Monday, May 16, 2016

California Adventures

Our second day we spent at California adventures, and it was our very first time being there. It was so much more laid back and much less crowded than Disneyland. We LOVED it. Well, we love it all actually.
^^one of the girls very favorite rides was the golden rocket one (not sure if that's the official name). It is also the ride that Tracen wanted to take stori on. It was so cute. It was the first ride that we shared with the Allreds.
Tracen and stori went on the goofy roller coaster with Dan and Luke while Alana and I took rai and Sylvie to the little mermaid ride. (We did that group combo several times that day actually).
Thumbs up before it started (because she liked all the previous roller coasters so much)...
And thumbs down after haha. I guess it was pretty jerky and Dan said he gas to hold onto her pretty tight so she would get slammed into the bar and door so much. But now that we are home, she keeps telling me that she liked it, and that she will enjoy it more when she is the right size.


Cars Land was so so so much fun! We did the tractor ride once, and got to do the Cars ride twice. This was hands down Stori's favorite ride!
Radiator Springs is a fast car race/small roller coaster, and I got the best video of Stori riding it. It shows her terrified and screaming, "Noooo. noo." then it shows her with the biggest smile ever and saying it was her favorite ride. Thanks Allreds for the fast passes!
Sylvie wasn't tall enough to ride the fun cars ride, so Dan and I took turns with her.
When it was dans turn to stay with her, she freaked out because she wanted to ride it. Well he caved and bought her a giant lollipop---which became problematic when stori wanted Sylvie to share it with her... Long story short, we ended up throwing the lollipop away about 20 minutes later haha.


the blasted lollipop 

^consoling the tears that came from her thinking that daddy bought sylvie the lollipop just because, and thinking that he just didn't want to buy anything for her. She didn't quite get that sylvie got it because Stori got to go on the ride twice. Rookie mistake by dad haha.

Meeting Sofia the First was a HUGE highlight for the girls!!! Stori ran right up for a hug and Sylvie spent the entire time in line yelling, "HI SOPHIA, HI!!! HI SOFIA, HI!!" It was so cute. These kids bring me so much joy.

the kids got pretty good at keeping themselves very entertained while waiting in lines for rides.

These two weren't even on the same ride while both doing this crazy upside down move. Must be related. Dan had Stori while waiting for Soaring over California, and I had sylvie in the Bugs Life area waiting to go on the caterpillar ride. :)

Her and Rai guy bonded so cute! It's crazy to think that this is the age when Stori and Tracen became best friends, and now it's the younger siblings turn! :)


Reading the paper and deciding what color to paint their living room walls. Normal newlywed talk.

Sometimes Woody just happens to be walking down the road giving out high fives and making these red heads so happy!
We ran into SO many people that I knew! Celia, my cousin Andy and his family, and our friends from our ward here in Provo. When we ran into them, their little boy hudson (sylvie's buddy from nursery) gave her a big huge hug and kept blowing her kisses while they said goodbye.
See the lack of people here... amazing!
Dan LOVED that roller coaster. he got to ride it twice. I also love this picture that he snapped.

This bike trailer was a life saver on this trip! It held our cooler, camera, purse, jackets, spare clothes just in case, drinks, and memorabilia. We didn't have to eat out once our entire time at Disneyland/California Adventure. Our diet was oranges, string cheese, yogurt, and crackers haha.

Well yes, their faces do describe how happy this sea creature carousel made them. this ride never had a line so we got to ride it like 7 times.
Monsters ride while Dan and Luke went on Tower of Terror.

A Bugs Life. Alana and I got to take the littles on all of these rides while we were waiting for the big kids and the dads to ride their rides.
Caterpillar ride 

Ladybug ride (like the tea cups, but jerkier) 
On the flying bugs life ride: the big kids found us right as we were getting on, so they got to join in on it without having to wait in line. These kids are such cute little friends!
^I had asked Stori to take a picture of the 3 of us on the other side, and this is what she got. haha. pretty good I guess.
Toy Story ride was another favorite! We went on in once while Dan was on the big roller coaster, but the kids wanted to go again and show dad all the cool things that he would like (you get to shoot balloons and things for points. They must know their dad likes guns haha).


the squish and suffocate hug. It's pretty common around here.
We were getting ready to head over to a ride when Dan called me and told me that Goofy was out and that we should go find him. I took off running and got there just as the worker stepped in line to stop people from seeing him so that he could go to the final show of the night. So i put my kids back in the stroller and started to walk away when she ran up to me and whispered that we could get in line because she saw how excited our girls were to see him. So glad she did! Sylvie was kind of star struck. By the time he said goodbye, she stood right in front of him Yelling several times "BYE GOOFY! THANKS GOOFY!"


Getting ready to go on the last ride of the night... The Golden Rocket. we were the last riders on there and it was so fun to see them start lighting up all the rides for the color show while flying over the water.





This place is so beautiful!!! I don't think we stopped smiling the whole time we were here. Or the whole time in California actually. It was all so much fun!



California after disney

The last part of our trip we stayed with the foresters in Claremont. The Thompson's also stayed, and we made sure to make the most of our 2 days together! The 3 of us have actually reunited every year on the exact same day for the last 3 years. I love seeing the memories pop up on my phone on those days.
The first day we had a pool party, where Dan became the kid magnet... Until he started throwing them into the cold pool haha. Note: I don't have very many photos of these 2 days because we took so many videos...we decided to jump in the cold freezing pool on Saturday night at 11pm... It was so cold but we laughed so hard at all our funny videos. We were able to warm up in the hot tub after, so it made for a fun night together while the kids were snoozing.
On day 2 we drove to LA and spent time at the Griffith observatory. 

^2016
            ^2015
^2014 
^^these two clicked for the first time and became instant besties.
We have nor blooper pics than good ones. Ha.

^^these 2 were the best of friends and didn't leave each other's sight the whole time. Stori sobbed when we had to leave her. It is so fun seeing these forever friends pick up where they left off---with the exception that they no longer fight like sisters...100% besties.
There's a teeny tiny Hollywood sign in the background, and a 
big nerd in the foreground.

^^This is my favorite picture from the day! We loved visiting downtown LA and eating at the fun and famous Grand Central market. 
3 red headed besties. We got to have Lila ride in our car anytime we went anywhere, and they were very entertaining haha 

They are a different kind of special.

We hated leaving California so much. It was the best vacation ever, and we fell in love with the state...so much so, that we are constantly looking on Zillow at houses there... :)
Can't wait to go back and visit 

Friday, April 15, 2016

In the last 3 weeks: sickness, hiking, gardening, BBQing...

Well this here is a super attractive picture of me! Just documenting the fact that I have pneumonia, the fact that my kids have also been sick (stori was in bed from 5pm Sunday-1:30pm Tuesday), and also documenting Sylvie's eye lashes!!! Holy mokes.



Stori has missed so much preschool lately: a week while in Idaho, then a week during spring break, and now a week due to illness. Then next Saturday we leave for 10 days to California. Good thing she is top in her class for reading... But she still misses it and cries for it everyday once she realizes she missed it. I like this picture of her pretending to like cupcakes haha


For the last 2ish weeks we had my niece Dresden, while her parents were in NEw Zealand. My kids loved having her with us, and stori stepped right into the mother roll; feeding her, singing to her, reminding me when she needs to nap, etc.


The worlds creepiest face swaps ever! Top is Dan and Amanda. Bottom is Dan and me. Haha



Hiking the Y with all the Radford grandkids. While we were babysitting Drezy Drez, Nicoles family came to play during their Spring Break! It was so much fun! We tried to fit in so much. (including donuts 2 mornings). 

Picnic at the top

Sylvie really got her workout on the way up

One night while Vern and Nicole and their family were here visiting, we had a BBQ with all the radfords that live here. One of the highlights was having Michael bust out his guitar and sing with Dan. It felt so much like summer, and it made me happy.



During conference sessions, we walked to temple square and loved seeing these blossoms on our favorite center street!!


Look at us! We are officially gardeners, and one squash closer to becoming adults (technically Dan did all the tilling, planning, and gardening, but i documented and watched the kids...)









Hahahaha ^^ this picture!!! GIANT HAND that belongs to no one???

Grocery shopping with a kitty and a bunny. Isn't it funny how opposite these cousins are. Both cuties.


My girls got so excited when it started to rain last week. We busted out the umbrellas and walked to the bakery.


Lame Patty??

Raise your hand if you think st. Patty's day is the worst holiday ever? 4 raised hands over here!
l This year however was a lot of fun! My friend Shasha came and stayed with her baby coco, and we did our traditional cafe rio dinner (every year since we have been married, and we do it because it is green)
The week of St. Patty's day we did a lot of fun things too.

The kids got to watch a movie in a fort

Stori got to do dishes completely by herself (I didn't tell her that I had to rewash them after). This is something she usually just helps me with, so she was pretty excited when she got to do it solo.

Dan and I cashed in our date to Station 22. It was seriously the best food I have had in a long time. Plus it was free! Thanks instagram! :)

walking to our date and some crAzy eyes

Stori made this rainbow entirely by herself! I made the heart shape waffles to go with it, but I thought she did such a good job! Oh and  I put the cool whip on too-if she would have been in charge it would have all been gone before it reached the plate. I was surprised she knew what order the colors were suppose to be in....she even asked what fruit she could use that was violet, because we just ended it with blue. :)


3 little red heads. We love baby coco sooo much!

First flower picked for me from Sylvie June bug

Walking Around the temple in between temple dedications.
Turns out I only kinda hated the holiday this year. We had too many fun things that occupied us so we didn't have to worry about finding creepy leprechauns, or eating corned beef and cabbage. It was a fun , fun week!