Disneyland

Right before Thanksgiving we spontaneously decided to drop everything and head for Disneyland. We had some free tickets to the park, so that helped keep it short and cheap. We dressed the kids up in their Halloween costumes and got an entire lifetime's worth of coos and giggles from passersby. After a while it got a little irritating, but I have to say, we have some cute kids! Disneyland just decorated everything for Christmas, so it's our favorite time to go. Plus, we figured it wouldn't be too packed. Wrong. It's amazing the people that cram into that place. Even in the "off season" it was way too crowded for my liking. And with the ever-impatient Bronson, waiting in lines for more than 30 seconds was trying. We waited in line for almost an hour at the Haunted Mansion with people around us in the line helping to entertain the little guy. Then, we were told the ride was having technical difficulties and they were shutting it down! Nevertheless, we had an enjoyable time and the Christmas theme at the park is really amazing.

Jolie went to a class to learn to be a princess (as if she didn't already have a huge princess complex.) She had an absolute blast.

We couldn't keep the cast members away from Squirt!

If you ever want your kids to get special attention at Disneyland, make sure you dress them up!

Princess Jolie at her coronation. The transformation to a real princess is complete. Now Jolie thinks she has special privileges because she's a real princess. Oh well, gotta let girls be girls every once in a while!

A tired and grumpy Bronson (a.k.a. Squirt) in the Haunted Mansion line.

This is really what Disneyland was about for me. Seeing my girls happy.

Newport Beach

And of course what is a trip to California without a visit to the beach? We made a quick detour on the way home and we were seriously there 15 minutes. It's too bad because Bronson just lit up in amazement at all the sand he could play in. Of course, we didn't let him -- we wouldn't have been able to tear him away! The beach is definitely at the top of our list for upcoming vacations.

Jolie was convinced there were secret things buried in the sand like gold and magic shells. I swear, the poor kid has no imagination!

Bronson touching the ocean for the first time. I didn't dare put him down.

-- HALLOWEEN --

Prescott Valley does the standard "Trunk or Treat" activity in the church parking lot, which includes all four Prescott Valley wards and usually a pretty big mass of people. Meanwhile the town's streets are pretty much deserted. Why bother going door to door when you can go car to car? I think the time is coming when trick-or-treating will pretty much disappear and everyone will just throw parties. Kinda sad. Anyway, the last two years we went kinda generic and just had a couple Halloween decorations on our car, but this time we decided to do something a little cooler. We brought the truck and turned it into a graveyard complete with haunted house on the hill and spooky music! I know, pretty sweet... We busted out a black light and shined it on all the fluorescent paint and it turned out great. The best part is it's all cardboard so we'll just fold up the pieces and use them again next year (with a few minor improvements.)

Amberly was a Japanese geisha and I was a Samurai. I even borrowed a real katana (that's a sword.) Cute couple theme, huh? Well, I think we might need to work on our costumes a little more. Maybe next year... Jolie was Rani, the "water talent" fairy from a series of books she likes. She was getting her wings caught in the masses of kids so we took them off and forgot to put them back on for the picture. Bronson was Squirt, the little sea turtle in Finding Nemo. Too bad I don't have a picture of him crawling around in his costume. It's hilarious.

Amberly and Jolie made some really top-notch pumpkins. Well, they didn't make them, they carved them. Notice the Frankenstein monster one in the top picture. It's really good, but the one that everyone kept asking about was the crazy polka dot one. Amberly used one of those melon ball scoopers to make the big craters and a drill and spade bit for the smaller holes that go all the way through. The craters kinda glow because the pumpkin is thin there and the holes obviously are bright. It's a really neat effect that got everyone's attention.

New home construction update --
The walkout basement of our new house is framed and we're almost ready to do the backfill against all the retainer walls and pour the garage slab. Then the main floor can be framed. It doesn't look like much in the pictures, but there are over 1500 square feet in the basement alone. That's bigger than the entire house we are living in now!

Happy 4th of July!

The other day Jolie had her friend Janell over to play. They had too much fun playing dress-up. From hula dancer to fairies to pirate cheer leader to I don't know what. It was hilarious to watch them pretend and joke around. Man I wish I was a kid again!!

LET'S GO BACK IN TIME!!!!

This is for all you Tempe South Stake Girls!!

Life changes really fast. About 2 months ago all the wards in Prescott Valley changed. Our old ward Lynx Creek was completely dissolved, a new ward was formed, and the other wards received a bunch of new people. It was all so crazy. Ben was serving in the teachers quorum while I was on the primary presidency. Since the change now Ben is in the 1st councilor in the Elders quorum and I've become the new Beehive advisor. I went from full force Primary everything and working on the Primary Sacrament Program... to... we are going to camp in 2 weeks. It's been really weird to switch gears so fast. We had so much to do for camp in such a short amount of time. Our ward was red and motto was Faith, Not Fear. I was the lucky one to make our lovely banner. So here are some picture from girls camp. And since some on my old friends have found our little family here on blogspot. I thought it would be fun to put some picture on when we went to camp. Enjoy!

For the past 2 weeks Jolie has been lovin' cheer camp. They practiced hard for the Prescott Valley Day's Parade. Jolie really like the cheer part of it but not so much the dance. In fact during the dance she just stood there a waved her pom poms around. It was fun to watch her.