Disneyland Part 1 (Californa Day 2)

I started this post 4 days ago...Oops! Hopefully I can finish it tonight without deciding to go to bed first.

Our morning started off very early. Miss Karsyn was the last to go to sleep and the first up at 6 AM! Ugh! We ate breakfast in the hotel and then headed to Disneyland. The girls were so excited they could barely contain themselves. Truth be told - Lolly and I quickly were just as excited as they were.

The Entrance @ Disneyland

Our first ride was the Astro Orbiter. It was fun, but just an average, make you dizzy kind of ride. After that, we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. The girls are fans of Toy Story so I thought it would be fun. I was not anticipating the darkness and the aliens like I should have. Landrie was very intimidated.








We headed to some tamer rides--the Carousel, Dumbo's Flying Elephants and saw the Disneyland Band. All of those were big hits.

Pops & the girls on the carousel

Mickey conducting the band

We left Disneyland and headed for California Adventure. There were 3 shows I wanted to see - Playhouse Disney for Karsyn, Aladdin for all of us and the High School Musical show for Landrie. I think Pops and Lolly would agree - the Aladdin show was great. It was a true production and the Gennie was hilarious!

Landrie really wanted her picture taken in the O of California. We finished taking the picture on the L of everyone and Pops, Lolly and Karsyn went to get in line to get in California Adventure. I couldn't find Landrie anywhere... I turned around and she was posing in the O.

The High School Musical 2 Show

We then headed back to Disneyland for the parade. It was so fun! We saw all of our favorite characters and had a "front row" seat for the action. It was great until Ursula (the sea witch from the Little Mermaid) came by. Landrie crawled under the bench we were sitting on! For some reason, she was very scary to her.

Landrie & Karsyn waiting for the parade to start.

After the parade, we finally made it to the Teacups. Landrie had requested for this to be our first ride of the day and it took us until nearly 5 o'clock to get there. The girls loved it!! I have never heard Karsyn laugh so hard. She is my adrenaline junky!


We also rode the Storybook Land boats and Alice and Wonderland.

The final ride of the evening was the Matterhorn Bobsleds. We had a pass to get to the front of the line so we thought we'd try it. People on the ride were screaming their heads off, but we still went. It was very fast and bumpy! I'm surprised that they even allowed Karsyn to ride. She rode and loved it! When we finished, she said "Do again, Mommy!"


When we got back to the hotel, I looked in my Disneyland guide. The Bobsleds got high ratings for older kids and adults, but was coded as not suitable for ages 2-4. Oops! They had fun anyway!


With Day 1 under our belts, we were worn out, but in awe of the magical place that Disneyland is.

Next - Breakfast with Minnie & Friends

Happy Birthday Pops!

Today is Pops 51st birthday!

Hope you had a great day!

Thanks for a fantastic trip! We love you!!!

Disney

Wow! Our trip to Disneyland was a blast! It wasn't what I expected it to be at all - it was better than I could have imagined!

Here's the rundown of the trip:


Day 1 - flight to The OC (Orange County).

By design, Lolly put her and Landrie on one row and Karsyn and I on another. We weren't sure what Miss Fiesty would do on the plane. Surprisingly, she was very pleasant! There were a few tears at the beginning and the end, but a good nap in the middle.

We're here! The girls were thrilled to be off the plane and near Disneyland.

After we landed, we checked into our hotel and then drove to Hollywood. It was about 45 minutes away in traffic. Landrie and Karsyn kept it interesting by fighting around me, pulling my hair and being super silly. We were in a Jeep Liberty and I was in the middle seat. (Feel sorry for me yet?)

Landrie asked no fewer than 50 times when we were going to the beach. We promised we would go, but first we toured Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood Hills, Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills. It was fun to see just to say I had been, but it honestly wasn't anything special.

We finally drove to Santa Monica to the beach. Landrie and Karsyn were thrilled! They wouldn't put their feet in the water though - silly girls! They were content to play in the sand. I had to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean and the tide was coming in...Oops! I got more wet than I intended, but it felt so good.

After that, we got lost getting back to Anaheim. The girls were melting down, so Pops and Lolly took us to a fancy dinner - McDonalds! They went out to dinner and the girls and I were in bed by 9:30 that night! I definitely needed the rest for what was to come...

Day 2 coming soon!

Confessions

Anyone who knows my family, knows we are not big on animals...especially those of the amphibian variety. Somehow though, I am raising a tree-hugging, animal loving little girl.

For the better part of a year, Landrie asked every single day for a puppy. We told her she could have one when she was 6, but now my answer is she can have one when she's grown up and lives on her own. That's probably really mean on my part, but I just don't think I can handle taking care of one more thing especially something that's not as cute and loveable as my 2 little girls.

She's also concerned with other critters and their habitats too. For example, we have one lot that is empty across the street from us. We woke up one morning to a tree service clearing the lot. Landrie was very worried about where the birds were going to live since their tree was gone.

A few days later, she dropped a toy behind some chairs in the garage. When Lamar picked it up, it had spider webs on it and he wiped them up. She was more concerned that the spiders wouldn't have a home than the fact that her toy was dirty!

We have had an ant problem and once I found the giant ant pile on the side of the house, we sprayed them. She was upset that we were killing the ants. Ugh!

At least she is considerate of others feelings...even if they have more legs than we do!

That's why I cannot tell her about the events at Jordan's apartment tonight. Jor called me literally hysterical around 7 o'clock. I couldn't even understand what was going on. She finally calmed down enough to tell me that something crawled out from underneath a shirt on the floor. Justin is out of town, so she was freaking out!

She called the wrong person because I surely wasn't going to pick up any kind of creature, but I went for moral support anyway. About 5 minutes after I got there, she mustered up the courage to check the closet. What she found was a 1 1/2 inch long baby gecko!

SIDE STORY - I am literally terrified of these tiny things. Once when Lamar was gone to a Ranger game, I saw one in our front hallway. I sat in a chair for 2 hours watching the darn thing so I could show Lamar where it was when he got home. The little critter got back at me though and ran into our bedroom! I never saw the sucker again - YUCK!

So, to say Jordan called the wrong person is a gross understatement! The only ammunition we had was carpet cleaner, a small bowl and a vaccuum. From the comfort of her bed, I coached her as she sprayed the gecko with the carpet cleaner. Every time it would move, she would scream and run out of the closet. This went on for about 30 minutes, but Jordan finally killed the gecko with foaming carpet cleaner and then vaccummed him up.

I couldn't wait to get out of there! I still have the creepy crawlies just writing this story!

I have a feeling Landrie will have to rescue me in the future if we have any bugs or critters! Hopefully they won't become her pets.

Little Miss "No White"

Tonight is our last night before work starts again! I can't believe that our summer is officially over. Lamar starts football meetings, I start back to work and the girls will begin Lolly Days again. Luckily, we only have to do it for a 4 day stretch before Disneyland!

The girls and I are going with Pops & Lolly to California on Saturday. I can't wait!!! This is the first airplane ride for the girls and the first Disney trip for all of us! I might be more excited than they are.

Landrie's planned where we'll go since we first started talking about Disneyland - The Teacups! I hope that she's as excited about the rides once we get there as she is now. Her only request is to not go near the Pirates, though I'm not sure why. She doesn't know yet, but we're also going to see the High School Musical show!

Karsyn is into the Princesses BIG TIME! I can't wait to see her reactions to them! The things she calls them is the best part:

• Be-yell (starting on the Texas accent early)


• Ar-we-al


• No White


• Cin-lella


• And the best of all - Leasin' Booty! She just cannot say Sleeping Beauty!!

I promise to post lots of pictures when we get back and I may get a few in before we leave too!

Purpose

After having 5 days sans husband and children, I've spent a lot of time laughing, revisiting old memories and thinking.

Coming home to a clean quiet house was great on Sunday, but as Monday rolled around, I began to feel like I didn't know what to do with myself. Luckily, I had dinner planned with Brea so that occupied my night. We went through boxes of college pictures...cracking up all the way through. For some reason, we thought we had to take a picture (or 6) with food stuffed in our mouths...why, I'm just not sure. Last night, we were just 2 silly college girls again reliving toga parties, white trash prom, lake days and more.

Today, I went to the pool by myself. I took a book and my iPod and just floated for hours. It was a nice, but strange feeling - like I didn't have a purpose. I almost felt hallow without my two sweet girls hanging on to me, asking questions and shouting "Look at me, Mommy!"

I honestly didn't know I could miss them so much! It makes me realize that I was meant to be a mom and a wife, and how blessed to have them all healthy and safe at home with me. I hope that I never take for granted how lucky I am to have them. As school and football nears, I want to cherish each and every moment we have together.

A Necessary Thank You (or two)

I just got home a few hours ago from the 2nd Annual Huffman Scrapbook Retreat. Sweet Kara invited 13 people into her home for the weekend for a 48 hour scrap-a-thon. Not only was she kind enough to have us take over her house for the weekend, she flew her parents in to serve us and pamper us too! Her dad served as our valet parker and unloaded all of our scrapbook stuff (A TON of stuff) and her mom was the chef for the weekend. We all felt so lucky to be taken care of for the weekend rather than doing the caring ourselves. It was a huge success! I finished 55 pages and am 10 pages from being current on my scrapbook. I can't belive it.

My second shout-out goes to Lamar. When I came home from the retreat, I walked in to a quiet and clean house. The kitchen was clean, the laundry was done and he and the girls were out of town. I feel extra special because I had the retreat, plus 2 days to recover from the retreat without cleaning up cheerios, turning on moomee's for Karsyn and Cartoon Neckwork for Landrie. Don't get me wrong, I am missing them like crazy, but I am thrilled for some alone time...especially as football season and school starts up.

So, Thank You Kara & Lamar! You made my weekend!!!

Celebrating Lamar

As our friends have turned 30 (and one turned 40!), they have thrown parties from the simple to elaborate. It can be overwhelming trying to keep up the tradition, but we definitely tried last weekend.

We invited a few friends to Downtown Fort Worth for dinner and then we went to Pete's Dueling Pianos. It was so much fun! It has a very lively atmosphere, entertaining music and tons of people watching (my favorite). We had a great night!!

For Lamar's birthday, the girls and I gave him Guitar Hero for his Playstation 2. It is SO much fun! It's become a family thing for us to do. The girls love to pretend to play and to watch us compete against each other.

I also gave Lamar one other gift... He told me a while back that if he could have any car it would be a Corvette. Obviously that isn't practical for our family, so I gave him a mini-Corvette to admire in the mean time.

Picture Post

I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I would just post some pictures of the last few weeks. Summer is winding down quickly, so instead of spending time on the computer, I'm trying to enjoy time doing things with Lamar and the girls. Football is quickly approaching - 2 weeks - and then our family time will be few and far between.

The girls are little fish at our local water park.

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Landrie went to Adventure Weekend last week for the first time. The theme was Backstage Blast and they helped make a movie, create sound effects and lots of other fun activities. She had so much fun!

Silly Karsyn watching TV with her sunglasses on

Happy Birthday Lamar!

Today Lamar is 30 years old!! It's hard to believe that we've been together since he was 20! He is a wonderful husband, father, coach and friend. We are all blessed to have him in our lives.

Here's to 30 more wonderful years!

Happy Birthday Lamar! I love you!!

Fantastic Fourth!

We had a great 4th of July! It was very low-key compared to the last few years and it was one of our most enjoyable. We had a pool party during the day and then walked to the Boys Ranch for Fireworks. The girls were so much fun--dancing to the live music, playing with friends and watching the fireworks with complete awe!

Family picture - even Lamar is smiling! :)

Dancing Girls!

Channing & Landrie

Fabulous Fireworks

Patriotic Landrie

Bad Luck Dress

Have you ever worn something that always seemed to bring bad luck when you wore it?

For my sister Jordan, it was her bathing suit. The summer she was 5 years old it was rarely off of her body. Unfortunately though, bad things seemed to happen when she wore it. We used to go to Wet 'N Wild (now Hurricane Harbor) 3-4 times a week. Somehow she got lost one day and of course she was wearing the bad luck bathing suit. During the same summer, she was playing outside with tons of other kids and a neighbor came around the corner too fast and hit Jordan with her car. Again, she was wearing the bad luck bathing suit. She was fine thankfully - just bumps and bruises. I'm pretty sure my mom burned the suit after that though.

The girls have had bad luck lately in their 4th of July dresses. First, Landrie puked in our rental car after our Conroe trip wearing her dress and then 10 days later Karsyn did the same. I still can't believe the virus lasted in our house for that long!

Unfortunately, the bad luck traveled to Salado. The girls went down on Tuesday to spend the week with Gigi & Grandpa. Karsyn got sick the night before, but it seemed like a one time deal. She woke up the next morning feeling fine...evidently not. On the way from Hillsboro to Salado, she got sick, but quickly got over it. Gigi came down with it last night though. I feel terrible! I don't think she was planning to have the stomach bug on her week off. So, the girls' trip was cut short and I picked up the girls today. I sure was glad to see them, but I hated the circumstances for which they came home early.

Feel better Gigi!! Thanks for watching the girls! I hope we didn't scare you from doing it again!

Hopefully we'll have good luck in their dresses tomorrow. Happy 4th Everyone!

Happy Birthday Justin!

Today my one and only brother is 26!! Justin and I have a love/hate relationship, but mostly love! :) He is a great uncle to the girls - who love to be picked on by him. He is head over heels for his neices, just as they are for him. We love you Bubba!!

Hope you have a GREAT DAY today Justin! I'm looking forward to a good dinner tonight!