New Family Pictures

As you can probably already see, we got some new family pictures tonight. The kids survived (so did we) and the pictures turned out alright. All the black may look a bit grainy because my scanner isn't very good. My better scanner is in with the sleeping baby. So here they are!

DISNEYLAND!!! (It's a BIG post, you've been warned!)

We just got back from our 4 day vacation to California. It was tiring, but we had a lot of fun. We had 3 day park hopper tickets so we spent day 1 at Disneyland, day 2 just resting and swimming, day 3 at Disneyland, and day 4 at California Adventure. Then we drove home at about 7:30 pm and didn't get home until 3:00 am! We were tired. Kelton took a 4 1/2 hour long nap today. It was getting to the point where I was starting to worry about him! (I don't think he's ever taken a nap that long.) Here are some of the highlights.

My sister lives in the area and my parents were in California at the same time, so we all went to Disneyland together on our first day. This is us (not me, I'm behind the camera) waiting in line for the newly renovated It's A Small World ride. It was really fun and was Natalie's most requested ride. We ended up going on it 4 times. This was the only time we actually had to wait in line. Kelton really liked this ride too, although he got really mad every time the ride ended and I wouldn't let him get out of the boat and swim in the water.

Princesses and Fairies!

We thought we might skip the huge line to see the princesses this year after waiting 1 1/2 to 2 hours last year. But Natalie kept asking to see them so we did it. This time we made it through the line in a record 45 minutes. You kinda have to just get lucky because you don't know which three princesses will be inside when you go in, but Natalie got to see her favorite (at this particular time)--Sleeping Beauty. We got a bonus because Ariel came to trade with Sleeping Beauty while we were with her, so we got pictures with her too. We also saw Belle (Natalie loves her too) and Jasmine. We also waited in line at the new Pixie Hollow to see some fairies. Silvermist and Tinkerbell were inside. They are Natalie's two favorites from the movie.

Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger too! (and Rabbit) :)

Kelton was sooo excited by these big, huge, fuzzy, moving animals. He didn't stop laughing the whole time and screamed as soon as we started to leave. Natalie was so excited to see Tigger, she could hardly stand it. They put Tigger at the end of the line and she couldn't wait to get to him.

We had some rough patches with Kelton still needing to take naps, but we got a few in.

So even though most of our pictures are ones with characters in them (and we saw more than what I listed on here), we really did spend most of our time riding rides. It's just much harder to take pictures of that. Natalie had a lot of fun on most of the rides. The first thing we went on was the mini rollercoaster and she loved it. But the next day, we took her on Pirates of the Carribbean, which officially broke her. The very first drop on that is bigger than you think and it's in complete darkness. She was in tears after that and then she didn't want much to do with anyting too scary looking--including the rollercoaster she had already been on and loved! As I already mentioned, her main request after that was "Small World, because those boats don't have any drops." Anyway, here are a few pictures of rides. (Astro Orbiter, Teacups, and the Tuck and Roll ride--Natalie loved being able to drive on that one)

Beautiful sunset

So I was driving home from in town and turned a corner and was stunned by this beautiful sunset. The whole western sky was filled with huge puffy clouds that were a firey pink with the setting sun shining through the places between them. We get some good sunsets, but this is the best one I've seen in a while. Of course, all I had was my crappy camera phone so needless to say, the pictures just don't do it justice. (plus I was trying to drive at the time) There was WAY more pink and not so much yellow. It was ten times better in real life. But the pictures are still really pretty.

Little artist

So I wanted to post something other than horrible pictures of dog bitten faces--but I'm too lazy to get up and get my camera and take a new picture of Natalie right now. She is doing good though. The stitches came out last Friday. Now we will just have to wait and see how well it heals. Anyway, up until recently Natalie has just been a scribbler. She doesn't really draw anything and doesn't even try to color in the lines. Well, all that is changing now, and it's so fun to see. She is really into drawing people and the piles of pictures are starting to stack up. So I scanned some of my favorites so that I wouldn't feel bad about throwing them out--when she is not looking of course--and I even have to make sure they aren't showing in the trash or she will dig them out and ask me why her baby brother threw away her pictures. Here are a few that I was particularly proud of.

"Malefocent in the Fire"

(from the end of Sleeping Beauty)

I must admit, I was really proud of this one.

Funny story: I accidentaly ran the vaccum over this one today. The heat of the vaccum actually melted this nice orange crayon onto my carpet!

"Ariel

"Snow White"

This one is a bit abstract, but I reall liked it.

When will it stop?

This poor little girl. So yesterday morning's swelling was nothing. It's even worse today! Natalie wasn't wanting to take her medicine when she woke up so I took her to the mirror so she could see why she needed to take it. She looked in the mirror for a few seconds and then said "mom, my eye is broken!" I assured her is wasn't, but I'm not sure she was convinced. So, when is this swelling supposed to stop? Anyone??

Swollen

So Natalie's face is a bit swollen this morning. I probably should have been expecting that, but I wasn't. It's just so sad!! You can see in the pictures that she can't quite smile right. The first thing she told me this morning was "Momma, it still hurts." She's doing okay though. We went to Walgreen's this morning to fill her perscriptions and I let her get a new Princess coloring book. So she's actually pretty happy!