Fairy Tale Town

A couple of weeks ago Danielle graciously asked us to go Fairy Tale Town with her and Naomi. She picked me and my little sisters up here and we drove to Land Park. It was a beautiful day and we all had a total blast!

Julia LOVED petting the lambs in the Mary Had a Little Lamb display and she LOVED the slides!

We went to the little puppet theatre there and saw The Tale of the Dragon's Tail (very original title...lol!) Olivia and Naomi liked it but Julia was scared every time the king fell down. All in all it was fun.

We ate a picnic lunch in King Arthur's Castle and then we headed across the street to the ZOO!We saw the penguins first thing and Julia kept screaming that they were "taking a bath!" We got a kick out of that...it is neat to see her understand things around her, even if she has a limited vocabulary to express what she sees.

Olivia loved the reptiles (?????) especially the BIG SNAKES...that I don't get at all! I think they're kinda creepy.

When we went to see the giraffes it was their mealtime and they were all eating...Julia was so excited about that. She kept saying "GAFT...GAFT...EAT!!! We had to call mom and let Julia tell her about the giraffes eating and drinking.

After that we saw all the big cats and primates, but they were sleepy and napping...not very active and entertaining!

Last of all we saw the talking parrots. It was great! Everyone kept trying to get them to talk and Naomi kept screaming at them and they would mimic her perfectly! It was so funny.

So after 5 hours of having fun we got an ice cream and came home. I was tired, but glad I got to spend the day with Danielle.

DISNEYLAND!!!

Here we are! Mom, Dad, Me, Franklin, Nina, Victoria, Susanna and Olivia

We decided in February that we were going to go to Disneyland. We have not been there all together as a family for at least 12 years. We decided to keep it a secret from Olivia in case it didn't work out that we could go. It was also because we planned to celebrate her 8th birthday there.

Olivia with Pooh's honeypots

Olivia knew we were going SOMEWHERE, she just didn't know where. She got the idea that she was going to Youth Camp and we let her believe that. We thought the secret was out when Joey asked her if she was looking forward to going to Disneyland. She looked at him like he was stupid and said "We aren't going to Disneyland...we're going to youth camp!" LOL!!!! It was really funny till we told her the truth...we really WERE going to Disneyland. And then she cried. For about 20 minutes. We were blown away. She didn't want to go to Disneyland. She wanted to go to Youth Camp. Go figure.

Me and my sisters...Susanna, Nina, Victoria, Me, Olivia

Anyway, after we convinced her that she could go to Disneyland AND Youth Camp she got really happy and we headed off to DISNEYLAND!!!

We had a total blast! Uncle Chris, Aunt Lisa, Ayla, Tamsen, Vincent, Christopher, Jordan, Tiffany and her boys, Katie O., Sarah L., Lexie, Nina and all 8 of our family crammed into 3 hotel rooms, shared snacks, walked to and from Disneyland and rode rides and saw shows for 3 WHOLE DAYS!!!!

Mama takes Olivia on King Arthur's Carousel

It was a sacrifice to go, but we had so much fun we are going to try to do it again next year. Thanks to my daddy and mommy for taking us!