Iss A Crocodile!

Setting: Luke sitting on the toilet
Luke: What's that mom?
Me: That's poop.
Luke (now whispering): No, iss a crocodile!

My little graduate...

Maya graduated from Little Scholar Academy a couple weeks ago. We have really loved sending our children there. We picked the school before we moved to Utah and knew where we would be living. We've "commuted" there for the past four years between Maya and Andy. So the commute is only a 10 minute drive, but our first year we did commute from Ogden for 6 months! I can't believe I won't be driving out there three days a week anymore. I guess the commute will just be moving north now.

The morning class waiting there turn to line up in their seats.

The graduation ceremony is always lots of fun with the cutest songs from the kids. Here Maya and Carter are hugging while singing, the Shake A Friends Hand song.

Receiving her diploma!

Miss Laraine and Miss Heather...best pre-school teachers ever!

Cousin Eliza was excited to come along for the festivities. Maya was so happy to share her graduation day with her buddy.

I am so proud of you Maya. Your teachers loved having you in their class and always gave you the best reviews for being a wonderful student and friend to your classmates. Great job!

Big Boy Bed

We moved Luke out of his crib and into a big boy bed. We decided to switch them out at the last minute without prepping Luke. He kept giggling while we moved the car bed into his room. When we tucked him in a few minutes later he curled up in bed, smiled at me and said, "Now I'm big!" I wasn't ready for that.

When we snuck into his room later that night to document the big move we found him like this!

Maya & Tinkerbell

I love the fairies that work for Disneyland they are wonderful and worth the wait to see. They are so sweet to the kids, you would think that your child was the only one they visited with that day. The fairy in the first picture helped Maya catch pretend rain drops and then the two of them carried it carefully over to Tinkerbell and then Tinkerbell showed Maya how to water her flowers with the rain drop. Then there was still time for visiting and pictures. It was so fun to see Maya so enchanted.

Disney Shout Out to the Field Family

(James, Faith & Spencer chillin' out at the hotel with us after some hard Disney partying.)

One of my favorite things about going to Disneyland is the chance to see Natalie. Natalie and Doug are friends of ours that go way back to the USU years. Natalie was my roommate and Doug was on the Arts & Lectures Committee with me. Another roommate of mine, Tiffany, and I convinced Doug that we were twins our freshman year of college, Natalie fell for his innocence! Natalie was one of the best roomies I could ever ask for, fun, fun, fun! She was the RA so there was no one to complain to when we played tag or did other crazy things in the building because she was usually in on the shenanigans. She has grown up and matured and is now a certified expert on manuevering through Disneyland. They are moving from California soon so we will miss them on our next Disney adventure but we will always be grateful for their tips and shortcuts.

Famous People's Autographs

Our kids love all the characters all over the place in Disneyland and having them sign their books so we love to catch them walking around before the lines form. Luke was so excited to meet Winnie the Pooh and Tigger so we actually stood in line for them, but whenever Baloo was around he couldn't climb into my arms fast enough!

My favorite autograph attempt however was Stevie Wonder! Earlier in the day Space Mountain broke down while Maya and I were in line so they gave us passes to go to the front of any line. We love Finding Nemo and they don't accept fast passes so we headed on over to Nemo later in the day to redeem our passes. While we were waiting to be moved to the front of the line Nate spotted Stevie Wonder and his family getting lined up to ride Nemo, so we sneaked a quick picture. I promised the attendant that if he would let us on Stevie's sub that we wouldn't bother them, but he said we were going with them anyway! Since we had our autograph books with us anyway I asked someone in the group if it would be too intrusive on their family time if we asked Stevie Wonder to sign our books. It happened to be his brother who told us that since Stevie has always been blind and never learned to write letters that he didn't sign autographs. I asked him how he signed legal documents and he said that he used a thumb print. I said, "Well I don't have an ink pad with me today so I guess we're out of luck." So his brother, said, "Why don't you just meet him." We thought that was a great idea. We talked to him for just a few minutes, it was his birthday as well as his son's birthday so the family was out celebrating. After that we joked with his brother for a minute and then decided to leave them all in peace. It was a fun little moment.

Jedi Training

Jedi Training Certification at Disneyland is one of their best attraction for kids that love Star Wars. They select a bunch of kids from the crowd and give them light sabers and dress them in Jedi cloaks and then teach them a few jedi moves. After they teach the kids a few moves Darth Vader, Darth Maul and Storm troopers come to take over so the kids each have to battle with their new skills. Andy loved it last year so we had to do it again.

We acted like complete maniacs, but it worked because both Maya and Andy were selected for training. Maya got a little stage fright and got all glassy eyed and a little out of it which gave the trainer some fun jokes, but when she got off stage she was so animated and happy that she was able to fight Darth Vader. It's June now, but Maya still trains her friends with the Jedi ways when they take a break from playing dolls. Today she trained another friend and Luke too.

Last year Andy successfully defeated Darth Vader so this year he was granted his wish when he was pitted against Darth Maul.

Disneyland Rides

We love the rides at Disneyland. Fortunately, because of the two times we have chosen we haven't really had to deal with too many lines. Plus the rider swap option for parents is a great time saver.

Our kids never get tired of the crazy antics in Toon Town!

I let Nate ride all the super spin rides with the kids while I take photos. No teacups for me!

Luke loves the Buzz Light Year ride. Everytime we go on a ride he can't go on one of us would take him to this ride, he loved it! Another fun one like this one is the Toy Story ride in California Adventure. It is so new they don't offer fast passes, so we only rode it once this time, but it is an awesome interactive game we can't wait to do again. This visit, the line took us an hour during low season, it was so hot and Luke had a poopy diaper. We were not getting out of line and tracking back to the stroller to start that line all over again so we (and those around us) had to endure that smell in the heat. It was a memorable ride to say the least!

One of the favorite rides for this trip was Splash Mountain. Between fast passes and rider switch cards we rode this over and over!

Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen

We love breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen! This is the best family place to eat at Disneyland. Goofy's Kitchen is an all you can eat buffet and tons of characters stop by your table for individual visits with your kids. I love the breakfast buffet; there are so many good choices whether you are in the mood for breakfast or lunch. My kids love having waffles and fruit and pink cupcakes all in the same meal. I love the eggs benedict or made to order fresh omelets and peanut butter pizza. Nate just likes paying for a meal that his kids will actually eat! This year we had visits from Pluto, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Belle, Baloo and a few other friends. Goofy was so crazy he would try and make a cake and kept dropping the ingredients, fortunately all the kids were able to leave their tables to help him pick them up and shake them like maracas to the fun music. Last year he was clumsy too so they had to help him out of another predicament and have a dance party at the same time. We also had visits last year from Hercules, Peter Pan, Captain Hook and all sorts of friends. This is a fun tradition for our family (plus it saves some time standing in lines for autographs in the park!)

Mother's Day and Disneyland

For mother's day this year Nate and I decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland. It was hard finding time to pack and shop without the kids seeing anything but so worth it. After sacrament meeting Sunday we left the church and headed home. The kids asked what we were doing and we told them we had a surprise planned. Always keeping us in check Andy told us it would be unholy to leave before church was over...he soon got over it, but I'm still glad he was concerned! We went home and changed our clothes and told the kids to get in the car. (Nate had loaded the suitcases earlier and covered them up.) When we got to the Park N' Jet the kids started to really get curious. We told them where we were going once we were settled on the shuttle. They were in so much shock that they just kept asking questions over and over, reality didn't settle in until we were in the airport security line...suddenly the kids started singing and dancing and saying thank you over and over again. Seeing them so happy over the surprise was an awesome gift to myself!

This year Andy was tall enough to go on so many more rides than last January. It was fun to be able to ride rollercoasters with him. Maybe next year he will be tall enough to go on the Indiana Jones ride. We tried different shoes each day and spikey hair but we couldn't pull it off. Next time we are packing his roller-skate shoes!

Maya loves Disneyland. The whole atmosphere turns her into a little angel. She loves seeing all the characters and princesses. She is brave enough to try just about any attraction they will let her ride.

Luke was such a little man on this trip. He was patient when he couldn't go on rides and didn't fuss no matter how hard we played, suddenly he would just fall asleep for an hour or so in the stroller and then he was ready to go again.