Disneyland Part 2

These pictures are actually from the beginning of our trip but oh well.

This is how we entered the park. Two little sleepy heads! We went in on Sunday night and watched the parade and fireworks. Joey fell asleep while we were waiting for the fireworks and managed to sleep through them.

Joey with his new favorite treat. He liked that his tongue was all yellow after eating it.

Mickey and Minnie stopped right in front of us for the parade. The kids thought that was really cool.

I don't know what to call this face but it is too funny!

Looks of amazement!

"Look Mom it's Mickey!"

Arabella clapped through the parade. I think she really liked the music and the bright colors.

I believe this may have been my first time maybe the second that I have ever ridden on the rockets. Wow!

Peter Pan, a must if you go to Disneyland and look the line was short!

Dumbo-Jon said this was his favorite. I rode with the boys and Grandpa took sweet Bells!

This was the no spinning teacup!

Joey loves the teacups and Grandpa was nice enough to go in the spinning cup and go really fast! Joey was squealing with delight.

Alice in Wonderland a unique ride but some classic characters!

Waiting for Finding Nemo submarine ride. Arabella liked this ride quite a bit except for a few loud sounds. She loved the bubbles.

Such the serious driver.

Joey did a pretty good job driving.
We had fast passes but the line was so short they did not even take them. That is definitely a first for me! Joey and Jon would argue over who would ride with me on so many rides. I was glad to have my parents there who were willing to ride with whoever and take Arabella so many times. I love Disneyland- it makes me happy!

Disneyland Part 1

My parents took me and the kids to Disneyland for one last trip before we moved. We were sad that Daddy could not come. I will have to do this in 2 posts because there are so many cute pictures. We drove down on Sunday and came home late Tuesday night. These pictures are all from Monday and Tuesday.

The Jungle Cruise Ride

Jon posing in Tarzan's treehouse. He explored this while Joey and I went on Indiana Jones. Joey was tall enough to ride but I don't know that he liked it all that much.

Pirates of the Carribean. Arabella was happy to be out of the stroller and seeing something new.

Joey was such a good sport for the whole trip. He was helpful and stayed by us really well!

Pirate Jon, arrgh!

Arabella is always putting her feet and legs up. People were smiling and laughing to themselves while she was doing this so I had to take a picture. What a silly girl!

One of my favorite places to get a treat in Disneyland is the store by Splash Mountain and the Winnie the Pooh ride. I took the kids in to get something. Joey chose this amazing caramel apple, Jon picked a chocolated covered pretzel with sprinkles, and I had a delicious marshmallow stick covered in chocolate, caramel and cashews, yummy! Arabella ate one of Mickey's ears and loved it!

As we came off of Splash Mountain, my dad and Jon were at the front of the line to get pictures with Winnie the Pooh and friends. We lucked out! Jon thought it was great, Joey was a bit shy and embarassed, and Arabella did okay with the characters except Tigger. He made her nervous.

Jon was asleep. This was the easiest picture to get, no line!

Arabella loved It's a Small World. She clapped and laughed and just could not seem to quite take it all in.

Cute of my family but we missed out on Mickey's amazing pumpkin ears.

This is a horrible picture because we took it at nigth but Mickey is done in all oranges, yellows, reds and whites. He has a party hat on and there are huge flower mickey balloons on each side. The theme is all about Celebrateing.

Goofy looks great! We were the last picture that he was out for!

Joey chillin' in the fire truck.

Titan's merry-go-round in California Adventure. Grandpa and I rode California Screamin', a great roller coaster!

Some pictures of the renevations they are doing at California Adventure. They have drained the water that was in the middle and are installing Bellagio style fountains to do a water and light show kind of like Fantasmic focused on the Colors of Disney. There will also be a new Little Mermaid ride and something to do with Cars. Jon wanted to go down and see what the workers were doing.

You can not tell that well but I am soaked!! Joey loved the Grizzly River Run so we went twice, the line was not very long. I faired better the second time but the first ride I was drenched.

Jon and his Cars buddies.

Joey and Grandpa and their Cars buddies.

Arabella sleeping really well in her stroller but yes her leg is up again. She usually had that leg up on that "window" or the bar right there as we walked around. What a funny girl!

Bugs Life bumper cars

Jon had just hit his head so we were trying to make sad bug faces.

Jon had so much fun getting wet! We could ring the water out of his shirt by the time we finished. Arabella got an entire outfit change and Joey soaked the front of his shirt but they had fun!

Mickey actually had no line! He looks great all set for harvesting his candy corn fields.

I loved the candy corns in the palm trees.

My parents got sprayed with water during the parade. I wished I would have centered them better but I spun around really fast trying to capture the moment. It was really funny and they were so suprised.

I loved the guys swinging, you can't see them that well but they have a fun job there is no way around it.

There were to people swinging around on poles for Toy Story and you can see the one really well in this picture. Again a really fun job!

This was how we ended our Disneyland experince. I have so many fond memories of that place with my family. It is part of who I am really. My mom loves Disneyland and my dad loves it because she loves it so for me it is part of what I admire about my parents marriage. They share in each others interests and dreams. I have already told Peter that whether it is Disneyland or Disney World (being in Texas it is almost equal) we will be going again in the not too distant future.

Texas

Monday afternoon at 2:00pm Peter, Arabella,and I pulled out of our driveway in Peter's truck packed to the gills and a Uhaul equally as full and headed to Dallas. We quickly learned that we could not travel faster than 65 (and slower regularly) due to our load. We needed to be to Dallas by 5:30 on Tuesday. As time passed it became apparent we would be pulling an all nighter. Peter is lucky that I have gained some great skills at staying up all night with little sleep. We took turns switching out every 2 hours or so and stopped for an hour when we both slept. Arabella was so good!! We did finally make it to the apartment Peter would be staying at for the next two months until our house closes. House, you ask? Well, Wednesday morning we met with a realtor and saw 10 houses. We had narrowed our options down from 78 to 10 and it was a full day of house hunting. At the end of the day, we had narrowed it down to 3.

House number one: 5 bedrooms, decent yard, and the back fence had a gate that lead to a park. (You would still have to go with your kids because you would not be able to see them, so good and bad.)

House number two: 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, wonderful yard-large, hot tub, storage shed, big trees.

House number three:4 bedrooms, 3 living rooms including the huge game room pictured below, decent yard.

This house was the winner in the end. We revisited our top three on Thursday and made an offer on house #3 that afternoon. Crazy!? We affectionately called this house the Texas house. You may be thinking :"Well, duh!?" but all of the light switch plates were metal with silhouettes of cowboy like stuff, ie: horses, stars, boots, cows. There were stirrups for hand towel holders, cowboy boot shaped night lights and the two lighting fixtures pictured below. Yes, that is a wagon wheel with guns and branding irons and the one to go over the kitchen table is antlers. The owner accepted our offer and we will close on November 3rd. Peter stayed in Dallas to start his new job and I flew home this morning. Grandpa Rabner played Mr. Mom for a week to Joey and Jon and they had a great time. Our deepest thanks go to him!

These are a few more pictures of our house hunting experience. Arabella loved a chance to crawl around and not be in her car seat.

Friday while awaited a call from our Realtor, we went to Peter's office and he signed some papers and I met is very nice boss. I think it will be a great place for Peter to work.
After that we headed to the State Fair. It was great! I could not believe how big it was. It was rainy and cold every day we were there except Thursday, so it was a bit chilly at the fair.

This was a garden train they had set up by Big Tex a huge statue of a man in the middle of the fair (you can see his red boots in the picture). He is animated so that his mouth and head move. He makes announcements about some of the happenings at the fair.

This sculpture was made entirely out of butter and this is only a shot of half of it. Amazing!

Peter took his picture by yes Peter the Great the bull. He was massive. He weighed over 2600 pounds and measured 64 inches from the ground to his shoulder.

But the pigs/hogs were not to be outdone. check out the size of that pig!

All in all we had a great time and were able to get so many things in place. I was able to interview for my job and signed a contract. My start date is Dec. 7th or sooner if I can get my license and a few other things in order. I feel much better about moving having seen the school Joey will go to and the chapel we will attend. We ate dinner at my cousin Alexis' house and she is about 30 mintues away, it is nice to have some family nearby. Moving to Dallas will be good and now I just have to pack a million boxes (or at least a hundred).