Happiest Place on Earth!

Be prepared for a VERY Long Post!!!

We arrived at the Disneyland Hotel Sunday afternoon. After checking in (our room wasn't quite ready yet) we decided to hit Downtown Disney. Ian loved the Lego Store and took pictures in front of Woody, Darth Vader and a robot.

After looking at all the shops, we went to the Rainforest Cafe to have a late lunch/early dinner. Luke really enjoyed coloring! They both liked the mock rainstorm and the moving elephants, monkeys and butterflies.

We headed back to the hotel when we were finished eating. That's when we saw Goofy hanging out in the hotel lobby! Ian was super excited.

Even though the weather was quite cool (it was only 64) it didn't stop us from taking a swim in the hotel pool. The Neverland Pool was AWESOME!!!

A little later...when it was dark out we re-walked Downtown Disney. BTW, Downtown Disney is very pretty at night. They have the trees the shops all decked out and lit up.

Around 8pm, Ian received a call from Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. I recorded the call which I will post later.

Also, we could see the Disneyland fireworks from our hotel room (which was a good thing, since they only do the show on the weekends). They were spectacular! Ian ended up falling asleep before the show was over, but Luke stayed awake for the entire thing!

Monday...we woke up early...mainly because it was really cold in our room and a hot shower sounded real good. With the tickets we had we were able to get into Toontown an hour before it opened. Once in Toontown, we went to city hall where we all became honorary citizens (they even gave us a button). We got to see where Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Chip and Dale live. Ian rode his first roller coaster here (Gadget's Go Coaster).

(left) Luke playing in Goofy's Backyard. (right) Ian and Ty on Gadget

Ty and Luke on the Roger Rabbit Ride

After a few hours in Toontown, we left to see the rest of the park. Surprisingly, Luke was able to ride most of the rides...and he loved them. He cried and we had to pry him away from the ride when it was over. The rides Luke couldn't go on (the ones with height requirements) Ty and I did the "child swap" which basically means I would go on the ride with Ian and when we were done, Ty and Ian would ride (and not have to re-wait in the line)-a super nice feature Disneyland has!!! Ian loved the roller coasters, with the exception of Space Mountain, because of the dark. Luke and Ian both really really liked the tea cups! We rode them 2x's. Also, the carousel was big with both boys (Luke rode it 4x's, I'll post the video I have later).

(left) Ian on the Tea Cups (right) Ty and Luke on the Tea Cups

(Left) Ian and I on the Big Thuder Mtn Railroad (right) Me, Luke and Ian on Dumbo

(left) Ty, Luke and Ian waiting for the Parade to start (right) Mickey and Minnie on the float

The castle at night was very pretty!

Tuesday... we went to Disneyland for a couple hours since California Adventure did not open until 10am, and we were able to get into Disneyland an hour before opening (8am instead of 9am). We were able to get right onto the Submarine Voyage and the Matterhorn without much of a wait. We rode a couple other rides and re-rode the tea-cups and the carousel. Then we headed back to the hotel to check out, eat lunch and then head off to California Adventures. Ian got to meet Mr. Incredible, as we walked to the back lot. Luke really wanted to ride the Ferris wheel and kept pointing at it, by the time we got on the ride he was fast asleep. We missed the parade, but we were able to see the Playhouse Disney show, which the boys really loved!

(left) Ian and Mr. Incredible (right) Luke and Ty on the Ferris wheel

(Left) Ian and I on the Jelly Jump (right) Luke and I on Toy Story Mania

Luke on the Carousel

Ian catching bubbles during the Playhouse Disney show!

Family Shots:

Behind the castle and next to the carousel

Outside of California Adventure

On the bridge of Grizzly River Run

We all had a great time at Disneyland! We were able to ride almost all the rides (we missed 2). And we did not have to wait in long lines, I think the longest we waited was 30min for Toy Story Mania, other than that the wait was about 5-10minutes.

Thanks again to BFMC (Ty's work) for giving us this wonderful vacation! And for giving Ty time off to use it!

Disneyland

I plan on having the Disneyland pictures up real soon. So far, we've narrowed our favorites down to 86 (there was over 400 to choose from after deleting the pictures that did not turn out). So, for now these will have to do...a little something. Taken outside the gates of

Disney's California Adventures.

Ty's idea, of course.

Ian's name was pretty easy to do!

Luke's name was a bit harder to get since CALIFORNIA only contains the letter "L". Ty took the letters "O" "R" and "F" to complete his name.

**Ty wanted me to note (for all those picky people out there) he's aware you can see where he photoshopped the pictures together.

Island Water Park

Yesterday we were invited by Jon, Jo, Sean and Serina to go to the Island Water Park in Fresno with them. We had a lot of fun, despite it only being cold (I'm not sure the exact temperature, but it was in the low 60's).

They're gonna make it big

It's very hard to get the boys to perform on command...

(they do much better when they aren't being taped)

As I was getting out of the car the other day, I noticed Luke was singing. So, I turned the car back on to see what he was singing to and it was Keisha's "Tik Tok".

Ty and I agree... it's a much better song when Luke is singing :)

Ian's been singing ELO's "Don't Bring me Down" for a while now, we've just never gotten it on tape before.

Pocket full of Posey!

This past weekend my parents invited us to come with them to a cabin in Posey. The drive up felt like a scene from a 50's movie. The grass was green on either side, there were farm houses with cattle and horses, and it felt like we could stop anywhere along the road for a picnic.

We had seen pictures before of the cabin and it's 'backyard' before, but did not realize how awesome it was. We arrived at the cabin around 7pm. When we got out of the car all you could hear was the sound of the creek behind the cabin. I didn't notice, until after we got inside, that the backyard of the cabin was the creek...

This was the bridge that connected to the other side of the creek (the cabin is in the background), and right picture is the view while standing on the bridge

In the morning we got to see squirrels coming down from the trees to the back patio for a snack. Luke watched them intently and let us know when one went back up into the tree.

After breakfast we went on a "nature walk", as Ian called it. We hiked up to the swimming hole, which was only about 100ft from the cabin.

(left) swimming hole (right) Ian on one of the waterfalls

(left) the view from the lower waterfall on the right is the cabin (right) my mom, Ty and Luke

Ian crossing the bridge to go back to the cabin (right)
After our "nature walk" we decided to go into Glennville. We missed the lawn mower races, so we decided to go to the rodeo instead.

(left) Ian (right) Luke

The next day, Sunday, we went for a drive to Sequoia (it's only about 5 minutes away). While were were on the road we saw Deer and Cattle. We stopped at a campground we found for lunch. The campground was very nice and had a creek running through it. After eating and exploring a little we headed back to the cabin so we could swim in the creek before leaving.

(left) deer (right) cattle

(Left) Ian walking down to the campground creek (right) Luke and Ty at the cg creek

fools gold??? not sure, next time we'd better bring our pans :)

Ian and Luke (with Ty's help of course) log walking

Luke and Ian loved all the ladybugs that were there. It's migrating season for them.

So...the creek was very very cold!!! Ty and Luke got in all the way. Ian and I only got in a little past our knees.

(left) Ty and Luke in the swimming hole (right)Ty and Ian

It's hard to believe that such a beautiful place exists only an hour out of Bakersfield