Disneyland - Day 2

Today I woke up and Paige had picked out some clothes for me. She loves to have us match. She got out a red Mickey shirt for me and one for her and she picked out some jeans shorts for me and a pair for her to wear. You can't see our outfits so well, but don't we look cute? This picture is on the shuttle on the way to Disneyland for the day.Paige calls this ride 'who are you'. If you've ever seen the cartoon Alice in Wonderland you will recognize the character I'll post below. It's a caterpillar that says to Alice, "Who are you?" So that's his name according to Paige. She loves this ride. We rode it several times.Who are you. This was taken at the Disney parade later in the evening.P&P were very excited to see the house from Alice in Wonderland. They obviously like this show. They kept trying to open the door, but unfortunately it's just for show.A day isn't complete without a ride on the teacups - or several rides, depending on how long the line is. Paige always picked out a blue cup. We did have to ride in a pink one once and she was okay with that after I told her we would just go out the exit if she didn't want to ride in the pink one. Sometimes you don't get what you want because someone else already got it. It's a hard lesson for a kid. I should also point out the cat in Paige's arms. We let the kids pick out a toy at the Disney store in Provo before we left. We gave it to them on the first day at Disneyland. You'll see this cat that Paige picked in many of the pictures. It's Marie from Aristocats.This is Buzz Lightyear from Preston's favorite ride - or is it Doug's? Whoever's favorite ride it is, we rode it a LOT. Need I mention that you shoot at targets? And who got 566,000 points? Not Doug!! I beat the socks off him when the ride stopped and we could sit and shoot to our heart's delight. He picked a target that got him 100 points a shot and I picked one that got me 4,000 points a shot. Poor Doug. Other than that one time, he beat me the rest of the time.
It's a long day for a little kid when he's playing all day. Preston had a nap every day in the stroller. He can sleep anywhere if he's really tired. That worked out well for him and for us. It's hard to have to go back to the hotel for naptime and then come back. He gets all snuggly in the afternoon and zonks out. Then we put him in the stroller. You gotta love a stroller. Preston is almost 40 lbs.
Look who we found! These people were in line for Splash Mountain so of course we joined them. Paige was thrilled. We had fun for the rest of the day with Teresa's family. Pictured here is Seth in front, Katelyn in the middle and Jaime and Amanda in back.We went to eat at Tortilla Joe's in the evening, which turned out to be a fiasco. It took up the whole rest of our evening. We waited forever to ride the monorail over to Downtown Disney. We ate and then shopped a little bit. We planned to ride the monorail back to Disneyland and when we got almost to the front of the line Paige was in desperate need to use the restroom. Doug took her and we just let people go in front of us for the next monorail trip. Little did we know there was only one train left. At the point of entrance for the monorail they wouldn't let Doug back in. He told them he had a party waiting for him. So with almost no time to spare Jaime ran down and verified for the Disney people that Doug was truly being waited on and they finally let him through. They ran up and got there just in time to ride the last train of the day. We got to ride at the front of the monorail. They would only let 5 people ride up there so Amanda was the lucky one that ran up and rode with us. It was a great view and we found out this new train cost $6 million. Who would have guessed?

"Hi Goose"

On Monday Preston was in the living room while I was in the kitchen doing dishes. I could hear him saying, “Hi goose. Will you be my friend, goose? Come here goose.” I don’t remember him ever talking to a goose before so I went around to the living room to see what he was doing. When I came into the living room I saw Paige standing with a blanket over her head and her arms extended and she was saying, “Oooooohhhhh, ooooohhhhh,” in a scary voice. She was being a ghost. Preston thought she was a goose. They played like that for over a half hour. Preston would get Paige by pushing on her or sitting on her. Usually she would fight him, but he was being gentle instead of his usual ‘bull in a China shop’ so she was being gentle with him. I sat on the couch and just watched them play. I know one day they will be gone and I will miss times such as these.

This morning Paige put the blanket on again and Preston said, “Hi goat.” I guess one day he’ll understand that we’re saying ‘ghost’.

Disneyland - Day 1

Here we are arriving at the front gate. Don't we all look excited? We rode a shuttle bus from the hotel, which was a thrill in itself for the kids. It was fun to see their excitement as we pulled up in front of Disneyland. They were screaming and pointing out everything they saw. It was fun for us and worth every penny (or several hundred dollars) we spent at Disneyland.We left the stroller at the front and got on the train on our way to Splash Mountain. It was Paige's dream come true to ride "Splash" again. This is her favorite ride and we rode it many times.

Unfortunately it was NOT Preston's dream come true!! It's so sad when parents take kids on rides that terrify them and then take a picture to preserve the memory. Poor Preston. Incidentally, when Paige saw this picture she said, "Why doesn't that guy have a head?" The guy in front of us had put his head in his shirt to keep from getting wet. We got a good laugh out of that.Doug is ever willing to please the kids. He is wearing the hat Preston chose and would only wear for an hour or two. I think Doug makes a nice Tweedle-Dee.
It was a thrill for us to have some surprise visitors in the afternoon. Cynthia, Callie and Hannah joined us and we had a great time with them.
Mom and daughter (Cynthia and Callie). I love this picture.
Paige and Hannah were basically inseparable. Cynthia told me Hannah couldn't wait to have her cousins all come for a visit. Paige was the first cousin for Hannah to see and they had a blast together.We stayed at Tarzan's treehouse for quite a while. The kids really liked it.Callie held Paige up here for so long I'm sure her muscles are now bulging from the exercise. I had to take three pictures to get one that worked. Good work, Callie!!Cynthia watched all the kids while Doug and I rode Space Mountain together. When we got back Cynthia was holding Hannah in her lap with a bunch of paper towels held to her forehead. Apparently, Hannah had been playing on the benches with Paige and Preston and fell and hit her head on the bench. As we looked at the wound we agreed it was too deep to be okay on it's own. So we took her to first aid. She was very brave as they cleaned the wound and bandaged her up. Sadly, they all had to go to the hospital. And we were just about to go eat together at the Carnation Cafe. They were in the emergency room until 11:00 p.m. that night. We were sad by that turn of events, but after two staples in her head, Hannah made it through. Here we are at the Carnation Cafe. We went there anyway. The kids really enjoyed their baked potato soup. I must admit I liked it even better than what I ordered. It was very good.

Paige 'gets' Grandma

I am currently helping Doug's mom type out some journal entries. I thought this one was particularly funny about Paige and thought you would enjoy it also. This is written by her:

Paige and Preston stayed with grandma on Saturday, May 3rd for a couple of hours while Doug and Shauna went to the temple. Grandma, Paige and Preston went outside. It was a beautiful morning and Paige kept saying, “I really like this day, Grandma.” She said that three or four times and then she disappeared. I asked Preston where she was. He said, “She’s in the house.” I looked in the backdoors and could see her sitting on the couch watching TV. I knocked on the door and called her name. She just sat there looking at the TV. It was then I noticed the door was locked. Again I knocked and yelled. She didn’t even blink. I knocked harder and harder and yelled louder and louder. She still didn’t even blink. Now I was yelling and hitting the door. Finally, after two or three more yells, she just calmly got up and came and unlocked the door and turned without a word and sat on the couch and was watching TV. I said, “Paige, why did you lock me out?” After a couple of minutes she looked at me and said, “Grandma, I’m sorry for locking you out,” and went back to the TV. It was over.

Heeeeeere We Gooooo .....

Our long awaited trip finally arrived - and is now past and gone. Thank heavens we have pictures to preserve the memory. I'll take up several posts with our trip pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

We left on the 4th of July and stayed at the Green Valley Ranch outside of Las Vegas. They had a special firework show at the resort that we watched on comfortable couches spread out on the grass. The only people who could be down in the area where we were was guests of the resort. That was fun. There were a lot of people there and most of them were not allowed in the grassy area where we were. We thought it was pretty fancy to be sitting on a couch with extra pillows. And luckily there were pillows because I had to use one of them to cover mine and Preston's heads from all the debris falling on us from the fireworks. It was a spectacular show (other than the debris).

We were surprised at how nice this resort was. They had free valet parking (tip only) and brought our bags to our room. When we went out to the pool area there was a little beach for the kids to play in.After a long drive the day before it was nice to relax, although extremely hot and dry. When we came out to play at the beach one of the hotel workers asked if we needed some chairs and how many. He went and found two lounge chairs for us and dragged them over. We also got 4 giant towels for our use at the pool. I guess you could say we're not used to these luxuries, so it was a novelty for us.
I guess it was too much for Paige. She came up and got cozy on my lap and fell asleep. I love that. So I was happy as a clam holding my little girl while Doug had to get all wet playing with Preston. Ha ha!!We had to take a picture of these beds. There were 5-6 of them lined up above the pool area. They were huge and complete with comfy pillows. I guess this is for someone living the high life. We didn't even know what to do with them other than get on and take a picture.Since we were "living the high life" we decided to go to the Terra Verde Restaurant inside the hotel. This is the restaurant that was featured on the TV show 'Hell's Kitchen', which we really like to watch. The prize at the end of the show is to win a spot as an executive chef at a new restaurant through a process of elimination. I think it was last season's winner, Rock, who used to run this restaurant. We found out he didn't do so hot and wasn't running it anymore. Well, we spent $120 on some bad food. The calzone I had was soggy with the sauce. I won't go into detail on all our food, but so much for the high life. We'll make do with peanut butter sandwiches and McDonalds and an occasional trip to P.F. Chang or Olive Garden.

It's official ...

Paige can now officially ride a bike. I had noticed this summer that quite often she was balancing on her bike and didn't know it. She relied on the training wheels, but I was pretty sure if she tried she could ride her bike. Her training wheels would occasionally flip up when she would go over a big bump and she would tip over. On this day her wheel had flipped up and we fixed it. It flipped up a second time and she sat there for a second and came up with a grand idea, "Why don't I just balance?" We agreed that was a great idea. She rode around like that with one side flipped up for about 5-10 minutes and then asked us to take her training wheels off. Within another ten minutes she was riding her bike. It's a cherished moment for a parent.

Paige loves to ride around the block with dad.

An action shot.

Paige and Preston ride around on their bikes pretty much every evening and quite often are joined by a few neighbor kids. They have a great time. Preston refuses to use the pedals. He pushes with his feet and can go very fast that way. We think it's funny.

A cute picture of my baby boy.

What is he up to?

Preston came up to me this morning all mischevious-like and quiet. What is he doing?

Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!! Don't scare me!! He thought he was quite the funny man.

Paige's Display

Here are two more of Paige's displays. She loves her toys.

A Day Out With Thomas - May 23rd

We thought this train ride was expensive, but it has paid dividends for many months afterwards. Nearly every day Preston comes up to me or Doug and says, "We rode on Thomas today." We talk to him about it and he is always very excited. It was well worth the money paid for the happiness it created. Paige is shown here enjoying the last of a huge puff of cotton candy.

The train ride lasted about 25 minutes. We saw a lot of people looking out their windows as we puffed by their homes showing their kids the train. Thomas was at the front end of the train for show and another engine was at the back and actually pulled the train, but the kids don't need to know that. As long as they've seen Thomas attached to the train, as far as they're concerned they're 'Riding on Thomas'.

Preston sat with his face against the glass enjoying every bit of his ride.

After our ride we were able to go and climb on other trains that were in the yard.

There was a booth set up with all kinds of Thomas toys to play with. This was a popular attraction. Preston got upset that another kid was already playing with the Thomas train, so he found this boxcar that looked like the one we rode and he was thrilled with it. Even after Thomas was available (because mommy watched the little boy who was playing with it closely and when he had to go potty, mommy nabbed Thomas), Preston wanted the boxcar - and after all that watchful work!

Preston wanted to go around and around the table with his boxcar. He didn't care who was in his way. Adults move and are understanding, but never mind the little baby who couldn't walk yet. Yes, Preston tried to push her out of the way too. Her grandma picked her up when Preston came around and put her back when he went through. It's nice when people understand and help the situation instead of getting upset.

A long day for dad.

Paige spent a lot of time building the perfect Thomas train car. She had a good share of the pieces by the time she was done.

She's very proud of her work.

Bye bye, Thomas. We love you!