12/31/2010

Disneyland 2010

ur second family trip to Disneyland took place Sat Nov 13 to Sat Nov 20. During the trip we celebrated Ruthie's 2nd birthday on the 15th.



Here's a handful of memories from our fun week, roughly left to right:
1-Lambson kids on the teacups. Their family went to Disneyland a month before us.
2-Austin found a map of the future of California Adventure. He spent 20 minutes comparing his map to the one on the wall.
3-The 'A' boys. Anthony and Austin.
4-Austin showing Pluto his remote control "Shiny Pluto" toy.
5-Anthony buried the kids in the sand at the beach. We spent our last day at the beach.
6-Ruthie started out scared of the characters, like she was last year. On the second day we met up with Koda and Kenai. They didn't have a line, so it gave Ruthie a chance to approach at her speed. She spent 20 minutes watching other kids approach while the bears tried to encourage her to come over. Finally she had the courage to give them both hugs. The silent, perma-smile bears clapped and pumped their fists and coddled her. It was so cute.
7-The 'R' girls. Ruth and Heidi Ruth.
8-Ruthie digging the Playhouse Disney show now that she knows what the shows are.
9-Ruthie has recently adapted Donald Duck as her favorite character. My mom, who came with us, got Ruthie a stuffed Donald for her birthday. When asked, "What are you going to name it?" she replied, "Um... Mickey Mouse."
10-Autopia cars. Austin and grandma rode, but we didn't. Every afternoon one or two of the adults took Austin around to play while another one took Ruthie back to the hotel for a nap.
11-At CA Adventure park with Minnie. We tried to get Austin on the Soarin' ride, but he was still too scared to ride some of those 'unknown' rides.
12-Austin with, who else, Buzz Lightyear! That morning we bought Austin a magic trick so he spent a moment showing the trick to Buzz.
13-Partners statue. Is there a story there?
14-What if I'd married a man my own height? Ruthie helped bury Anthony in the sand. It was cold and cloudy on the beach that day. I kept my jacket on and didn't get in the water above my knees. Anthony and the kids were braver.
15-It sure was fun having my mom on the trip with us. Good times, great memories. Plus we got a date night in the park. While mom watched the kids Anthony and I rode some of the best coasters - Space, Screamin', Tower of Terror.
16-The bubbles on the Nemo ride elicited the biggest reaction out of Ruthie last year. But this year it was just so-so, but still a fun ride.
17-A future princess.
18-Our trip family photo. If I was a Christmas card sender, I probably would've used this picture.
19-Lambsons with Mickey.
20-Ruthie and I enjoying yummy treats. Ruthie was absolutely coated in it by the time she was done.
21-Austin on his big afternoon with grandma. They rode so many rides and had such a fun time together.
22-Stuck in Prim Nevada. Our car broke down on the way there. We were set back 4 hours and got to Anaheim around 3am. Grrr! I'm just glad we got it figured out.
23-Lambson's family Christmas card picture.
24-Dinosaurs. Austin can name all of the dinosaurs! He takes after his mother. I used to love naming the dinosaurs when I was 5 and now my little 4-year-old does it. (Thanks Dinosaur Train).
25-Anthony and the kids braved the cold November ocean water for about 30 minutes before they were totally blue and numb.
26-Ruthie at Minnie's house.
27-My triumphant moment of the trip. Austin rode my favorite ride with me - Splash Mountain! It took a bit of convincing, though. We first had to ride the Matterhorn, then bribe him with popcorn on the walk over and even use peer pressure telling him that even Makayla had gone on the ride! His take? It was fun, but wet. He was willing to ride again, but we never got around to it.
28-Darling wiped out kids. We actually spent long days at the park, crashing around 8 or 9 pm. By the end of the week we were a bit back logged on sleep.
29-Austin wrote his name in the sand. He's gotten so good at that this year!
30-Dumbo!
31-Austin's surprise favorite ride of the trip: Alice in Wonderland. He requested this about 3 times a day.
32-Goofing off in Toon Town.
33-Playing in the Brother Bear area.
34-My boy was just barely tall enough to ride some coasters this year. Scraping the 40" sign at 40.25". He loved Thunder and Splash, but wasn't ready for some of the others. That's ok. It's fun to have something to look forward to.

12/05/2010

Rona and Other Sundries


  • Ruthie has become quite the little miss independence lately, and she won't stop at irrationality to assert her new attitude. Case in point, take our latest bedtime conversation:
    Dad - Ruthie, it's time to put your PJ's on.
    Ruthie - No!!! I want Rudolph (the current alias for Austin).
    Dad - OK, if we get our PJ's on, we can read books with Rudolph.
    Ruthie - No!!!
    Dad - Well what do you want to do then?
    Ruthie - I want my PJ's.
    Dad - Great, let's put them on.
    Ruthie - No!!! I do myself.
    Dad - That's fine, go ahead and put them on yourself.
    Ruthie - No!!!
  • The other day Heidi was in her bathroom putting on makeup and Ruthie grabbed the eye shadow from her. Heidi said kindly, "Ruthie, would you like to put on the eye shadow." Ruthie replied "No!!! My shadow!!!"
  • As indicated above, Austin's latest obsession has been Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. That's all he wants to watch 24-7. The other day when he got sent to timeout Heidi overheard Austin quietly brooding in his room, "Why am I such a misfit? I am not such a nitwit. Just because my nose glows, why don't I fit in?"
  • The Red Nosed Reindeer fad has also rubbed off on Ruthie. Whenever she sees Yukon Cornelius she hollers out "Yuuu-konnnn," mimicking Rudolph and Hermie calling out Yukon's name as he falls off the cliff with the abominable snow monster. Ruthie has also nicknamed the snow monster "Rona." Yes, that's Rona as in Mona with an R. Whenever she sees him in the movie or in our Rudolph book she claims matter-of-factly "That's Rona." Tonight we played the ambiguous wrestling game of kill-or-be-rescued-by-Rona. I'm absolutely lost as to how she picked up that name. TV says: "A-bom-in-a-ble Snow Mon-ster." Ruthie hears: "Ro-na."
  • "Cooperate" has been the word of the house for the past couple months. "Now, Ruthie, if you don't cooperate...", "Thanks so much for cooperating...", "Are you ready to cooperate?" And the kids have caught on pretty well. And yet, it just sounds out of place coming from a 2-year-old. "I no co-op-e-wate" sounds like we skipped all the middle chapters and jumped to the back of the handbook on language development.
  • A few weeks ago Heidi was in the church bathroom trying to convince Austin that "this is Jesus' house, so we should be reverent and treat it nicely." Austin's reply was "Wow, I didn't know that Jesus had so many potties in his house." And when one failed to flush he added, "And one of his potties is broken."
  • Yesterday we went to see Tangled in the theater. When we got back Austin proceeded to turn off all the lights in the house. After singing a little song, he informed us, "See, my hair is glowing!!!" Then he made Ruthie sing (her version: "ladl-adl-adl-adl-adl-adl-adl") "Look Ruthie's hair is glowing!!!" In truth, it was pitch black and Austin's hair was definitely not glowing.
  • At church I was sitting on the foyer couch between two others holding Austin for a time out because he screamed at the top of his lungs during the sacrament. Austin was wriggling so I had to hold him down pretty firmly. After struggling for a while he called out "Dad, you're hurting my penis!" Promptly followed by a blush from a Dad and two couch sitters. Yes, he has no qualms about discussing his body parts.
  • Last month on our trip to Disneyland we were taking pictures in front of the CALIFORNIA letters at California Adventure. Ruthie got pictures in front of the R while Anthony and Austin got pictures in front of the A. Then Austin climbed up on the A and yelled out "Take a picture of me inside the A-hole."