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!

 

Halloween

Pumpkin carving, costumes, and candy = Halloween!

 

I love the pumpkin carving part of Halloween, don't ask why, I'm not that creative in my designs.  I just love that part.  Garrett and Gannon were very excited this year to carve also.  We had 4 pumpkins to carve so we got to work scooping out the guts!

 

In my non-creativeness I decided that I'd try some type of SF Giants design because I knew Garrett would be thrilled with that...and he was.  I did an SF in one of the larger pumpkins and he thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  Of course as soon as I did this he named the other pumpkins.  One of the Giants manager and one a player. 

 

Dave loves the trick-or-treating part of Halloween so he started the boys for the night so I could finally meet Kendra's new baby.  I met up with them later for a few more rounds of houses and they did a great job using their manners while trick-or-treating.  It was a fun night.

 

Kinder Morning

I decided to take Halloween off of work and spend a few hours with Garrett in his kindergarten class.  His teacher had pumpkin carving and other Halloween activity station planned and was happy to have another volunteer!  We spent the first part of the morning carving pumpkins and man some of these little people are very good with carving knives, I was scared!  Mrs. Waldron took them to another room for story time while the Mom's cleaned up and set up for the activity stations.  Garrett teacher had a create a spider station, pin the face on the jack-o-lantern, pumpkin bowling, and Halloween bingo set up.  It was in charge of the bingo and it was fun to play with the little guys. 

 

As a teacher I know how much work it takes to coordinate a smooth class day and not to mention for a holiday of activities.  I was totally impressed and VERY happy that Mrs. Waldron is Garrett's teacher.  Everything was VERY organized and the transitions from one activity to another were very smooth.  All the kids were very respectful and polite. 

 

I'm SO happy with my years of stress of wanting Garrett to go to Chenoweth, our move to the correct neighborhood, and my decision to switch high schools to make it all possible.  I LOVE everything about Chenoweth!

 

Chenoweth Carnival

Any reason to get an extra wear out of our costumes works for us!  Gannon wanted to be Spiderman again this year so what the heck I saved us the $30 bucks on a new costume and let him.   Garrett wanted to be Captain America so we grabbed that at Costco and were set. 

 

Garrett's school was having a carnival with food, games, and treats so we headed down the street for some fun.  Since Dave was still away at Nationals we invited Grandma Nancy to join us for the event.  The boys had a great time playing games, going on a hay ride, and just being silly boys.  Garrett was brave to go in the "Haunted House" and when he realized it wasn't scary wanted to go again, until a little girl hid and jumped out at him.  He was screaming scared!  NOT cool!

 

Overall, it was a fun evening.

 

Using Your Words Away

Garrett was recognized for being the student that always "Uses His Words".  It was a cute assembly and fun to see how excited this little guys get when recognized and are given a free book!  Garrett was calm and collected at school, but talked about his award from the time he knew he was getting it! He is a great kid and Grandma Nancy and I went to watch him get his award!