Motorboat

Avery: "you have a motorboat in your tush....and it goed long time.... "

(We'll leave it to the reader to figure out what she's describing)

Christmas '03

For Connor, the year of the firetruck. For Avery, all things Ariel.

Santa brought kids bikes for the grubs, along with "the firetruck at Shane's house" [Shane Whitney] for Connor, and an Ariel Disney sweatshirt for Avery.

We did Xmas for the Hanan clan up in HB on Sunday (Buzz and Princess tents, and suit cases), and then Xmas day was here at our house with Jamie's parents.

Among the other gifts: robot fireman (Auntie Erin), cash register / scanner / money (Dama Barbara Ann), jewelry to fill up AP's disney Ariel box, games, puzzles, books, stickers, rc car that goes "all crazy", all the usual.

Lead up to Christmas

We had an Advent calendar to help the kids countdown to Christmas. It has pull out drawers for the 24 days. Each night, we'd put a couple items in the drawer for the next morning -- fun to hear the kids reaction when they sneak under the gate at the top of the stairs, and then first thing....see what's in the drawer.

Items ranged from "cones" (candy corn), marshmallows, gummy bear vitamins (AP: "are gummy bears candy"), M&M's (occassionally there'd be an extra M&M with the candy of the day -- that extra was for Daddy!). The first time there was this extra M&M for daddy, it was half eaten, and wet, then put back into the drawer --- thanks Connor, for saving it for me!!!

Disneyland

The kids have been bringing up the "DL" for a while now, after our single adventure there before their 3rd birthday.

A friend that I helped with Urban Challenge, Paul, works in the IT department at Disneyland, so he "signed in" for 3 of us. Awesome!

Long day - got up there about 10:15am, and went the whole day through, no naps for the kids. Weren't sure how they'd deal with that -- but they did GREAT. They didn't get nasty around the witching hour (~dinner), and made it all the way through to the fireworks show and snow at 7:45pm. Connor just BARELY made it....only minutes after plopping down in B.O.B (stroller) after the fireworks, he was OUT before we even got out through the front gates.

The quick recap:

• Rockets -- Connor's favorite from previous trip
  
• Ariel visit -- of course Avery really loves this
  
• Fantasyland Carousel
  
• Dumbo -- Avery's equivalent of Connor's love for rockets
  
• Tea cups -- luckily they didn't spin us too much :)
  
• Small World -- decorated really cool for the holidays, tons of lights, xmas trees, etc. Songs were even switched to mix in Jingle Bells, etc.
  
• Lunch at Buzz LightYear show -- another one of Connor's favorites (of course)
  
• Winnie the Pooh -- got fast pass since it's too crowded.
  
• Train around the park
  
• Visit with the characters: Tiger, Ior, Pooh. Avery wasn't too into seeing these guys up close and personal.
  
• Pirates of the Carribean -- Avery wasn't too sure about this one. Kinda dark and funny guys singing
  
• Winnie the Pooh -- this time we ride it with our fast pass, after a short delay when the ride was broken
  
• Jungle Cruise
  
• Autopia Cars -- Avery spotted these from the train ride. They were both CRAZY, giggling drivers.
  
• Dinner on Main Street, then back to Small World area for parade and fireworks.
  
• Kids on our shoulders (ugh) for the parade. Saw all the big names: Princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Ariel, Buzz, Woody, Santa and his reindeer
  
• Fireworks were excellent. Synched with music -- fun.
  
• Finally, the SNOW. Really just bubbles, but kids were loving it. Avery put her hood up to not get the snow on her head.