Book Ended by the Preslars

After our delightful finale at Disneyland, we came straight home to a house full of Preslars! Okay actually they came after school, but we were so excited for them to come and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Mom made us go hike the Vortex on Saturday. We had tan lines from the hike!

Mom felt bad when she made everyone go up this steep sandstone and then discovered that there was actually a nice gentle trail the other way!

These guys were incredible hikers! Hardly any complaining!

There was also plenty of time to dig and play in the yard. Lots of digging. Lots of playing.

We loved having them here in St. George, but it was easy to say goodbye because we knew we were going to see them and our other cousins in FOUR DAYS. Laine was coming to Utah for her baptism.

It was unfortunate because we drove from sunshine into cold and snow. But it was so worth it.

They wanted to try the American Gothic look. It was really hard for them!

All the grandkids minus Kate!

Aunt Margaret and all her nieces.

We of course snuck in a visit to the zoo. It was mostly a bust, but Iva loved the animals we did see.

It was great!

THE FINALE!

This day was supposed to be more of a half day at the parks, but it turned out that we only left with an hour of park time left! Hahaha! Dad was fine with getting in at 2 am and Mom ran with it.

The day started out AMAZING. Mom did it. She asked to open the park and we got to!!!! They came and let in the gates 45 minutes before the park opened and let us take pictures for 15 minutes! It was kind of awkward because everyone in line wanted to get in too! We were the only ones in the park besides employees for 15 whole minutes.

At the say so of Jeff, our nice cast member, we shouted "LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!" and started the countdown. We also got another special "skip any line" pass. It was a dream come true!

We tried to squeeze in only our favorite rides, but it was proving to be more difficult because our favorite rides take time and you could feel the crowds increasing ahead of the holiday weekend. That's how we ended up still on Disney property at 7:10 pm local time!

It was a little breezy today even though it was 90 degrees. We seriously love Mickey's Fun Wheel.

This was our last ride on Tower of Terror. We tried to make it look like we were crying.

Teacups! (You'll notice Mommy was wearing black for mourning purposes!)

This is about when we discovered Iva's limit was four and a half days of Disney fun. She was a little sick of strollers and spinny rides.

Mom let her loose in Toon Town while Dad squeezed in one last ride on Pirates with us. I was bummed because Indiana Jones broke down and I didn't get to jump on it one last time. Iva thoroughly enjoyed being out of the stroller.

Last ride with Mom on Space...

Saying good bye to Main Street...

And driving off the parking lot...(Mom's getting choked up typing this. She didn't even cry when we actually left! I think it feels more real now!) You'll notice Iva is already OUT.

Our Disney posts aren't quite done. We will have to post our photo pass pictures because there are sure to be some beauties. We had a MAGICAL year. We managed to do it all!

Are you still there?...it's time for Part 4

Day four is where we started taking things to the next level. We decided to make this day a complete day at Disneyland. No park hopping. Mom also got us to the park early enough to be first in line. It was awesome. She was secretly hoping that they would see us and ask us to open the park. No such luck, BUT then one of the cast members told her she just needed to let one of them know that we wanted to open! You better believe Mom had big plans for the next day!

 

The park didn't have many Valentine specific decorations, but Mom loved these benches. Cara was spotting Aurora and Snow White walking through the park at that very moment and was so excited!

Once again we finally got more of an empty park experience that we had been hoping for. Dad and us big girls hopped on Space Mountain and Mom went and got in line to meet the Captain. The line had always been too long before. She was so excited. (He's her favorite Avenger!)

We made it in time to meet Thor which was actually quite fun. Dad's favorite moment was when Thor asked "Who shall be the first to meet me?" and mom gave it one beat and shouted "US!" which was really funny because she was standing in the back! Thor loved it and asked "Who said that?" and Mom had to sheepishly raise her hand. He, of course, had us meet him first. It was awesome. Iva even kept rubbing her hand on his arm almost squeezing his muscles per Aunt Rachel's request.

Here is one of our pictures from Space Mountain. We got to ride it SEVEN TIMES never once standing in the stand by line. Mom was a wizard with our passes.

Two other big firsts happened together. Dad finally ate a turkey leg! He kept calling it an autopsy. It was delicious but slightly gory. Look at Cara's face!

Mom also got bold again and asked if we could pilot the Mark Twain River Boat and we got a big YES!

We signed the log book and got our official pilot's license.

Mom had been hoping to get us in to meet the Princesses and noticed first thing that the line said it was a 60 minute wait and she was really disappointed. We went back at 3:30 that afternoon and discovered a mere 15 minute wait! We doubled up and had Dad wait in the 30 min line for Rapunzel and it worked out perfectly and Iva was a doll! She would walk up to them, touch their hands, their dress, turn around and back  into them and wait for her picture. It was so funny. She did it every single one. Cara was so excited to be wearing the same dress as Aurora.

We worked the system again and went right back in line when they switched out Snow White for Mulan whose dress I was wearing! Once again, Dad waited in a long line for Merida and it was perfect. We came out just in time!

We enjoyed the show at the Golden Horseshoe for the first time. It was funny and we enjoyed the chili in a bread bowl.

We did our best to be one of the last people in Fantasy Land, getting in line for Alice just as the park closed.

We played around in Downtown Disney for a moment and even checked out the Lego store for our Lego Loving Preslar cousins.

Part 3...if you can believe it.

Our third day we finally got to start in California Adventure and get the chance to ride Racers. We ended up spending the whole day there. We never made it over to Disneyland. The park finally felt empty like a February day should.

Oh but first check out how I woke up that morning. Iva planted herself ON MY HEAD. I was too tired to care. Luckily we got to sleep in a bit this time.

We took Dad into Frozen Fun first thing which ended up being where EVERYONE ELSE went and so it was kind of a bummer. We figured out later that we could actually show up after 6 pm and it was emptying out.

We actually tried out the sledding hill this time!

Mom and her buddy.

Mom also surprised dad by buying him a Disney hat. He had forgotten his and the next three days were supposed to reach 85 degrees and above. We had to protect that cranium.

We tried to be sneaky and give Cara extra height to make it on Goofy's Sky School. It didn't work so Dad took her for a quick ride on the Symphony Swings to cheer her up. We rode the Golden Zephyr which we used to skip but now we love it.

We had been staying at Grandpa and Grandma Quaife's house, but they had been gone on a cruise. They came home Tuesday morning and joined us for dinner in Downtown Disney. As usual it was yummy.

On the way back into the park, Cara wanted to walk and so Dad gave Mom a ride in the stroller. He made her stay there until after going through security AND the main gate. Mom was bright red, but I think she liked it.

We met Anna and Elsa, I think, for the second time on this day. It was so nice. It wasn't quite the mayhem it usually was. We are still a bit sad that they moved into the Animation building. It used to be our very favorite secret spot and now everybody is in there. Oh well! This time when we met them, Anna was playing hide and seek with us and was behind a curtain it was very funny.

Here we are trying to pose like Anna and Elsa. We got those fun balloons from dinner!

Part 2

Monday morning we were surprised to learn that the park had slightly extended hours AND that schools in Anaheim appeared to have Monday off. We were a little bummed but that's because we always want to have Disney to ourselves. We will keep dreaming. We still got plenty of rides in and met plenty of characters. 

Iva acted so excited to meet Minnie and then did a drive by where she kept running. It was pretty funny.

Oh wait...I do want to say hi!

Dad taking his girls out for a drive.

Silliness while waiting in line.

We got to meet Fawn and talk about animals.

These are our best scary faces before getting on Tower of Terror.

Look at this silly girl. She loved the rides. All except Pirates. She's not a big fan of the drop into the dark. Daddy let her watch the parade while we were on Tower of Terror and she loved it! She waved and gave high fives to anyone who wanted one.