Quade went on a "Man Date" with Cha Cha and
got some flint and steel. So the kids made
this awesome fire ring and fire.
We went to the Oregon Gardens during Christmas
time and had an absolute blast. Snowless tubing,
ice skating, walk through light displays, etc.
Here are the kids after our FULL day of Christmas
activities. We started out at the Oregon Gardens,
then stopped off in Albany on the way home and
went through their Christmas Storybook Land, then one
more stop in Corvallis for the drive through light display
at the fairgrounds. So much fun, but the kids were exhausted.
Jordan called it our Christmas marathon.
This was one of their many Christmas creations throughout
the season.
Austyn and her super cute Christmas socks.
I've been wanting to get the kids a paddle boat
for our slough and finally found one.
Here's my poor poor puppy after she got spayed.
She was so miserable.
After Jordan got his elk head from this year cleaned
up, Quade inherited the first one. He was so excited to
get to hang it in his room. He decided to decorate it with
the left over Christmas ornamates.
Cuties ready for one of our many Christmas celebrations.
Daddy carrying on the tradition of reading the Night Before Christmas
Two of the handsomest fellas this side of the Long Tom
Again, the kids were wiped out from all the Christmas fun.
Us too
The kids got this really neat popcorn maker for
Christmas. It's so much fun.
She thought she could make it till midnight.
She was 15 minutes shy.
Of course he made it.
Playing in the paddle boat.
The day we got our Disneyland tickets. Austyn and Quade
saved enough pop cans to pay for our park tickets.
The kids had Mickey and Minnie shirts for each day we
were there. Austyn had a few extra :)
3 am and look at their faces.
Early mornings and late nights finally caught
up with this little dude.
Here's the whole gang at Disneyland.
We all had matching shirts one day.
Splash Mountain fun!!!
The result of Splash Mountain. Her $20 face painting
was quickly washed away.
This was our first ride of the trip. Peter Pan!!!! Quade was
so incredibly excited.
Kids got to meet Captain Hook.
Autopia. I love this picture.
Waiting in line
Chip and Dale
This was when we were riding the Toy Story ride
with out 3-D glasses.
Knott's Berry Farm was an absolute blast. It was
like a ghost town there. We never had to wait in lines and
it was so fun for the kids to experience.
So many great photo opportunities.
Quade was just shy of making it on to some of the
big coasters, so he got to do some gold panning instead.
He loved it!!
Tom Sawyers Island
Another trip down Splash Mountain. This time I chickened
out and bypassed the ride at the last minute.
Toon Town
We ate dinner with the characters this night. It was so
much fun. One of my favorite things.
And while we were there they celebrated
Quade's upcoming Birthday. He was so surprised.
Quade had brought along a Woody doll from our last
Disneyland trip and was very excited to meet him in person.
We had the best hotel around. It was like a 5 minute easy
walk to the parks. Super clean, awesome continental breakfast, and
everyone was so nice. The Disney fireworks weren't running
every night, but the one time they did, the kids got to see them
from our hotel room in their jammies.
So Jordan's shoes were so old that they literally fell
apart as he walked. I would pick up the pieces as they
fell off as he walked.
Tuckered out kiddos.
It's a Small World
Needless to say our entire trip was absolutely perfect. There wasn't one thing that could have made it better. We were able to spend two days at each park and on at Knott's Berry. We got to ride every ride at least twice and just enjoy ourselves and watch the kids experience the magic. The last ride of our trip was Pirates of the Caribbean and at the end Quade said "Mommy, we're so lucky." I thought he was talking about getting to come on the trip. But he followed it up with "we rode that 3 times and never died!" He thought the Pirates were real. It was adorable. I'm so thankful we are able to do things like this and let the kids experience all the fun. And also getting to go with the WHOLE family is so incredibly special. Can't wait for our next Disney trip. Probably another 4 years, but maybe Disney World this time!!!??
