Fall Highlights

Since I've gotten a bit behind(again), here's the highlights of the last couple of months.

Sydney started her last year of preschool. She was sick for the entire first week, so her first day was actually on week 2. She was very excited, but also nervous, so she picked "happy clothes" for herself for her first day. Her shirt is her buddy shirt from last year.

She actually cooperated for her pictures this year!

Logan and I played at Target after we dropped Sydney off just before Halloween. He loved the big silly hats.

 Logan really misses Sydney while she's at school. He's always asking to go to school too, or when she gets out of the car and we pull away, he says "Miss her" or "Miss Sydney". Every day. Often he won't leave her side for a while after we get home. He still loves to be held by her.

 I ran in Home Goods one day and Logan found a knight set. I couldn't pass it up for $10 and he couldn't wait until we got home to put it on.

During school one day Sydney's buddy from last year, Miss Mena, came to visit her. She brought Syd a necklace with her name, rainbow beads, and shark teeth on it. It quickly became Sydney's prized possession.

 Logan has been sick off and on. Sometimes a cold, sometimes a little more. Just before school started, he got a random fever and just looked miserable. That bug is what was passed to Sydney and made her miss her first week. All he wanted was me. He is one cute little sickie though. He just melts your heart.

 One weekend when Logan wasn't feeling so well, Sydney really wanted Texas Roadhouse for dinner, so Jason took her while I stayed home with Logan. She loved some one on one time with her dad.

 Sydney has decided she loves to draw. And copy down any words she can find. This was one of my favorite drawings she's made.

 Sydney was supposed to have a cavity filled, so we had to sedate her again. The xray alone took 4 of us to pin her. But when we went to the filling appointment, she didn't swallow enough of the medicine and still fought too much, so we had to bag it. Logan had a cleaning a week later and was the complete opposite. He was a pro and everyone loved him.

 We also took a family date night to see Disney's new Big Hero 6. We really liked it. Sydney surprised me most when she asked right after it ended if we could buy it.

 And now some videos:
Logan and I playing while Sydney was at school one day

What does Buzz say?

Wiggle- he did this a lot for a few days

Sydney is always singing and making up her own songs

Logan is very into good guys and bad guys

Halloween 2014

I love that my kids are getting older and into doing fun holiday things. This year for Halloween the kids picked and painted pumpkins, and they totally loved it!

I opted for carving mine. 

We also picked a day to make and decorate some Halloween sugar cookies. Sydney was pretty into decorating. Logan was more into eating the decorations :)

Sydney got to dress up for preschool and do some trick or treating there with  a bag she decorated herself. She was crazy proud of her bag. When she got home, she was so happy to share her treats with Logan.

The night before Halloween, we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat. After a little dinner, and some games inside the church, it was dark enough to go out to the cars. 

Sydney still refuses to say Trick or Treat or even Thank You most of the time. Logan has no problem  saying it for the both of them though. He's our little friendly one.

 On Halloween night, we just went around our little neighborhood with some friends. The kids were so excited for even more candy!

 Elsa ready to go!

 Jake the Neverland Pirate ready!

 While walking to our friend's house, Logan decided several times he needed to stop and cut the grass with his sword.

 A surprising number in our neighborhood weren't home, but the kids filled their buckets almost to the top. The last few houses we visited ended splitting their remaining candy between the two of them.

Disney World Day 4: Animal Kingdom

Our last day was a shorter day at the Animal Kingdom. We headed back to Dinoland first, because I had heard it was good for kids. Our first stop was Triceratops Spin. Since it was just like Dumbo and the flying carpets, we knew it would go over well.

 The line was a little longer than expected, but we didn't mind waiting and watching the dinosaurs.

 Sydney and I got the front, so we controlled our up and down movement

 the boys got the back and had a button that could make us tilt back and forth a little

 I had to laugh because after the ride, the kids saw this grate and just HAD to stand on it...for several minutes.

 After that, we went into the Boneyard, which is a big play area, much like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids from the day before. Again, they would have been happy to stay there all day.

 Logan found a little spot to get wet, and he ended up soaked. But at least he had fun and he was cool, while we were sweating like crazy.

 We tried to see Finding Nemo the Musical. Sydney was not interested so Jason took her out. Logan and I stayed since it was a short show.
We got some pretty cool views of the massive Tree of Life. I always thought it would be really cool to see whenever I saw it on a show or something, and it did not disappoint. It is huge! and the carvings are really good.

After taking the extra long way around, we finally got to the safari around lunch time. That meant instead of the line taking 90 minutes, it was more like 30-40. So we jumped on the chance. The had tv's with an informational video about saving the endangered species and such. Logan liked it because he got to see so many animals.

 We finally made it on! I think we ruined Logan during our Utah trip, because when we told him we were going to see elephants, he said "Wanna ride elephant." Then we'd talk about other animals to see and he kept asking to ride them as well.

 It was really neat to see animals actually walking around instead of standing under a hay bale like at the zoo.

 Sydney freaked out a little as she was sitting on Jason's lap and this guy walked right by our truck, maybe 10 feet away from us.

 It started raining while we were on the ride, so when we got to the elephants, they all started flapping their ears and moving all round. Logan was really excited to see so many.

 This big dude took a break to move the log.

 This was supposed to be a shot of Sydney in front of a Zebra(ironically her favorite animal) but since I couldn't get them both in focus, it turned into a cute shot of daddy/daughter. With the same smile :)

 We also saw lions, baboons, a hippo under water, gazelles, rhinos, cheetahs, and a few others.
We were really lucky with the weather on the trip. Every day was had at least a 60% chance of rain, and our last day was the only one it really poured on us. We had bought a cheap shower curtain and some ponchos at Target on our way, and they really came in handy. We saw the sky getting darker before the safari and threw the shower curtain over the stroller before parking it. We were really glad we did after seeing all of the other wet strollers. We looked a little odd going to get food though.

 And yes, the kids were riding in the stroller under the shower curtain. I had the umbrella instead of a poncho. We grabbed some lunch to wait out the rain, and by the time we were done, the rain was too.
We tried to find Pocahontas but Logan got distracted by these big fish. He just sat down and waved and waved at them saying "Hi fishy!" until a cute little girl sat near him and started talking to him. It was super cute.

 

We did find Pocahontas, but I somehow forgot to pass off my camera, so we don't have any pictures of her. Sydney hid behind me again, Logan got a hug. Although I think he like the Wilderness Explorer girl that talked to us while we were waiting in line more.
Animal Kingdom closes earlier, so we decided we'd seen what we had wanted to and headed back to the hotel. Every night, the kids both wanted to sleep with me, so I was wedged between them on a queen mattress. When Jason and I got up to pack up the next morning, the kids snuggled up together. And that made the tantrums, and the sleepiness, and my not sleeping so well totally worth it.

It was a great trip with some really great memories. Who wants to go with us again in a few years?

Disney World Day 3: Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was another long busy day for us. When we arrived, we found out there was a parade starting in about 20 minutes to welcome Arendelle's visiting royalty. Logan was on my shoulder's, Sydney was on Jason's. They had little snow flurries that blew all around us, and ice skaters and skiers come before Kristoff, then Anna and Elsa in a horse drawn carriage. Olaf made his appearance shortly after, on a screen when we had a Let It Go sing along with Anna and Elsa. 

After that was over, we headed to the Disney Junior Live show. Sydney thought it was ok, but Logan loved it!

 They had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, and Logan's favorite, Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

This was Logan looking through his spyglass.

 After the show, Jake was outside doing autographs, which Sydney was not at all interested in, but Logan was so excited for. So he and I waited in line. He hugged Jake for a full minute before taking a picture(which somehow I missed) and hugging him again.

 

After Jake, we went in to the animation studio where we found some supers! Again, no interest from Sydney, but Logan as all over it. Frozone was AWESOME with him! We probably got a good 5 minutes with them. Frozone just kept playing and playing with him.

 After the supers, we found Mickey! We seriously lucked out with all of these guys. It was like a 20-30 minute wait, and every time we got close to the front of the line, the characters took a 2 minute break(to change out costumed people) so we got fresh people every time!
Mickey came and took Logan by the hand when it was our turn over to where he stands. I was passing off my camera, and trying to get Sydney to come over by him with us. She refused.

 I'm so glad the cast member with my camera thought to snap this shot of her staying as far away as possible while we were with Mickey.

 So we were a family of 3. And Logan was getting very tired by this point, despite the fact that it was like 12:30.

We decided to get food at that point. Logan fell asleep in the stroller on the walk. We tried out the Prime Time Cafe. It's all 50's themed and they play clips of classic shows at each table, and the waiters and waitresses treat you like a 50's family sitting down to dinner. They'll give you the rules and introduce you to your "cousins" at the next table, etc. It was kind of fun. Plus it was homey food, not fast food! Logan slept on me the entire time.

 

Sydney at her mac and cheese so she got ice cream with Mickey sprinkles for dessert. I think that may have been one of her favorite parts of the day.

This is for Grandpa Garlick...we all know why. :)

 Logan woke up and was hungry, so Jason took Sydney on Star Tours, which had essentially no wait, while I stayed with Logan and got him some food. I stole one of his fries and he immediately pet me on the nose and said "good horsey". Such a silly boy.

 Sydney was totally a fan of Star Tours, and wanted to take me too. So we switched roles and I went with Syd.

 I kind of thought she'd protest the glasses, but she thought they were pretty cool.

 

After the ride and food, we headed over to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which is a giant play ground where everything is huge, like you're shrunk down.

We explored the inside of a tree

 Rode an ant

 This is Sydney's scared face

 And Logan's scared face

 We slid down the film a lot!

 And ran around there forever. They probably would have been happy to play there all day.
But it was getting hot and there was still more to do. So we moved on and took a break with Mickey ice cream bars. Gotta love the messy "cheese" faces.

 It was starting to rain as we finished our ice cream. and we finally found Woody and Buzz, so we decided we might as well wait out the rain in line. It was by far the longest wait of our day.  But they have it set up with all of these cute photo ops while you wait.

 Sydney needed a bathroom break when we were almost to the front of the line, so Jason took her while Logan and I waited some more. Logan loved it. If we ask "Who did you hug?" his answer is always "Cowboy!" If I ask "Who else?" He will answer with "Buzz!"

 Sydney refused to use the bathroom on her potty break because they have all auto-flushers. Apparently she's now deathly afraid of them. So we went through a whole ordeal of her needing to go, but wouldn't. I ended up taking her to the baby care station where they have a little kid toilet, and had more drama there from the girl. It took us over an hour to get her sorted and settled. I'm really hoping it will be funny to me someday.
We really wanted to try Toy Story Mania, and after the whole bathroom thing, we knew it would be our last chance. We thought the ride was closed because almost everything was by then, but they were still letting people on, so we were one of the last of the night, with about a 15 minute wait. I was surprised they both liked the 3D glasses. Logan didn't like the 3D-ness of the ride much though.

After we were done there, we decided to make the hike to see Fantasmic. I remember seeing it in Disneyland 7 years ago and thinking it was really cool. I had a pack of 15 glow stick for the kids we got out, which I think Sydney liked better than the show. She liked it here and there when the princesses appeared. Logan, poor guy, was pretty scared through the whole thing. You wouldn't have known just looking at him, but he was sitting on my lap and his whole body was shaking, mostly because of a loud firework or the wicked characters I guess.  

Next up: Animal Kingdom