Disneyland Report

I need to hurry and write about our Disneyland trip while I remember everything (or think I remember it all)! To start off, we stayed in a crappy hotel!! We were so excited because we got a really good deal on the Hilton Garden Inn which was supposed to be a Deluxe Hotel. WRONG!! I guess it is considered a Deluxe Hotel because it is a Hilton??? I don't know...I just wouldn't recommend staying there. The beds were VERY firm. The hotel smelled like smoke, even though it is supposedly smoke-free. They didn't have a port-a-crib for us the first night so I didn't sleep well. Half their parking spots are so small our van filled it from white line to white line. I don't know how Jeff got the van in the spot without hitting another car, but he did. I couldn't even open my door to get out!! The housekeeping staff was horrible, I don't think they really ever cleaned our room and they didn't replace the items we used. And, to top it all off it was 1.5 miles from Disneyland and they didn't have a free shuttle which meant we walked (Jeff is too cheap to pay)!! This is definitely being put on our list of never stay there again but we never would have known all of this if we didn't stay there!

Day One---As previously posted, the night staff wouldn't put forth the extra effort to find us a port a crib so Josh didn't sleep well. I didn't sleep much because I was up with Josh plus we got there late so we were all tired on our first day at Disneyland. The girls were very excited and kept saying "Disneyland here we come!" as we were walking to Disneyland. We didn't go on a ton of rides while at Disneyland just because we were doing other things. The kids wanted to do the carousel, Buzz, and the princesses. We didn't do the princesses because the line was really long. We waited in line for Dumbo for about 20-30 minutes. Andrea had a major melt-down because she wanted to ride right then. She started throwing her paper and pen I brought and was screaming at the top of her lungs!! Fun!! We made it through the line and she loved the ride. While Josh and Andrea were napping I took Sammy on Big Thunder Railroad. She didn't like it!! I tried but she kept saying it was too scary. Jeff kept trying to get her to go again so he could go but she wouldn't budge. Jeff scored later that day by getting her to go on Grizzly Rapids with him. She loved it! Andrea had a good day because I bought her a Jessie doll with my Birthday Fun Card. After we bought the doll we ran into Jessie and Woody as they were going in for a break. They gave Andrea lots of attention because she had the doll so she loved it! We were all really tired so we left Disneyland around 6 or 7 to walk back to the hotel. My feet were killing me by then and I was really tired of walking. It didn't matter the beds were hard because I was completely exhausted and slept good. Luckily Josh slept good too!!

Day Two--We tried to do the princesses today. We stood in line for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and ended up with Jasmine, Mulan, and Belle. This was not good! Andrea is a HUGE Snow White fan and was very upset she didn't get to see Snow White. We told her that Snow White was taking a nap and she bought it! We rode a few more rides today. We went and saw Playhouse Disney Live which the girls loved. Josh was entertained too because there was a lot to watch. We also went to a Bug's Land in California Adventure which has a few kids rides. Andrea really liked the flying ride! The lines over there weren't as long as Fantasyland at Disneyland so it was better.

Day Three--We woke up early so we could be at the park when it opened to get in line for the princesses. We scored. We only waited 20 minutes and saw Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White. All morning Andrea kept saying that Snow White wasn't tired any more so she would be there. We got lucky!! If you haven't been to the princess fantasy faire, you get three random princesses that change every 15-45 minutes so we got pretty lucky. We also saw Mickey and Minnie in Toon Town. We took the girls one at a time on Gadgets Go Coaster. Sammy hated it and Andrea loved it. I think Andrea went 3 times in a row. Sammy loved this ride when she was 3 but she thinks it is too scary now. We also hit all the Pooh characters in Critter Country and scored there with three characters. When we got in line Tigger was the only one there but Pooh and Eeyore joined him right after we got in line. Josh liked the Pooh ride because there was lots to look at. We did Buzz a million times (Josh liked that too) and drove the Autopia Cars a few times. Thank goodness for fast passes so we didn't' always have to wait in the lines!! Sammy did the Grizzly River ride a few more times which made Andrea mad because she wanted her turn. We ended up staying and watching part of the fireworks so we were at the park for 12 hours our last day. I didn't think I was going to be able to make the walk back to our hotel but my feet somehow made it! We did walk lots slower back to the hotel our last night.

I think that sums up our trip pretty well. We loved it and we would go again in a heart beat. Hopefully we will be able to go again in about a year! Andrea woke up today and kept saying that it was time to go to Disneyland. But, when we were at Disneyland they kept wanting to go back to the hotel (they saw the hotel pool and wanted to swim)!! The biggest let down of the trip was that they didn't have the Christmas ornaments we wanted to buy. Oh, well!!

Disneyland Pictures

Here are our pictures from Disneyland! I will write more about our trip later, it just took too long to upload the pictures tonight so I am going to bed!

Waiting to see the princesses

Andrea with Woody

Andrea giving Jessie a hug! She loves Jessie!!

I would like you to notice that nobody is crying in this picture with Mickey Mouse! Totally different from last time.

Rides at Disneyland

Josh liked the Buzz Lightyear ride because there was lots to look at.

Andrea had a major meltdown waiting for Dumbo. She wanted to ride right then and did not want to wait our turn! It finally came and we survived that tamtrum.

Outside the Monsters Inc ride. Sammy and Andrea are carrying around their newly purchased toys. They carried them around the whole day!

Andrea and Jessie riding Bullseye!

Sammy's new favorite ride is the "river ride" she went on it many times!! Andrea had a hard time because she wanted to go on it to. She has a long wait until she can ride it because she has to grow 7 more inches!! At the rate she grows, she might be able to ride it by the time she turns six!!!!

Pooh and Friends

Josh does not like the sun in his eyes.

Josh LOVED playing with Eeyore's fur!! He did not want to let go!

Loving the Weather

This is the time of year that we LOVE Las Vegas!! It was in the low 80s today and has been really nice all week. We would be able to enjoy the outdoors and fresh air a little more if our neighbors would stop smoking in the backyard and would quite BBQ with charcoal twice a day (all the smoke pours into our backyard and open windows). I guess that is what happens when you live so close together!

My kids love to be outside and are always asking to go out. Samantha made a new friend yesterday while we were out doing sidewalk chalk. She played with her for 2 1/2 hours. She is almost nine-years-old and lives down the street. Samantha had a lot of fun and has been asking all day to go play with her. When we went out in the front yard she was so excited because her friend was out riding bikes with another girl. It made Sammy so sad that her new friend wouldn't come over and play with her. I was really proud of Samantha for talking to and playing with our neighbor. Usually when one of the neighbor girls tries to say hi Sammy runs and hides...maybe there is hope for her after all!!

Josh has starting having better balance. I think it helps that he has a big middle section but he has started sitting for a few minutes at a time. If I put the Boppy pillow around him he can sit there forever. We take him in for his 4-month well check tomorrow so we will find out just how big he really is. He loves it when I use him as a weight and pretend to bench press him! It is also a really good workout for my arms...they even get a little sore if I do it too much!

Josh in the backyard showing off his new trick...sitting up!

More Bows

I experimented tonight and tried making a few more bows. I was able to make a castle, Minnie, and a simple clip. Sammy was excited!! They were a little more difficult to make but I think they turned out okay for my first time.

In case you can't tell this is supposed to be Minnie's head!

Josh's Shoes

I have an amazing cousin, Jessica, who can make just about anything!! She made these cute shoes for Josh and gave him a jacket to match. Aren't they cute?? If you want to see more of what she can make click on the Tough Baby link on the side of my blog. If you have a baby girl she has some really cute onesies and shoes with flowers...I love them but I have a boy!!

This is also Josh's first time on our grass...he did good but he was also completely covered!!

Sammy's New Word

Samantha has been reading for a few months now (since before Josh was born). Her preschool teacher sends books home with her each night she has preschool. Each book has 4-5 new words that she has to learn to read in the book. They are actually kindergarten readers and they obviously get progressively harder. Back to the story at hand...On Tuesday morning I was reading Sammy's book with her before school and we ran into a problem with one new word. One of her words was 'but.' Samantha thought that was the funniest thing in the world!! She couldn't believe that her new word was 'but.' I tried to explain to her that it wasn't 'butt' but she didn't get it!! I would give her examples as to what this new word meant but it didn't work...she was too set on the fact that she was reading the word 'but.' Every time she would read the word in her story she would smile and get this little giggle. It was really funny but you can definitely tell she has been influenced by her father!!

MORE Doctors

I took Josh to his appointment with the urologist on Monday and did not leave with the answer I wanted!! I was there for his pre-surgery appointment to get him cleared for paperwork and get the paperwork for the hospital. Well, instead I left with none of that and had to go to the cardiologist to make an appointment. Josh's pediatrician is amazing and has extremely good ears. He hears everything, including Josh's heart murmur that the nurses can't pick up. Since I know that Dr. Lepore has heard a heart murmur I told the nurse at the urologist's office that he does have a murmur when she asked me about it! Dr. Lepore (our pediatrician) was just going to wait another month and see what he thought about it at our next well visit before sending me to the cardiologist. Too bad that isn't going to happen any more!! The urologist will not do the surgery on Josh until I get him cleared with the cardiologist now. Since Andrea has been to the cardiologist before they wanted me to see the same doctor with Josh so we don't get to go to see them until March 23. So, assuming they will clear Josh for surgery, his surgery will now be in April! I really would like to get this done ASAP so that it will stop hanging over my head!! For those of you who don't know, Josh is special and wasn't able to have his circumcision in the pediatrician's office like most kids!! He has what is called a "little hidden penis" as the urologist put it so we have to go have surgery done to fix that when he has his circumcision. They had to wait until he was 3-4 months old to do the surgery and he has to be 100% healthy. I have had this hanging over my head since Josh was born so I was so excited it was finally going to happen this week!!! And, now I am waiting again!

On another note, Josh is feeling lots better!! His cough is almost gone, his fever is gone, and his nose is clearing up!! YEAH!! I might have healthy kids again!