Oh, so much snow

It has been snowing since yesterday, I have over a foot outside my front door. The way the wind blows it seems to drift up on my front door. I cannot even open the front door screen. So, I guess that means we are truly snowed in. Mike spent the night living it up at the Marriott. He choose to stay downtown for work. So he had a nice dinner and room service breakfast this morning. He really is living it up! But, he has to work in his department, he is considered essential personnel. So, he is still at work and we are all here. Joseph and the girls had school yesterday but no school today. We are all just hanging out waiting for it to end. I am trying to get up enough energy to go out and shovel some more snow. I spent over an hour this morning already, but I think I will go out again here soon.

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend, very good we did with all the snow. We all had a great time. The kids picked out their pumpkins. I tell them they need to be able to carry the pumpkin out of the patch, so we never get really big ones which can be rather pricey. We picked one out for Katherine and it is with her now, I hope that she likes it. As soon as Mike is home for more than five minuets, I will have him put the pictures on the computer and then I will post them for all to see. We love going up there, we have gone there every year for the past three years. It is so fun and cute. The kids love the barrel train and riding the tractor out to the patch. It is always a bumpy ride especially when the farmers drive fast. I guess they do not have speed limits on tractors. The boys went into the huge corn mazes and then the girls played on the play ground areas. I sat and read a book. It was fun for all.

I just finished Dan Brown's newest novel "The Lost Symbol." It was very good and I found it to be a lot like his other two famous books. It had a lot of religion mixed with science and then factor in a bad guy trying to plan the demise of the famous Robert Laughton. It was a fun, education and insightful read. I recommend it to anyone.

The new love of my life is named Montego Bay. He is a large Bay gelding who I have been riding these last several weeks. It is my newest (shall we say old) hobby. I choose to start riding again after Katherine passed away. I found the barn where I now go in the advertisements on the mailers that go around. The woman that owns the facility is so nice and sweet. She owns dozens of horses and boards dozens more. The horse I ride is one that she owns. Montego used to compete in the professional circuit back east in hunter jumper competitions. He was sold to Laurie and then moved west. He still competes quite frequently, but not on the level he used to. He is wonderful, very patient. Laurie is the instructor, she told me that Monetgo likes me and it usually takes him awhile to warm up to people. But, not me. I said of course he likes me, because I love him! So much fun! There is just something that I love about the smells and the sounds of a barn. There is an earthy smell that I find appealing and I love to hear the horses talk to each other. Something comforting in that. All I need is a new pair of boots. The ones I am wearing are the ones I wore in college. They are deader than dead. I am hoping to save some of my birthday money and Christmas money to purchase a nice pair. Last week, Laurie let me stay in the arena and ride Monetgo by myself after the lesson. It was nice to have some time to myself and I hope I am proving that I am trustworthy to be by myself with him. She let me brush him down and then turn him out to his paddock. It was great expect for the time he almost pulled my arm out of the socket when he was trying to eat some grass. Oh, yeah I remember, horses are strong and stubborn too. I let him eat some and then he was willing to be lead to his paddock.

Well, I best go out and do some shoveling.

New Paint and Pre-School

Here are some pictures of the girls newly painted room. Many thanks to my dear friends Melissa and Kristie for helping me out with the big job. It turned out great, the girls love it. The other picture is the girls on their first day of pre-school. They love going, their teacher always has really cute activities and crafts. They have so much fun, and it is a nice little break for me as well.

Mickey's Toontown

The kids loved going to Mickey's toontown. They loved touring Mickey's house. As you can see from the picture, the girls loved Mickey's phone. We had gone into the next room of his house when the phone rings (it did so every so often), Rachel ran back into the room and acted as if she answered it and then wrote down the message on the (pretend) pad of paper next to the phone. When she returned, I asked what was the message, she said that Minnie was calling to check on Pluto. They thought it was so neat the Mickey and Minnie were next door neighbors with Goofy living across the street. I am pretty sure they wanted to move into at least one of the houses. As far as the boat picture goes, Rachel loves Daisy Duck, it is her favorite. I am pretty sure it is because Daisy is purple. But, there is a USS Daisy boat there in ToonTown and much to Rachel's delight she was able to play on it and steer the ship, she had a great time doing it.

A Trip to Critter Country

After riding the new Winnie the Pooh ride, we got off and there were the three friends from the ride. It was perfect. The girls were so in love with these three characters, they were hugging them and blowing kisses at them. Needless to say, they loved it! Critter Country was fun and we loved the friends that we saw there.

A Very Special Moment

During our breakfast, each child was given a balloon. After eating, we decided to do a balloon release for Katherine. We headed over to Cinderella's Castle. To the right side of the castle as you are facing the front of it, is a wishing well. The wishing well belongs to Snow White and there are stone statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs in a garden setting. We thought that this was the perfect spot to release the balloons and tell Katherine how much we love her and miss her. I could hear Snow White singing (because there is always music playing at Disneyland) her song from the movie. The words that she were singing at that moment we were there were: "I am wishing for the one that I love." It was so sweet and perfect. I have decided that this was my favorite part about Disneyland. We love and miss you Katherine and I was glad that you were there with us. The kids know that she has the balloons with her in heaven which I like to think that she does. The next thing we did after the release was go and ride Peter Pan. So, Mike and I were crying all through the Peter Pan line, oh well, it was a long wait so we were fine by the time we got on the ride.

A very Special Breakfast

Here we are at the Plaza Inn at the end of Main Street in Disneyland. We decided to do character dining that would appeal to all the kids. It is called Minnie and Friends Breakfast Buffet. We got a great breakfast and got to see and interact with these characters. The kids loved it. They were singing and dancing as fun music was being played. The characters took their time at our table and interacted with each child. The girls were not quite sure if they liked Captain Hook, but they loved everyone else who came along. Their favorite was the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. They loved her and she was so cute with them, this was one of the highlights for us as a family. We felt it was worth the price paid. The best part for Mike was his made to order omleat, I just loved to see the joy on the kids faces.

Fun at California Adventure

Here are some pictures from our fun days at California Adventure. The life size versions of Mator and Lighting McQueen were the ones driven in the Pixar Parade. The kids loved seeing the cars from one of their favorite movies. It was so great seeing characters in this park, much less busy, you hardly had to wait at all to see any of them. We loved riding Souring Over California. That was the highlight of this park for us. We all loved it, even the girls. You sit in front of a huge I-Max screen and the ride lifts you up to the point that your feet dangle while you fly over famous sights in California, so fun, so magical, if you ever get to go to that park, this ride is a must. We also went to a great stage show of Playhouse Disney. The girls loved it, they were singing and dancing and trying to catch bubbles, leaves, and confetti. So interactive. Then we saw a show in which the turtle from Finding Nemo interacts with the audience. He can see you and you see him and you can ask him questions. He called on Joseph and called him Jamaica Joe much to his delight. Joseph asked what his favorite color was and he said purple, but then laughed and said it was really green. The kids were absolutely fascinated with the show, they loved it. Mike and I were entertained as well.

Oh, so many pretty princesses

So, here are all the princess pictures from the trip. As you can see we saw Snow White twice which the girls were so delighted! Rachel's highlight of all three days was seeing her favorite which was Cinderella, she was so excited.

California Adventure is a great place to see the characters, there were very little crowds and we did not have to wait at all to see the famous and beautiful Mulan. Here she is with the kids, the girls loved it as you can see. The first thing we did when we got to the park was buy the Mickey ears that the kids had saved months for. We had a Disney jar and they had saved $61 for the hats. They are sitting in a tea cup outside of the Mad Hatter shop where we bought them. I walked into the store with about $10 worth of quarters and paid for part of the hats with that. The girls loved the Carousel, one of their favorites. They loved Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Dumbo, and It's a Small World. When we got on Small World and the boat was beginning to go into the ride Rachel says "where are the dolls?" I said just wait they are coming.

Here we are over at California Adventure Park. There theme for Halloween were giant candy corns as you can see here. Everywhere you looked there were candy corns as far as the eye could see. As you walked into the park, the music playing were songs aboug eating candy and candy corn. It was so cleaver and festive, so fun. We loved this park and the parade here. It was Pixar Parade so we got to see all the characters from Monsters, Nemo, Toy Story, Incredibles, Bug's Life, and Cars up close and personal. My kids loved this parade, it was thier favorite and we saw it twice. The girls loved seeing Boo from Monsters, they had a little person dressed up as her from the movie, so cute. The cars from Cars were life size versions of Mater and Lightning McQueen. True Dinsey Magic on parade, so entertaining.

Here we are on Main Street USA in Dinseyland. It was all decorated so adorable for Halloween. The theme for the decorations at that park were all pumpkins as you can see. There was a pumpkin in every window on MainStreet. The characters were dressed up in thier Holloween costumes, so fun and festive, so cute! We saw Mickey as a farmer and a magician. Goofy was a skeleton and Minnie was dressed up like she was going to a fancy ball.