Triple M & Company

we have been looking forward to our Dinsey trip for a long time. We didn't do any trips this past year because I was busy having a baby. Don's brother arranged the whole trip and invited all the family to come along. It ended up being us and his parents and his sister Julie's family. we had a fantastic trip, returning home we had that day after Christmas feeling. Good thing the holidays are coming up, that at least helped me not feel so sad about our long anticipated trip being over.

Here we are are the tram, returning back to our car to drive home. Chloe was so sad about leaving. However our trip home was delayed an hour because our car battery died.

Here we are at Downtown Disney, saying goodbye to our family from Utah.

These girls loved playing together, Macie and Lyla got to know eachother better and are best friends now.

Our last night at Disneyland, we bought the girls these dolls, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. Lyla got an Elsa doll too, the girls loved playing with their dolls together.

Grandma and Grandpa made the trip so special. They were incredibly helpful and it was a huge treat to have them with us.

Chloe rode the Cars ride three times. It was her favorite ride. That and thunder mountain. She was afraid to go on Thunder Mountain the first time, but after she went on it, it became her favorite ride, I think we did it 4 times. Macie even liked the Car ride, she thought it was a little scary, but she must have liked it, because I got her to go on it twice.

I have no idea why there is a stamp on the side of this picture.

Macie loved this ride.

Chloe did not like Splash Mountain. I bribed her with more spending money if she went on it.

So our trip consisted of: Monday night: stayed the night with family friend Mona, who treated us like royalty. Grandma and Grandpa stayed too. The girls were in awe of her house which is covered with collectibles and antiques.
Tuesday morning: woke up early and made it over to Disneyland. Discovered that Disneyland in the Fall is still busy. First made our way over to Fantasy Land to do some kiddie stuff. we met up with Greg and Kirsten and spent the day together. Even the babies were able to go on some rides. I tried my first Dole whip. And my first Disneyland corn dog. Don finished my corn dog while I left for a few minutes to attend business, when I came back I said, "hey! you ate all my corn dog." and Don said, "trust me, you'd rather be in your position than in mine right now." Which I guess was true. It left room for my dole whip. Which by the way, I didn't think was the most amazing thing I have ever tried in my life, which I heard it was life changing. The line for the dole whip was ridiculously long too!
The coolest thing I discovered about Disneyland was their Mother's room, which I had no idea existed. I felt like I was going back in time, when it was probably different to have babies. ie: Did mothers nurse in public? (probably not) and a time when cloth diapers were the norm. This building had large changing tables, a basin for washing out cloth diapers (ick), 2 small toilets which might have been Macie's favorite thing about the whole trip (I have never seen a kid so excited to go to the bathroom), and a room with curtained areas to nurse your baby.
We had a lot of fun Tuesday, our first day there. We took the bus from the hotel over to Disneyland that morning, and I wish I had taken a picture, the girls were beaming with anticipation and excitement.
Other Highlights of Tuesday: Jugle Cruise (Macie wanted to ride it again, we all got to go on that one together), the night parade, Star Tours (Macie actually liked that one too), girls getting personalized pink parasols courtesy of Grandpa Joe, no wait time on Thunder Mountain and convincing Chloe to go on it, and her LOVING it.

We checked into our amazing hotel that night, and had no problem falling asleep that night.

Wednesday: we had a free morning. We bought tickets to the Halloween Disneyland party, so we had to wait until 3 pm to get into the park. In the morning the girls went swimming in the hotel pool, and we just relaxed. Lyla borrowed Macie's swimming suit, she went to the bathroom to change, and when she came out Macie said, "Wow Lyla! That looks really good on you!" It really cracked Don and me up.
We headed over to Disneyland at 3 pm, and excitement was in the air! everyone was showing up in their costumes, There were A LOT of Elsas and Annas. I had bought Chloe a Princess autograph book and she was anxious to fill it up. We found Micky and Minnie near the front of the park. Chloe wanted me to ask for their autographs. Oh, and Wednesday, the babies stayed back at the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa, so we were thinking that we could really take advantage of our baby free night at the park. ha. That's funny now. Because early into our day, around 5 PM, Greg and Kirsten's stroller was stolen outside of Star Tours. We had seen the parade (again, and this time we had front row seats and the girls were able to wave at Anna and Elsa, which was so exciting for the girls. Chloe was so excited that Anna swished her braids around, acknowledging Chloe's imitation braids) By the way, the Elsa/Anna hysteria at Disneyland is insane, You have to get a fast pass to meet them, and they sold out of fast passes for the day by 10:30. So I really made a big deal of seeing on the parade float, because we were not able to get the fast pass to meet them.

Back to the stroller incidence. We went on the Buzz lightyear ride by Star Tours, and Greg and Kirsten left all their stuff on their stroller. Luckily Don took our backpack, but I did leave our trick or treat bags on the stroller, with Chloe's autograph book and my sunglasses and hat. When we got off the ride, we made the unfortunate discovery that the stroller was gone. It took a few minutes for us to realize that it had not been accidentally misplaced, but had been stolen. We felt awful for Greg and Kirsten. They spent the next few hours filling out police reports and walking around with the keystone cops, ie Disney security. Later that evening they got a call from Rey and Mary, that a lady had dropped off a bag at the hotel that she had found at Disneyland. she had seen the hotel keys, so she found the hotel and dropped it off at the front desk. The thieves were so kind to give them back their wallets, sans cash, and their car keys. Oh and my hat and sunglasses, which actually really made me laugh. But they kept everything else including chloe's autograph book, Lyla's Elsa and Anna barbies, Greg's nice sweatshirt, and of course the $400 stroller. the whole thing was so infuriating and it took a few hours for us all to decide to let it go and not let it ruin the rest of the trip. When someone steals from you, you just lose faith in humanity for a little bit. I mean, what kind of a person do you have to be, to steal from children? Instead of spending the night with their daughter, they were dealing with the crap of the world. We still managed to have some fun, but man, I think the night would have been so much better had that not happened.

During the stroller aftermath, we were able to meet some villains. Chloe was really scared to meet them. I thought the villains were so fun to meet. They did a great job being in character. Cruella asked Chloe and Macie if they had any puppies. They said no, and she said, "Well I have nothing else to say to you then."
I overheard the ugly stepsisters, but didn't get to meet them, they were my favorite. They were so funny. They had the laugh and the voices down perfectly. A girl dressed up like Cinderella came to meet them and they started saying, "Oh Cinderella, did you know the cat came back? Ya Lucifer is back...." I want that job at Disneyland.

Maleficent was awesome too. We also hung out a bit with Kirsten sister and her family. Her daughter was dressed like Maleficent and when the real Maleficent saw her she said, "Finally. someone who knows how to dress for a party."

This is us at the parade, before the stroller was stolen.

Notice my hat and sunglasses. I just can't figure out why they didn't want them?

The girls and their fancy parasols. You see that cape Chloe is wearing? I made it. And it took me like 6 hours and 3 attempts. and it STILL was sub par.

We stopped for a little Mary Poppins show the first day.

The girls got a lot of compliments on the Target Elsa and Anna dresses.

Disneyland is really cool during the Halloween party. they really do a great job making things look spooky but fun. We had left our stroller at the hotel thinking we could all just share Greg's stroller, so unfortunately when that was stolen, we had a lot of really tired kids. Once again, super crappy thing to do, steal from kids.

Chloe had this past week of school off. I loved having her home and tried to do something fun every day. Monday she played with her friend Bella. Tuesday we went to the children's museum in Mesa, as did everyone else in the state of Arizona. Wednesday seems to have vanished from my memory. And Thursday we went to Prescott, AZ to visit Rachelle and her kids. It was a pretty ideal little trip. I got a little taste of Fall. We took a little visit to Mortimer Farm outside of Prescott. We sampled fresh pressed apple cider (amazing), tried to find our way through a corn maze (and decided just going straight through the corn was easier), picked pumpkins (and I got to hold Macie's pumpkin and a sleeping baby for about an hour, which was super relaxing).

The kids took a "train" ride.

I can now say I tried a mechanical bull. I won't be doing that again. Those types of things should be strictly avoided by people with a lack of physical coordination and a propensity of getting injured.

Oscar enjoyed himself.

Macie LOVED holding the baby bunny. seriously this girl loves animals. Well she didn't like the goat. Poor goats. who likes goats?

There was this awesome spinning ride thing. Macie freaked out when it started spinning around. when I watch Macie, I say to myself, 'Yep, that is exactly what I would have done as a kid." (aaaaaaaand sometimes as an adult.) Macie is my shadow child. She loves to follow me around and will often choose sitting by me over playing with other kids.

That's little Oscar over by the kids. After viewing the pigs, I lost my appetite for pork. Something about the flies and poop...I doubt it will last long. I really like bacon.

And on another semi-related thought...the fact that Macie now uses the potty, is actually more inconvenient for me than her in diapers. Of course at the farm is where she decided that she must go #2. She refused to go before we left my friend's house, even though she told me she had to go. So I grinned and bore those nasty porto potties. And there is more to the story, but I will end it there. Suffice it to say that I spent a significant amount of time on the trip dealing with Macie's potty issues.

We actually really did have a lot of fun at the farm. I have never seen a real pumpkin patch before. We had to leave the farm in a rush to get back into town for Chloe's swim meet. We put her in a swim club for the Fall. The swim meets are more enjoyable when it is not 100+ degrees outside. I am really impressed with all the improvements Chloe has made with her swimming, We have so much fun as a family watching her compete.