There and Back Again (A Disney Tale)

For Ethan's Birthday this year, we decided to take a family vacation to Disneyland! Since Ethan loves everything Disney (except the Pixar logo, but that's another story), we figured his fifth birthday would be the perfect time for him to meet some of his heroes. Jen hadn't been to Disneyland since she was 11. Kyle, Ethan, and Brooklyn had never been before. We invited Grandma and Grandpa Taylor to come along as well, both to show us around and to keep an extra set of eyes on the kids.

We were originally planning on driving to California, but after finding $120 round trip plane tickets, it was a no-brainer that we would fly instead. When we first told the kids, they were both nervous about flying. After a little convincing (thank you, YouTube videos of other kids flying), they changed their tune, and were excited to fly.

After a close call at the airport (we made our flight by about 10 minutes)because of extra long lines and issues with parking, we were on the plane and flying to Disneyland! Both the kids did really well - it helped that Grandma Taylor sat next to them and had all kinds of things to keep them busy.

The Long Beach Airport is much smaller than Salt Lake, and we got to get off of the plane and go down the ramp.

After a quick shuttle ride from the airport, we checked into our hotel, and headed over to the park. We flew out of Salt Lake at 8:30 am, and were at Disneyland within an hour of the park opening!

The first ride we went on was one of Ethan's favorites - The Astro Blaster (or as Ethan calls it, the Buzz Lightyear ride).

The kids both loved driving cars all by themselves! (If you look closely, you can see Ethan's head peeking over the edge of the dashboard)
After the cars, we went on the Finding Nemo submarine ride. The Kids loved going under the water and seeing the fish from Nemo. When the ride was finished, though, the music from the Finding Nemo credits came over the PA. Ethan started getting scared that the Pixar logo was about to show up outside of the submarine, and pinched off his ears and closed his eyes until we were safely off the submarine.

(Unfortunately, at this point our camera ran out of batteries and we didn't get any pictures for the rest of the first day.)

We went to meet Mickey at his house in Toon town. Ethan was really excited about this. He wanted to get some mouse ears and take them back to show Mickey the next day.

The second day was filled with rides and both Disneyland and California Adventure.

Winnie the Pooh Ride

Riverboat Ride

The Little Mermaid Ride

Ethan and Brooklyn as Toy Story toys. We happened to go to Disneyland on Leap Year Day (Feb 29), which was the first time in about 25 years that they had the park open for 24 hours. This was a big deal for some people. We stood in line with a couple of girls who had been waiting in line since 8:30 the previous evening, 10 hours before the park even opened for their 24-hour stint. We could tell when school got out in the afternoon because it started getting busier and busier as the evening went on.

Grandpa Taylor stayed with the kids and slept while Kyle, Jen, and Grandma Taylor went out to party. The park was SOOO crowded, this is one of the three attractions we did. No, this isn't the Dumbo ride, this is place designated to take pictures with Dumbo. We also went to the Tiki Room which had no real wait (surprise, surprise) and on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was only a half hour wait (any other time during our trip we could walk right on).

We were sad that Cars Land was still under construction, scheduled to be opened later this year. Were were able to get a sneak peak from the top of Mickey's Ferris Wheel, though. It looks like a lot of fun! It looks really big and just like Radiator Springs out of the movie Cars.

One of our favorite things to do was let Ethan meet his heroes. He asked for the better part of the morning to go and find Woody. We finally found where he was hanging out, and Ethan was super-excited to meet him.

Ethan got to touch McQueen and Mater. Afterwards, he told us a secret - McQueen felt like a real race car, and Mater felt like a real tow truck!

While waiting in line for the Toy Story Mania ride, we saw Jessie walking by. She was busy with some other kids, and we moved forward in the line without getting to say "hi." We thought we lost our chance, but a minute later she came and sought Ethan out. She gave him a big hug and two kisses! He was thrilled! Afterward, he bashfully said, "Jessie gave me two kisses!"

We all had a really great time at Disneyland. Ethan was the perfect age, and was tall enough to go on most of the rides. Brooklyn was probably a little bit too young, and didn't get to go on everything, but she still had a lot of fun.

(Ethan was just looking at this picture, and said,"I really like Walt Disney's haircut." lol)

After our adventure, we asked the kids what their favorite rides were.

Ethan liked "The Fastest Train in the West" (Thunder Mountain), as well Buzz ride and Toy Story Mania, of course.

Brooklyn liked Pirates of the Caribbean best, but also loved The Little Mermaid ride.

Part of the way through our trip Kyle noticed he couldn't find our van keys. Thankfully, someone turned them in to the airport in Salt Lake on the first day of our trip. In all the chaos at the airport they must have gotten left at the security check point. Dear person who turned them in, we are eternally grateful!

Mario Birthday Party

Ethan had his birthday part on Saturday. He has been obsessed with Mario Brothers lately, and insisted on a Mario Party. Here's the cake:
Jen spent the week making a piñata out of paper mache. (For those of you who don't know Mario, The piñata is a Boo)
We made these invitations. Ethan LOVED them.

Mario bingo
Pin the mustache on Mario.

Here the kids hit the bad guys with "fireballs."
Breaking the pinata

Ethan was really excited about everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

As a parting favor we gave everyone a chocolate mustache sucker.

Daddy Time

We've really been enjoying the warm (ish) weather lately. While Ethan was at school and Jen was in Salt Lake on Friday, Kyle and Brooklyn took a trip to the local park. Brooklyn loved playing outside. She's been a bit camera shy lately -- any time we point a camera at her she gets upset and tries to hide. But after Kyle bribed her with some fruit snacks, she quickly complied, and started insisting on taking pictures all over the playground.

"Take a picture over here!"
"And take a picture over here!"

When Ethan got home from school there was just enough wind to grab our Buzz Lightyear kite and head to the park once again.

Ethan had fun pretending that Buzz was flying around the park. Brooklyn had fun watching.

Primary Lesson

Today in Primary, Ethan's lesson was about families. However, he had something else on his mind. (Click on the picture to see a larger version)


Here's what everything is supposed to be.

Fashion Diva

Guess who dressed herself today?

December Wrap-up

It sure has been hard for us to keep up with our blog during December. Too much fun stuff going on. We apologize to our friends and family that you didn't get Christmas cards from us this year. Hopefully we'll be able send them out early next year so we don't run out of time again.

So, here's our December wrap-up blog.
We'll skip right to the chase, and talk about Christmas Morning. In past years, we've always been at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas morning. While it's always fun to enjoy the festivities with family, this year we decided it was time to make some memories of Christmas at our house. Ethan woke up half way through the night claiming he had a bad dream. Kyle comforted him until Ethan said he wasn't scared anymore. As Kyle was heading back to bed, Ethan asked if it was time to open presents yet. Thankfully, when Kyle said it was still too early, Ethan went back to bed. We ended up having to wake the kids up on Christmas morning in order to get some presents opened before 9:00 church.

Kyle made this darling doll highchair for Brooklyn. He had a fun time building it too.

The dollhouse has been a really big hit with both kids. Ethan likes to pretend it is Andy's house from Toy Story. "Andy" is in his room playing with Buzz, Woody, and Jessie (Legos).

One of Ethan's favorite gifts was this Lego Toy Story 3 train. He talked about it ever since Toy Story 3 came out a year and a half ago. We were excited to finally make this wish come true for him. It even came with Lego versions of Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, and even Evil Dr. Porkchop. He's been in heaven.

Jen made these aprons for the kids.

December was full of Christmas parties and family get-togethers. At the Smith's party, we played a game where we had to open a present with a fork and knife while wearing mittens (there were other rules too, but we'll spare the details).

After the game was finished, Uncle Mikey was kind enough to share the prize with Ethan.

This December, we made a lot of chocolates to give to neighbors and family. Coconut, apricot nut, lemon, mint, cherry nut, cherry chocolate nut, and macadamia-nut caramels. We certainly ate more than our share. Yummy!

On January 2, we met up with Jen's mission trainer, Sister Cheng, who had travelled with her family from Hong Kong for a vacation. This was the first time in nearly nine years since they've seen each other. It was fun catching up and meeting her husband and son.

We had lunch together, and after hearing that the son and husband had never seen snow, we took a spontaneous trip to Park City on a quest to find some snow. Her 5-year-old boy loved the snow so much that he asked his mom if he could take some home. Here are some pictures from the Olympic Park.

Santa vs. The Dentist

Santa Claus showed up at our ward Christmas party yesterday, and both of the kids were excited to sit on his lap. Brooklyn just sat there looking sweet, and didn't say a word.
Ethan was excited to talk to the big guy, and asked for his own set of (Disney) Cars Lego's.

Their experience with Santa was in stark contrast to their experience at the dentist the day before. Ethan got upset because he wanted Brooklyn to go first (so he could play with the dentist's train set in the lobby for just a little bit longer). Brooklyn was doing fine until half-way through the check-up, when she starting getting upset and ended up sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't until after we got home that we were able to figure out what she was so upset about - she didn't want to get new teeth. We recalled that Brooklyn started getting upset after the dental hygienist observed that Brooklyn had such pretty, new, white teeth. Brooklyn must have thought she was going to be getting a new set of teeth.
So, now we know that the dentist is scarier than Santa Claus.

Jen and Brooklyn went to a friend's house earlier this week to make gingerbread houses (thanks, Kate). They turned out cute. When Ethan saw them after he got home from school, he decided they would make good houses for his Lego people, and shoved one in the front door, taking a few icicles out in the process.

Brooklyn put candy on her own graham cracker house. Surprisingly, most of it is still there!

Brooklyn has been doing really well with her potty training, and hasn't had an accident in weeks. When she's doing #1, she'll often get things rolling by chanting, "Come out, come out, wherever you are, pee pee."