Our Trip to California: Disneyland Days

When Ron first approached me last summer about the possibility of going on a family trip to Southern California due to a work conference he wanted to attend in San Diego during the week of mid winter break in February, I immediately dismissed the idea.  Years of travelling and years of mothering have taught me how difficult it is to combine the two--especially when travelling with a baby and a temperamental toddler.  Plus, after going to Disneyland when Lia was 4 years old and Logan was 4 months old, I promised myself that I would NOT return to Disneyland again with a baby that wasn't weaned or walking.  So, with that said, I quickly told Ron that I wasn't interested in booking this trip, and life moved on.  Wrong.  Since I really do love to travel and I love Southern California and I know how much Lia loves all things Disney princesses (especially Elsa and Anna from the movie, Frozen, who she did not have the chance to meet back in 2012 because the movie had not been released yet), I started second guessing my decision.  For three months, I went back and forth and changed my mind almost daily.  One day, I would think, "No way!  You are not going on this trip!  It will be way too much work and way too hard.  Just wait until your kids are older."  But then the next day, I would think, "Oh, just suck it up and be brave.  You can deal with doing something hard for a week.  It will be so worth it to see Lia meet Elsa and Anna in person AND Logan would love it all--especially Cars Land!"  And, so after months of waffling, I gave in and bought plane tickets the beginning of October.
For four and a half months, I waited for this trip to come--looking forward to some parts of it, but dreading so many other parts of it.  After we "gave" this trip to our children for Christmas and the word got out to friends and family that we were going, everyone kept on telling me how much fun we would have.  Since I have a tendency to be a realist and a worrier, I really didn't believe anyone.  I knew that Logan would not take any naps while we were there since he needs his own quiet, dark room with a bed in it and a shut door to sleep.  This lack of sleep would surely turn our already emotional, and tantrum-throwing toddler into a ticking time bomb.  In addition, I knew that putting Logan and Ella in the same room to sleep for seven nights in a row would be like mixing oil and water as they would wake each other up every night.  I also knew how hard travelling with Ella would be when her schedule would be disrupted on a daily basis with shortened naps and late nights. Luckily these worries only ended up helping me as I started to panic in January about how difficult Disneyland was going to be with a baby while trying to meet the demands of an almost seven year old and a three year old and so I called my mom and asked her if she would accompany us on our trip.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she had been wondering all along if we wanted her to come and help.  Within in an hour of that conversation, I had booked her plane ticket and immediately felt better knowing that her help would be invaluable in making this trip a success.
With the trip now over, I am happy to say that we all survived.  I'm so glad that it worked out to visit Disneyland and California Adventure during our first two days of the vacation.  We were all still fresh and energized and, as a result, were able to put in two very long, 12 or 13 hour days without stopping for a break.  In addition, the children did great.  Ella took all of her naps in the stroller and stayed in a pleasant mood both days.  Logan managed to make it through both days with only ONE tantrum (before a parade that Ron quickly diffused) which is a miracle considering the fact that he didn't take any naps.  And, most importantly, both days were as perfect and as magical as I ever could have imagined.  Everything went like clockwork and as smoothly as possible.  I simply couldn't believe it.  My mom and I kept on saying that we felt like a guardian angel was just directing us around the park both days.  From running into Ariel while looking for her in the park to barely standing in a line for a ride for more than a few minutes to being one of last people let into a show before they closed the line to accidentally finding Ron on Main Street the one time I couldn't reach him on the phone to finding the last spot to sit on the curb right before the parade began to beating the crowd into the restaurant we chose for dinner by a matter of minutes, the list literally could go on and on.  Our two days in the park were just amazing and made the entire trip so worth it.  I honestly look back at our memories that we made there with such fondness and such warm feelings in my heart.  In addition, Lia and Logan LOVED every moment of it and this made making the sacrifice so worth it as the rest of the week just got harder and harder.  Although there definitely were some happy moments in San Diego, the rest of the trip was a lot of work.  Ron was in conferences the three full days that we were there, so my mom and I were on our own for every outing we went on.  Logan and Ella just got more and more cranky which made everything harder.  Plus, my mom and I got more and more tired putting in long days with jam packed schedules.  And we all got so tired of not getting a good night's sleep due to sleeping in the same room with Ella and Logan who continued to wake each other up!  But we endured and made it home safely on Sunday night.  It never felt so good to nurse Ella in a dark, quiet room alone AND to put all three of my children to bed in their own bedrooms and shut the doors.  I sure will never take the latter one for granted ever again!
And so with all of that said, I am so grateful that we decided to go on this trip.  We had some fabulous moments and survived the not-so-pleasant ones, too.  We made some Disney memories that will last a lifetime for Lia which makes it all worth it for me.  Thank you to Ron's school district for making this trip possible and thanks to my wonderful mom for making this trip a success!

With all of the details of our trip worked out and bags packed, I took a deep breath and headed out the door with our family on the morning of Sunday, February 15th. Our big travel day went surprisingly well.  The kids loved all of the excitement of the airport and did fine on the plane thanks to a two-hour, direct flight to San Diego.  Ella even squeezed in a morning nap on a plane.  We got our luggage and rental car without a hitch and headed out on the drive from San Diego to Anaheim.  Although we did hit some nasty, Sunday afternoon traffic, we still made it to Anaheim before dinner thanks to our early arrival that day.  After checking in and unpacking, we walked down the street to one of my favorite, California restaurants, Mimi's Cafe, for dinner before heading back to the hotel for an early bedtime. Picture above is baby Ella getting ready to take off on her first flight ever at 11-months old.

We spent 13 hours at Disneyland on Monday, February 16th, without a single break all day long and the kids really did great!  I got the idea from a friend of mine to go to the park early to get in line and let into the park before it opened.  I actually did this both days with Lia and it worked out perfectly as Ron and my mom and the two little ones followed us about 30 minutes later.  On the Disneyland day, Lia and I went straight to the Royal Hall to meet the Disney Princesses as the first item of the day.  The last time we went to Disneyland, we took our time getting to this attraction and, as a result, had to wait in line for 90 minutes.  I vowed we would never waste this much precious time again and thought that we could avoid a long wait by checking it off our list first.  And, boy, did it pay off!  Lia and I were the  FIRST ONES in line for the day!!  This never happens to us as we are usually late to things.  So, after a brief wait, the Royal Page let us in and Lia got to meet three Disney princesses all in a row AND get the most important picture and autograph from each one.  Here is my girl with Belle,

and Snow White,

and Cinderella.  

Since we never made it to Pixie Hollow two and a half years ago due to running out of time and the line being way too long, I was determined to get Lia there this time around.  I had hoped that our visit to the princesses would go quickly enough that we could visit the fairies before the line got long and before Ron and my mom reached the park.  My wish really came true as Lia and I literally walked right into Pixie Hollow after leaving the princesses.  We immediately met the fairy, Rosetta, as we came around the bend which was such a fun surprise as she is one of our favorites (I mean, who doesn't love a fairy with a Southern accent?!).

And then we got to turn another corner to find Tinkerbell waiting for Lia in front of her adorable house made out of a tea pot.  It was so fun getting to watch Lia meet all of these fairies and princesses.  She just loves it so much that I love it so much!!  When we walked out of Pixie Hollow, I looked down at my watch and almost started laughing when I saw that it was only 8:13 in the morning.  It only took us 13 minutes to meet three princesses and two fairies!  If only we could meet five more Disney characters that quickly!

Since Ron and my mom still hadn't arrived at the park yet, Lia and I decided to wander over to the tea cup ride and carousal since they were so close to Pixie Hollow.  After Lia and I got situated in our tea cup, I looked up and saw Alice and the Mad Hatter!  Ahhhhh!  Since there was still no line to get on this ride, I quickly convinced her to hop out of the tea cup before the ride started and run over to meet Alice.  We immediately got out of our life size cup and hunted down this elusive pair that are a bit of a challenge to find in Fantasy Land.  Here is Lia talking with a very chatty Alice.

Lia with Alice and the Mad Hatter.  Look how empty Disneyland is at this time of the morning!  By afternoon, the background of this picture would have been packed with people.

Lia and I then hit the carousal before circling back and taking a spin on the tea cup ride.

Getting ready to go.  It was so much fun to have this time in the park alone with Lia.  She is such a good, little buddy to go on adventures like this!

At this point, Ron and my mom arrived, so Lia and I ran back to the entrance of the park to meet them.  I insisted that we stop and take a picture of the quintessential pose at Disneyland.  Here we all are in front of the giant Mickey.

And another one with grandma at our side.

Upon reentering the park, we spotted Mary Poppins and got in line so that Lia could meet her. 

We then headed off to Frontierland to go on the Jungle Cruise as our first ride as entire family for the day.  Logan and Lia loved it.

And so did sweet, baby Ella!

We then dashed over to do both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion when both of the rides only had five minute long lines (amazing)!  Here is Logan and papa in line for Pirates.  

We then climbed up the Tarzan tree to spend a few minutes exploring its many branches and bridges.  Here are my two cuties crossing the rope bridge.

Grandma and Lia posing for a quick pic as we descent the stairs leading away from the Tarzan tree.

We stopped for a family photo in front of the river boat.

Lia and I then broke off from the group to take care of some more "princess business" that we had learned about when we first arrived at the park.  We headed back to the Royal Court to meet one of Lia's favorites for the very first time--Merida!  She was as silly and unrefined in person as she is in the movie.  It was so fun to watch Lia interact wit her. 

Lia getting a hug from one of her favorite red heads!

And speaking of red heads, I never would have dreamed of what happened next to us while in the Magic Kingdom!  The entire time it was going on, I kept on thinking, "This happens to other people's children, not my own!"  While Lia and I were in line to meet Merida, Ariel appeared out of nowhere and walked past us.  After watching her disappear into a building, I called over a page that I had become chummy with and asked where she was going.  He told me that she usually heads over to a spot by the Dumbo Ride.  So when we were done meeting Merida, we headed right over to that area.  When I couldn't find her anywhere, I asked the attendant in charge of the Dumbo ride if Ariel could be found in this area.  The attendant told me quite brusquely that I had been misinformed and that Ariel never stops here.  So, Lia and I decided to give up and go back and find Ron and my mom who had just finished riding the river boat.  Since I knew a short cut to Frontierland from where we were, I took Lia back a different way than we came...and found Ariel was walking right towards us ALL ALONE!  I couldn't believe it!  I immediately hung up on Ron who I had just called and grabbed Lia and ran right up to her.  I asked if Lia could have a picture with her and get her autograph to which Ariel said, yes, but that she needed to to do this in her special spot in the park.  She then took Lia by the hand and walked hand-in-hand with her through the park until they reached her designated place behind the Dumbo ride.  By the time we got there, a  huge line like a parade had formed behind us, but since Lia was holding Ariel's hand, she was the first one in line and didn't have to wait at all for a picture and an autograph.  It was one of the coolest moments I have ever had as a mom!  

Another picture of my girl hand-in-hand with her favorite princess for two solid years (before getting the boot by Elsa and Anna)!  Talk about a dream come true.

Lia posing with Ariel who asked her to "please put your hand out just like this."

After our incredible chance meeting with Ariel, we dashed over to Frontierland to share our amazing story with Ron and my mom.  Then we headed back to meet Rapunzel with Grandma and a sleeping, baby Ella while Ron and Logan went to wait in line for Astro Orbitor, the rocket ride.  Here is Lia with Rapunzel and all of her luscious locks! 

After meeting Rapunzel, we all headed over to the rocket ride to watch Logan and Ron take off.  It was perfect timing as we got over there right before they boarded their rocket.

My cute boy and cute hubby ready for blast off!

After lunch, we headed over to the Royal Theatre to watch the new Frozen play.  I sat on the large, circle carpets with the children and we had such a good time watching this adorable retelling of Lia's current, favorite Disney movie.

Elsa and Anna reenacting the story with the help of two very funny storytellers--Mr. Smythe and Mr. Jones.

The gang then took a well needed break on the Disneyland Railroad train.  We took a trip around the entire park to rest our feet and give Logan a chance to ride a train.

We then headed off to Autopia while baby Ella took her afternoon nap in the stroller under grandma's watchful eye.  I got to ride with Lia and loved seeing how much fun she had driving this crazy car around the track.  She just laughed through the entire ride!

And wild child Logan did the same thing behind us.  Every time I turned around, I could see Ron laughing his head off while barely see the top of Logan's head over the steering wheel.  So dang cute!

We then headed back down Main Street to grab an open space on the sidewalk to watch Mickey's Soundsational Parade.  We loved seeing this parade the last time we were at the park and it was just as good the second time.  Here is Ron with the two older kiddos and Logan's new Buzz Lightyear toy waiting for the parade to begin.

The first float of the parade just happened to be the Frozen float carrying Lia's favorite princesses.

A close-up of our beloved Ice Queen.

Ella woke up from her afternoon nap during the middle of the parade and happily watched the second half of it from Grandma's lap.  She was in such a good mood at this point and was being so cute with Grandma!

After eating a well-needed dinner at the Plaza Inn restaurant off of Main Street, we headed back to ride the tea cups again (at Lia's request).  This time I stayed behind to hold Ella and really enjoyed watching my cute family spin around with Grandma.  Here they are before the ride started.

While walking back to It's a Small World ride, the evening parade began and just by luck we were able to see the Frozen float again--all lit up against the night sky.  It was so pretty and I was so happy that Lia was able to see it again!  When we arrived at It's a Small World, we were so pleased to see that the 30 minute line from earlier in the day had gone down to five minutes!  So, we quickly jumped in a boat and off we went.  Here is Grandma with Logan and papa.  

Lia, Ella, and me about to enter the inside of It's a Small World.

We finished off our wonderful, marathon day at Disneyland by wandering to the back of the park to give Lia and Logan the chance to check out Toontown.  We spent a few fun minutes here before calling it quits for the day and beginning the long walk back to our hotel.  Here is Logan driving one of the cars with a female passenger who happened to jump in and join him.  He was totally unfazed by it.  Typical boy.

On Tuesday, February 17th, Lia and I were up and out of our hotel room 45 minutes before California Adventure opened at 9 a.m.  We quickly got in line and were let into the park about 30 minutes early where we hurried down Buena Vista Street to line up in front of the rope that leads to the "Frozen Fun" area of the park.  This was our number one priority of the day so that we could get Fast Passes to see Elsa and Anna before they ran out.  Once the rope dropped at 9 a.m., Lia and I speed walked as fast as we could and managed to get the first First Passes handed out for the day that were valid from 9:25 to 9:45 in the morning.  You could imagine my sigh of relief when I got these passes in my hot, little hands.  Not seeing Elsa and Anna would have seriously ruined the trip for us...so thankfully that did not happen!  Since we had 25 minutes to spare, we met up with Ron and my mom who once again came a little bit later than us.  We had enough time to take a ride on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree before running off to meet the Frozen princesses.  Here I am waiting in line with Lia and Logan. 

We had a grand, old time spinning around on these hilarious tractors.  It was so fun bringing Logan into this life sized version of Radiator Springs when he loves the Cars movie so much.  Here is my boy getting ready to go on a spin with me.

Adorable Grandma and Lia all ready to go!

While Ron and my mom headed off to go on some rides in A Bug's Land with Logan, Lia and I raced back down Buena Vista Street to get in line to meet Elsa and Anna.  I must admit that I was actually a little bit nervous.  I just wanted Lia to meet these princesses so badly AND to have it be a wonderful experience for her that I was nervous about something going wrong!  Luckily, everything went as smoothly as I could have hoped.  Once we handed over our Fast Passes to the attendant, Lia and I only had to wait in line for about ten minutes before we were taken into the little room where these beloved princesses were waiting.  After watching two groups in front of us meet the princesses, it was Lia's turn...and it was pure magic!  I'll never forget that as Lia approached the two, Anna turned to Elsa and said, "Look, Elsa.  She's wearing a shirt with you lettin' it go!"  So cute!  I just stood there with my video camera in one hand and my camera in the other hand madly filming the meet 'n greet while taking pictures at the same time.  It was so much fun to watch Lia interact with these two ladies.  She was actually very serious and quiet, but I know that she was loving every minute of it.  She hasn't stopped talking about it or watching the video or looking at the Frozen page in her autograph book since we got home!  Here is a picture of Lia getting her autograph book signed by the ladies of Arendelle.  

Lia posing with her favorite princesses.  I was so relieved to get this picture!  As silly as it may seem, this was the most important picture I had to take during our entire week in California.

Getting a hug from her favorite princess.  A dream come true for my little girl.

And getting another one from the other one!  So sweet!  

After meeting the Frozen princesses, Lia and I ran back to A Bug's Land as giddy as school girls and met Logan and Ron in line for the bumper cars.  The four of us had a good time smashing around while my mom stayed out with a napping Ella.

We then ventured over for a ride on Flik's Flyers with Grandma.  Here are Lia and me getting ready to go.

Baby Ella joined us on this ride, too!

After we were finished with A Bug's Land, we went and found Lia's favorite ride from the last time we were here: Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  Needless to say, the giant clam shell seats and all of the color, music, and moving characters in this ride still made this one of our favorites!  Plus, it has one of the fastest moving lines in both of the parks.  Here are Ron and Logan at the beginning of the ride.  Look how happy Logan looks.

The ladies and me finishing the ride.  Apparently, I was the only one who knew the picture was being taken. ;-)

A family picture taken in my favorite photo spot in all of Adventure.

We then wandered down to Cars Land to try out the extremely popular Radiator Springs Racers ride.  Thanks to Ron getting Fast Passes, Ron and I were able to go together first while my mom stayed back and fed the kids lunch.  Here's  a picture of the TV monitor that had Ron's and my picture on it.  You can see how much fun we were having!  This ride was amazing.

Ron then switched with my mom to watch the kids so that she could go again with me.  We got to ride in the front row this time and had so much fun.

Logan and Lia enjoyed playing in the water coming out of the statue of Stanley (the fictitious founder of Radiator Springs) while they waited for us to finish our ride.

My cute kiddos and Stanley.

We caught Lightening McQueen rumbling down the road on his way to the Cozy Cone Motel.  I was surprised that Logan wasn't as excited as I thought he would be about seeing him in real life.  Who knows....maybe he was just speechless. :-)

We then went back to the Frozen Fun area to visit Olaf's Snow Fest and actually got to play in real live snow (yes, in Southern California) for 15 minutes.  Logan and I had a grand time sledding down the hill.

He immediately wanted to "do it again," but sadly the line was too long!  So, off we went to join Lia and play in the snow.

Lia playing in the frozen fountain found in the "courtyard" of Arendelle.

Grandma and baby Ella watching from the sidelines.  I can't emphasize enough how much help my mom was during this part of the trip!

Lia and Logan playing in the ice and in the snow.

My silly boy!

Olaf was just a few feet away from where we were playing in the snow.  Although I refused to let Lia wait the 90 minutes in line to meet him, we were able to get close enough to see him pretty well.

After the fun in the snow, we ventured back out into the sunny, warm weather and went and found Lia's favorite Toy Story character, Jesse!  Luckily, we met up with Ron and Logan a few minutes later right as Woody and Buzz Lightyear were changing places.  So, Logan got to see these favorite characters of his without having to stand in line!  

We, of course, had to take a spin on Adventure's awesome carousal after meeting Jesse.

We returned to the Frozen area for the THIRD time that day to attend the sing-a-long in the Crown Jewel Theatre.  We had so much fun sitting in the plush seats for almost an hour and singing along to all of our favorite Frozen songs.  I actually got the biggest kick out of just watching Lia sing along to all of these songs.  And Elsa actually used her "magical powers" at the end of the show and made it snow in the theatre.  Lia is still convinced that it was the real thing.  This performance was the perfect "break" in the middle of the afternoon during a very long, second day at the park.  

We then found a place on the side of the street to watch the Pixar Play Parade as the sun was setting.  We sat next to the sweetest family from England and had a great time watching the parade with them.  Here is Sully and Mike starting off the parade.

Logan watched from the comforts of his stroller and had a great time watching all of his favorite characters in this parade.  

My cute girl Lia watching the parade with the Incredible pals coming her way.

After eating dinner at the Mexican restaurant, we wandered back over to Cars Land to soak up the evening atmosphere of Radiator Springs.  All of the shops are lit up and you really feel like you are walking down the main drag just like in the movie.  Here are Lia and Logan playing in some of Fillmore's hippie beads.  

And Lia and Logan playing on one of the lost tractors wandering around town!

A family photo on the main drag with the red rock all lit up in the background.  I know it's all fake, but it really was so pretty!

And just the ladies posing for another picture.

We finished off another 12-hour plus, marathon day at California Adventure by hitting the Frozen area for a fourth AND final time on our way out of the park to see Marshmellow who only comes out at night.  Logan was quite impressed with this one and we could barely get him to stand still to take a picture with Lia and me!

And there you go!  That wraps up our amazing, magical, and perfect two fun filled days at Disneyland!  Thank you Magic Kingdom for the best two days a mother-of-three-young-kids-with-three-different-agendas could ask for!!

Logan's Locks and Thomas the Train

Even though Ron and I both agree that longer, floppy hair fits Logan's personality much better than a neat, short hair style, I decided that he should get a haircut before we head off on our trip to Southern California this weekend.  Although Ron disagreed with me, I felt like Disneyland deserved our boy looking his best.  We're talking about the Magic Kingdom after all!  :-)  And since I haven't paid for Logan to get a haircut for an entire year, I felt like I could splurge this time around and pay the big bucks to go to the one children's hair salon in town where Logan could get his hair snipped while "driving" a Thomas the Train.  Although Logan was a little hesitant upon walking into the salon, he soon got comfortable and enjoyed a ride in his favorite train while getting his hair trimmed.  Now we're all set and ready to meet Disney's gang!

Logan getting settled in.

Good bye beautiful, brown locks!

Picking your nose and getting a haircut all while riding Thomas the Train.  Now THAT'S talent!

All cleaned up and ready to go!

My life right now

I will be the first to admit that I have been dreading the month of February this year for quite some time now.  February has become a very busy month for me as a mother since I have one holiday and two birthdays to plan and execute.  However, this year was to be particularly busy since we decided to squeeze a marathon, 8-day vacation to Southern California right in the middle of it all.  Every time I thought about everything I needed to do this month to get ready for Logan's family party, Valentine's Day, and Lia's family and friend party, plus all of the preparations required to go on this trip, I would get overwhelmed.  And then when I would think about how exhausting and difficult it was going to be to travel with three young children and do Disneyland and Sea World with a crawling baby and temperamental toddler who would be sleeping in the same room for seven nights, I would just want to fast forward over the entire thing.  Little did I know that this month was about to get even crazier... 

Seven days before we left on our trip, my dad and I stopped by our rental house to check on a problem that my renter had called about.  Apparently they had not lifted up the bath mat that was laying right next to the shower in the master bathroom for an ENTIRE month!  As a result, water had gotten trapped under the mat, breaking the seal between the vinyl flooring and the shower.  The water then went under the vinyl damaging the wood floor below.  Thanks to their negligence, we now would have to replace this section of of rotten wood and the entire vinyl floor which will cost hundreds of dollars!  When I informed our renters that this repair would be their financial responsibility for the first time (as opposed to all of the other repairs we have paid for since they have lived in our house from the dish washer to the furnace to the garage door), the husband renter lost it and got very upset with me!  Ugh.  After a very uncomfortable and icy conversation, we left with the plan of returning to our rental house to repair this entire mess during a week in March when our renters will be out of town.  As frustrating and stressful as this was, at least I was able to tell myself that we didn't have to deal with any of this until after we were finished with everything that we had planned for February.  And then three days later on Wednesday night, I walked downstairs to my basement to get something and stepped onto carpet that was saturated with water...

Oh no.

Yes, you read right.  Wet carpet.  I was so confused.  I immediately lifted up my foot to touch a very wet sock and then got down on my hands and knees and immediately smelled a strong odor of mildew.  My heart just sunk.  I ran upstairs and woke up a sleeping Ron who then came downstairs with me to rip back the carpet.  We not only found wet carpet and wet carpet pad everywhere, but were blown away by the immediate strong moldy smell that took over the basement in minutes.  It was awful.  So after Ron went back to bed, I got on the phone at almost 10 p.m. to call my insurance company to open up a claim on our house and start the stressful, time consuming process of trying to figure out how I was going to attempt to fix this massive problem when we were leaving three days later on our trip.  After an awful night's sleep on Wednesday night, I spent SIX hours on Thursday talking to insurance agents, calling plumbers and water damage restoration companies, and answering the door all while I was supposed to be working on getting ready to leave on vacation.  After an exhausting morning, I finally got my babies down for a nap and sat down for my lunch at 2 p,m.  Throughout the course of the morning, I had learned that the damage had been caused by ground water which meant that our insurance company would NOT pay for any of the repairs!  The ground water had come from a heavy rainstorm the previous week that had drained into our crawlspace and flowed through a crack in our cement foundation right into our basement floor.  Although a man had ripped out the saturated insulation, sheet rock, molding, and carpet pad and set up an industrial-sized hepa filter, dehumidifier, AND fan (that were so loud you could hear them two stories up even when the basement door was closed) for six days, we still needed to fix this drainage problem before fixing the hole in the wall and the carpet because it was just going to happen again one day.  So, almost $1,000 later, I said good bye to the man from the water damage restoration company and collapsed at my kitchen table grateful that this problem had been discovered before we left, but totally stressed out about how this problem was going to be fixed and how much it was going to cost us upon our return.

And so the girl who usually freaks out if she leaves on vacation with a single light on in her house gets to depart tomorrow for a marathon 8-day trip with three massive machines blowing in her basement and a huge problem to deal with when she gets home.  And this is my life right now...

Loganisms

Since Lia's verbal development advanced at a much quicker pace than Logan's did once they both started talking at 14 months old, I feel like I had written several blog posts by this point in Lia's life about funny words and phrases that she had said.  So, I'm sorry Logie that this is your first "Loganisms" post and you are already three years old! But I wanted to record a list of funny and/or typical words or phrases you have said over the past few months of your life before you totally out grow them.  So, in no particular order, here is a list of Logan's first, official Loganisms....

1.  Ca ca--Logan came up with this word for "bird" after teaching him that the sounds a birds make is "ca ca, ca ca."  Logan still uses this word and calls birdhouses ca ca houses and bird poop ca ca poop.

2.  Right dere--Logan has used this phrase for many months when he means to say, "Right there."  He uses it all the time--especially when telling us where to put a certain item of food on his high chair tray.

3.  You help you me?--Although Logan no longer uses this adorable phrase, he used to say it when he meant to ask, "Can you help me?"  So dang cute.

4.  I mean--this is the filler phrase that Logan uses ALL THE TIME at the beginning of sentences.  It wasn't until Ron pointed it out that I realized that Logan got this phrase from me.  Apparently I start off a lot of sentences by saying these two words.  Who knew?

5.  "This is hard work, mama."  Logan likes to tell me this whenever he thinks he has done something difficult.  So funny as most of the time it is after he does something as simple as picking up one toy.

6.  Hot choc--Logan came up with this word after hearing me talk about hot chocolate one time.  However, the funny thing is that he uses this word to describe any food or drink that has chocolate in it from chocolate milk to chocolate cheerios to chocolate candy.

7.  Upee--Although Logan has long outgrown this word, he used to say it all the time in lieu of the word, "Up."  All last summer, Logan would jump off of the dock or from the edge of a pool and yell, "Upee jump!"

8.  "Look at me, mama (or papa)!"  Logan has been saying this for months now.  He says it whenever he wants me (or Ron) to look at something that he is doing.  The funny thing is that nine times out of ten it is for something that is not special or spectacular.  Typically it's for something as ordinary as opening and closing his eyes or jumping on one foot or chewing his food with his mouth open.  This definitely makes us chuckle.

9.  "What's it called?"  This is the new question that Logan now asks whenever he wants me to read him something.  I just think it's the cutest way of asking someone what some words say.

10.  And, lastly, this is just something really funny that Logan said to me a few weeks ago while at church.  He had done a pretty good job staying quiet and busy during most of sacrament meeting, but when there was only a few minutes left, he turned to me and politely said, "I'm all finished with church, mama."  So cute.  It's a good thing that nursery was next!

Logan's 3rd Birthday!

Well, our Logie boy turned three years old today...which means we made it through his terrible twos.  Some days, this boy was an absolute joy...funny, cute, sweet, and absolutely adorable.  But other days could be filled with endless tears, tantrums, and overall naughtiness.  I love my Logan, but part of me is very happy to be moving on to his third year.
We celebrated his big day with grandma and grandpa who drove down from Issy for the celebration.  We ate a nice dinner on the china in the dining room, opened presents next, and then finished off the evening with blowing out the candles on a Lightening McQueen cake that I made earlier today.  Logan was thrilled with everything except for dinner which he didn't end up eating.  At my mother's urging, we decided to just let it go and give the boy a special dispensation on his birthday.  :-)  So he essentially had cake and ice cream for dinner.  Ugh.  But besides that Logan loved his gifts--especially his little toy scoopers and the book of big trucks  AND he couldn't get enough of his birthday cake.  He kept on jumping up on a chair to look at it before his party started.  So cute.  I love you Logan--even when you don't eat you dinner!  Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Logan's Lightening McQueen cake before the festivities began.

G'ma and G'pa and the fam eating dinner in the dining room.

Logan flashing us his "camera smile" while opening up one of his gifts.

Logan showing off his awesome Toy Story cup.

Lia helping Logan open up one of his gifts.

Logan showing off the BIG scooper from his awesome truck book.

Grandpa and Logan inspecting his new, toy scoopers.

Logan refusing to look at me while he lined up his scoopers.

Cheese!

Sweet, baby Ella showing off her standing skills!

Logan getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.

Waiting for the big moment...

And blowing out the candles!

Logan chowing down his birthday cake.

Grandpa feeding Ella her first ice cream ever and she LOVED it!