Disneyland Day #1!

We went to Disneyland last week and it was so much fun! Per my usual, I took a ton of pictures so I am going to break our trip down into days. You'll still get sick of looking at pictures, but I'll spread it out a bit for you. :)

We like to vacation there in November. The crowds are usually low, and the weather is usually good. Normally it is in the low 70's during the day - perfect! However, this year it was unseasonably warm  hot. Not my kind of weather! Luckily, the heat only lasted for a few days. Sunday it was in the high 80's and Monday the mid 80's. After that it was great. It was also a bit humid, another thing that I am not fond of. You'll see from the pictures why I affectionately named this vacation "the big hair trip".  Thank you heat and humidity!

We flew out on Saturday afternoon and arrived at our hotel at around 5:00 p.m. Each year we try a different hotel and this year I think we finally found "the one". We stayed at the Marriott Fairfield Inn and we really liked it. It is about a 3 minute walk to the entrance of Disneyland. We never rent a car so we love to be within walking distance of the park.

We knew the park would be crowded on a Saturday, and since we arrived in the evening, we decided to spend time in Downtown Disney. It was the first time we've really spent time there when we were not rushed. It was great to check out the overpriced stores and the fun restaurants. We just wandered around looking & eating until we all got tired & headed back to our hotel.

This is the view from our room. Can't beat waking up to a view of the Matterhorn! I have very vivid childhood memories of staying at a motel (yes "motel") south of Disneyland. At that time, the only part of the park you could see from outside was the Matterhorn sticking up. I remember waking up every morning, looking out the window and seeing it. You can't tell from this picture but we could also see Space Mountain, the top half of The Castle, and the Monorail would go by on that track by the road.

 

Each night there were fireworks over the park. The first night there we just watched them from our room. We had a front row seat! We could see them, hear the music and no crowds!

Time for Pie!

For the kids, the best part of Thanksgiving is that my dad puts water in their hot tub. It is the one and only time of year that he'll fill it. The boys love it and rush through dinner so they can get in.  Parker was in & out of it so many times that he ran out of clean, dry clothes. While his stuff was in the dryer he put on my mom's sweatshirt and my sister's shoes. When he decided he needed a plate to put his pie on he gave us all a show!

Rainy Day Trees!

I am just now posting these pictures, but this was actually on November 12. It was a cold rainy day and the kids could not go outside. They were bored & asked to put their trees up. Normally I am very anti-Christmas before Thanksgiving, but since their rooms are upstairs I thought what the hell. I don't have to look at them for the next six weeks before Christmas rolls around. They both spent all day working on them, Preston placing each ornament very carefully. He takes this kind of stuff very serious. Now maybe I can get them to do the family tree in the living room. I hate decorating Christmas trees!

Notice the dog. Preston put her Christmas hat on her and she didn't move for hours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey!

This is a very fun first grade project! The kids bring home turkeys to decorate. The only rules are you have to be creative & it should be a family project. You can decorate them with anything you want, but with both of our kids we ended up using food.

Since Parker is a total junk-food-junkie, we went with a junk theme. Not sure how the row of dog bones ended up on it.

My favorite part is the eyeball. It is a leftover Moody's Mad Eye from the Harry Potter Party.

 

Here is Preston's from when he was in first grade. He is a much healthier eater so he has a healthy trukey. I will say that my counter tops have improved since this turkey was created. :)

Ah, the smells of fall!

Welcome!

Thanks for making the move! I am still trying to work out a few bugs, so hang tight.