Disneyland Day 2 (Tuesday)

We were up and ready to go early.... We grabbed some Jamba Juice and headed into the park! Look at that crowd! They "closed" the park everyday we were there and turned people away because they hit capacity in both parks... 75,000 in Disneyland and 45,000 in California Adventure. It was really crazy!!! We got in right when it opened and were able to get right on Indiana Jones and Pirates...

Me and Courtney while we were waiting for the train...

We took the train back to the entrance to Disneyland so we could go over to California Adventure...

We did a few things and then found a quiet place on the boardwalk....

This became our "go-to" place when we needed to escape the craziness.... it was so warm and beautiful....we loved it!

McKenna giving Courtney a break... I want a turn!

Dan was ready to be done!

For dinner we had reservations at The Rain Forest Cafe...

Now back to crash and get some sleep!!!!!!!

Disneyland: Day 1 (Monday)

Monday morning we headed out for the airport really early and were on our way to sunny California! We decided to stay at the Disney Grand Californian. A beautiful entrance into the hotel...

We had to wait for a little while for our room to be ready... so we checked our bags and found a place to have lunch...

Kenna...

We were excited for our adventure to begin...

Then we headed to Downtown Disney so that Dan could make a remote control car... a Christmas gift from his ladies...

Me and my girls...

Hanging out in the lobby... our day started pretty early...

Beautiful Courtney...

After getting our stuff settled in our room we headed for Disneyland! We walked back to Downtown Disney so we could take the monorail... Me and Kenna...

It was CRAZY at Disneyland!!! I don't know what we were thinking... but I just didn't think it would be as busy this week as the week leading up to Christmas! We spent a few hours in the park and then headed over to Goofy's Kitchen...

Courtney loved dinner here!

I didn't know if she would care too much about the characters...but she thought it was fun...

Captain Hook had some moves...

The girls with Goofy!

He even got them up and dancing!

A final visitor and then we headed back to our hotel. We couldn't believe how tired we were! We figured we would be better off on day 2 if we got a good night's sleep!

Disneyland... the busiest place on Earth!!!!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2011

Saturday morning we headed out early for Logan to attend Chaltu Newman's baptism. It was a really beautiful program and we were so glad we were able to go. Afterwards we went to lunch and then headed home. As soon as we got home we opened our first gifts of the evening... our new Christmas PJ's... Courtney always gets matching PJ's for herself and her doll...

Dan looks really excited about getting new PJ's...

After Courtney got a shower (because of the texture and length of her hair we have a routine of washing her hair after she gets out of the shower in the kitchen sink and then putting in a ton of conditioner and putting on a shower cap for a few hours...) we all got on our new Jammie's and headed downstairs to begin our Christmas Eve fun. Here is a shot of all of us...

I don't know what it is about Dan lately... but he just loves giving this big cheesy grin whenever someone takes his picture! First we opened our book... it was really cute...

Then we opened our game and C.D. (David Archuleta with the Tabernacle Choir)... This game was a lot of fun...

Courtney was thrilled to be the winner tonight...

Then we took a break and put these "curl formers" that Kristin Perry told me about into Courtney's hair. These things are awesome!!! After putting them all in we opened our final gift of the night... the movie "Miracle on 34th Street." I was the only one who remembered seeing it, and we all really enjoyed it! Now time for bed so Santa Claus can come!!!

They look really weird and take a little time to figure out...but wow they really work!

McKenna's pile...

And her stocking...

Courtney's pile...

And her stocking...

Christmas morning we slept in (a rare Sunday occurrence for Dan!) and did our "Gifts to the Savior", had some fruit and muffins, and then decided to go ahead and open our gifts. We were going to do it after church, but decided instead to go and see Grandpa Mike after church. The girls wanted to give each other their gifts and give us our gifts before they opened anything else! It was really great!

Our girls...

McKenna and Courtney were so excited to give Dan their gifts... "A gift of TIME" with them. McKenna's was a trip to the temple, dinner at Olive Garden, and ice cream at Ethel and Emmets. Courtney's is dinner at Tepanyaki and bowling and laser tag.

Courtney was so excited about her gifts that she bought herself at Santa's Secret Workshop for Dan...

Her hair was just killin' me... We had her put this headband on to keep them out of her eyes. Doesn't she look like she's from Jamaica?!

Kenna with one of her favorite gifts... Just Dance 3!

After everything else had been opened... we surprised them with a final gift... a trip to Disneyland!!! We left the following day!

I take that back... our FINAL gift was from us girls to Dan! We wrapped him a Nerf gun and we had ours hidden! It was hilarious and so much fun!!! All out war!

Don't they look dangerous...

Dan got ready and headed to the church for a quick meeting with his bishopric... so us girls took a little extra time to get ready. Look at Courtney's hair! We headed up to church for sacrament meeting...Courtney had a speaking part and did a wonderful job! After church we went and visited Grandpa Mike and then headed home to pack!

What a wonderful Christmas!