Disneyland!!!

Mediocre picture of us on the airplane.  The kids LOVED the airplane ride!

 Alan and I took Jared and Maggie to Disneyland this week!  It was an AMhAZING trip.  Wow.  Practically perfect.  We left Evelyn with my mom, and it broke my heart to leave her, but it was totally the right choice and she doesn't seem to have been permanently scarred or anything.  :)

 We spent two days in Disneyland and one day in California Adventure.  We took our Sit 'n' Stand double stroller, which was wonderful.  Neither Jared nor Maggie complained even once about their feet hurting, and we were able to move quickly from one area of the park to another.  Alan and I, on the other hand, had very tired feet at the end of each day--my pedometer logged between 22,000 and 26,000 steps each day!

 These were the pictures of my kids I took at the beginning of the day in case they got lost in the park...which they didn't.  :)

We saw lots of characters walking around the park, but Minnie is the only one we got a family picture with. Her line was short right at the beginning of the day.  

In line for Small World 

The new Elsa's ice castle on Storybook Canal boats

Jungle cruise

Of course, one of the most exciting parts of Tomorrowland was everything Star Wars related.  We went on Star Tours about 10 times, and Maggie was the "rebel spy" one time!  

 

Jared had heard about the Jedi Training Academy from his friends at school, and he really wanted to go.  I explained to him that they only picked a few of the kids from the audience to actually do the training, so he probably wouldn't get picked and would just watch.  He still wanted to go, so Alan took him to the Jedi Training Academy while I took Maggie to a little Frozen play.  

Jared with Darth Vader in the background.

Well, Jared actually got chosen as one of the "younglings" to train!  He was so excited!  Too bad Alan didn't have the camera to take pictures, but I later took these pictures of pictures that Disneyland wanted me to pay lots of money for.  Ha ha.  They did a really fun job with Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and storm troopers present, as well as several Jedi to help teach the younglings the moves with their light sabers.  Jared even got a certificate when it was over saying he is now a Padawan.  I think it was the best day of Jared's life.  

Darth Vader emerges and encourages the younglings to join him and he will "complete their training"

Jared is given a pep talk by a Jedi

Jared got to have a duel with Darth Maul!

We saw these storm troopers walking around Tomorrowland

Astro blasters aka "the Buzz ride"

Jared pointed to this statue and said "It looks like Walt Disney is force choking someone."  Ha ha!  He is such a funny kid!

Jared and Maggie went on all the big rides and loved them!  Maggie loved Space Mountain and Pirates and Thunder Mountain, and Jared loved Star Tours and Indiana Jones the most (Maggie wasn't tall enough for Indi.)


These next photos are from our day in California Adventure.  I didn't take as many pictures here, but we had a blast.  We were able to go on the new Radiator Springs Racers three times, and Jared went on California Screamin' eight times, switching off with Alan and me (thanks to Switch Passes!)  Maggie went on Tower of Terror twice with Alan and keeps talking about how fun it was (although I think she was actually pretty scared.)  Jared and I went on Tower of Terror just once, and I lost one of my expensive (non-disposable) contacts on that ride, so that pretty much turned me off to it.  I had to walk around with only one contact in the rest of the day and got a bit of a headache from it.

The Mater ride--not really worth the line

King Triton's carousel

Jellyfish ride--not worth the line, but Maggie loved it.  

This was seriously the best trip ever!  Jared and Maggie were troopers (with only a little bit of grumpiness here and there), and Jared was big enough to go on everything, and Maggie was big enough to go on everything but two rides.  Jared's favorite ride in California Adventure was California Screamin', and Maggie's was the Ariel ride and the "elevator ride" (Tower of Terror--yeah, right.)

I'm already feeling the post-trip blues and longing for our next trip to Disneyland (probably two or three years out when Evelyn is big enough to enjoy it, too).  I was also bummed that some of my favorite rides were closed this trip (Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, and Soarin' over California), so I can't wait to go again!

February

This is me trying to get Evy to sing "Once There was a Snowman," which she has gotten so good at.  I guess the camera is a big distraction for her.  :)

We had a very busy February!  Alan and I had something going almost every night this month.  Not too much of it was picture-worthy.  However, there were some things that were picture-worthy, but I forgot to take pictures!  Sheesh.  

We had our fun fondue night with the Stouts.  I really love fondue (and I also love the Stouts!), so this is a favorite tradition of ours to host everyone at our house and eat yummy food.  This year I made peanut butter fondue, chocolate fondue, and cheese fondue.  

Another exciting thing was that Alan's sister Amanda married her sweetheart Todd this month.  We are so excited to have them married and have more cousins for our kids!  We love them and their little family.  

 This was Jared's first year to make his own Valentine box. In past years he has just decorated a paper sack or something at school.  Thank goodness for Google Images!  I'm kind of a dummy when it comes to arts and crafts, but this was simple enough for even me to help him with.  :)  Jared was the winner this month for his class in reading the most minutes for their reading contest.  That meant that he and all the other class winners got to go on a special field trip with the principal to Chick-Fil-A! (This is the third year in a row that Jared has done this and been the winner for his class.  He reads sooooooo much!  Lately he has been flying through Star Wars chapter books and also the Calvin and Hobbes books. He requests to go to the library at least once a week.)

This is Maggie in one of her Hawaiian dress-ups.  Maggie has grown up so much lately!  In February she got her kindergarten shots and check-up, and I have registered her for kindergarten next year!  I am amazed at how much she has learned lately.  She writes her name very legibly (MAggiE--we need to work on lowercase letters--ha ha), is working on writing her other letters, and she is just beginning to read.  I think in the next couple of months that reading will "click" for her and she'll be off!  :)  I'm so proud of her.