Celebrating Ashley’s birthday

Okay, since it’s now after midnight, I guess we just barely passed the time when it’s officially Ashley’s birthday. However, I still wanted to share our experience celebrating it.

I decided to start my vacation a day early and head north to celebrate with my sister and her family. It was a luau, complete with tiki masks and background music of the Tiki Room at Disneyland. Ashley loved luaus, so why shouldn’t we have one for her birthday?

A cute little palm tree in the center of the table.

The cement stepping stone my sister and her kids made for our Miss Sassypants today. I don’t know if you can read the words here or not, but they say “happy, kind, loving and sassy.” It also has a butterfly in the center.

What birthday is completely without cake and ice cream? Well, this one wasn’t either. Only, instead of cake, we had pink cupcakes with sprinkles. Then everyone helped blow out the candles.

Finally, here is Ashley’s greeting to us, in my opinion. Rainbows are a sign of hope, so why wouldn’t she send one to us on her birthday?

As sad as I’ve been about this day in the last few weeks, it was a lovely evening, and I’m grateful I was able to spend it with my family.

A very Disney post

Just yesterday I got back from a fabulous four-day vacation with my sister and her family to Disneyland!!! This was my maiden voyage to Disneyland. I’ve been to Disneyworld once, 10 years ago as part of a school trip and loved it, so it was quite a treat. And the best part was I got to experience it with kids, which was fantastic.

We started out very early on Tuesday morning with a super early flight into Long Beach. That was probably the most brutal part of the trip, and since none of us slept well in the motel room the night before, we started out pretty exhausted. However, that didn’t stop us from spending hours in both California Adventure and Disneyland our first day.

Here’s the Diva and Bumblebee on Bumblebee’s first plane ride ever. She was so kind to tuck Wolfie into her seatbelt so he’d be safe too.

We made the mistake of standing in the ticket line for about 25 minutes the first day not knowing we didn’t need to. However, the ticket lady felt bad and wanted to make us feel better, so she gave us some “First Visit” buttons. I was surprised how many people there, including men, wear these around the park. it was fun!

Fun times in Disney’s California Adventure.

I saw quite a few “famous” people while I was there:

The real reason we went to Disneyland: to see the Diva dance! She did such a great job!

I have so many pictures to share, but I think I’d better wrap it up. Indulge me just a little longer, and I promise it’ll be worth it. Here’s our whole group. Due to an unfortunate sickness, we only have two pictures of all of us.

What Disney trip would be complete without some Disney princesses? I don’t believe they’re a good role model to follow for life, but they represent the idea that dreams can come true, and I love that. So here they are.

For anyone who is thinking of going to Disneyland, I would highly recommend going during the week in the offseason if possible. We had great luck with pretty much walking onto rides until Friday, and the park wasn’t all that crowded really. It is a wonderful place, and I’m looking forward to going again at some point.

When Mom and Dad come to town

Once again it’s been far longer than I intended since I’ve written in here. I have ideas but just not always the time. And it’s not likely to change in the next week, but I’ll do my best. Don’t give up on me anybody who still reads my blog!

So a couple of weeks ago my parents came to visit. They don’t get to visit very often, so I always try my hardest to live it up when they do. This time was no exception. I took two days off work (one for my cousin’s wedding and the other to spend with my Mom and Dad), and we had a lovely time.

There were funny jokes

a fun nature walk, complete with bird nests, one of my dad’s favorite hobbies (not the nests are his hobbies, but he loves birds)

dinner with all my mom’s sisters (since she lives in Idaho and almost all of her sisters live here, she doesn’t often get to go to dinner with them, so it was a truly special occasion)

and of course, frozen yogurt.

What a lovely weekend! I’m just happy he didn’t sneak in my parents’ luggage and end up here with them.

Best “poo” I ever tasted ;)

One of my favorite holiday traditions (and favorite treats too) is making fudge with my mom and sister-in-law. You may think I’m just saying it, but I promise I’m not: my mom’s fudge is the best! It takes a long time (about an hour and a half) to make, and a whole lot of work, but man is the finished product worth it.

My mom was dismayed when she made a batch of fudge a couple weeks ago to discover her candy thermometer (which is about 25 years old, PSBTW) does not work properly anymore and would have to be retired. She bought a new one but hasn’t been brave or ambitious enough to try it out . . . until today.

While the rest of us played a rousing game of Aggravation (which my nephew and I won twice in a row –wahoo!), my mother stirred a batch of fudge together. As it got closer and closer to the point where it had to come out of the pan and be worked with our hands, we all ran over to the sink to wash our hands and butter them up so we could help out.

The new thermometer helped, but the fudge still didn’t quite turn out how we expected. It tastes fantastic but didn’t set up correctly. Sometimes that happens, even though my mom is ever so careful as she makes it. We’re going to leave it be for a few days and hope for the best.

The best part of the experience, however, was my darling two-year-old niece’s comment about the fudge as my mom finished stirring it on the plate. “Ewwwww!” she exclaimed. “That looks like poo!”

Yes, she’s my brother’s daughter all right.

She’s at the age where she says many things that are cute. I’d love to write about all of them, but that’s not the point of the post. But, gosh dang it, we all started laughing hysterically at this comment. We couldn’t help ourselves. And she isn’t necessarily wrong, although I can’t stand to even think about my mom’s delicious fudge being compared to something so yucky!

Here we are working it and hoping it turns out just right.

Just look at what a mess it left on our hands!

Trust me when I say it’s very much worth the effort we put into it. The finished product speaks for itself, even if the analogy leaves something to be desired. Ahh the honestly of children. You’ve got to love them.

Pumpkin Walk 2011

In the six years I’ve been living in Utah, I’ve made it a tradition to attend the North Logan Pumpkin Walk every year. If you’re curious exactly what it is, you can find more information through the website.

To sum it up, basically these are displays made out of pumpkins dedicated to a certain theme. Last year’s was “The Magic of Animation” and this year’s was “My Favorite Things.” On the whole, I liked the displays last year better, but I still loved going.

There were two things that made this year’s show memorable for me. The first was the weather: 75 degrees at almost the end of October? Yes, please. The second was introducing several of my family members to the Pumpkin Walk. What a great experience!

As always, I’m going to let the pictures tell the story since they can do it much better than I can.

Somebody got a little tired before it even started.

 

Gearing up for the walk.

On to the pumpkin scenes. A few of the memorable ones: Kung Fu Panda, Angry Birds, Candyland, Calvin and Hobbs snowmen, Winnie the Pooh and Tangled. Who wouldn’t love a Tangled scene made of pumpkins?!

Light bulb! Let’s make a pumpkin scene of Despicable Me. My personal favorite.

No post would be complete without people pictures.

Everybody gather round. It’s time for family pictures.

Last shots, I promise, group style of course.

Can you see why I love this fall tradition and couldn’t wait to introduce the rest of my family to it?