Disneyland and California 2012

It was so fun visiting Disneyland in October!  We had lots of activities for evie to do in the car on the way down.  The exciting start to our first day was that we got to ride the shuttle into the park!  We visited Huntington Beach.  It was 88 degrees and beautiful!  We, of course, buried Justin in the sand and played and played in the sand and water!Evie waited so long to ride the ferris wheel.  We went on the one that would swing as we went around the turn.  It was a little scary for me (and evie), but still exciting!  We saw a Disney Jr. show, lots of characters and went on every ride that Evie could fit on.A highlight of our trip was visiting pixie hollow.  We met Tinkerbell & the new fairy: Periwinkle.  It was so fun to go into their house and visit with them.  They would ask questions and chat and chat with us.  So darling! Worth the hour wait!! At the end of each night, Evie crashed!  She was exhausted!  There were so many new sights and sounds for her!What a fun adventure to the Disney parks with our little family! 

We stopped in Minersville for a couple nights to fish and relax.

I love those two together!

Summer Family Vacation

We had a wonderful Summer vacation a couple weeks ago!  we went to our cabin in Southern Utah and while there, Justin & I took off to see Grease at Tuachan Theater in St. George, and the next day my family met us (with Evie) and we watched The Little Mermaid with everyone.  What a fun vacation up in the mountains.  I didn’t even take very many pictures….

The little Mermaid was adorable!  I was a little worried about a 2 year old’s response (the show didn’t start until 8:45), but she stayed awake the entire time and loved it!  She also loved roasting marshmallows!  Doesn’t every kid love that!?!?

Pioneer Day Celebrations

Our pioneer day celebrations started on Thursday when we visited the Days of ‘47 parade float preview party.  All of the floats were displayed in an exhibit room and they had a marching band going around the room playing songs.  It was so festive!  Most of the floats had information about creating their float and then they had some sort of interactive thing for the children.  This float was an underwater theme and so they had a girl with a mermaid skirt on sitting there for kits to have their picture taken.  She then handed them a seashell to take home.  It was darling! 

This float had a giant fisherman on it, and so behind the float they had a fishing pond for the kids!  They got a piece of candy to take home. 

at one place, they had this darling cutout to take a picture.  Evie & I smiled for the camera!

They had clowns making balloon shapes for all the kids who stood in line to wait for it…

….and we did!  Jackie & Evie both got a {floating} butterfly. What a fun event to visit!

Our adventures continued when we traveled to Panguitch to play with my family.  We went to a family reunion one of the days where we did crafts (we were in charge & did rock painting and decorating chipboard letters for kids/adults), rode horses, had a candy launcher throughout the day, a rubber ducky race in the creek, and fireworks at night.  What a fun family reunion celebration.  The most joyful thing for me was Evie’s reaction to horses.  At first she was unsure, but grandpa talked her through the saddle, and what it is for…and by the end of the day, she threw a fit when it was time to get off!  She literally rode them until the sun went down!  Thanks to her awesome cousins & Aunt B for riding with her and leading the horse around. you can kind of see the candy flying through the air in this shot. Setting off the candy launcher…Down by the river to watch the rubber ducky’s.  We didn’t win, but Aunt b won first and received a gift card to an ice cream shoppe.  We promptly used it! Thanks Aunt B

This was the highlight of the trip for Evie.  Saturday morning, most of us woke up early to drive back to the ranch for a 5K run.  It was such a beautiful morning and a chilly 39 degrees.  As we ran, it warmed up (of course).  We were rewarded for getting up early with cinnamon rolls and orange juice.  Thanks Dan, for organizing that event!

Sister's Trip to Park City

This year, we went to a condo in Midway for our sister's trip. It was so fun and relaxing. We played one day in Park city where we rode the zip line (Monica and megan here & Brenda arriving below) and the coaster ride. we went to ride the alpine slide, but it started raining, so we had to take a shuttle back down the mountain. Oh, did I mention that we were next in line to go when they called and had the lady close the slide??? FRUSTRATING! Thanks to Monica though, Justin and I can go back sometime and go on the ride together.

Monica riding the coaster ride

Making our way up the hill for the coaster. Such a fun ride!