eurojenny

December Family Fun

December 2018

I took Gary’s kids and Teo to the Festival of Trees. Good times.

Max and Ellie loved talking to an elf on the phone

Sparkly wands and painted fingernails…just what the Ellie ordered

The Sing-along was well-attended this year! Everybody had a great time 🙂

Disneyland was a really amazing way to start my Christmas break

White Elephant game at the Christensen Christmas party

Christmas morning was very chill. I was sick all week so I went to bed Christmas Eve and got up Christmas morning at 9 to do stocking stuff 🙂

Hanging out at a cabin in Pine Valley. Our first family vacation (all 5 of us) in really forever. It was so nice. We watched all the Harry Potter movies, built puzzles, played games, and ate lots of food.

Our first professional family photos in like 10 years! Elyse at Camera Shy did a great job 🙂

AdaDisney 5

Christmas time at Disney…new thing for Ada. We flew down for a pretty quick trip.

Cute matching PJs

Ada is always talking about this corn whiskey

Ada’s new favorite is the storybook land canal boats

Sour apple churro with caramel sauce 🙂

Gingerbread Creme Brûlée. Yes it is as amazing as it sounds.

Everything looks so amazing through the magic Mickie-fying glasses.

The castle is so thparkly!

We have coordinating (or matching) charms for each trip we have done together

Tropical Hideaway opened today and it’s amazing! For sure try this scrumptious pineapple thingy!

Going to Disneyland by yourself is really fun. You can do whatever you want. I thought I would go to the beach, visit the temple, go swimming each afternoon. Turns out I’m such a sucker for Disney that I’m incapable of doing anything else. 3 days plus an evening and a morning and I’m not even close to sick of it. Love it love it love it!

Did lots of character photos. I love how they take time with each guest. 🙂

Really enjoyed the Christmas festivities

I was there on Mickey’s and Minnie’s 90th birthday. Aging very gracefully as you can see…

Loved the animation academy. Minnie’s scary mouth and Tigger’s fat head notwithstanding I am pleased with my progress.

Thought of Steve as I saw the amazing drawings he did on my knees and as I rode Guardians…

Thought of Alex as I shot a round at the Shooting Expedition and rode his favorite ride

Thought of ada as I rode Toad and Monsters…

…and every time I made a fast pass and unclicked Ada’s name

Thought about Teo on Space Mountain and riding the tea cups. I even did a little spinning in his honor

GirlsDoDisney

1-4 November

Kaylee and Miranda and I drove to cedar where we picked up Ada (and Daniel and Nicole, who hitched a ride with us). We went to downtown Disney as soon as we got there just to get a small taste of the place. 🙂

Miranda’s first visit! So fun to share all the magical things with her…

We headed to fantasyland first to catch Peter Pan

Apple pie donut. A keeper. 🙂

And Splash Mountain. Got totally soaked.

Kayley looks like she’s bleeding out her eyeballs on this one

Blue Bayou for lunch. So amazing! I especially enjoyed the light cube in my mint julep.

Flat on my back to take this beautiful princess pose

I got into the park first because I walked and the girls’ shuttle bus took longer. So I had a photographer take some shots of me

To Infinity and beyond!

Posing in front of the murals in Hollywood studios

Grizzly Peak rapids…including ugly Christmas sweater

Ada needed head shots for auditions so we all took a few minutes of the kind Disney photographer’s time

Mater!!!

We went to Cars Land to experience the lights turning on at sunset but there were technical difficulties. 😦

So we consider ourselves with cool sunset shots

Loved the fireworks in front of Small World. Not nearly as crowded

We decided ahead of time to do this pose but didn’t consider the shortness of Miranda’s arms or the real possibility of Ada or kayley getting their eyes poked out by one of us. We laughed for 10 minutes about how it turned out

I’m so happy to have an annual pass. I honestly feel like I’m just making it to my next Disney trip.

AlexDisney

20-22 October

We celebrated Alex’s almost birthday at Disneyland. So much fun! Alex is really chill so we had a great time.

Coolest fog on grizzly rapids

Mmm ratatouille

Fall family fun

12-13 October

Ada and Alex were both home for the weekend so we went bowling. Ethan has never been! We stayed and played pool afterward and that was the best part. 🙂

Then on Sunday we invited Jul, Spencer, Weston, Olivia, Miranda, and Kayley over and we frosted cookies for many hours. 🙂

AdaDisney 3

13-15 sept.

Disneyland was all decked out for Halloween. We had a delightful time. Spent Thursday and Friday there. Camped at our favorite spot W T and F.

Ada wanted a yellow one. 🙂

Cruella de vil brownie

Black Rose dessert. Dark chocolate mousse with raspberry. 🙂

Pound cake with blueberries and Oreo cookie chunks. Sounds weird but nope. Yummo.

They had the coolest stuff for Dia de los Muertos. Mask decorating and walls of sweet memories of those who have passed on

Left early Saturday and drove back to Cedar and saw The Foreigner. Stayed with Ada and then got up early to get back for teaching Sunday school but was stopped behind a crazy car carrier fire for over an hour. Should have slept in I guess. 🙂

Taylor Lake Fest

10-12 August 2018

We rented a house up by Jordanelle in order to spend time together and watch the Perseids (the fire smoke really killed that unfortunately). We did have a great time down at the lake and playing games and in the hot tub. We miss the Hoen cabin so much so this was a nice cabin fix.

SteveDisney

7-9 August 2018

Flying is so much nicer than driving. Did Disney most of Tuesday, all of Wednesday, and the morning of Thursday (just me). It was crazy hot but very fun.

The Winnie the Pooh cars have names on them!

I have the coolest Mickey diffraction grating glasses

On a whim and because of no actual line, we met Elsa. She was really nice 🙂

Steve totally loves the Little Mermaid ride

Watched the lights come on in Radiator Springs

TeoDisney

9-10 July 2018

Drove down on Sunday. Awful. Took almost 2 hours longer than it should. So happy to make it to the Hampton. Went swimming immediately. 🙂

We did a ton on Monday. Tuesday was a little more chill. Teo took tons of pictures and I had a lot of fun with my new infrared camera (well, Lakeview’s new infrared camera). 🙂

Drove back on Wednesday. Late to Big River in Cedar because of waking up to a dead battery :(. Ada took a shuttle down and at least she didn’t miss any of the show. We went to dinner at the Brick House and then saw The Merchant of Venice. Very religiously charged. And Big River is of course strongly racial. Pretty intense day.