Food Facts

A couple strange facts about my sister and I when it comes to food....

I LOVE MUSTARD. Mommy and Daddy have kept it to just traditional yellow mustard but I will dip my hot dog BUN in mustard over and over. I will eat plain mustard sandwiches. If you want me to eat vegetables, dip them in mustard please!





And Cara? Man that girl LOVES her salads. She really does. She loves them. She will come and sit on anybody's lap to pick off their salad. She's wild about lettuce. (I simply cannot relate.) It doesn't matter what the dressing either. She'll eat lettuce plain. Sometimes she gets a little picky about what's in the salad besides lettuce but not often.

Cousin Times! And lots of it....

We just spent a wonderful weekend with our Preslar cousins! We drove up to their house in SLC really really early on Friday morning (we're talking we were there by 10:00 am!) And then we didn't leave until Monday morning. It was GREAT. We spent three cozy nights with them and played played played. Nothing special, just lots of time together and it was simply delightful. We went grocery shopping, to the zoo, to Aunt Margaret's house, to church, just very very ordinary things but it was just so special to just be together. We even went to bed at decent hours every night! (That included the adults on two occasions!) We also got to see Oma and Apa again which was fun.





Oh we did buy a new stroller! A great friend let us borrow hers for Disneyland and we decided we just wanted one. And it turns out most people love them so much they don't go up for sale very often on Craigslist or ksl.com. And this way it was nice and shiny and new!



In fact, we were so excited about the stroller, none of us really wanted to get out and explore at the zoo!

Unfortunately they didn't get as much snow as Mommy was secretly hoping but it did snow Saturday night and Sunday morning there were a fresh couple of inches to play with.

Of course Mommy is happy to be back home in sunny St. George but it was a great weekend and we were only bummed because Daddy had to fly out to San Francisco for work and didn't come home with us. We'll see him again on Thursday! Love you Daddy!

Tidbits...LONG post

Since returning from Disneyland, we've kinda been in recovery mode. Kind of. The very next day after returning to home, we welcomed an addition to our family...and after many name changes, we'd like to introduce you to "Chester"



You'd think we could find a decent shot of him awake. The problem? He doesn't hold still if he's awake, but he does LOVE to cuddle and fall asleep on your lap. He's a terrier about 18 months or 2 years old...and he has a bum paw that was a birth defect but he's so sweet and only needs a little more training on that whole "where to tinkle and poopoo" thing.

And that first weekend we had him, we also had Aunt Angie's dog, Bruce, stay with us. Boy going from one, to two, to three in five days was a LOT OF DOG to handle!



It was also so pleasant last Friday that we kiddos got into our swim suits and ran through sprinklers and colored with chalk with the neighbor kids for a couple of hours!



The nice weather led to an incident between me and a grape slushy and the car....I slipped while trying to get in, the slushy had no lid, Mom came around the car and found me dangling half out of the car with my head toward the ground, grape slushy all over my face and what does she do? Start laughing and grab her camera. At least she wasn't mad about the car!





AND THEN...Oma and Apa came to visit the same weekend we had Bruce staying. We had fun on swings and eating at the fire restaurant. I was so brave this time and stayed for him to light the fire and everything!





Oma was the BEST. She played "Little Mermaid Salon" with me. We pretended to get all dresse up. She even got me in my pjs and then she read lots of stories to me. In fact, I didn't want to leave her side even though I couldn't keep my eyes open. It was so nice to see her and that guy who plays tricks on me and pretends not to know my name...who is he again?! Just kidding, Apa!



And just in case you are wondering, after a random inventory check on Grandpa Gordon...he has FIFTY SIX ties, including 3 bow ties.....

Forget much?!

How could Mommy not have noticed? She must have just been too excited to tell you about Disneyland but our last post about our Final Day at Disney was our 400th post! Holy cow! We have been at this for almost 5 years! And Mommy is still missing stuff.

For example...did you guys know that I have been rappelling? Yeah, no. You didn't. Grandpa took me out for a special hike with just me and him to meet up with one of his new doctor partners and that guy's little boys. As an extra special treat, Grandpa taught us all how to rappel! The boys were fighting over who got to go first so Grandpa and their mom decided that it was ladies first. I was a little nervous according to Grandpa but I did it and even asked to go again before Grandpa took down all the stuff. Daddy panicked a little when he heard the story but Grandpa is very safe and was belaying me from up top. It was so much fun.

Final Disney Day...

It was a good thing we left earlier than midnight on Friday because Saturday's Disney Day started out even earlier! The park opened at 8:00 am which meant we had to be out of the house by around 6:45....My body woke right up and started moving. The others....not so much.



This Disney run was not as exciting...they had early morning hours for others (which started at SEVEN..) and so there were already people in when they dropped the rope. We still managed to hit 8 rides in the first hour. INCLUDING PETER PAN and Space Mountain for both Mommy and Daddy. I'm so glad the first hour was so great because after that the crowds were even bigger.

At lunchtime, however, I accomplished something that I have ALWAYS dreamed of. That's right. Disneyland Annual Passes. Dream come true. Angels singing. I'm so excited.



And then we were able to have a delicious lunch with my Grandpa and Grandma at the Rainforest Cafe. They had already been so great to let us stay at their house and it was so nice to visit with them. We also joined them the next day for church and another quick lunch and that was a treat.

Before heading back in to the parks at lunch, we also decided to buy the girls their souvenirs so that we would be able to just head home at night. A slightly off decision only because then they wanted to carry their loot with them EVERYWHERE.



But we finished up our final day at Disneyland and had a wonderful time.

Favorite moments:
-Duh, getting my passes!
-Cara being freaked out at the Rainforest Cafe until she had a nap
-Siena and Cara choosing our last ride to be Pirates of the Caribbean-TWICE in a row! They even tried putting their hands up on the drops. Funny story. We got stuck before the first drop for like 10 minutes and weren't sure if the ride was going to be fixed. Siena kept laughing at the skull that talks because he kept saying the same thing over and over.
-Knowing I get to go back
-Making the decision to leave when the girls got sleepy. I always complain about the parents keeping their children in the park way too late when clearly they need to sleep and I actually didn't prove to be a hypocrite!

Disney Day 2

Guest post by Mommy:

If I had to sum day two up with one word, it would be characters. This was the day of meeting our princesses and mouses and other lovable creatures. Friday brought with it more crowds but definitely not the worst we've ever battled. The lines were longer and sometimes it was hard to negotiate with a stroller but it really wasn't bad. We even made it for the rope drop at the beginning of the day. Meaning they dropped the rope and we "walked" in with the first people into Disneyland. There's always something special about that....I love it.



Siena insisted on buying an autograph book and Pete and I were both rolling our eyes. Boy. Did that pay for itself. She LOVED having everybody sign them. She just loved it. We never got into the princess walk line because every time we saw it there was a 45 minute wait. However, we did run into Mary Poppins and Burt just as they were leaving over by the Plaza Garden area outside the castle. They told us to come back at 1 pm and they would be there. We wandered over a few minutes late and what to our wondering eyes should appear but CINDERELLA. Again we were told the last family in line was the last one and the girls were devastated until Cinderella invited them to walk with her and her fairy godmother. Um...once in a lifetime. It was AWESOME.

And then on the other side of the castle we discovered Snow White by her wishing well! Again so fantastic. And on our walk back we discovered Mary Poppins and Burt again. This time we got our pictures and signatures. And this all happened in 20 minutes. We now know where to eat our lunch....



The other awesome moments from the day included Cara informing us that she would "be brave and keep her eyes open and watch for doggies" when we went to get on Pirates...and she DID! She did plug her ears which was adorable.

So favorite moments:
-Our Character Greetings...their faces would light up!
-Taking girls into the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show by myself and having them lose their minds because they were so scared but then it was the ONLY thing they could talk about and they insisted it was "FUN"
-Our brave girls on each ride...they requested The Little Mermaid 4 or 5 times that day...
-Pete getting SOAKED on Splash Mountain (it was unbelieavable) at about 8:30 pm and then taking the girls on Haunted Mansion which resulted in Siena being soaked because she hugged Pete so tightly....
-Leaving before closing...it was nice to be able to go home and sleep but not having had the park close on us. It meant no pressure to squeeze in rides. (Closing was at midnight and seeing as how we arrived at 8:30 in the morning..yeah...)

DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!

Guest posts by Mommy: (Even though honestly you'll have to come track Siena down and have her tell you about our trip. She'll talk your ear OFF. And give an extraordinary amount of detail....)

I will actually give you the run down in multiple posts. Like mother like daughter. I love the details. :) Plus this trip was AMAZING.

We drove to California on Wednesday afternoon/evening/into night. The girls arrived sound asleep and stayed that way despite Grandpa Great's dog, Chloe, trying desperately to wake them. We had passes that allowed us in early on Thursday and luckily early only meant 9:00 am. We hadn't told the girls explicitly what our trip was and so we didn't mention the "D word". Although Siena told me, as I was explaining that we were going to Grandpa Great's house, that Grandpa Great's house is "RIGHT BY DISNEYLAND". Folks..what a memory. We haven't visited Grandpa and done Disneyland in almost a year. I expected a much more dramatic reaction from the girls but they were instantly all smiles and you couldn't wipe them off their faces.



So we entered Disneyland on Thursday morning (Groundhog's Day) and loosely had plans to hit big rides during the early entry hour. Peter Pan had a wait already but nonetheless we went there first. It proved to be ironic because a Thursday in February led to a sign like this outside Space Mountain:



It was glorious. We hardly waited on anything. Pete and I both rode the new Star Tours. Pretty similar but in 3D and incorporates the new episodes of Star Wars and overall we gave it a thumbs up. Might be more fun if you can actually ride with people you know instead of having to stroller pass everything. :)

The girls were amazing this first day. No tears. None. No potty accidents. (Cara being diapers does help though! Darn her.) They LOVED the new Little Mermaid ride. We rode that one the most times through the whole trip and walking on to it doesn't hurt either.

Favorite moments from Day One:
-NO CROWDS. I mean it. You could casually stroll through anywhere. That being said it didn't feel like we just did ride after ride.
-Siena was so excited to go on the Go Go Gadget Roller Coaster in Toon Town and Pirates both of which she LOVED. The Matterhorn is undergoing a major face lift and so she didn't have to prove brave.
-Lots of walking but only Cara proved to need to be carried and that was mostly because we wanted to walk quickly
-The girls faces almost exploded with joy at watching the parade which we've never done
-Cara's mechanism for handling the rides was hysterical. She'd hide her eyes but so purposefully with her hands sometimes in tight fists or just fingers pressed up against them. I finally caught it on camera the last day.



- Their faces. Oh their faces. Their faces as they got off each ride and declared "THAT WAS FUN" even if it appeared they had been terrified, especially Cara. She is so expressive with her face.

We got done with Thursday and we almost called it a perfect 10....actually we probably should. The weather was pleasant, the drama was nil, and the crowds were so underwhelming. The girls slept so hard that night and were once again impossible to wake upon arriving back at Grandpa Great's. It was glorious. For the first time in what's felt like months, the girls slept all the way through the night without so much as a whimper.....and so did we. :)



Enjoy the gratuitous photo collages of our first day. Our adventure will continue with another post!