Christmas 2011

It was very late on Christmas Eve when we got back but we made it.  After quickly unpacking the van we decided it was time for bed.  Dakota decided it would be best to spend the night by the tree so that she could try to catch the big red man.

We hung up our stockings.  I love the new initials that I found for the stockings.  They are glittery gold and remind me that my children truly are a dream come true.

I thought I would show you just how big my little puppy has gotten.  He is full grown now but he is still a puppy.  He was having fun with all the wraping everywhere.

Lizzie and her severed head.  She loves telling people that's what she got for Christmas.  It is a maniqin head for her to practice hair styles on.

Rebecca's favorite color is lime green so she just loved this t-shirt.

Dakota had a "Christmas Story" moment.  All she asked Santa for (each and every time she met with him) was a telescope.  She wanted one so bad she could hardly stand it.  All the presents had been opened and there was no sign of her telescope.  What a trooper she was.  She said she would just ask for it for her birthday.  But just then a surprise package was pulled out of the closet with Dakota's name on it and sure enough it was her very own telescope.  She was so happy she began to cry.  I'm so glad she is so happy.

Megan just loves her new abacus from Daddy.

Alex got a bowling set and wouldn't put it down.  He loves setting up the pins and then knocking them down again and again.



A Christmas morning family picture.





Beach Bums

On Saturday morning we had to head back home.  It was Christmas Eve and we wanted to be able to spend Christmas with CJ.  Before we left though we had to stop at the ocean.  You can't be that close to the ocean and not spend some time there.  The girls were too little the last time they ever saw the ocean to remember it so they were definitely excited.  I wasn't sure what Alex and Megan would think.  The day was much warmer than the previous days so it was the perfect day to be there.  Not that it was warm enough to swim but it was really nice.

This is where our sea gulls go to winter.  They were everywhere just waiting for a tourist to throw them something to eat and then they would swarm the tourist and fight for the food.  I don't think I would be so foolish as to provoke the birds to attack me.

There were a few pelicans as well.  I had no idea how HUGE pelicans are.  They were really fun to watch.

The ocean is so beautiful.  I forgot how much I just love to listen to the waves crash against the shore.  I could easily become a beach bum and just spend my days and nights on the beach listening to the sounds of the birds and waves.

Rebecca just quietly walked around on the beach making foot prints in the sand and watching the waves wash them away.

Dakota was in treasure hunt heaven.  She spent all her time hunting and digging for shells.  She found some interesting ones that she was very proud of.

Lizzie had fun just watching the two little ones experience the beach.  She showed them how to write their names in the sand and how the water washed away their footprints.

Megan and Alex playing in the biggest sand box ever.

They really loved their time at the ocean.

Everybody is busy doing their own things.

Walking out on the pier and having fun walking over the water.





Everyone really enjoyed their time on the beach but none more so than Alexander.  He loved everything about the sand, and water, and birds, and well...everything.  He seemed to be right in his element.  A fun game to play on the beach is to stand a few feet past the water line toward the ocean and wait for the next wave to roll in and see if you can run backwards fast enough to not get wet.  I got Dakota, Megan, and Alex to stand beyond the water line and as the next wave rolled in I told them to run.  Dakota and Megan ran away from the water but Alex was so excited because mom just gave him permission to run right in to the water.  He took off running into the water like a bullet with the biggest smile on his face.  I hated to take him away from the ocean when it was time to go.

Digging in the sand.

Alex thought he would eat some of that yummy looking sand. 

By the time we left he was almost completely covered in sand, but as you can see, he loved every minute of it.  He even took his shoe off and started filling it up with sand. 

While everyone else enjoyed time on the pier, Xander and I enjoyed some quiet time under the pier just watching the waves crash against the posts.





After enjoying the ocean, Grandma and Grandpa took us to a little ice cream shop and we enjoyed ice cream on the beach before packing back into the van and heading home.

It was a fun filled three days.  What a special time we had together spending Christmas Eve on the beach.

Disneyland Part 4

The second day was going to be spent in California Adventure Park.  It had some new rides that we were looking forward to as well but the one thing that we absolutely didn't want to miss was World of Color.  Since California Adventure didn't open for an hour after Disneyland and to get good seating for World of Color (which required a fast pass) I went and stood in line at California Adventure while my parents took the kids back to Disneyland for an hour or so to meet as many princesses as they could, which due to lines again wasn't as many as they had hoped, but they had a much better time than just standing in line and they got more autographs in their books.

Ariel

Belle

Tinker Bell

 California Adventure was just as fun as Disneyland but we were split up more so I didn't get as many pictures.

This was the Bugs Life show.  The movie was in 3-D but it also had many other features which made the movie seem real.  Megan said that she didn't like that one because it was too scary.  I loved it.

 One ride that I had heard of that was a must ride was the "Toy Story" ride.  We waited in the really long line and were so glad we did.  It is hard to describe but it was so much fun!  It was so fun that it was the only ride we waited in the long line a second time for.

What a "blast"!  Lizzie and Alex on the "Toy Story" ride.

Waiting in line for "Toy Story".

My dad and his Buzz Lightyear hat.

After "Toy Story" it was time to get in line for World Of Color.  I think everyone in the world was there so we didn't get as great of a spot as we hoped (not by any trees this time) but we were able to see the show and it was incredible!  After the show the little ones were ready for bed again so everyone but Lizzie Rebecca and I went back to bed.  The girls and I went on several rides over and over because the lines were so short and we had so much fun.  The last thing we wanted to do was to ride the Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas one last time. 

The decorations on this one were also really cool after dark.  We just had so much fun together.  I was so sad knowing that once we left we weren't coming back.  I can not thank my parents enough for such a wonderful Christmas surprise that made such wonderful memories for us all.

Disneyland Part 3

Night was quickly coming on.  The wind was not letting up and we were freezing.  I didn't think Southern California could get that cold.

Megan wasn't going to let the cold stop her.

The line to Dumbo was way too long during the day so they settled for just flying on Dumbo's nose.

After dark the line to Dumbo was really short so we actually got to ride it.

I am very afraid of heights so I never really wanted to go on the Dumbo ride (plus I thought I would be too big for it) but Alex wanted to go so I decided to bite the bullet and ride Dumbo for the first time.  I'm very glad I did.

After Dumbo we wanted to go on the Tea Cup ride.  This is one the girls had been looking forward to all day but because of long lines we kept passing it up.  When the lines got short we rode this one just for them...again and again.



I told Alex to put his hands up while it was spinning to make it more fun.  He was so funny to watch as he tried to make sense of the world going round and round.

 Everything was lit up even more beautifully at night.  It really looked like we were in a story book.

Sleeping Beauty's castle in the day.

Sleeping Beauty's castle at night.



It's A Small World...of lights.



Dakota still loves to talk about the tree that has over 2000 huge ornaments on it.

Around 9:30pm everyone started getting tired.  It had been a long day of trying to pack as much as possible into it.  My parents took Dakota, Megan, and Xander back to the hotel while I stayed at the park with Lizzie and Rebecca riding everything we could until it closed at midnight.



All worn out.

Dreaming about Princesses.

Last part coming tomorrow.

Disneyland Part 2

After the ride on "It's A Small World" we thought we would take a break and watch the afternoon Christmas parade.  We found a spot on some stairs right at the beginning of the parade.  I sat on the stairs and let the two little ones go up and down the stairs to get their energy out (they had been riding in the stroller while we did all the walking...lucky ones.)  The wind had been really strong all day which made it colder than expected but we weren't going to let it spoil our day.  About 10 minutes before the parade was to begin a huge gust of wind came and we heard the tree we were sitting next to crack.  It was a very eery sound.  I looked up to see what had happened to the tree but really didn't see anything.  A few minutes later the lady standing next to me told me that I should probably move because there was a branch on the tree right above my head that was about to fall.  At first I thought that she was over exaggerating and I was not going to worry about it but something inside told me to at least get up and see what she was talking about.  I got up and looked at the branch.  I couldn't believe it.  There was a branch just dangling by a thread threatening to fall at any minute right above my head.  Honestly I couldn't believe it hadn't fallen already.  The next gust of wind came up and my whole family realized we were in danger because that branch was swaying very hard and we knew that if it were to fall it would be on top of us and it would become a very bad scene.  I quickly looked around to count my kid's heads to make sure that we had all gotten out of the way but I couldn't spot Alex.  I saw him on the edge on the stairs just watching the crowd right beneath the dangling limb.  I quickly grabbed him and pulled him out of the way and just like in the movies at the very moment we were out of the way the branch came crashing down.  There were many screams and a lot of people scrambling.  I remember seeing the sharp edge of the branch fall right between my dad and the lady that had warned me of the danger. I thought for sure that it had seriously injured my dad and that lady.  I also thought about my mom who moments before was standing right in front of my dad and would have been directly under the heavy part of that branch.  The employees rushed over to make sure that no one had gotten hurt.  I braced for the worst as I quickly found each family member and asked if they were all right.  I couldn't believe it but not a single person was injured.  Then I got a really good look at the branch.  It was actually larger than we had originally thought.

The picture doesn't show it really well but that limb was about 3 inches in diameter, very heavy, and the point at the end was very sharp.  It was that point that I saw fall directly between my dad and that lady only inches in front of me and Alex.  It would have been like getting hit hard with an axe.  That's why I was surprised that there weren't any injuries.  When the dust settled from the first branch falling we all looked up to see a second branch about to fall.  With the direction the wind was blowing there was a good chance it would have landed on us as well.  In fact when it finally did fall it landed directly on top of the other branch.

The parade was suspended and an announcement went out over the loud speaker that due to unforeseen circumstances the parade would be delayed until further notice.  After about 40 minutes of delay an engineer finally surveyed the tree and said that it was safe to resume the parade as long as there was nobody within 10 feet of the tree.  We tried to watch the parade and put the events of what just happened behind us.  I had Alex on my shoulders so I couldn't take pictures.  I looked at my dad who takes more pictures than I do in hopes that he was able to get the pictures I couldn't.  To my amazement he wasn't taking a single picture.  I told him I would take pictures and handed Alex to my mom. 

I couldn't wait to see Alex's face and ask him if he liked the parade that we had waited so long to see.  What I didn't realize is that about a minute after the parade started he had fallen asleep on my shoulders.  Poor little guy was absolutely exhausted and missed the whole parade.  After the parade I asked my dad why he didn't take any pictures and he said that he couldn't raise his hand to take any pictures because then the employees would have seen him bleeding.  WHAT?!



Apparently the tree had indeed hit him on the hand.  He just didn't want to say anything because he didn't want a big deal made out of it.  My mom and I kept trying to tell him that he needed to tell someone so that he could have it looked at but he refused.  It was actually worse than this.  After he had cleaned his hand up the first time I snuck a picture of his injury when he wasn't looking.  He joked about that being how close we came to being seriously injured or killed by that tree.  I didn't find it funny at first because I was so worried about him but after a while we were all able to laugh at it.

I know that the limb was not being held on by a thread but by angles just waiting for me to get off my kiester and get me and my kids out of the way so that they didn't have to hold it any more.  It was a miracle that I will forever be grateful for.

To be continued...again