Finally Friday...

Forever the trendsetter, Annika effortlessly pulls off Sassy Unabomber Chic...

The Birds...

That bird may look nice, but I have a feeling that he wants to peck my face off...hence my look of trepidation as he drinks his nectar from his tiny cup... 

Or maybe he just wants to perch nicely and drink his nectar.  Don't be fooled Annika, he can't be trusted...

And was I ever right.  Mere seconds later the bird on Annika's shoulder whistled to his shifty friends and those shifty friends landed on Annika's head.  At which point Annika looked at me with horror in her eyes and said, "GET THEM OFF!"  I, being a good mother, put my camera down and saved her life...but not before busting out laughing.  Priorities!

Finally Friday...

Hold the phone...what is Stacey doing?  Is she blogging?  Really?  But it has been 5 months since her last blog entry.  I like to keep y'all on your toes!

I would like to caption this picture:  The ONLY (and dare I say proper?) way to enjoy a chocolate fountain...

But Wait, There's More...

The time is here...the moment you've all been waiting for...Disneyland Part Duex!  Before we head on over to California Adventure for our 3rd day of fun, let's revisit a little bit more of Disneyland shall we?!

We found Mickey's chickens, but were too impatient to wait over 30 minutes to see Mickey up close.  He's one popular mouse...

Lena's favorite ride was Thunder Mountain Railroad.  She loves her sort of scary sort of calm roller coasters...

It wasn't all play on this vacation...they had to work to find the gold in the pirates' sunken ship...

 We make those 3D glasses look cool if I do say so myself...

The colorful parade was a nice way to take a load off our weary feet...

My favorite time of day at Disney was night.  All the lights came on and the It's a Small World display was probably the most dazzling thing we'd ever seen...

Not to mention the huge Christmas tree...

Our last day dawned brighter and sunnier so we headed next door to California Adventure.  We all rode the humongous ferris wheel...the one where the car drops and rocks.  Not the girls' favorite by far...they actually looked terrified at one point.  Jason and I braved the huge roller coaster.  It was our favorite by far...

The girls have always always loved a carousel and these undersea creatures were no different...

The view from the top of the ferris wheel was amazing...

Thank you Walt for your vision and providing us with such a special vacation...

Re-entry is always hard...

And that is all of our grand adventure.  Where to next?

The Happiest Place on Earth...

 Two weekends ago we asked the girls what they wanted to do with their upcoming long weekend off from school.  Lena jokingly said, "Go to Disneyland!"  Jason replied, "OK let's go!"  At which point two very surprised girls squealed and almost cried with joy.  Early in the fall we had talked about going, but then had to put it on the back burner because of Jason's work schedule.  Little did Lena and Annika know that the work schedule opened up and Mommy went into full planning mode.  We had a wonderful trip.  This was Jason and the girls' first time and I hadn't been since I was twelve.  Being at Disneyland is like being in this little magical bubble where the outside world doesn't exist.  It is so clean and sunny.  The attention paid to detail is amazing and even though it was pretty crowded, they handle the crowds with ease.  And everyone is so happy and friendly.  The princesses wave at you like you are long lost friends.  In my opinion, the girls were a perfect age...old enough to do all the "older" kid stuff, young enough to enjoy the "younger" kid stuff, and had enough stamina to put in a 13 hour day!  Such a fun vacation had by all.

Now I suggest you grab a cup of coffee because I'm not skimping on the pictures.  I even have to break it up into two installments because I ran out of allotted memory on my free blog!  I made a joke to Jason that I was happy I wasn't friends with the guy who filmed the entire 15 minutes of the It's a Small World ride with his iPad because then I would be forced to sit around and watch it.  However, I think I have become that guy.  Enjoy!

We caught the 6:05am bus headed to the train headed to the airport.  Bright eyed and ready to meet Mickey...

We have arrived!  We discovered California is a lot brighter than Oregon and soon the girls needed official Disney hats to shield our fair eyes...

We gave two brave thumbs up to the Matterhorn Bobsleds...

 We took a spin on Alice's Teacups...

Some of us didn't feel as perky after taking that spin...

We inquired whether Mr. Toad was home or not...

We had the tune to It's a Small World stuck in our heads all day.  For the record this was my favorite ride.  So cheerful and happy.  Right up my alley...

We visited New Orleans via Cali...

We found the Pirates' Plunder...

We swung from the trees with Tarzan...

We visited princesses galore...

 

 

 

 

We found the tamest goats in the world.  They are way calmer and tamer than Lulu.  I am pretty sure I need one in our backyard...

We were beautified...

 We discovered that once the sun went down it got a little chillier then Mommy had packed for.  However, we made due while watching the parade with scarves and extra snuggles...

We figured our motto just might be go big or go home.  As evidence of Annika's balloon Rapunzel..

 Or Lena's Little Mermaid...

Or the princess lollipops we spied in the gift shop...

We also learned that it is never too early to get into the Christmas spirit...

 And that my friends was day one and two at Disneyland.  Stay tuned for day three at California Adventure and maybe a little bit more of day one and day two thrown in for good measure.  Have a magical day!

Finally Friday...

One time my friend Diana hitched a ride.  Or as I like to call it..."Driving Miss Lazy"...

Best "Baby"sitters on the Block...

Back in September I flew to Montana for a week to help get my gramma get settled into a retirement home.  Since Jason couldn't take a week off from work we needed someone to come in and watch the girls (and feed and water Jason).  So we called in a couple of experts.  Kathy and Jamie were on the job!

Jason was able to take a day to do a little Portland sight seeing and a quick trip to Multnomah Falls...

Jamie also got to experience a wee bit of the Portland bike culture with the girls...

And of course they all were lucky to experience a whole week of Grammy's delicious home cooking!!  I can't thank Kathy and Jamie enough for helping out while I was gone.  Moving my gramma out of her house that contained the last 60 years of her life was a huge undertaking for my mom, myself, and my gramma.  We honestly couldn't have done it without Kathy and Jamie's help on the home front.  It takes a village, right?