Life

We have had an interesting start to 2010. Steve had a displaced fracture, which the doctor fixed with 8 screws in his ankle-should be an interesting few weeks of recovery around here. Andrew is going to be on a soccer team that practices way far away and one of mom's name is Buffy-I'll have to let you know about that after I meet her. Maggie, after having the same soccer coach since we moved out here, got switched this season. Christine made the junior high basketball team-yay! I'm just trying to keep everyone schedules straight!

Disneyland

We quickly learned the key to being at "The Happiest Place on Earth" at the busiest time of the year was this Nintendo DS. We were there on New Year's Eve. Waiting in line was not a big deal when we had this to keep Andrew busy. Christine and Maggie even played it. This I think was waiting in line for "Pirates of the Caribbean".


The Small World at Disneyland starts and ends outside. This is the clock outside the ride. We happened to be there right at noon.





There are some cool murals on the way into the Buzz Lightyear ride.





Andrew and Christine rode together.





Steve and Maggie rode together. I rode by myself. You can fit 3 people in those cars, but you don't want to. There are only two guns and you are supposed to be shooting at things the whole ride.



We happened to run into the Queen. She was definitely not nice. I thought she might make Maggie cry. This picture is deceiving. When she was signing their autograph books Maggie was not smiling.

Andrew thought it was so funny that Woody used Christine's head to sign his autograph!

The kids with Woody and Jessie.

All of us with Pluto after dinner.

Andrew was too tired to walk.

Christine's all-time favorite ride.

Just after midnight away from the craziness on Main Street.

We went back into the park on the 2nd. Cruella was by the entrance when we walked in.

Walking down Main Street.
The castle still decorated for Christmas.

We went into Disneyland on the 2nd to ride Indian Jones and then we headed over to California Adventure. We saw Sully shortly after we got there.

Andrew didn't want to get in with the Incredibles!

All of us with Mickey, after riding the Tower of Terror for the first time!

The Aladdin show at California Adventure is definitely worth waiting in line for...

Maggie got picked during the High School Musical Show to dance with the cast. She did great!

The girls with Cinderella.

Our second time on Tower of Terror, Christine decided to pose for the camera...such a ham! I could only get one of my hands to let go. The little boy behind Steve and Andrew were talking the whole time before we got on the ride. They were so funny talking about not being afraid.

The ferris wheel in California Adventure.

The kids were beat on our last day in the park. It was open until midnight but we took the 8 0'clock shuttle back to the hotel and had a late dinner. The girls got in the hot tub and Andrew got in his pjs. We had a great time!

Rose Bowl!

Because we are not sure when it will happen again and we are driving distance away from Pasadena....we are heading to CA for the Rose Bowl to watch Ohio State! We debated about leaving the kids home for a few days with our babysitter, but decided we would take them and go see Mickey for New Year's Eve. So now I am going to be busy getting us packed and make sure there are enough things to keep the kids busy for a 6-7 hour car ride!

Playing in the Snow!

The main reason for our trip was to see this guy....

We brought our "Polar Express" book and the kids wore their pjs for the train ride.

Andrew was so excited on the train. They served us hot chocolate and cookies.

We took the train to the North Pole. Santa got on the train and brought all the kids bells.

We had only planned on staying one night in Flagstaff, but the hotel sent us a deal for another night that we couldn't pass up. So we headed up to play in the snow for an extra day!

Andrew had a blast playing in the snow. The girls loved sledding. The weather the first two days we were there was in the low 40s. Not warm enough for all their snow to melt, but not cold enough to make things miserable.

The clouds started moving in the last morning. This was the view from our hotel room.

By the time we got to the sled-riding hill, it was snowing and blowing!

We didn't last as long sledding with the cold weather. The kids were cold and we had to drive home in the storm.

We got home without any problems. We saw quite a few cars in the medians...they don't salt the roads in Flagstaff. They put down cinder and people put chains on their tires.

This was a picture from the car as we were heading south on the highway.