Disneyland

I've decided that the reason Disneyland is the "happiest place on Earth" is because it is all about the family. The rides and environment are family-friendly, and we had a great time exploring the park with a good chunk of the Wride/Barnard clan.

We rode:
Monorail
Finding Nemo Submarine Ride
Peter Pan
Matterhorn
Jungle Cruise
Thunder Mountain (Spencer did this one 4x)
Buzz Lightyear space ranger ride (I think this one was a three-peat for much of our crowd)
Indiana Jones
Tarzan's Treehouse
Teacups
Dumbo
King Arthur's Carousel
Sleeping Beauty Castle Tour
Pinocchio
Space Mountain
Flying Rockets

How did we accomplish so much in one day, you ask? Well, the answer is...17 hours in the park, two teenage fast pass runners, and kids so excited about Disneyland they were willing to run around from 7AM until midnight with just a short break in the afternoon. How did we manage 17 hours in the park? Two REALLY awesome grandparents treated us all to a night at the Disneyland Hotel.

THANK YOU!!!


And...THANK YOU!!!


Since we spent the night on the property, we were able to enter the park an hour early and monorail in, which dropped us off right by the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride. From there, we bounced around, fast-passing this or that, revisiting rides we enjoyed, and working the baby swap. It was SO nice to be able to take the kiddos back to the hotel for a midday repose. Without that, there is no way we would have lasted until midnight. AND...a big shout out to Baby John, who is the best baby in the world when it comes to traveling. He snuggles into the Baby Bjorn and goes with the flow, napping when he needs to, and people-watching when awake.


This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Emily is demonstrating how excited we ALL were to head to the park. Even though we got in late the night before, it was no problem to get the kids up and ready by 6:30AM.


The first roller coaster of the day: Matterhorn. It was a hit with the kids, despite the scary abominable snowman. Emma likes to talk about him a lot, even though she flatly refused to go on this ride.


Most of the day's cast, waiting for Thunder Mountain (Spencer's favorite ride). Pictured are: Marie, Emily, Spencer, Daniel, Ryan, Maddie, Laura, Alec, Valerie, and Brad. Missing from this photo are: Adam, Emma, John, Tammy, and Tyler.


Our kids were at the PERFECT age for Disneyland. Spencer was old enough for roller coasters; Emma loves princesses; and we have taken all our children to Disneyland while they were infants, so John needed his turn. One perk of Emma's princess adoration...she likes them only from a distance. We saw a few, and she was thrilled about that, but she didn't want to go anywhere near them; thus, we spent no time in line for individual photo ops.


Ryan and Emily on the teacups. Classic!

The rest of the crowd was in the "fast" teacup, with Adam at the wheel.


Daddy explaining the wonders of "Small World" to Emma. This was a definite favorite for lovie.


Twinners!


All of the cousins took turns examining the map and deciding where we should go.


It wouldn't be a ride to Disneyland without riding on Dumbo!



Emma rode the carousel while the boys tried to pull the sword out of the stone. Grandpa helped her stay on and reported later on their conversation. "My horse is a good horse. He is a good horse because his name is Rick." She still talks about good ole Rick.


This picture says it all. We were SO grateful to have a plethora of stroller seats (and people to push them). On the way home, nearly all the kids fell asleep. Spencer is totally zonked out behind Ryan, the lone survivor of the walk back to the hotel. The end of a truly MAGICAL day.

Drumroll, please...

The results are in. John had his 2 month check-up today. When the nurse put in his rather impressive numbers, she had us go back to the scale just to double check that they were correct.

Head: 16.75 inches (96%)
Height: 25 inches (97.53%)
Weight: 17 pounds, 4 ounces (99.98%)

His weight was off the charts. Nothing but the best for our "All-American boy", as Grandpa Bezzant would say.

At the Nats

At the Nats
Originally uploaded by Adam W.

Spencer, my dad, and I took a trip down to the new(ish) Washington Nationals stadium to see the pitching phenom Strasburg pitch. He did ok, not great and the Nats lost 1-0.

Doesn't matter how great you pitch, you still have to score a run to win a game...

Spencer loved the trip, mostly the metro trains and the hot dog. We hadn't eat yet - that's why he's a little sunken back in the picture. =)

Emmy

Emma has definitely noticed that life is different since we added baby #3 to our family. To her credit, though, she has shown nothing but love to her baby brother. Our lovie LOVES being a big sister. She is so proud of baby John-John. Today, when I was reading her a story for her quiet time, she wanted to stop the story (and we were just getting to the scary part of "The Little Mermaid" - her favorite) to snuggle with John. I put him next to her on her pillow, and she wrapped her arms around him to snuggle up. It was very sweet, and something I wanted remember. Hence, I blog.

Emmy - we love you!

Breakfast for Dinner

The other day, we had breakfast for dinner, which is Spencer's absolute favorite meal of all time. We have already planned that as his dinner of choice on his first day of kindergarten. Because I never want to forget how creative Spencer is, I had to post these two pictures. He made his meal into a work of edible art.




Spencer is a project man. He is always doing experiments, which today meant taking some equal sweetener he swiped from a restaurant table and adding salt, pepper, brown sugar and water to make "medicine." In the absence of random ingredients, he makes ant traps (tupperware containers with straws leading in...since ants like tunnels), draws inventions (the latest being a car/plane/boat combo), and makes forts. I love this kid.

2 months old already??

The other day, I set up an informal, amateur photo shoot for our little John after church. He wore an outfit that my Aunt Susan and cousins Mackenzie and Kirsten sent out, and it was too adorable not to document. (LOVE it! The thank you note is still sitting on my counter...gotta get that in the mail...)

And so, to celebrate his 2 month birthday, I am posting these photos of our little John.


Amazing how a picture like that can come from a set-up like this, no?


John gave us a sleepy smile. He is starting to give lots of awake ones too, but you gotta be quick with the camera on those.


I love this serious look. John is a VERY observant boy. He spends his awake time actively looking around the room. Ceiling fans are a particular favorite of his. He will spend long periods of time calmly watching the revolution of the fan blades. He also loves to people watch.
(Note the "Super Baby" onesie peeking out from under his Sunday outfit. One of my seminary students made that for him.)



Just to keep us on our toes, this little man continues to defy physical expectation. He is already able to sit up by himself! Sure, it lasts only a second or two before he slumps forward to a tripod sit, but still WAY impressive. I can't wait to see what this little He-man does in life.

Annie Jr.

Last week, we went to see Pickwick Drama Camp's production of "Annie Jr." Trina, my youngest sister, was one of the orphans. She LOVED being in the show. She stayed with us last week while my parents were out of town. When I commented to her about what a wonderful, pleasant helper she has been, she explained that she learned that from the play "because orphans are nice to each other and help each other." Love it.

Here's a video of one of the numbers. It was such an impressive show, especially since it was put together in just a 2 week camp with 7-14 year old cast members. Awesome.



Rascals. I cannot get blogger to upload the video. Maybe it will magically work after I post this. If not, check flickr for the real deal.