jared told the Lord he was worried that they would die without any air. The Lord then told him just what he needed to do: Go put one hole in the top and another in the bottom that you can plug closed. Open the hole that is above water to get fresh air and if the boat turns and water starts coming in, close it up again.

The second problem was that there was no light in the boats, to which the Lord answered- You’re right, you can’t have windows that would break and you can’t build fire inside the barges either. What do you want me to do to help you solve this problem? The brother of Jared then went and made glass-like stones out of melted rock and brought them to the Lord telling Him that he knew the Lord could give them light by touching them. The Lord did touch them and they did give the light needed in the barges.

We discussed some reasons why Heavenly Father would want us to come to a solution on our own and then come to Him with our ideas. We shared stories of problems that we have faced where the solution came right away, or only came after we did some work for it. As a parent I can appreciate this gospel lesson even more. There are times when I as mother do the same thing. Some problems get an immediate answer and other problems get the answer: What do you want me to do?

Mini Golf

We had so much fun going to play miniature golf together!

The crew pauses for a photo.

Emma got a little frustrated a few times while trying to master her putt.

Hannah just picked up her ball when she felt like she was done and put it wherever she wanted.

Sabrina was a great cheerleader.

Hunter was our dedicated score keeper.

How It Should Have Ended

Ok, here’s a random post with a couple of funny videos. Credit goes to our friend, Heather from One Woman’s World, for first tipping us off to these. I thought they were really fun and had to post a couple of my favorites. There are more videos (and better resolution) at their website, HowItShouldHaveEnded.com. It’s amazing what you can do with a lot of talent and a lot of time on your hands. Enjoy!

Willy Wonka
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsE0UOz1uw4

Superman
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yavK0mnE3wI

True Princesses

The other day Hannah was all dressed up in her purple princess outfit and just couldn’t wait to “play princess” with Sabrina. She grabbed a dress from the dress-ups and as she ran upstairs said, “I gonna play sisess wif Beena.” She ran into Sabrina’s room, where she was still enjoying an unusually long nap, all excited and started jumping up and down yelling, “wake up Beena, tine a play sisess!” When Sabrina finished waking up we got her dressed and they posed for these pictures.

The whole princess obsession has reminded me of one of my favorite stories about a feisty princess that isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. It’s The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and Amazon summarizes it like this:

“Elizabeth, a beautiful princess, lives in a castle and wears fancy clothes. Just when she is about to marry Prince Ronald, a dragon smashes her castle, burns her clothes with his fiery breath, and prince-naps her dear Ronald. Undaunted and presumably unclad, she dons a large paper bag and sets off to find the dragon and her cherished prince. Once she’s tracked down the rascally reptile, she flatters him into performing all sorts of dragonly stunts that eventually exhaust him, allowing her to rescue Prince Ronald. But what does Prince Not-So-Charming say when he sees her? “You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess.” In any case, let’s just say that Princess Elizabeth and Prince Ronald do not, under any circumstances, live happily ever after.”

My favorite part of the story is where Elizabeth tells Prince Ronald that he is a bum, and then happily runs off into the sunset. I like that the princess is smart and strong and won’t allow herself to settle for a loser of a prince… I know it’s a bit of a stretch using this as my Sunday Thought, but I always enjoy an empowering children’s story!