Trick or Treat...

...smell my feet, give me something good to eat.

We made it to a few houses in the cold, rainy weather. Tabitha loved it and as soon as we left one house she would run and get all excited on our way to the next.

Pumpkin Carving

It is always fun to have the pumpkins come from our own garden, we got quite a few very large ones this year. Most of them had to be picked last month after our first frost and "ripen" on our deck.

Snow

We have had snow the past few days. The girls have loved going out and playing in and eating it! I am not quite ready for this weather, but it sure is pretty.

Costumes

We have a fun family Halloween party, with a delicious dinner, played a few games, had fun dressing up and ended the night with a Scavenger Hunt. Always fun to get together!

Family

Sure do love these guys!

Beach

We were really looking forward to a nice day at the beach, however we had overcast skies and it was very cold. We met up with our friends the White's who were also vacationing in southern California, which was fun. Chip and Brandon enjoyed getting in the very cold ocean and the kids had fun digging and playing in the sand. Maybe next time we go we will have warmer beach weather to enjoy.

Disneyland Tips

We had a wonderful time on our trip and I thought I would share some things that I liked. I can't wait until we can go back. Share some of your tips as well.

Fast Past. Get a fast pass for every ride that offers them, they are so worth it and saves time on waiting in line. Brandon would usually run to get a fast pass while we stood in line for another ride. It will tell you an hour time frame to come back, go back after the start time but the end time is pretty much whenever you want.

Characters. We stood in line to see as many as we could. It was really cute to watch the girls reactions. Some of them have schedules or houses and some are just out and about, but no line was to long. We loved the Princess lunch, the girls reactions were priceless and we got to see 5 princesses without to much waiting and ate some really good food. We were lucky to have Mickey right at the entrance one day, we were going to go to toon town to wait, but this saved us a ton of time.

Parades/Shows: We saw Aladdin, Turtle Talk, Pixar Parade, Celebrate Street Parade and World of Color. The off season they only do the firework show on the weekends or holidays, so we missed out on that. I would recommend seeing as many as you can. It is a time to sit down and relax and have a snack. We had my in-laws with us, so my Mother-in-law got us good spots in the parade routes while we rode a ride, which was really nice! The world of color was pretty amazing. You have to obtain a fast pass first thing in the morning and then it assigns you a color to enter in that night. We didn't have the best spot but we could see pretty good.

Toy Story. To long of line, the longest we stood in the whole time, but I loved it. I would recommend sending someone first thing to stand in line and then take turns riding a ride or two, it is pretty easy to get to each other in line.

Number of Days. 3 was perfect for us. We were tired by the last day but felt like we got to see and do most everything we wanted and the kids favorites we got to ride several times. When we go again we now know things we like or dislike and will be able to even fit more in. I also learned that you don't have to go all the days consecutive. Our pass also included an early entry day, which we did not do, only limited rides are available and that is really early with kids.

Naps. Tabitha napped in the stroller the first day, but the parks closed early. We went back to our hotel the next two days for her to nap. I preferred this because then we were able to stay later and the parks are fun at night. She does much better with a good nap, but all kids are different. The parking is very easy and you can re-enter, plus our hotel was pretty close.

Snacks/food. You can bring whatever you want in, so we had plenty to hand out when the kids got hungry. What we craved the most was cold water, I think I got dehydrated the second day. We met my cousin and her husband for dinner one night at downtown Disney, there are some great restaurants so if you want to leave the park to get better food for you money it was worth it. They also told us that you can park at downtown Disney for 3 hours free and then get a validations for an additional 2 hours, so you could save the $15 daily fee for parking if you are just going for half a day.

Bathrooms. We joked that we needed to coordinate are breaks because someone always needed to go. I felt like they were all pretty clean and plenty around, so go while someone else waits in a line for a ride close by.

Ridemax.com. Our friend Laura's sister gave us a printout of rides and the order to ride them to cut down on wait time and criss crossing the park. We started out the first day doing this, but once the girls saw other rides they wanted to ride that weren't listed then we ventured off a little bit. I liked it though and wouldn't mind paying next time to enter every ride that we know we want to ride, especially since we know what we already like.

Disneyland Day #3

We enjoyed our last day at Disneyland and tried to squeeze in as much as possible. We saw Mickey Mouse first thing and then stood in an hour long line to ride Toy Story, it was fun, but hated the wait. We rode jumping jellyfish, Saw Sulley, rode Monsters Inc., and saw the Turtle Talk show with Crush. We had a lunch/nap break and then saw the pixar parade, which was a lot of fun. Then rode California Screamin, Monsters Inc., Buzzlight year, saw the Street Parade, another fun parade and danced with Daisy Duck and several other characters. Then rode Autotopia, teacups, its a small world and Splash Mt. We finally left the park around 10:30pm. Gabrielle was such a big girl riding Splash Mt. twice, she was scared but very proud of herself! We look forward to when we can go back again and Tabitha is so excited when she is bigger and can ride Splash Mt., just like her sister.

Disneyland Day #2

Ariel

Belle

Snow White

Cinderella

Jasmin

We enjoyed another fun filled day at Disneyland. We rode Dumbo, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Storybook Boatride, Tea Cups, Lady bug and Flicks Fliers in the Bug Land, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with the princesses, Tower of Terror, break for nap, Dinner with my cousin Lindsey and her husband Brad, California Screamin twice, Ferris Wheel, King Triton's Merry-Go-Round and ended the night with World of Color. The princess lunch was pretty expensive but totally worth it for the girls. The looks on their faces as the different princesses came out was priceless! Taking the break for a nap was perfect and allowed us to stay a bit later into the evening. The parks are fun to enjoy at night and the Ferris Wheel was perfect for that time. The world of color was pretty amazing, we could have had a better view, but it was fun.