Disneyland!

I posted a few things from our Disneyland trip so you'll have to see those posts below.

For me, the highlight of the trip was dressing the girls up and taking them to Ariels Grotto to have dinner and meet the Princesses. You have to make reservations WAY in advance (like 10-60 days in advance) to get in to this restaurant. I thought our reservations were at five and around 3:50 Ben corrected me and we realized they were at four. We were still at our hotel. I put the girls in the stroller and R A N to Disneyland. Keep in mind our hotel wasn't all that close to Disneyland. The girls thought that was the most fun thing ever (being dressed like princesses with mom galloping them in their carriage). Of course for the full effect I was making galloping sounds between gasping for air. We made it there in the nick of time and the enchantment began. We met all the princesses and had a wonderful time!

Above: Us at Goofy's Kitchen (another highlight of the trip)

Happiest Place on Earth? Kind of scary to me . . .

Upon arriving on our second day in Disneyland I noticed that there were an awful lot of people wearing black lace, corsets, and such. "Huh," I thought, "we'll have to stay away from that group." But the more I walked around Disneyland the more I saw. Pretty soon, people wearing t-shirts and jeans were the minority. Really odd and unbelievable piercings, white makeup and black lips were everywhere. Low and behold, it freaking "Goth Day" at Disneyland! Wouldn't you know it. I asked one of these people what was going on. She said it is "Bats Day" every November 9th Gothic Groupies from "all over California and other states" join together in Disneyland. What luck. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "it's all over the internet." Yeah, I really don't think she and I frequent the same sights.
The oddness of it all did not go unnoticed by Hailey and Aubrey. They were a little frightened. I just told them that, "just like they dress up like princesses at Disneyland, some adults like to dress up too. They just pick really weird outfits." It kind of sucked all the pixie dust and happy magic out of the place and it felt really . . . yeah, words just can't describe it.
We were on Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Aubrey got a little scared (the boat wasn't even moving yet, she was scared of the people getting on the boat in the row behind us). As the boat rolled out and the ride began Aubrey started screaming. (I knew she was screaming because she knew she was stuck on the boat with these freaking scary looking people). Thinking that Aubrey was afraid of the ride the Goth girl reached up and patted Aubrey's arm. (which caused more screams). I tried to comfort her and tell her it was alright and she was safe with us. "Yeah, we'll keep you safe" said the girl. I resisted the urge to say, "Um, actually, she's afraid of YOU!"
Overall the Goths were really nice and polite, just a little . . . odd and eerie. I filmed it.

Forget Mickey, Gimme Ryan Seacrest!

Our trip to Disneyland was fantastic with many unexpected twists and turns along the way. I am going to post all of the highlights as separate posts. The first is below:

On our first day in Disneyland they were filming the Disney Christmas Parade that will air on ABC Christmas morning. Little did we know, the Jonas Brothers were performing that morning for the Special. A Disney employee said "this way" to me and I found myself leading my family to the front row to see the Jonas Brothers. They said we had to wait about 20 minutes and then the boys would sing one song. Naw, I'll pass. We left our front stage spot and moved on to Peter Pan's flight. (Yes, I can hear the shrills of shock and horror coming from all of you that have tweens that would "just die" for that opportunity, but what can I say? My girls don't even know who the Jonas Brothers are . . . and I don't really want them to just yet, Peter Pan however is right up their alley.) So we passed on the Jonas Brothers.

However, as we were leaving the park (about five hours later) they were STILL filming the parade. Someone over my shoulder said, "I can't believe how short Ryan Seacrest looks in real life" Ryan Seacrest? Doth my ears deceive me? Ryan Seacrest is here? Ahhhh!!! You'd think I was one of those tweens that was waiting to see the Jonas Brothers. My heart jumped into my chest and I looked a Ben. My sweet hubby gave me a huge sigh and a knowing nod of approval that meant, "I'll wait here with the girls, go" and I took off like lighting, camera in hand, to find Ryan! Of course I had to jump a few ropes, but soon enough I was standing on the second row waiting to see Ryan; who, by-the-way, was there to introduce Corbin Bleu who sang his new single. When I saw Ryan I held up my camera and yelled "Ryan!" He looked right at me and waved! I was thrilled!

All dogs go to heaven

We went to Disneyland (posts coming) this last week and had a wonderful time. However, while we were gone, our sweet Roxy (she's the family dog, if you're new to this blog) was in an accident and died. She was just five months old, and we've had her for three months. We really had a wonderful time with her while she was with us. She will be dearly missed. I am learning that from experiences like this, come a lot of great teaching (and learning) experiences too. We waited until we got home and settled a little to tell the girls. We buried her in the backyard and said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for letting us have her and enjoy her. Then I took the girls to Costco. Hailey had to go potty and we were in the bathroom in different stalls. Hailey decided right then is the perfect time to engage in a conversation about Jesus and the Resurrection (yelling between stalls). "You know Mom, people will come back to life after they die because of Jesus, I bet Roxy will do that too! Don't you think Mom?" I mean really, how do I answer that in the Costco stall? So far, the girls have really been at peace with it all. I let them see the body and pet her one last time. Children are so resilient. I am blessed with such sweet girls. We love you Roxy!

Trick or Treat

This Halloween the girls insisted on being "cute bats" (as opposed to scary bats.) It took some thinking and creativity to come up with a "cute bat" costume. I found two awesome black skirts at Walmart that had fiber-optic lights! Now, what's cuter than that? I added odds and ends together and came up with some pretty darn "cute bat" costumes. The girls were thrilled and were far and wide the cutest bats I've ever seen.Above: Aubrey Cute Bat (she insisted that Bats growl and is growling in the picture)

Above: Hailey Cute Bat

Every year the girls go to Grandma Powell's ward Halloween party. Grandma LOVES to dress-up for Halloween. Here's some photo's of Grandma and the girls on their way to the party.