California-Day 3

*Woke up again at 4:30 thanks to the little man, but luckily Colin is very thoughtful and took him out for a drive so Hayden and I could sleep.
*Ate breakfast at Denny's with Dean and Megan
*Made our way to Disneyland and saw that it was going to be incredibly crowded!!!
*Spent the first half of the day in Fantasy Land. We did Snow Whites scary ride, Pinocchio ride, tea cups, met Rapunzel and her prince promoting their new movie "Tangled."
*Spent some time in Toon Town. I think that day we only got to meet Goofy and Eeyor.
*It was really crowded, but luckily it was our first day so we just wanted to do the smaller/less popular rides with Hayden anyway, so it wasn't too bad for us.
*It was great because we could take Carson on almost every ride Hayden went on. He loved them all and he really loved all the characters too. He just wanted to grab them, he wasn't scared at all!!
*That evening for dinner we ate at The Blue Bayou. It is the restaurant you can see when you are just starting Pirates of the Caribbean. It was really cool to eat there, the atmosphere is awesome!!!! The food was great too. We all really liked it except Hayden who said her macaroni and cheese tasted like "poop!"
*Probably my favorite part of Disneyland was seeing all the characters. I really didn't think we were going to see that many, but we saw A TON!!!! It was so fun watching Hayden look at them and talk to them, especially the Princesses. In her mind they were the real deal!!
Eating breakfast at Denny's. See that "awesome" look on her face...that is what we had to deal with during family pictures!! :) But luckily I just got them back and that look didn't make it into any of our pictures.
Already shopping for souvenirs and we had only made to Denny's!

Riding the Old Steam boat.

Carson and Pirate Mickey.

Locked up in Toon Town jail.


Meagan is the only one who would ride the Tea Cups with her.
One of MANY naps in the stroller.


Outside of Rapunzel's house.
Waiting for the snow white ride.


Drinking her $6 chocolate milk at the Blue Bayou.

California 2010-Day 1

We just got back yesterday from our 10 day vacation. It was amazing and I really want to remember everything, so I am going to try to blog about each day. The thought of writing/editing that much is a little overwhelming for me, so I think I will just do it in bullet format.

Day 1
*We left our house around 1:00 and by the time we got to Santaquin we had already stopped twice for food and bathroom breaks. We thought it was going to be a long trip, but that stretch was the worst of the whole trip. I think our kids are the best travelers. Carson really never cried in the car the entire trip and Hayden just sat back there and played, read books, colored, sang. I think she only watch maybe two movies the whole time!! I was very proud of them!!
*Made it to St. George with no problems!!
*Met up with Chris at Maverick for about an hour. Kids had a great time crawling around in the back of his truck.
*Drove on to Las Vegas where we stayed the La Quinta(horrible hotel, I recommend never staying there)
*Hayden was pretty fascinated with all the lights and big hotels of Vegas.

Day 2
*Carson woke up at 4:30 am and did not want to go back to bed
*Packed up and headed back on the road
*Stopped in Barstow at the train station McDonalds/gift shop. Very dirty and very crowded. Mostly just hung out in the car.
*Got to Long Beach about noon.
*Met up with Tiffany, Greg and Gavin who just happened to be going to Long Beach too!
*Walked around, ate lunch, met a pirate, met up with Dean & Meagan and decided to tour the Queen Mary cruise ship.
*Did the ghost tour on the ship. They took us to the boiler room where a fireman got trapped and killed, to the swimming pool(very cool), and to the front of the ship which at some point hit another boat and killed 300 men. They say their ghosts are still haunting the ship.
*After that tour we just walked around and saw the rest of the ship.
*Saw a celebrity!!! On the way down I told Colin I wanted to see someone famous, so after that he kept tricking me saying he just saw a celebrity pass by and I missed them. He did that about three times and then we were walking on the ship and he turned around and told me there really was a celebrity coming up behind us, so I turned around and sure enough it was the guy from 'Supernatural', and for any of you Days of our Lives fans about eight years ago he played Eric sammies twin brother. I was pretty excited, for some reason I think it is pretty cool to see famous people!!
*After the Queen Mary we checked into our hotel...the Quality Inn right by Disneyland(another hotel I would avoid).
*Walked to Downtown Disney looking for somewhere to eat, but everything was too busy, so we just went across the street and ate at Tony Romas(they have an excellent Asian Salad!!)
*Went back to our hotel and crashed.

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Hayden's 3rd Birthday Party

We had a really fun birthday party for Hayden this year. It was just a family party again this year, but with how fast Colins family is growing there was a pretty big crowd. The theme was Dora the Explorer so we had the kids go on a little adventure. We started off by saying it was time to put the candles, but before we could get them on Swiper the Fox (aka Dean) ran in and swiped the candles. I dont have a picture of this, but I will post a video. Hayden was pretty much terrified of Swiper and was literally shaking. It was kind of sad, but she recovered quickly and now that is one of the main things she talks about!! So after Swiper swiped the candles we handed out little backpacks and a map. There first stop was Crocodile lake (kiddie swimming pool) where they had to save the rubber duckies by throwing rings around them. The next part was crossing the bridge. The Grumpy Old Troll made and appearance and make them solve a riddle and then they had to cut through the net to get to the other side. Finally they got to Sleeping Bear cave where they had to wake up the sleeping bear who was sleeping on the a treasure box full of candy and the candles.
After that we did a pinata and opened presents and ate cake.
I made one of these pom poms and hated it so Colin did the rest. His turned out so much better than mine!!

Aneika, Hayden, Gavin, Jack, Kyle and Drew. All cousins!!We gave her this Belle dress and she got Beauty and the Beast from my parents so here she is watching Belle dressed as Belle...heaven!!!