Disneyland 2012

(My pictures all loaded randomly, so they are all out of order. Still cute, though... :)

The girls and I just got back from a last-minute trip to Disneyland with my sister Lindsey! A lady in my ward had some Disneyland passes with one day left on them that she offered to anyone who wanted them. Hello! I'll take them! Lindsey and I split the cost of gas and hotel, making it a fun and inexpensive trip!

Here is a picture of Brynne on It's a Small World. 

She wanted the pretty flowers in the background.

Morgan and I rode two rides by ourselves. First thing in the morning we rode Thunder Mountain Railroad, and then later in the day we rode Splash Mountain.
That's where this picture was taken:

Melissa did SO good on the trip!! She wasn't on her regular schedule at all at Disneyland, but she was almost always happy as could be. (Rumor has it she got sick of the Ariel ride in California Adventure the second time around with Aunt Lindsey.) I got WAY too many cute pictures of this girl! If you can blow this picture up,
you can see her bottom teeth that are working their way up:

Lindsey took the girls on rides during the times I fed Melissa (except for the one time when Brynne rode the Carousel while I stayed close to feed Melissa, and while Linz and Morgan rode the "scary rides"). During one such feeding time, they all hung out in the Bug's Life area of California Adventure. No one in my family, including me, had ever been to California Adventure before, so it was fun to try new things.

Here is a picture of Brynne and Lindsey on the Tuck and Roll Bumper Cars:

Melissa decided to show off her new teeth a little more:

One of the things the girls were really excited about was riding the Ferris Wheel. It turns out it was rather cold and breezy up high, but I think everyone still enjoyed it. This picture of Lindsey and Morgan was taken near the top of the wheel.
There was a nice skyline behind them, but it's lost in the light.

Brynne was ready to go home not long after dinner because her legs weren't lasting very well. We managed to keep her busy with a few rides and with watching World of Color; but then Brynne, Melissa and I headed back to the hotel. I figured it would be good for me to get more sleep too. Morgan stayed with Lindsey for the last 3+ hours that Disneyland was still open. They got to ride on Splash Mountain four times in a row without even having to get off because there wasn't a line at the end of the day. Morgan also got to eat two huge scoops of ice cream while Aunt Lindsey sipped lemonade on Main Street.

We took this picture not long before I headed back to the hotel with Brynne and Melissa:

This is the part of the blog where we go back to the beginning of the day. After our very first rides (see seven pictures down for more details...), we all went on a few rides together. Morgan and Brynne had a blast on the tea cups:

They also had a lot of fun riding on the Alice In Wonderland ride. I will admit I was surprised when they wanted to sit by each other for the ride. I was even more surprised when they got along the whole time even though they were close enough to
touch each other. Disneyland really is magical!!!

Lindsey and I both got pictures of Morgan screaming on Thunder Mountain Railroad. She was the perfect picture subject with how excited she got and with how much she screamed:

This is the other half of the Ferris Wheel ride where I was sitting with Brynne and Melissa.
Brynne was so excited to go on a Ferris Wheel, and Melissa was a real trouper
even with the chilly wind up high.

Oh my goodness. Seriously? Melissa is way too cute (and innocent)!! Why do I foresee her using those eyes to get her way when she is a bit older? Lindsey took this picture of her while I went on the Goofy Roller Coaster with Morgan and Brynne:

Lindsey took this picture of us on the way into Disneyland. We got there right at 8:00 so we'd have the entire day to play. We took this picture quickly 

so we could run in and get started!

Morgan and I bee-lined it for Thunder Mountain first thing, while Lindsey took Melissa and Brynne on the Jungle Cruise. Thankfully Lindsey found a nice person to take a picture of them since this was Melissa's first ever ride at Disneyland!!

We left early Friday morning to drive down there so that we would have time to play at the pool that night and still get to bed early. It was actually a bit breezy and chilly that night, but no one seemed to mind. Melissa even discovered 

the fine art of splashing while we were there!

Lindsey was nice enough to order pizza for us for dinner after our swim.
The girls enjoyed their pizza while watching the Disney channel on TV.
Meanwhile, I took advantage of some really good snuggle time:

Here's a picture of the girls with their pizza.
Brynne kept jumping back and forth between the beds on her knees.
And Morgan made sure she had the best seat in the house to watch the TV. :)

I really enjoyed our random and last-minute trip to Disneyland. I usually tend to be a planner, so I'm always proud of myself when I do something like this. :)
And I'm so glad Lindsey was able to join us!

A VERY Quick Catch Up

I debated doing lots of little posts about things from the past year, but I decided it would be better to do a quick review. If I do more in-depth posts later on, great! If not, at least I hit a few highlights from the year...

The first "big" thing is that my girls convinced me to cut bangs for them. I was worried because I have a cowlick that makes bangs go weird for me, but I decided they should have the chance to try them for themselves. Morgan was extra lucky to have Aunt Ashley here to curl her hair for her before school one day:

To show off Brynne's bangs, I decided to post a picture of her with her teacher Mrs. Peterson at the end of the school year. Hard to believe Brynne will be a 2nd grader, and Morgan will be a 5th grader!!

On the last day of school before Christmas, Spanish Fork got so much snow that school was actually closed. We made the most of it and went outside to play. Brynne wanted to make a snowman, so she and I made this guy. Then Lee brought out his pilot stuff so we could have a pilot snowman! :)

Since Halloween is so important to kids, I thought I'd post a picture of each of the girls in their costumes. Brynne was a cheerleader:

And Morgan was a witch. This year I even somehow convinced the girls to trade all their candy for a gift. They each chose a $5 gift, and I got their candy to get rid of. One thing I didn't plan on, though, was Lee being home. He was kind enough to take care of ALL the candy for us! :)

A major highlight of the year came when Ashley's little Elise was born. When it was apparent Ashley was in labor, I hopped in the car and drove as fast as I could. Unfortunately, little Elise was born an hour before I arrived. No worries, though, I still got my snuggle time!

Brynne played soccer last fall. She liked playing goalie and liked hanging back waiting for the ball to come to her. I once said to her, "You know, Brynne, it's okay to go right up to the ball and try and get it." Her response was, "No way! That's how you get hurt!" :)

We took a really fun family vacation to California last September. For various reasons, we had free tickets to Disneyland for one day and four free nights of hotels. We went to the beach with Ashley and her family, went to Disneyland, went to a few science centers and museums, and went to SeaWorld. It was lots of fun! The day we planned to go to Disneyland ended up being the hottest recorded temp for LA for that day (117 degrees), so thankfully our plans were flexible and we went to the beach that day instead. Here is our family just after arriving at Disneyland:

Morgan was extra excited that she was picked for Jedi Training. Brynne was not the least bit interested in being in front of people, but we all had fun watching Morgan!

Funny how the temperature in LA can be 117 degrees, and only three days later it can be only 60 degrees in San Diego. The first day we went to SeaWorld was freezing cold and rainy. Once again we were thankful our plans were flexible, and we were thankful SeaWorld was willing to let us return the next day instead. I hadn't been to SeaWorld since I was much younger (12 or so??), and neither Lee nor the girls had ever been there before. It was a really fun vacation!

Lots and lots happened this year: Brynne learned to ride her bike, Lee quit his job flying as an air medical captain in Nevada and got a new job as first officer for SkyWest, Morgan somehow grew up and started being interested in hair and wishing she could wear makeup; but the biggest news of all........is that a new little girl is due to arrive in our family any day now! You never know this kind of thing for sure, but I'm really thinking she'll be here soon. If so, that will be my next post. :)

Ross Girls' Disneyland Trip 2010

Note: I've decided the most stressful part of a fun trip is deciding which pictures to post on your blog when you get back. After realizing that there's no such thing as the "Best 25 Pics" when you have 350 really fun pics, I just quickly chose some and tried to make sure I had pictures of everyone that went. (Anyone who wants to is welcome to come by my house and see all my pics!)

Last Monday I hopped on a plane to California. I got to spend 3 1/2 days with my sister Ashley and her family by myself. Then my other sisters and my mom showed up to join the party for the last 2 1/2 days. We took our annual trip to Disneyland. Lots of fun!

My nephew Marshall and I were stylin' in our sunglasses together and getting ready to do some serious grocery shopping:

Our Disneyland day started out with a fun surprise: We were chosen as "Guests of the Day." Apparently the computer randomly picks a time every morning. The first car to drive through the pay booths after that time is the "Guest of the Day." There were all sorts of things that happened on our way there -- such as getting out of the carpool lane too soon and getting stuck in slow traffic, and Ashley leaving her wallet in the trunk of their car -- that suddenly became things we were grateful for. It put is through the pay booth at just the right time!

A guy on a bike drove us to a parking spot that was the closest one to the trams. They had cones there to make sure no one else was in "our" spot. We also got to park for FREE! Yeah! We were so excited! Here is Alyson and I right after we parked. You can see the "Guest of the Day" certificate in our windshield.

At the end of the day, we took one more picture with the "Guest of the Day" certificate. Such a fun surprise (especially given that it was a packed day at Disneyland)!

My mom had the fun idea of getting us all matching shirts for this trip. Great idea, Mom! Getting ready to get on the tram: Alyson, Mom, Me, Lindsey, Ashley

Taking a trip on the Jungle Cruise: Ash, Aly, Linz, Me, Mom

Lindsey and I on Autopia:

Lindsey took this picture of me while I was busy taking pictures of everyone else on Autopia (you can see we had a very steady young driver at the wheel!):

Marshall is one lucky kid! He got to go to Disneyland with a bunch of his aunts and with Grandma Ross. All the other kids got left behind with the husbands.

Having Marshall around was usually lots of fun. There was that one time, however, when he had a blow-out accident just before some of us were getting ready to get on Big Thunder Railroad. That wouldn't have been a problem except that we had the diaper bag with us. Lindsey ran to get the bag from us just before the train took off. Way to hustle, Linz! :)

All us sisters together -- Me, Ash, Aly, & Linz

I rubbed the lamp, but no genie appeared. Bummer.

Me and Mom getting ready to ride on Big Thunder Railroad (one of our favorite rides that, unfortunately, closed down early at the end of the day):

Funny thing, that darn sword doesn't come out no matter how many girls you get to pull on it at the same time!

Alyson and Me on Big Thunder Railroad:

Whew! We made it through the ride in one piece! :)

Our other favorite ride is Splash Mountain. I offered to ride in the front (thinking I'd have a chance to dry before it got dark and then someone else would have to be in front when it got a bit colder -- unfortunately, I got REALLY wet and didn't dry before dark...)

It's a little hard to tell how soaking wet I am in this picture...

...but a lot more obvious in this picture! :)

It's always so nice of Ashley and Derek to let us crash at their apartment on these crazy, fun trips to California and Disneyland! I think Derek enjoyed himself a little extra this year -- we went on his birthday; but more importantly, we went two days after he finished his first set of boards for optometry school. Good job, Derek!

Ashley and Derek left around 10 pm to get little Marshall into bed. The rest of us left when the park closed at midnight. What a super fun, long day!

The next day, we took a trip to the beach. It was in the upper 70s and really nice. I got to play in the sand with little Marshall:

The only problem with the beach is that the water was freezing! We opted instead to play in Ashley's pool after the beach. Lindsey and I were working on helping each other get adjusted to the temperature of the water. :)

Lindsey, Alyson and I had several swim races. In between races, we relaxed on the side of the pool:

We're not sure if we'll be able to make the trip next year or not, since Ashley and Derek will be leaving for rotations about the time we usually take the trip. Thankfully, we have lots and lots of fun memories to last us a lifetime (including rolling on the floor laughing outside the bathrooms -- love you girls!)!