This is a hard post to write because we had a wonderful time but it's hard to explain. The pictures just don't capture all the magic, but I'll try...
My mother-in-law planned a trip to Disneyland for her dancers. She invited the family to join them. Originally Dean and I decided not to go because our kids were to young, the drive would be to long, and mostly because Dean hates Disneyland. But last minute Janale called with an extra ticket and Dean must have been having a good day because he said I could take Josie and go. It could not have worked out more perfectly. Laurel let us use a buddy pass so Josie and I could fly round trip, and the hotel had one last room available for the two of us.
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| Josie loved watching the airplanes and did excellent on the flight. We took a bus, to and from Disneyland. Josie loved the bus and always wanted her own seat. |
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| It's hard to capture in pictures, what a good time we had. Josie loved the parade and so did I. It may have been her favorite part. Grandpa Fox took Josie to the parade a second time and she is still talking about it, "Grandpa Fox and dancing and princesses and music". |
Disneyland really is Magical. It was so clean and so perfectly manicured. I loved the details throughout the entire park. Seriously, there was not a single light bulb burned out or a station unmanned. They decorate every detail of every building and ride. Even the lines were fun to wait in, with an exciting atmosphere. I had been to Disneyland before but couldn't remember much. I'm sure as a mom I had a totally different experience anyway, but I loved it. I know Josie won't remember it, but it was so fun to see her eyes light up and I enjoyed having her all to myself. We missed Dean, he would have loved to see her excitement, but I'm glad he wasn't there to complain about the lines or all the people. We mostly stayed on baby rides so the lines really weren't too bad. Josie loved the rides, climbing on the fences, and oddly enough, the hotel telephone.
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| We went to see Mickey Mouse, Josie gave him five and she really wasn't as scared as she looks. He signed her autograph book. He wrote "HELP!" and signed his name. Weird, maybe he was suffocating. |
That is Josie scooping up her pretend baby, Morley, out of the stroller. We had to push baby Morley around, take her on rides, and feed her. Baby Morley was kind of, a lot of work. Josie was Brook and I was Bryan (The real Baby Morley's parents) for two days, until Laurel saved the day and bought Josie a baby elephant! Josie was so excited. She rocked her baby elephant, pushed it around in the stroller, slept with it (and all the germs it collected throughout the day) and carried it around the rest of the trip.
Laurel also bought Josie a Cinderella necklace that she loves. Laurel made the trip so fun and easy. She was so sweet and drove us all around. We love Laurel!
Janale's dance team did a great job, they have so much energy. Thanks, Janale for a fun trip. She did so much work to make it happen and we loved every minute!
We went to see World of Color, the water show. It was awesome. Above, Josie is wearing her 3D glasses for "A Bugs Life" show. I think it was my favorite thing, definitely not Josie's. She was mortified but it was so funny. She stood on the bench holding her glasses on tight. The glasses made it look like bugs were right in front of her. Josie was swatting at them and yelling for them to go away. I tried to take her glasses off so she knew they weren't really getting her but she wouldn't let me. She was too scared to cry, but it was so funny. I loved it. We did sneak out a little early, when Josie said she wanted to go out of the tunnel.
Sometimes you don't notice that your daughters shoes are on the wrong feet until 5 days later when you get home and look at the pictures.
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| We went to New Port Beach Sunday afternoon. It was cold but really fun. |
Laurel's friend Heidi came with her 3 girls and they were so funny. On the way home from the beach we got crazy lost and Laurel and Heidi were making me laugh so hard. They are nuts. We laughed like we were in 7th grade, my stomach hurt so bad.
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| I'm still collecting pictures for their wedding video... they still don't know. |
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| Because we flew standby, we got bumped off the first flight. We had to wait 3 hours for the next one. Josie didn't even know we were board. She just bossed me around. Once again I had to by Bryan, she was Brook and we pushed baby Morley all over the airport. |
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| Ang watched Trig for me. I missed him like crazy. He would not have enjoyed any part of how busy we were, and I simply didn't have enough hands to take care of two kids. I'm sure he had more fun with Ang and her family doting on his every need anyway. Thanks Ballards! I was so excited to get home and see this little guy and his dad. |
