Grandma Pam Visits...

Grandma Pam came to visit when we arrived back in town and to say Bails could not be more thrilled. Every time we would tell her what our plans were she would throw her arms up in the air, get a big smile on her face and shout "I am so excited." 

There was plenty of book reading, playing with princess, going on walks, visiting dinosaur land at the city creek mall

and finally hanging out in nursery to play. We had such a fun time with Grandma Pam. Bails was so sad to see her go. Thanks for visiting us. 

Las Vegas

The girls were about perfect in the car ride to Vegas. It may have had something to do with being so exhausted that they were a little more than happy to sit back, watch movies, and take a long nap. We arrived at Circus Circus and all jumped out of the car to check in. It was during this 100 yard walk that we realized it was probably 115 degrees in Vegas and we would not be headed back outside. It was so hot. We headed up to the room and then sent Sam back down all of our luggage while the ladies lounged on the bed channel surfing. After getting all settled we collected our coupons for free rides and games at the arcades and headed downstairs for dinner. The food was sub-par, but the carnival more than made up for it. We headed in to see tons of roller coasters and small rides. The girls were thrilled to run around and try to play the arcade games and watch all the older kids scream and laugh. I thought the site of a 60 foot drop would terrify the girls, but instead we had little Bails begging us to take her on the rides; I guess Disneyland instilled a love of roller coasters in her. We walked around until we found one that Bails was tall enough to go on, expecting her to chicken out or hate it, but instead she just laughed and screamed the whole time and then refused to get off when the ride was over. Who would have thought.

After prying them away from the arcade section we headed upstairs to the carnival games. We had 4 coupons for free games and walked away with 3 prizes despite losing all 4 games. The little girls were cute enough to sucker prizes out of the employees, but Sam, not so much.

We also ended the evening with a little frozen yogurt.

 So thrilled to have their own ice cream. Sort of. Sam and I intended to share with them and were able to sneak a few bites, but it was all gone before we realized it. I guess they are Sam's daughters.

 We also realized why Sam's back was hurting so much. Apparently going to the water park for two hours in the middle of the day without any sunscreen was not the smartest decision of the day. 

 After a quick and expensive aloe vera run he was lathered up and we were all asleep in .03 seconds. Another fun, yet exhausting day.

Water Park

After breakfast we headed over to the mini water park at our hotel. Hazel, who has recently developed some irrational fear of water, was not happy. She would not let anyone come near her and just kept running into the corners and screaming at anyone that came near her. (I am going to have to blame Bails for dumping one too many cups of water over her head in the bathtub). Bails however thinks she is Michael Phelps even though she I can count on one hand the number of times she has actually gone swimming in a pool. 

We tagged team; Sam spent the majority of the time on the water slides and running away from the huge bucket of water that dumped out on everyone every few minutes with Bails while I coaxed Hazel roo into the little pool. It took her a few minutes to warm up, but by the time we were ready to leave a few hours later she was in tears and crying like her sister, refusing to go.

 The infamous red water slide. Bails started out on Sam's lap and after a few tries demanded that she go by herself. And pretty soon she only wanted to go on the big twisting green one by herself (which meant she sat in between Sam's feet and he wasn't allowed to touch her).

Cute sisters, holding hands. 

 The quickest way to make Sam mad? Help Bails squirt him with this gun. Oh the wrath.

 Is it possible to hang out at the water park and go on the slides and not get a wedgie?

 If only sound could travel through pictures. She was so mad that we made her leave. She could have stayed there forever. Leaving Disneyland didn't even get that sort of tantrum.

 It was pure torture that our room backed up to the water park. They just sat out there and begged to go back the entire time we were packing up and getting ready for check out. Such a hard, sad life.

Off to Vegas we go!

Breakfast with Mickey Mouse!

We decided to forego the stay at the Disneyland hotel and just venture over there the next morning for the character breakfast. I knew Hazel would be terrified the entire time, but Bails would have the time of her life so we decided to just go for it. Of course we forgot to make reservations. We are Sam and Terri and things like that just don't cross our radar, yet everything always works out.

We waited a few minutes and then they called our names for our table. First up was meeting Mickey and snapping a picture with him. Hazel waved and cautiously said hi, and then when he turned to look at her and reach out his hand she screamed super loud, notifying him to back up and not touch. 

 Bailey was mesmerized and more than happy to give him a hug and a nose-nose.

 We got to our table and the girls and Sam were elated to find out there was unlimited chocolate milk and orange juice. Then, before we knew it, Miss Daisy was at our table and Bails jumped up to give her a hug. Hazel of course wanted nothing to do with her.

 Then we were back to eating when that sneaky Stitch crept up on our table out of nowhere. He almost startled me, but he scared both girls half to death. They were both in tears and didn't want anything to do with the scary dog.

 Pluto brought the smiles back for Bails...

 And a plate full of bacon made this one happy. As well as her syrup, ketchup and third glass of chocolate milk.

 She was also more than happy to admire Minnie from across the restaurant. Bails on the other hand could not wait for her turn to hug Minnie and give her a nose-nose.

 And then we ate for awhile longer, until we realized Stitch was about to make another round on the tables and we figured we better get out of their before our kids started screaming again. And Tinkerbell and Cinderella were more than happy to run laps around Goofy until our car was ready.

Too bad for Hazel that all the characters we saw weren't just statues. I think she would have been a much happier camper; or at least a less scared one. 

Disneyland

Disneyland was a whirlwind of a day. We decided to let the two little girls be our alarm clocks for the morning, and like expected they went off around 6:30 am. We got up, ate breakfast, showered, packed up our car, said goodbye to Honey and Papa and we were off to sit in traffic. We have hit the stage where little Bails has to ask every two minutes if we are there yet, and after like an hour and half we were happy to finally announce that we were. Of course we had to take two trips back to the car before we were all set to hit up the tram and enter the park.

 Monkey see, monkey do. Hazel is the queen of copying her older sister.

 I think Bails had no idea what to expect. We had talked about coming for months, and she had seen a few commercials on television, but honestly, taking her to the Disney store and telling her it was Disneyland probably would have worked, until now.

 Both girls were so happy to see pictures of Mickey and Minnie everywhere. They were also happy to be in the tram and not have to be buckled into their car seats. Bails did demand that I had to hold onto the pole the whole ride though so I didn't fall out. My own words to her often backfire these days.

 After standing in line for tickets and stopping at the bathroom for the fat pregnant lady we were off to Fantasy Land. Of course Bails wanted to ride on the carousel. 

 This one was not as thrilled with her carousel ride. She is a little bit of a scaredy cat.

 The only way to get her to knock off her whining was to pull our lunch out, so we parked the stroller and ate lunch. Peanut Butter/jelly sandwiches, apples, string cheese and chocolate milk. The girls were thrilled.

 Then it was off to the tea cups, because everyone likes to get spun in circles and tossed around right after lunch, right? Sam thought Hazel would hate it.

 And she surprised us all. She loved it until her light weight body couldn't hold her in her seat and she flew into the middle and disappeared. Then she cried.

 They also got to ride the tea cups at the same time as Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. Too bad my girls had no idea who those people were so they could care less.

 Before the tea cups we attempted to hit up small world. Of course it closed down as we were walking up, but the line may have deterred us anyway. After tea cups and on our way to Toon Town small world opened back up so we parked our stroller and ran in line. We basically walked on the ride which was a small miracle considering how crowded the place was today.

 The girls were in love. They gasped and awed at everything and couldn't stop pointing and telling me to look every which way.

 So happy.

 So mesmerized.

 After small world we finally ventured over to Toon Town. We walked around and looked at the place and then headed over to Minnie's house. This was the longest wait of the day, mostly because there were four big families right in front of us that kept joining there group just as we got closer to the front of the line. There was a fifteen minute span of time where they line literally moved backward. Good thing it wasn't blazing hot because I would have been way more ticked off. We finally made it to the front of the line and into Minnie's house.

The highlights were not her couch...

 

but rather her phone and radio. The girls kept disappearing to the back of the line and could always be found at this desk.

 

Minnie's dishwasher was a little too loud for Bails... 

It felt like an eternity, but we did finally make it to the front of the line.

Bailey was thrilled and Hazel clung to me for dear life. After Bails gave Minnie a big hug and a nose-nose she turned to Hazel to say hi. Haze let out this blood curling death shriek, started to shake, and burst into tears. It surprised me so bad I couldn't help, but start laughing. I guess if I was as little as her I wouldn't want a big mouse to touch me either. Hazel kept an eye on her the whole time and wouldn't even let Minnie look at her without bursting into tears again.

 After Minnie we were so tired of lines and standing up we decided to head over to the train for a little ride around the park. We sent Daddy Sam to grab some popcorn and the little girls and I hopped in line. We were in our seats minutes later and off on the "dinosaur train." Ironically the spot where we saw the dinosaurs scared both girls. That just meant that we got extra hugs from each during those parts.

 After the train we decided to test our luck and visit Mickey Mouse. We headed over to his house to investigate and say hello.

 Bails thinks she is a pianist now that Aunt Dana taught her how to play twinkle twinkle little star. 

 And before we knew it, we were meeting Mickey Mouse. Hazel once again let out a shriek of terror and would not let us stand close to the little Mouse; while Bails of course, was in heaven.

 We had to stop to get a picture here. When Bails was 9 months old we took a picture of her with the tool box and it now hangs on the wall. Bails loved seeing the place where she was photographed as a baby.

 Next up on the agenda was the main street parade. We scored front row seats in the shade. A win win. Bails loved just snacking on her doritos and waving at all the characters that walked and rode by.

 Hazel slept on me the whole time.

 Dorito cheese face

 And she woke up right as the last float was going by. Mary Poppins. She has no idea who that was so she could care less.

 Then it was off to tomorrow land. We got our fast passes for the autopia cars and then went over to ride buzz lightyear. Bails loved shooting all the bad guys.


Then we were off to eat some dinner. We grabbed some pizza and pasta and then headed over to the autopia cars. Apparently there was a minimum height and Hazel of course didn't make it, which meant Bails and Sam got to ride twice while Hazel and I watched from the top balcony and then hung out in the stroller eating cheetos.

After autopia cars it started getting late so we headed back to Fantasy Land. Bails had wanted to ride on Dumbo all day, but the line was always way too long. To our dismay it was still super long so we decided to hit up Mr. Toads Wild Ride in hopes that it would get a little shorter. Bad decision. Both girls left that one in tears. It was way too scary. So we hopped into Dumbo's line to cheer the tykes up. Bails demanded the purple Dumbo, so when our turn finally came we ran over to him and jumped in. I tried to convince Sam he could take both girls alone, but he refused so he and Hazel jumped in the yellow one in front of us.

Bails had the biggest grin and smile the whole time. She loved it. The only time she got mad was when our turn was over and we had to get off, which was basically the common theme for the day.

Then they played/climbed all over the Dumbo outside the ride until we convinced them that we needed to hurry and try to ride Small World one more time.

That was all the convincing they needed, so we headed over. After the ride they each picked out their special souvenirs. More princesses to add to their collection and the Mickey and friends figurines. 

Happy, but exhausted little girls.

On our way out we stopped for a quick pose in front of the princess castle. It was so crowded from people settling down for the fireworks show. Thinking it might be soon (from the amount of people plopped around) we asked a worker and it was still an hour and a half away. No thank you.

We headed out (after a quick stop to the candy store of course) and checked into our hotel which was across the street. As we were walking over to our room and unloading our stuff the fireworks started going off and we could see it perfectly. We could also hear it perfectly and both girls were plugging their ears crying. In their defense it was super loud, but is just solidified our decision to leave when we did. Thanks for a long, tiring, fun filled day Disneyland. Here's to next times visit being way less crowded.

Sam said he pulled out his computer for a second to look up information on the character breakfast and he stopped talking to me for 30 seconds and then turned back around and all three of us were out. He also debated leaving me in the bed with both girls, but then realized that may instigate his last night on earth and thought better of it. Smart man Samuel.