Popcorn Popping by Josh

In case you haven't smiled yet today, this should do the trick. :)

May the Force Run With You

Since the Disneyland 5K started at 6:45 AM, the kids and I slept right through it. So I will turn the keyboard over to Steve to tell you all about it. :)

(This is Steve now...just in case you were wondering...)

Kristen's mom Kim and I ran the Disneyland 5K race. She had been wanting to do it for a long time, and finally broke down and registered. This being the case, I decided to run with her, so we justified taking the trip.

The run was centered on the re-opening of the newly remodeled Star Tours ride, so everything about the race had to do with Star Wars. It was great! 5,000 runners made their way in and out and through and behind Disneyland and California Adventureland. We had trained all summer to maintain stamina and a steady pace, but with that many people walking and all the stopping for photo opportunities we honestly didn't need to train for this. Oh well. We're in shape now.

Here we are at the beginning of the race close to the Convention Center.

 Just a quick snap of the throngs of people "running" with us.

 We saw a guy wearing a "Team Scott" shirt, so of course we had to take his picture.

 Kim and me with Daisy and Pluto as we ran through Toon Town.

 Here is the 1 mile mark!

 Photo opportunity with a group of Jedis.

 The line for the storm troopers was long, but definitely worth the wait!

 How can you pass this photo opp up?

 Here's proof that we weren't last (which was what Kim was afraid of) or even CLOSE to last.

Storm Trooper Donald, Darth Goofy, Obi-Wan Mickey, and Princess Minnie Leia waiting for us close to the finish line.
We had a great time, and are considering making this a family tradition. Maybe next time more of us...ahem...will run.

(Kristen again) Well as you can see, it was quite the memorable experience. My dad even got up early to go cheer them along. But somebody had to stay with the sleeping kids, right? Especially if we wanted them to be happy during the 10-hour car trip back home... Who knows. Maybe next year we can stick the kids in the jogging stroller and join my mom and Steve.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Thanks to the fact that my mom has been wanting to run the Disneyland 5K that they have over Labor Day Weekend, we took a family trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. We left on Wednesday, stayed the night in Primm, NV, and arrived just before lunchtime on Thursday.

(Yes- my eyes are totally closed in the picture. Oh well.)

We strapped both kids in the jogging stroller we borrowed from my sister (thanks a million Michelle) and, together with my parents, decided to brave the crowds on the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day.

Fortunately, the crowds were nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. We walked into the park, and the first character we met was Pluto. Josh wasn't sure what to think, but we dragged him up to take a picture anyway. He will thank me later, right?

We had a great time. Josh really enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. Steve enjoyed it too! This picture doesn't show Josh's enthusiasm, but he was too busy looking at all the pictures of Buzz and the "green guys" to smile for the camera. He rode on the "laser" ride 4 times!

We were worried about how Abby would hold up at the park, but we didn't need to. She was happy as could be.

 Day 2 we started at the park right at opening. We met Goofy and decided to snap a picture, even if the kids weren't very into it. Again, they will thank us later.

My sister also loaned us a Tinkerbell costume for Abby and gave us instructions to find Tinkerbell first thing so the lines wouldn't be too long to take a picture with her.

Next we headed to Fantasyland, and Josh absolutely loved the Dumbo ride. He was grinning the whole time, and when he got off he kept saying "I was flying Mommy!"

On a sidenote: I am SO glad my parents were with us. We were able to do the Baby Swap- which means that 2 of us would go on a "grown up" ride and the other 2 would stay with the kids. Then you could get a Baby Swap pass that lets the 2 who stayed with the kids skip ahead in line. Pretty sweet deal. It meant we didn't stand in lines very long, which was great.

 Anyway- we took Josh on the Teacup ride and he loved it. He just kept looking around at everything with this same look:

 I think that look is called "wonder".

A few more stops. The Small World ride (Josh calls it the Dancing Kids Boat Ride), which- by the way- they have updated to included several Disney characters in "Small World" style. Pretty fun.

 Then we stopped by Toon Town and Josh looked around for a while. He got to drive Goofy's car, which was pretty exciting.

After Toon Town, we watched the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies Show, which is a MUST SEE if you are in Disneyland. I don't have pictures, and I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. It is four guys playing bluegrass music on fiddles, banjos, etc. And it is Hilarious.

Then we headed to California Adventureland. And of course, we took pictures with Lightning McQueen. Josh was pretty excited. He really wanted to ride in the McQueen car. I can't wait for the Radiator Springs part of the park to be finished. Next time we go, Josh will just plain freak out.

 Another highlight of the trip, of course, was the corndogs. My sister described them as "heavenly" and she was absolutely right. I'm going to have to wait at least a couple weeks before I eat a microwaved corndog again.

 One of the best sights to see during the second day was this:

 Josh napping in the stroller! Yay! The kids were both really good. Of course they had their moments where they were sad and tired. But that is expected of a three-year-old and a one-year-old!

Saturday morning, Steve and my mom participated in the Disneyland 5K. There will be a whole separate blog for that one.

I am so glad we had the chance to go as a family. That is what really makes Disneyland the happiest place on earth- being there with your family and seeing the look of wonder and pure joy on your kids faces. I know you can get that look in other places, but we are glad we made the trip.

I Do Things Too!

I am so excited to have something to blog about that I actually did. Not pictures of my kids or stories of their cuteness, or bragging about my talented hubby and another of his great murals. A post about me to prove that I do things too.

This past weekend, some of the ladies in my book club (I know- I'm in a book club. How cultured of me!) went "up north" to Provo to have dinner and see The Help, since we aren't patient enough to wait for it to come to Ephraim. I was so excited for this. Steve dropped me off at the shopping area near the theater at 5:00, and from then until 10:00ish, I was just me. Not mommy. Not Steve's wife. Not even "Song teacher" (which is what the kids in church call me). I was just Kristen. The rest of the ladies were carpooling up and they hadn't arrived yet, so I got to just walk around, window shop, and enjoy the random guy playing an electric violin. But of course, I couldn't just hang out by myself all night, so I made my way to Macaroni Grill for dinner. I had never been there before, and I was excited for some yummy new food. I wasn't disappointed. The bread was totally delicious, and the pasta I had was amazing. *Sigh* Oh how I love good food. Too bad I'm not better at making it for myself.

Here we are at the restaurant. Thanks to our waiter for snapping the pic, and for the one friend who actually remembered her camera!

After eating and chatting and having a great time (including trying to come up with a reason for the opera-singer/hostess to come sing Happy Birthday at our table), we rushed over to the theater for the movie. The movie didn't disappoint either. It was great. Excellent casting. I highly recommend it. I also recommend finding an awesome group of ladies like these ladies and having a book club of your own. Because we all need one night a month where we can relax, chat, eat good snacks, oh yeah- and discuss the latest book we read. :)

Josh is a Genius

Josh built this little setup all by himself. Not bad for a three year old.

Take me to the Fair

While down in Richfield for Abby's 1-year doctor checkup, we got to go to the Sevier County Fair with the cousins. Here they are- minus the oldest, who is 12, and plus a couple kids that my sister was tending.

They had a cute little place for photo ops. Josh wasn't quite tall enough, so one of the other kids had to give him a boost so we could see him. Here he is with his cousin Caitlin.

They had one of those big inflated obstacle course/slide things that Josh insisted on trying, since all the bigger cousins were doing it. I was worried when I saw how tall the wall was to get to the slides, but he managed it just fine.

And on our way back to the car, we had to stop and take a picture with, in Josh's words, a "big, big, big tractor."

Abby slept through the whole thing. :)

Happy Birthday to Abby

Abby is one! I can't believe it. Time has certainly flown by. For her birthday, I decided to make a birthday cake from scratch. I figured since the family party wasn't for a couple days, I could try a homemade cake on just the family. It was my first ever cake with layers and filling. Nothing too exciting to all you pros out there, but I was pretty dang proud of myself.

Abby certainly enjoyed it. These pictures give an excellent play-by-play. She dug right in and got down to business.

Then she noticed that everyone else was using forks to eat their cake, so she insisted on using one too.

But she soon realized that handfuls are much faster than using utensils, so she went back to the fists-full-of-cake approach.

She had to pause for a drink of milk to wash it all down.

And once she noticed the cool slurping nose she could make with all the frosting on her hands, she wasn't interested in the cake anymore.

Steve videoed Abby opening her present from Josh. Josh was very excited to pick something out for her and couldn't wait for her to open it.

And here are a few cute snapshots of my adorable one-year-old. Even Josh calls her a princess.