Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Swim Lessons, A Birthday, Disneyland & September!!!

Again, time has gone by too quickly! I can't believe we are already in October and that Maddy is almost 1! When Bailey was a baby my sister in law told me to cherish that time with her because it goes by so quickly, but to me time was dragging on. Probably because I was a nervous first time mother who was so anxious for Bailey to hit all of her milestones. Now I understand what she meant. Where has the time gone? My sweet Bailey is already in Kindergarten, SWBy is no longer a baby but a little boy and the Maddy is almost one! I long for that time that seemed to drag on before!The last 2 weeks in July and first 2 weeks in August SWBy and Bay took swim lessons. They LOVED it! It was SWBy's first year and Bay's 3rd. I was nervous for SWBy because in May when we were in AZ he wanted nothing to do with swimming or getting wet. Finally, one day in AZ he gave in after 2 hours at the pool and thought he might try it. I was nervous that, that one incident was a fluke but he's loved it ever since!
Bay did awesome in her swim lessons and is swimming independently now. I asked her if she'd like to try swim team, trying to prod her in my footsteps, and she wasn't real crazy about the idea. We'll see though! Maybe I can talk her into it!
Spencer and I hit our 9 year anniversary this year! Again, where has the time gone? My mom noticed that Josh Groban was coming to SLC and before I could get online to see if I could get tickets for his concert my mom called me and told me that she already got us tickets to see him! It was so fun! His voice is amazing! He's a fun performer and pretty funny. I never would have thought!

Here he is! Entertaining as can be! We missed his encore performance where he sang "You Raise Me Up" which I was waiting for all night! We were so bummed! We rode the front runner into SLC and the last train was to leave before his encore. So trying to be responsible we left which meant missing his encore. We made the train in plenty of time and so did everyone else who stayed for the encore! The train waited like 20 minutes. If we knew that we could have stayed! We were so bummed!!!


For Bailey's birthday party this year we rode the train to SLC, had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (one of our favorites) and then went to Discovery Gateway! It was so fun, but a long birthday party! We had the kids for 6 hours! Above, they are waiting to get board the train.


Here we are at lunch! They were so cute and it was so fun!


Here we are at our family party on her actual birthday!


Instead of a cake Bailey wanted donuts. I thought Krispy Kream still gave out a free dozen on your birthday, but apparently they don't! We got donuts for SWBy's birthday and I didn't know about the free dozen then and now that I know of course they don't do that anymore! We didn't even get a free sample! We did get yummy donuts though and we all enjoyed them!


Here is Bailey on her 3rd birthday celebration. Spencer's family came down to celebrate with us the Sunday after her birthday! We always love when they come! (There are only 5 candles because I only had 5. What kind of mom and I?)


Here is Bailey on the day she could not wait for! Her first day of Kindergarten. She's been anticipating this day for a while now. She has been so excited to start school and she LOVES it! Her teacher is so cute. I was there today for a parents meeting and we got to see their calendar time and it was so fun! Bailey is learning so much and her teacher is wonderful! Bay is in the Spanish Immersion program so half her day is taught in Spanish and half in English. It's so cute to listen to Bailey speak in Spanish with her little accent! I love it!


Here is SWBy all dressed up like a cowboy for his first birthday party! One of his little friends had a birthday and SWBy was so excited and had so much fun!


The day we got to CA for our fun Disneyland trip we had dinner at Knott's Berry Farm! It was so good! Maddy was very noisy though and some people next to us requested to be moved because of her! What can you do though? The other people around us were so great and kind about her.


Here we are at Disneyland!!! All the years I've been to Disneyland I don't know that I've ever taken a picture here at the front entrance. It was about time I got a picture here! We had such a fun time and it was extra fun becasue Grandma got to come with us! It was a great family vacation! I loved seeing my kids excitement and loved watching them enjoy all that Disneyland has to offer!I thought this picture of Spence with the kids was too cute not to capture!


When we walked into the park we got a couple of maps and SWBy took one as his own. Before we were able to go to any of the attractions SWBy had to figure out where we were and where we needed to go! Above he is showing Spencer where we were on the map.


He was so cute studying his map so intently!


Here SWBy and Bailey are with 2 of SWBy's favorites. He loves Lightning McQueen and Mater!


SWBy loves anything driving so Autopia was a favorite! He was thrilled he got to be the driver of the car. I got to be his passenger and I must say it was a bit of a bumpy ride!

Here we are waiting for the parade to begin! Yes, all 3 children were in strollers! During this parade Peter Pan came up to SWBy and tried to give him a high 5, but SWBy looked at him like he was nuts and left him hanging! There was no way he was going to give Peter Pan a high 5. The Genie also tried to give Bay and SWBy a high 5 and Bay started crying and SWBy treated him the same as he did Peter Pan. Poor Bay gets so scared of the live characters. She loves the princesses but Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Genie, etc scare her so badly. SWBy just feeds off of Bailey's reaction, so I don't think he's scared but if his sister doesn't like them then he doesn't!

Eating lunch at Ariel's Grotto was one of our favorite things we did at Disneyland! The princesses were so cute with Bay and with SWBy, although SWBy wanted absolutely nothing to do with the princesses. You get to meet Ariel and get a picture with her before they seat you and once you sit down and get settled they sound the trump and announce each princess individually. It was really exciting for Bailey and the princesses were so cute. They are a lot more personable then the princesses you wait in line for hours to meet! The food was great and we really had a fun time!

Cinderella was so cute with Bailey!


Bay had such a fun and exciting time meeting the princesses! Poor Belle kept trying to get SWBy to talk to her and he was not having it. So she took one of his crayons and drew a heart for him on his menu. After she left SWBy took his crayon and stomped on the heart and then scribbled it out angrily. There was no convincing SWBy that the princesses were fun!

After we left Ariel's Grotto we ran in to Woody and Buzz Lightyear! This made the trip for SWBy! We got in line at the perfect time. Right when we got up to see Woody, Buzz arrived to take his place so we got to see both of them which was so exciting for SWBy! I think he was a little star struck!

Cute Maddy just sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed her stroller ride every day! She was so good and so content! She's such a sweet baby!

Here's Bay trying to get the sword out of the stone!

SWBy also had to try to get the sword out of the stone!


Above is our Magic Morning where we got to enter the park earlier than everyone else.We did this the last day we were there, which was really nice because Bailey wanted to wait in line to see if we could meet the princesses we didn't get to meet at Ariel's Grotto. I remember from our last time there that the line moves incredibly slow. So lucky for us we were one of the first ones in line and our wait was still a half an hour but better than the 2 hours we waited last time. We did get to meet Mulan but she was the only one we didn't see at Ariel's Grotto. Bay of course loved meeting the princesses so, as always, it was well worth the wait!


We went to lunch in Frontierland at Big Thunder. The food was great. We had BBQed chicken and ribs. And for dessert the best fruit cobbler ever! It was so fun! Here Bay is entertaining Maddy as usual! They are so cute together! Bailey really is the best big sister ever!

We had some entertainment at lunch and Bailey was invited to go up and dance with them! She was a little timid at first but then got into it and enjoyed herself!

After lunch Woody was walking by and SWBy was so excited and ran up to him but the Disneyland worker wanted everyone to form a line to meet him, so of course all the teenagers and adults were first in line and SWBy got shoved to the back. I was so sad because by the time SWBy got up to meet him his nerves set in and he wouldn't talk to him or get a picture with him.

Rapunzel has her own tower for people to wait and meet her. Lucky for us the line was only 20 minutes. I heard from someone else they waited and hour and a half the day before. Bay was so excited to meet Rapunzel but when we got inside to meet her Flyn Ryder was there and Bay got really scared and said, "Nevermind, I don't want to do this mom. I want to leave." Luckily one of the Disneyland workers noticed her freaking out and asked if she wanted Flyn to leave while she met Rapunzel. We very thankfully said yes and after a lot of coaxing she calmed down and happily met Rapunzel.

SWBy's favorite rides were Astro Orbitor (the rockets), Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Golden Zephyr (more rockets), and Toy Story Mania. We did these multiple times except for Golden Zephyr. We took SWBy on Roger Rabbits ride, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, the Matterhorn and the roller coaster in Toon Town and he hated all of them. He could not get off of these rides fast enough and kept telling us "I have to get out of here!" Bailey enjoyed most rides except for Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Tower of Terror. When we were getting ready to drop on the Tower of Terror Bailey shouted to me, "I don't want to die!" She and I held onto each other the entire ride and she cired through the whole thing. Poor girl. Why we thought it would be a good idea to take her on this ride, I'll never know! Everyone told her she did a great job when the ride was over. When we went on Splash Mountain, we got really wet on one of the little drops which threw Bailey into full panic mode and she kept screaming, "My undies are wet!" She was freaking out long before we got to the big drop and after the big drop she couldn't relax and enjoy Zipadeedoodah! My nice mom bought her a new shirt and shorts so she wouldn't be wet.

My stepmom came for a visit after we got home from Disneyland. We loved having her and the kids sure enjoyed her visit.