Count down to Christmas, Reader Style!

We loves books at our house and I'd seen a cool idea on Pinterest to do a book Advent Calendar with the kids.  So I bought 25 children's books and wrapped them up.  Each night before bed Garrett and Gannon took turns picking a book from the basket.  It was fun to have a new bed time story every night as we counted down for Christmas. 

 

Ornament Tradition

Before leaving for our Thanksgiving Disneyland trip the boys and I decorated for Christmas with the exception of the tree so that when we got home all we had to do was the tree.  Following our tradition we each had a new ornament wrapped and ready to open for this event! 

 

What other than a Giants ornament would have been appropriate for Garrett this year....NONE!  Gannon opened a cute airplane, Dave an FFA one, and I got a gondola from Lake Tahoe!  The boys had a blast remembering ornaments from previous years and the story behind them.  Making the reasoning behind the tradition so meaningful and our collection of ornaments huge!  Decorating the tree is always fun for all! Maybe in years to come a small tree in their room might be in order!  We'll see. 

 

Disneyland

Two full days of Disneyland....

 

Tons of ride, characters, and fun.  Our little family has always been early to rise so being at the park for an 8 am open was easy.  Disneyland actually opens the park prior to 8 am which is nice to beat the entrance line, pick up a stroller rental, and be at then entrance to a "land" right at 8.  If you wait to do all of this until 8 you don't beat the crowds and lines for rides take much longer.  So each morning we left the hotel around 7:15 allowing for time to rent a stroller and get into the park.  We no longer have a stroller in our possession and felt the renting one was a good idea to "save" energy for the boys and also create ease of getting around the park at our adult speed instead of their child speed.  I would recommend this to parents of little children that do not have a stroller! 

 

By the time the crowds hit the park around 9:30-10 we were easily 4-5 rides in!  We planned to hit the "popular" rides during this time of day each day so that we didn't have to wait in huge lines.  This was also about the time the rest of the family made it to the park which is when we hit the smaller rides that Jack could join on.  With kids at different ages/schedules it was hard to stay together, but we did get a few hours each day as one big group which was fun.  It was hard to use fast passes without the entire group in the park at the same time, so once one group had them and the rest didn't you were automatically split again when half went to use them.  Which happened a couple times on the second day.   Dave's not the roller coaster guy so he took the boys back to the hotel both nights around 9 and I stayed in the park with my parents and sister one night and Shane and Jasmine the second night to ride the really big kid rides. 

 

The longest ride we waited for was the Cars ride and that was about an hour wait.  This ride was totally worth that wait.  There was another family behind us that the parents split, one waiting in the line for the ride, the other for a fast pass.  Each equally as long of a ride, the dad made it to the ride after getting a fast pass right as his family was boarding.  This would be the only way to ride Cars twice in one day, otherwise the line is too long (2+ hours).  I would do this next time! 

 

It was a super fun trip and I can only imagine the boys wanting to ride every single ride next time.  There were very few they didn't/couldn't ride this time. 

 

Sneak Peak of Mickey!

We left Dave's Mom's mid morning on Wednesday to head for Disneyland with my family. My parents decided they were going to treat all us kids & grand kids to Thanksgiving and the Friday after with Mickey. After a LONG 3 1/2 hour drive that took 6 hours we checked into our hotel room and took the shuttle to check out Downtown Disney. As we walked between the entrances to Disneyland and California Adventure we (Dave and I) got the sudden itch to go in early. It was around 5 and we had an extra pass that was already paid for so we decided to splurge on a few more tickets into the park. It was a fast, fun, impromptu night at Disneyland! We rode Splash Mountain first and little did we know that we would ride this one 6 more times because it was quickly the boys favorite ride! 

 

As the boys grew tired, Gannon fell and hit his eye on someones stroller brake and that's when we decided to call it a night! 

 

 

Playing with My New Toy

Over Thanksgiving break we were heading to Disneyland so we decided to visit Dave's family on our way to.  It is always fun to hang out with Dave's Mom and sisters (and their families!).  Shannon loves to have the boys all to her self which always means we get Mommy/Daddy time which is AWESOME!  We did a few Christmas shopping things that I needed to get done and took Dave's Mom on a dinner/movie date, a bonus for all of us!!! 

 

We have been talking about getting a new camera so Dave bought me an early Christmas present while in San Luis so we could take great pictures on our trip.  I love my new camera and it's nice to have good, clear pictures! 

 

One of our stops in San Luis is always the bookstore and this trip was no different in the stopping, but Garrett discovered that he can sit and read a whole book all by himself!  It was cute to see him get so excited that he can read a book all alone!  Gosh, I only hope his enthusiasm for learning could stay this strong all through college!

 

Pictures of our trip & testing out the new camera!