Exhausted...but happy!

We got to the park early Thursday morning and actually had my dad there for a few hours...so we got a picture of our entire family at Disneyland (that made two total I think!). Cord refused to let the employees take a picture of us because he insisted that their wireless method of transporting the files was so quick that their resolution must be very low, like 2 megapixels...photographic elitist! "The Wharf" made me feel like I was in Carmel or on the bay in Monterey...I have been telling Cord we're going to Carmel in April...I'm making plans this week...we enjoyed a little time here for lunch two days in a row! That's my dad on the right for those of you who haven't had the privelage of meeting him...love him to death!


Love you all! Cordy kept taking pictures of me, so I decided to shock him a bit and pay attention and blow him a kiss...it got a smile.

She sure knows how to have fun!
You could tell that we were at the end of a long trip and a long day...everyone was trying to be excited about the teacups, but we were so tired! Goodbye Disneyland...until next time...give me at least six months to recover!

Day two-ramping up, ramping down

Grizzly River Rapids is (was) Cayden's favorite ride until we went on California Screamin' (he went at least five times-pictures to come...or video I think). We used the child switch pass since Eliza missed the height requirement by two inches...so our family went in two groups.


Hannah and I didn't get too wet!


While Cayden, Hannah, and I waited in line for California Screamin', Cord took this adorable picture of our future hero!



Here we are at the highlight of our day...bugs life experience! My glasses were the best part...Cord looks pretty adorable in them, don'tcha think?
We had our ups and downs on day two-filming in the middle of main street, Eliza being harrassed by the ride attendants about her height, and short lines with fun rides and my adorable family...I had a love/hate relationship with Dland by the end of that day!

The Happiest place on earth...for at least the first day!

We have had a blast on our vacation to Disneyland and are still traveling home as I write this. I have so enjoyed my family and watching how big they all are and their interactions with each other. It warms my heart to see them love each other (even though they also want to kill each other sometimes) and we had the time of our lives...but Cord and I are getting old...by the end of day three, we were so excited when Eliza asked, "Can we go again?" to the attendant on Pirates of the Caribbean because Cord and I were enjoying lying on each other and closing our eyes.

Here are some tidbits of the first day...more to come soon:After a very rainy start to our day, we decided to go on splash mountain, for which there was no wait, the ride attendants kept asking us to go again and again...we finally had to tell them no thank you and get out, we were soaked!

After a couple of hours, the weather cleared up and it was a beautiful day in Disneyland, we enjoyed the sun...but especially enjoyed no lines!


Hannah was way into her clam chowder which she had at various places in both parks all three days...and it's all over her mouth...she was really enjoying herself.


We had the most hilarious Jungle Cruise driver...he made us all laugh...there weren't many pictures of our entire family of course because one of us was always behind the camera!


But here was one precious picture of our entire family...the other one is coming...from our last day that we had my dad take (he came for part of our third day to hang out). The ride attendant on Matterhorn was kind enough to offer to take our picture amid lines (although the lines were small)...now that's service!

Weird Science

Cayden entered the Science fair this year with a project that was way beyond my comprehension, in fact, when he told me about it a year ago, I told him, "magnets can't float Cayden, we're not doing that". He is so smart! He ended up winning the award for the most advanced science project in the school, that was pretty cool! Superconductors are technology of the future...google them, it's pretty cool stuff. His cousin Zander was very proud of him too! I am also very pleased that Cayden did the entire project with his partner Brittain and we didn't help him with anything but the video burning...he did absolutely everything by himself...you can tell by the sign!!! Yay Cayden!

One of many...

Eliza, being our last, has it good...and bad sometimes! She is having like three birthday parties, but not all of them occurred on her birthday, that's the downfall. She keeps asking me, "Is it STILL my birthday?" I try and explain that we're going to have a party for her this weekend at The Ottley's and then again in California at Disneyland next week. That's much too far away for her...she just understands the immediate. Here is her preschool celebration yesterday, one of many celebrations...I think actually by the time we're done, she will have had: one at home on her birthday, one at preschool, one at Cord's parents, one at my parents, and one at Ariel's Grotto in D land...plenty for one four year old...that's all to make up for the fact that I was in CA during her actual big day because my mom was having her hip replaced...a whole other story.

The next installment to the story is the "Ottley family party" at which she received a pink tutu with a pink hair bow to match from Apricot Smiles...so adorable and fluffy! We ended with a princess cake at Grandma Penny's house after three days at Disneyland of people wishing her "happy birthday" every five seconds which she loved! She really knows she's four now!

I wish they all could be California girls...

We had to pretend it wasn't winter and enjoy some good old fashioned California stuff: Red convertable mustang, two cute blondies, and some crazy driving!!! Brings back great memories!