Christmas Card 2011

Wonderful Year Christmas Card

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I ended up doing a fancier card for Christmas and the main reason why is because I could put a picture of Bailey on it. I knew that it would be our last Christmas card with Bailey on it.  It was fun picking out the pictures to put on the card.  What a wonderful year we've had!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, we were supposed to be with the Adams.  But Charlene and Ardell decided to go to California to see Angie at the last minute.  Mike and Amy were in Idaho with her family.  So we asked Mom if we could intrude on their Thanksgiving plans.  Kaye and Allan invited Mom and Dad, Marilyn and our family up to their cabin in Bear Lake.  Kaye is still recovering from her hip surgery.  It's taken her a long time because of all the complications.  But she is amazing.  I watched Allan do the dressing change and I gained a new appreciation for what Kaye had been through.  I told her how strong she has been but her response was "what am I supposed to do? Roll over and die?"  She has such a great sense of humor and determination.  

 The boys were so excited to play in the snow.  We went sledding almost every day!  Allan had the old fashioned sleds that worked perfect on the roads.  He sprayed the bottom of the sleds with pam so they would go faster.  We eventually had to stop the sled otherwise we would have gone down to the bottom of the hill.  Marilyn stayed at the bottom to watch for cars. We had so much fun!!!  We even got Dad to go a few times.  

As for Thanksgiving, it was wonderful!  It was so relaxing staying at their cabin.  It was so quiet.  We teased mom that it was a Thanksgiving miracle because the dinner was relatively simple. Mom made Road Rolls.  Mom bought pie crust and even bought a couple of Marie Calendar pies. We ate all the traditional Thanksgiving foods.  Everything tasted incredible!  Even though it was only the 9 of us, we had enough left overs to last for a week.   

 During the day we would play in the snow, work on puzzles, read, play games and build blocks.  At night we would play more games and then watch movies.  One night we watched The King's Speech (edited).  We had so much fun being together.  It was a very memorable Thanksgiving!  Thanks Kaye and Allan for inviting us!

Fun times with the Medonza's

Angie took us on a hike one morning while the girls were in school. The boys found "walking sticks."  It was a great adventure for us.  We've had such a wonderful time with the Mendoza's.  They spoil us rotten while we're visiting.  We love spending time with them!

So the boys loved playing the wii with Mikayla and her friend Emily.  Their favorite game was Mario Brothers.  They went wild while they were playing it.  Mikayla and her friend Emily scream while they play it so now the boys scream too.  It gets CRAZY!  But the boys love it!

Mikayla was in a softball tournament while we were there so we were able to go to a couple of her games.  The last one was the best game because her team won the championship!  We loved watching Mikayla play softball.  She is a great athlete.  She has such a great attitude and is very kind to everyone around her.  Great job Mikayla!  We're so proud of you.

Sammee has been so sweet with the boys.  They love hanging out with her.  Sammee is very loving with the boys.  She is always giving them hugs and kisses.  She never gets tired of throwing the ball to them or chasing them around.  

Our 3rd and final day at Disneyland

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I couldn't believe that we were on our final day at Disneyland.  Our last ay we focused on our favorite rides.  The boys and I convinced Matt to go on Autopia one last time.  We went on the Matterhorn a couple more times. 

The boys got big loves from Sulley.    Bridger wasn't eating his peanut butter sandwich so Matt went over and bought cotton candy and told Bridger that he couldn't eat any until he ate his sandwich.  Funny thing, Bridger immediately began to eat his sandwich and he got lots of cotton candy afterwards. The boys had been begging us since we got there to go on the Grizzly rapid ride.  You get soaked on that ride so Matt and I weren't excited about going on it.  So the last day, Matt and I put our ponchos on and went on the ride with the boys.  The boys didn't get very wet the first time so they wanted to go again.  We figured since we already had our ponchos on we might as well go again.  The boys crack me up on this ride.  They laugh the entire time.  Then they squeal when they get wet.  It was so fun just to watch them.

I love how the boys put their arms around each other when we take pictures.  They are best friends.  We couldn't get enough of the Toy Story ride.  We went on it so many times that I lost count.  Chase loved going on California screaming.  Bridger was a little disappointed that he wasn't big enough for it.  So we would wait at the pier and watch for them.  Our last time on it, Chase and I got to ride in the very front.  It was so scary, but Chase loved it!

At the end of the day, Matt saved us great seats right in front of the castle for the firework show and the parade.  During the parade, Bridger put his arm around Chase and snuggled up next to him.  They looked so sweet together.  The firework show was absolutely amazing.  They did fireworks to Christmas songs, and then the lights on the castle changed colors.  The firework show lasted about 30 minutes.  It ended with fake snow and Disney wishing everyone a magical Christmas and to enjoy the love of your friends and family during the holidays.  It was awesome!!!!  

2nd Day at Disneyland - let the magic continue!

 We started our day off again at California Adventure.  But we only stayed their a few hours.  We wanted to get tickets to the World of Color water show for later that night.  We hit all of our favorite rides.  We went on Goofy's flying school which is like the wild mouse ride.  The boys giggled the entire ride.  On every turn, Matt would yell "we're going to die!"  The boys thought that was so funny.  We went on the ride three times in a row.  They loved it.  After lunch we went over to Disneyland and hit our favorite rides again.  We went on Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Small World, Alice in Wonderland, Story Book ride, Buzz Lightyear, Haunted House and the Whinnie the Pooh ride.  The boys have been dying to go on Splash mountain so we finally agreed to go.  The weather's been a little bit cooler especially at night so we didn't want to get all wet and then get cold.  So we went during the afternoon when it was still hot.  The boys loved the ride!!!  We went a couple of times because the boys wanted to get more wet.  I loved hearing them scream on the big hills.  It cracks me up.

 We were able to see Tigger and Pooh. After we gave Tigger a hug Bridger said to me "I think there's somebody in there."  It was like he realized that it's not really Tigger.  We carried on our tradition and got Tigger tails.  It's an overdose of sugar but oh how the boys love it, especially the older one (Matt).  One of the times when we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, a man taught us some secrets of how to get more points.  There's a little hole on Zurg's chest and if you hit it you get major points.  I was only able to hit it on one of our rides but I got my best score of 603,000.  It was awesome!!! We went on that ride so many times I lost count.  We had such a blast shooting at everything.  It's a great ride.

  One of my favorite rides was the going on the Jungle Cruise with Bridger.  Chase loved going on Indiana Jones so while we were waiting for Matt and Chase on that ride, I would take Bridger on the Jungle Cruise.  He loves the animals.  His favorite part is the monkeys.  I love to see how he jumps when the parona fish pop out of the water.  We probably went on that ride at least 8 times.

First Day at Disneyland

We were so excited to finally be at Disneyland.  The weather was perfect.  It was in the 60's during the day and then it cooled off at night.  Our first day we spent most of the day at California Adventure.  We went straight to the Toy Story ride.  We went on it a couple of times because the line was about 10 minutes long which is awesome.  We went on the new Little Mermaid ride.  It's similar to Small World.  I loved it cause Little Mermaid is one of my favorite Disney movies.  It was such a cute ride.  We went on it several times during our three days.  My dear friend Autumn happened to be at Disneyland too so we met up at Tower of Terror and surprised our families.  We were the only ones that knew we were meeting.  It was fun to see their surprised faces.  Bridger was so excited to go on Tower of Terror!  He loves that ride! We went on it four times in a row.  The lines were so great.  We either walked right on the ride or only had to wait 5-10 minutes.  

Matt teases me that one of my favorite rides is Autopia.  I love the car ride.  This was one of our longest waits of the day but I thought it was worth it.  Chase and Bridger were excellent drivers.  No crashes.