Defeat the Dark Side!

While we were in Disneyland Zoe and Tate decide to do there part to help defeat the dark side. They went through Jedi training documented in the previous post and lucky they did because some infamous sith lords showed up.

Zoe took on Darth Maul

Scary right!

Disney Day 1

Ben started a tradition in our family when Zoe was 4 years old. She was beginning to learn to read and he wanted to reward her and motivate her to keep practicing at the same time. He promised her that when she learned to read he would take her to Disney land. A family tradition was born. Tate was about to turn 5 and has been reading for a while and it was his turn.

That coupled with the fact that I have been working non stop without vacation meant that we were off...

The hotel prepared a little surprise for Tate.

Here is a closeup of the gift

The kids were so excited to see Goofy waiting for them in the lobby of the hotel. The mood was set from the beginning. Look at the HUGE grin on Tate's face.


We went to breakfast in the park the first day with lots of the characters. Eyeore was the first character waiting for us. This was the friendliest Grey was with any of the characters.

He even gave him a kiss!

Tate liked him too.

Zoe's fairy godmother was there too. Zoe wished for waffles and we ate them every morning we were there!

Zoe needed her Eyeore love too.

Pirates anyone?

See Greysen's indifference to Mini? That is how he usually was with the characters unless they got too close.

Chip thinks Tate needs a haircut!

So funny!

Grey was only there for the food!

Gipeddo

Ahhh! More snuggles!

So sweet! ( I hope they clean those suits regularly!)

Ummm the Captain is pretty close...

Too CLOSE a little too CLOSE!

Tate looks so little here!

At this point Zoe is wondering when she gets to go back to her food.

Our first ride.

The benefit of going in January is that you practically get to walk right on to the rides. That and the 80 degree weather!

Zoe and Tate got to train as Jedis. This is Tate practicing his dodge.

I love this picture! It is so adorable how intently Tate is listening to the Jedi master!

Zoe the Jedi in training.

We have to post the video of the kids fighting the dark side once we figure out how to do it!

Of course we had to visit the Mad Hatters. Which one do you like that best? Does that look like my real hair?

Every girl need sparkly mini ears!

The pirate and the wizard!

They caught us and put us where we belong.

What adorable monkeys!

Fire and Ice

One last post before Disney!

The weekend of Martin Luther King Jr day the Dames invited us up to Chelan for the Fire and Ice festival.

There are ice sculptures, ice skating, and people jumping half naked into the ice.

Sounds like way too much ICE for me but I am trying to embrace the whole 4 season thing so we decided to try it out.

It is amazing what these men can do with a chainsaw and ablock of ice!

We had some of our favorite neighbors with us. Brooklyn and Caden were staying with us while thier brother was in the hospital.


The detail was amazing!

We went to dinner with the Dames to get out of the cold at this really yummy pizza place.
Greysen loves pizza!

Haley and Scarlet...So adorable!

Brooklyn, Cozette and Tate.

Brooklyn looks kinda bummed because she was going to have to eat red sauce on the pizza. Don't worry we got her a white sauce pizza.

Caden is so goofy!

But you can't fool Zoe!

Atticus was very hungry and that will make anyone cranky!

Scarlet likes pizza!

Here is the fire part of the Fire and Ice Festival.

After the fireworks we had to make a mad dash for the car because it was pouring rain!

Thanks Dames for the great evening.

Christmas...kinda...

I really want to post our Disneyland pictures but I guess I should do the rest of the update first.

Ben and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. He gave me these beautiful flowers. We also had a super fun and relaxing stay date. Our kiddos went to play at someone elses house and we hung out at home by ourselves. Sound boring? Not to us! We had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

Zoe was in a production of the Nutcracker. She got to play a mouse and a special angel. She did a great job and had so much fun.


Ben's birthday cake. His favorite from Costco of course! Yum!

This little puppy wandered into our garage. Sadly (to everyone but me) we did not get to keep him. He was very cute though.

Believe it or not this is the only picture that was taken Christmas morning! Can you tell what BEN was excited about? He was the one in charge of the camera. So funny! We had a very nice and relaxing Christmas with our family though which probably would have been boring to look at anyway.