Baby Sage

Here's a video of my cute baby niece Sage. She's not even 2 months old and she is so alert! What a beautiful girl.

Disneyland Day 3

Our third day at Disney was spent between the two parks. We started our day out by going to Adventureland. First we hopped on Pirates of the Caribbean.

Since the movies have been made this ride has become even better. Jay loves pirates right now so he mostly liked the ride. The dark parts made him a little nervous but all the music, ships and lively pirates made up for it. Then Mike, Papa and I rode Indian Jones, always a favorite. Next was The Haunted Mansion. Somehow between getting Amaya out of her stroller and walking into the stretching room we were separated. Nonna and Papa ended up alone with Jay. I knew this ride might scare him with all the dark and ghosts but we thought we'd give it a try. MyMy enjoyed it since there was a lot to look at. Jay on the other hand was terrified the whole way through. Poor little guy. Poor Nonna and Papa! He made it though and was rewarded with a Mickey Mouse pancake afterwards, something only a Nonna and Papa would buy ;) He then played on Tarzan's Treehouse and went on The Jungle Cruise. I love The Jungle cruise. It's always entertaining!

After The Jungle Cruise we went to our very favorite Disneyland restaurant, The Blue Bayou. It is inside Pirates of the Caribbean so the atmosphere is awesome. It really feels like you're sitting on the banks of the bayou in Louisiana. The food is SO good. You have to make reservations in advance to be able to get in because it's so popular. It was nice to be able to sit and relax for a while and eat real food after all the running and going. You can't go to Disneyland without hitting up The Blue Bayou!

After lunch we went to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain and It's a Small World. The latter ended up being Amaya's absolute favorite ride and probably tied for first with Dumbo for Jay. Jay as especially excited that he got to sit in the very front seat of the boat. Both kids danced and stared in amazement at all the singing children. Of course the catchy tune was stuck in our heads for the rest of the day.

While we were in Tomorrowland we also found Buzz Lighyear! It was pretty awesome.

After a few more rides we hopped over to DCA to go on California Screamin' and Grizzly River Run a few more times. Then it was time to go. We sure loved our Disney experience and I for one can't wait to go back again. Cars Land 2012 here we come!

 Our happiest girl on earth in the happiest place on earth :)

DCA

Since reading The Official Guide to Disneyland and becoming an expert on Disney I can now call Disney California Adventure "DCA." Ha ha ha! Mike always laughs at me for pretending I'm so in the loop that I  can abbreviate. Really though, how much easier is it to just say DCA over Disney California Adventure? Okay, moving on. We had a great time at the new Disney theme park. We got there early and rushed to the Toystory Mania ride which we were correctly told is the busiest ride in the park.

It's an interactive 4D ride where you wear 3D glasses and use a gun to play different carnival rides for points. At the end you get to see who in your party scored the most. It's so much fun! We only road it once because the line got pretty long after the first ride of the day.

Here's our little toy story action figure.

Waiting in line with Nonna.

After Toy Story we found Cody, Alysia, Jimmy and the kids and decided to ride the huge Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel together. Surprisingly we probably waited in line for this ride longer than any other one our whole trip! We figured it would be a nice leisurely ride, a good way to see the park from another vantage point. Well... it was a good way to see the park, but leisurely? Not so much. We did not realize that there are two lines for the ferris wheel and we happened to get in the "swinging" line. Just as we were settling in, relaxing in our cabin we were suddenly jerked forward, careening back and forth between giant ferris wheel spokes. We could barely keep in our breakfast - Papa Lee and I definitely looked a little green. Overall I guess you would say we enjoyed the ride but I don't think we'll be entering the "swinging" line again any time soon.

After the ferris wheel we went to see Jay's VERY favorite Disney Character - Lightning McQueen! He was super excited. He ran right up to him and gave him a hug. He was a little dissapointed McQueen couldn't play with him though. He said to me, "Mom, is that really Lightning? His eyes and mouth weren't moving." Kinda confusing for a little dude. In 2012 they are opening a huge Cars land in DCA. We saw the beginnings of it when we were on the ferris wheel. It really looked like Radiator Springs. We can't wait to see it!

Mater was pretty cool too!

Then as we were walking to our next pit stop we saw this guy...

Followed by this awesome superhero...

I'd say Jay is well on his way to some pretty incredible muscles himself :)

We then went to watch Aladdin, a Broadway style production held in a beautiful theatre. It was amazing! Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. I LOVE the movie and the play was so well done. I was very impressed. So was Jay, although he was pretty nervous about the giant "cave of wonders." During part of the show when Aladdin turns into Prince Ali and comes to the royal palace the actors come riding in on a huge puppet elephant and the dancers come up and down the isles. Jay was in absolute amazement. He said to me, "Mom, how did they get out of the TV?!?!" Like I said, the Disneyland special effects certainly aren't waisted on this little guy. The Genie was hilarious. He made so many current jokes. At one point he said to Aladdin, "Hey Al, it's not the end of the world. That was last Saturday!" Everyone cracked up at that one. The show really was spectacular. I'm so glad we were able to see it!

After Aladdin we went over to another highly anticipated show, Playhouse Disney. I was especially excited for this one because I knew it would be one of the highlights of Jay's trip. It's a show especially designed for toddlers and preschoolers with all our favorite friends from Playhouse Disney like Mickey and friends, Handy Manny, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Little Einsteins. The fun thing was the characters were animatron puppets so they looked and sounded very real, just like they do on the cartoons. I think this is where Jay thought he was seeing the real thing.

We all loved watching the kids jump up and down and get excited. It was great! 

After the show we went on the Monter's Inc ride, which was very well done and then the adults went on the Tower of Terror. We really liked that one! We then rode Soaring Over California, definitely a favorite. Jay was a little nervous on that one. We had to keep reminding him that it was just a movie. He thought we were really flying and we were going to fall out! Then Jay and I went on to play in the Redwood Creek Challange. I was very impressed with this kids obstacle course. It really felt like a wilderness trail. It was nice to take a break from all the crowds and sit amongst the trees and play on the rope bridges. Jay could have stayed there for hours!

After climbing, jumping running and sliding we were ready for another ride - we went on to The Grizzly River Run. Jay surprised us by absolutely loving it! So much so that he asked to go a second time. We got a little wet but not soaked. The first time I totally geared him up. He was wearing my poncho with the hood up and plastic bags tied around his feet. I remembered being little and hating getting wet on water rides. The second time around though he told me, "Can I please not wear the bags mom? I don't mind if I get wet." Ha ha ha... I guess I was embarrassing him a little.

After the river run we got some yummy clam chowder in bread bowls. I ate my entire bowl since it cost half our life savings :)

Here's Mike holding the girls - LuLu and MyMy.

Then while we waited for the World of Color to start Mike, Alysia and I went to ride California Screamin'. I have to say this was definitely my favorite ride of the trip! The line was so short (probably because people were saving spots for World of Color) that we ended up going on the ride multiple times. It was SO fun. I could ride that one all day! World of Color was awesome. Even though it was a VERY long day, I'm so glad we stayed. It's a huge water show (kind of like at the Belagio) but with Disney music and scenes from Disney movies being projected onto the water. Some fire was even involved and lots of spectacular colored water scenes. I highly recommend it! Overall and awesome day. One we'll never forget.

Disneyland! Day One

We just got back from an amazing trip to the happiest place on earth. We had such a wonderful time! Nonna and Papa met us down in L.A. along with a few friends from Provo. We all stayed in a huge vacation rental home about 5 minutes from Disney. It was great! We did do other thing on our vacation but I'll get to those later - this is a strictly Disney post. It was Jay and Amaya's first trip to the Magical Kingdom. We spent 3 days there all together - 2 at Disneyland and 1 at California Adventure. Luckily we went during a pretty good time of the year, the crowds were minimal and using the book  The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland made wait times very minimal. I would say the most we ever waited for a ride was 15 minutes and the majority of the time it was 5 or less. Doesn't get much better than that! Our first day at Disneyland we road the Matterhorn twice in about 10 minutes then we headed off to Dumbo - which Jay has declared was his favorite ride at Disneyland.

I had to share this picture from the past. This is my mom with Cory and Amy at Disneyland probably about 28 years ago. I think Cory and Jay look so much alike.

I love this picture of Jay holding his Papa's hand.

It was so fun to have Nonna and Papa with us at Disneyland. They are huge Disney fanatics and they made our trip so fun! This was taken waiting for the Carousel. The smile says it all

Getting excited with daddy. Amaya is SUCH a daddy's girl. She always prefers daddy to hold her over mommy :) Pretty cute. This was her first carousel ride ever.

Another blast from the past... Cory with mom and dad.

After the carousel we headed over to Peter Pan. My cousin Kristin met us there for the day. She lives down in L.A. and has a pass to Disneyland. Lucky!

Then we went to watch our favorite Disneyland band - Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Unfortunately their normal venue, The Golden Horseshoe, was closed for cleaning but we saw them preform on the street in Adventure Land. Then we found Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore!

This picture reminded me SO much of MyMy with Winnie the Pooh. My mom holding me with Amy next to Minnie. Disneyland is still just as magical as it was 25 years ago.

After snuggling with our favorite Hundred Acre friends we boarded Tom Sawyer's raft and floated over to Pirate Island. Jay and Gabe both loved running through caves, crossing rope bridges, climbing ladders and exploring hidden hideouts. It's a kids fantasy land!

Treasure found!

We went on to do a few more rides like Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain (minus Jay - he would have been terrified since he hated all "dark" rides and big drops on roller coasters). Autopia was fun for him. A little outdated for mom and dad but anything car related is high on Jay's list.

We also road the Finding Nemo Submarine ride - which Jay had a love hate relationship with. Seeing Nemo, Dory, Marlin and their pals was great but going through the volcano scene made him pretty nervous. This boy is definitely convinced by the Disney special effects - except when it comes to the characters. He told me, "Mom, is that really Winnie the Pooh or is there someone inside?" What a smarty.

Of course the day couldn't have been complete without meeting Mickey! Nonna and Papa took Jay and Amaya to Toon Town while mom and dad road some of the bigger rides. Jay got to go in Mickey's REAL HOUSE! And then even meet him. So fun! He also found Goofy hanging around. What a perfect day. There's no place like Disneyland :)