When we weren't at Disneyland, we spent a lot of our time in California just relaxing and playing in my parents' backyard. Aubrey loved the swings, of course...
... but her favorite thing was the pool. Seriously, if she wasn't in the pool, she was asking to get in the pool. She got more and more brave the more she swam, and she was especially brave when her cousins were around too. Also, Daniel's head totally looks Photoshopped in this picture:
We also fed the ducks, which looked like this:
While Aubrey was doing her thing--running around and exploring--Carter did his thing. It pretty much looked like this:
And he gave Grandma lots of wonderful snuggles! He looks a little drugged here, but he's still cute.
Aubrey and Carter had a chance to sit right next to each other in the car whenever we drove places, which they don't normally do. And cutest of cute, Aubrey always wanted to hold Carter's hand! I die.
On Saturday morning we took family photos. It was hot as all get-out, but we still got some good shots. These are some of my favorites:
After the photo shoot, we went to Poway's farmer's market. Aubrey loved trying the fresh fruits and ice cream. As for myself, I went for an arepa and some chocolate chip cookie. Here's Aubrey just hanging out at the market, waiting for more snackage:
After that, we took Aubrey to her very first movie in a theater! We saw Finding Dory, and Aubrey loved it. And she did so well! She was quiet (except for when she would whisper, "Where's her Mommy and Daddy?"... so cute) and actually stayed still. Success!
On Sunday we went to church, and then Aubrey watched Wreck-It Ralph, which she really liked.
And then we went home. And oh was it fun... NOT. Here's why.
During our layover on the trip home, Aubrey fell asleep in her stroller. We thought it would be a good thing, but oh were we wrong. We had to wake her up to get her on the plane, and she lost it. She just cried and screamed and refused to be placated by anything. Matters were made significantly worse when the pilot informed us that we couldn't land in Boston yet due to weather, so we were going to be delayed by an hour and a half. Worse still, we were going to spend that delay in the plane sitting on the tarmac. And, as if that's not all bad enough with a screaming two-year-old, Aubrey got so upset that she barfed all over herself. Thankfully, we had her pajamas in our carry-on, but the whole thing was rather unpleasant.
We did finally get home though, and it was nice to get back to normal. More blog posts about our summer forthcoming!
The big hurrah of our California trip was going to Disneyland. After many discussions on the topic, we finally decided to leave Carter at home. That, of course, meant that one of us had to stay home with him. And since Daniel's objection to bringing Carter was stronger than mine, he opted to be the one to miss out.
In order to get to the park as soon as it opened, we all--me, Aubrey, my parents, my sisters, my brother-in-law John, and all of my eight nephews--drove up the night before to stay in a hotel near Disneyland. When we arrived at the hotel and were checking in, I told Aubrey that we'd be going to Disneyland the next day to meet the princesses. She got really excited and said, "Okay, let's go! They're this way!" as she grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall. I had to explain that the princesses were all asleep then, so she'd have to wait. Never thought I'd have a daughter who was into the princess thing, but hey... what can you do?
Aubrey and I shared a room with my parents, which put me in the same bed as her for the night. That was fun. We didn't arrive at the hotel until really late, and she had no intention of going to bed. But finally, after lying next to her for over an hour, I finally got her to sleep. I, however, didn't really sleep much myself, seeing as how she slept horizontally across the bed, digging her feet into my chest/back (depending on which way I was facing) and requiring me to sleep on the very edge of the bed.
Anyway, we let Aubrey sleep in as late as she could. Then we hurried and got ready so that we could get breakfast downstairs. And then Aubrey tried on Grandpa's hat. Adorable.
Because of letting Aubrey sleep in, we didn't arrive at the park as early as the rest of the family, but we did get there soon after it opened. Everyone else was riding the "big-kid" rides, so we took the opportunity to meet one of Aubrey's favorite princesses, Rapunzel, and her man Flynn Rider. My mom waited in line for us while we watched a live production of Beauty and the Beast, which Aubrey was pretty into.
When it was our turn to meet Rapunzel and Flynn, they were so great with Aubrey. I love that they got down to her level. When it came time to leave them she said, "No! I don't want to!" I think she was a fan.
Meeting Tiana, however, was a completely different story. She freaked out. We're not sure what made her scared, but after we left she asked to go see Tiana again. Go figure.
This was the best photo we got:
After Tiana, we met up with everyone else to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Here are some of the grandkids waiting in line with their matching Minion shirts.
Aubrey was really excited to ride Pirates until we went down the first hill. I warned her about it, but she still got really scared. When I said there was just one more, she said, "No! I don't want to!" and started crying. Then she spent most of the ride with her face buried in my mom's shoulder saying, "I want to go home!" We did get her to look up for this picture though:
And she calmed down once they started singing "A Pirate's Life for Me." In fact, she started singing it randomly a few days later (calling it "the treasure song"). After Pirates we went on Haunted Mansion. And amazingly, that one didn't scare her. This was her face pretty much the whole time:
Next we got water and churros (which Aubrey actually liked!), and then we split up again. My mom, me, Aubrey, and my nephew Colin went to meet some more characters. This is how Aubrey and Colin walked together:
I don't remember who started that, but it was adorable. Anyway, our first stop was to meet Aladdin and the Genie. Aubrey loves the movie Aladdin, so we had to take the time. She was a little wary of the Genie...
... but she liked Aladdin.
After Aladdin, we headed back to the castle to meet more princesses. On the docket were Snow White...
... Ariel...
... and Jasmine.
Aubrey acted pretty much the same with all of them--shy but interested. And Colin wanted nothing to do with them, haha. Aubrey asked about Cinderella and Aurora, but sadly they were nowhere to be found.
We had a bit of time before our lunch reservation, so we went on the Snow White ride. Aubrey had a hard time waiting in line, but she liked the ride. She didn't get scared, which I was glad about.
Next stop was lunch. And the amazing happened: Aubrey ate french fries! A form of potato entered her mouth, and she didn't spit it out. I actually sent Daniel this photo from Disneyland as proof:
Once we had eaten (or in Aubrey's case, not eaten... punk) our lunch, we (my parents, Aubrey, me, Grant, Colin, and Bennett) went to the carousel (at Aubrey's complete insistence). And while we were going around and around, Aubrey spotted the Dumbo ride next door. Again, she was very enthusiastic, so we went. But then, for some reason, she got terrified. I had to force her onto the elephant. My dad thankfully caught her reaction on film:
She, of course, liked the ride once it started. Silly girl. Anyway, from there we went to Toontown. Aubrey loved Minnie's house and would have played in her kitchen forever if I'd let her. We missed actually meeting Minnie by a matter of minutes, which was sad, but Aubrey rode (and loved!) the Toontown roller coaster. That's my girl!
We then decided to find a bench while we figured out our next move. Aubrey and Colin didn't rest though, opting instead to run around some more. Weirdos.
The only big ride I wanted to go on was Space Mountain. Unfortunately, the ride kept shutting down, and every time we went to get Fast Passes, they told us no. Then they "ran out" of them. So finally we (me and my dad) decided to just stand in line for an hour and 45 minutes. And it was worth it! So awesome. Still my favorite ride.
My mom stayed with Aubrey, Colin, and Bennett in Toontown for awhile, and then they went to get a good spot for the parade. I brought some glow sticks from home (Target dollar section for the win!), and they went over well with all the kids.
Aubrey loved the parade and would sometimes gasp and point when she saw characters she knew. Mostly, though, she just stared with a little smile on her face.
Here's a video of her watching as Olaf goes by and Minnie and Mickey approach. At the end, she points and says something cute, but I can't quite tell what it is. Perhaps, "Oh, over there!"?
As soon as the parade ended (around 9:00 or so), I put Aubrey down in her stroller to give my arms a rest before the fireworks started at 9:30, and she instantaneously fell asleep. It was impressive.
The fireworks ended up being canceled due to wind, so it worked out that she fell asleep. But seriously, one day we will show that girl fireworks! One day...
Though we spent many of the same calendar years in Utah, Daniel and I never crossed paths while we were living there (that we know of, anyway). Earlier this month, we were finally able to be there at the same time, thanks to a family reunion/60th birthday bash for my parents. We've talked about visiting Utah--specifically Provo--together for years, and now we've finally done it. Good for us.
As I mentioned, the purpose of the trip was to do a two-family celebration (the Mangums and the Nelsens, Kara's in-laws' family) in honor of my parents' and the Nelsens' 60th birthdays. So we flew with the whole family--Carter's first flight!--to Salt Lake. Both kids were troopers, especially this little guy:
I think he slept for pretty much the entire flight, strapped into the Ergo carrier with Daddy. Aubrey did well too, thanks to technology and Disney movies.
We did, however, run into problems around what is normally Aubrey's bedtime. Getting the girl to sleep was a chore, especially when the bumbling flight attendant starting violently kicking the bottom of her seat to "fix" the broken video screen for the person seated behind Aubrey. He was unsuccessful too, which makes it even more annoying. Finally, however, we got her to stop fighting it. And Teetagee did his part to keep her from waking when the lights came on.
Thankfully, Aubrey woke up happy when we landed and was excited to see Grandpa. When we got to the baggage claim and saw him, she jumped out of her stroller and did a little happy dance. Adorable.
After attending my nephew Grant's baptism in SLC, we drove up to Park City to stay in a big cabin with everyone. We did a lot of this while we were there:
Then, of course, we took the opportunity to visit Olympic Park and watch the athletes training. But with huge lines for all of the good attractions, we ended up just riding the chair lift once and heading back to the cabin. We also took the opportunity to snap a family photo in a bobsled.
The trip wasn't much of a big deal for Carter; he did his usual thing and spent the whole time being adorable... obviously.
After the birthday bash weekend, we drove down to Provo to walk through BYU with my parents. Daniel, who had a better experience there than I did, waxed nostalgic, so we mostly saw his old stomping grounds. Aubrey got (and loved, of course) BYU chocolate milk, which is something I have fond memories of. We also hit up Brick Oven, where Aubrey got a fun balloon animal dog.
Then we went to the BYU Creamery. And I still maintain that BYU ice cream isn't that good. I'm sure some people would call that sacrilege. But hey, Aubrey was cute with Carter while we waited! Let's focus on that.
After a night's stay in a Provo hotel, we drove a few hours to Hurricane to visit Daniel's sister, Karen. Aubrey had a blast playing with Emma and got to have her first sleepover! She actually did pretty well, which bodes well for our plans to have these cute cousins sleep in the same room at Nana and Papa's house for Christmas.
We didn't have a ton of time there (sad face), but we still got to do a bunch of fun things! The girls played dress-up...
... and went to a fun river park.
And, of course, they went on the carousel. Aubrey loves those things.
Then we hit up Nielsen's Frozen Custard, 'cause holy hot outside. Plus it's tasty. Aubrey had a complete meltdown while we were there (and I almost went off on a couple of customers who kept giving us dirty looks and complaining to each other about us), but before she freaked out we got a picture of us in our matchy-matchiness.
D'awww. Even more cute than mother-daughter matching, however, is little girl cousin matching. We discovered at bedtime that Aubrey and Emma have the same Wonder Woman PJs. So of course they both had to wear them.
The next morning, we had to leave for California. But first, Carter got to snuggle with cousin Emma. She was so sweet with him!
And the girls danced around a bit...
... before hugging goodbye and making me wish they could see each other more often. Cute overload!
Finally, we drove from Hurricane to San Diego with just a few stops for gas and diaper changes. And, of course, the first thing Aubrey did when we arrived was find the toys.
Just as quickly, Daniel found the TV, as you can see in the background. (In his defense, it was so that he could catch up on the Olympics.)
