Random superlatives of 2010

Proudest Family Moment: A tie between S finishing medic school and Bean finally taking her first steps just days before Christmas.



Best exercise routine started and quickly abandoned: Dancing with the Stars Cardio Workout.

Hardest thing I didn't expect: Realizing that moving to my dream house wasn't exactly as dreamy as I had imagined it would be.



Favorite song that I am slightly embarrassed to admit I love: Teenage Dream by Katy Perry.



Best Food I had at a restaurant I can't remember the name of: A tiny "catch-of-the-day" cafe behind a fish and tackle shop in San Diego. The halibut and scallops were beyond definition. And I don't even really like seafood all that much.



Favorite Book I read that I expected I would like: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins



Favorite Book I read that I was not expecting to like as much as I did: Digging to America by Anne Tyler



Worst Book I read that had me give up reading altogether (for a few months only...): The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett



Worst Cooking disaster: A tie between the hard-as-rock sugar cookies I made for Valentine's Day and dumping all of my cupcakes into a chocolatey-frosted mass at the bottom of my cupcake-carrier.



Number one "can't live without it" toy in our house right now: The Fisher Price Ride-On firetruck my parents got Bean for her birthday.



Favorite vacation memory: Zonking out at the La Quinta with Bean on the king-sized bed after a rough day at Arches National Park. Best nap I've ever taken. Period.

Best self-portrait taken:

Best movie with the worst ending: Inception

Proudest domestic moment: freezing enough pumpkin to feed a small army (one of my Grandma's favorite expressions.)

Proudest Emily moment: becoming more self-aware, confirming my values and beliefs, and making it through year one as a mommy.

Year in Review

I started a photo-journal project called "12 on the 12th" last January and just completed it this month. It is probably self-explanatory, but I took 12 photos at random each 12th of the month and will later compile them into an album. I was looking through these pictures and thought I would share a few of my favorite here.

It is easy to see a theme going on...

January: Bean just waking up in the morning. We used to swaddle her up so tight. Now she greets us every morning standing on her tiptoes!

February: The morning routine. Cereal. Meds. Formula. Every morning. I'd be lying if I said I missed those days!

March: She put the sock in her own mouth. Her cuteness overrides my "un-" and therefore persuades me to post this picture. P.S. We had just finished a session of major scrapbooking!

April: I LOVE RAIN!! I could go for days like these the majority of the year!

May: The 12th must have been close to Mother's Day. S bought me these beautiful flowers. I am a lucky girl. He buys me beautiful flowers a lot...

June: My sweet garden. I've missed this retreat a lot more than I thought I would. It's so beautiful in the early summertime.

July: Bean would happily sit for a long time and just read her books. Though the days of sitting in one place are gone, she is still happy spending the majority of her day reading.

August: Irony. The most success I have ever had growing tomatoes occurred within the month that we moved. I hoped the new owners loved garden-grown tomatoes as much as we did and wouldn't let them go to waste. I also believe this is the last picture I will ever have of our first garden.

September: Ahh... San Diego. The weather was near perfect as we took all of these kids to the beach for the first time in their lives. San Diego sounds pretty awesome right now.

October: Many 12ths fell on days that I worked. When you spend as much time working with people, as I do these gals, they really do become your second family. And they were very patient every time my camera showed up on the 12th.

November: I can't exactly remember the circumstances, but I do remember having to do our grocery shopping on a work day after picking up Bean from my parents. I probably got a few strange looks walking around a grocery store at 10 p.m. with my sweet girl in her p.j.'s. (As I remember, she was an angel the whole time!)



December: One of Bean's favorite things to do at G'ma and G'pa H.'s is to read through all of the newspaper ads. This year she helped us pick out all of her presents. Very convenient.



This was a fun project and, while a few times the 12th slid into the 13th (...and one time I forgot altogether--happily we were on vacation so I took lots of pictures anyway!), I am surprised I actually followed through with something that was a whole-year commitment! Will I do it again? Probably not, once is good enough for me. Should you try it? Absolutely! It's fun to see how random pictures can so adequately describe one's life!

Christmas is Magical again.

Wishing all of you out there in the blogosphere a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

~

Emily, S, and Bean

*sigh*

The week before Christmas has arrived. My to-do list (which should be getting shorter, not longer) hangs over my head and I'm stuck at work until Wednesday so there really isn't much I can do about it. And then we had a really crappy night at work on Friday. And then I hit a really bad car accident on my way home--which left me with no alternative but to slowly work my way through traffic. I got home three hours late that night. Thinking the worst was behind me, I went to bed.

Wrong.

I woke up horribly ill two hours later and spent the remainder of my night...well, I won't go into details...

I should have seen it coming. I tend to think that I am capable to do anything and everything that I want to do and I think little of the effect it has on my body. I think my body was in need of a miserable 24 hours if for no other reason than to get me right where I needed to be--flat on my back in bed.

S had to go into work that morning. I called into work telling them I wouldn't be there. My incredible sister and nieces came to my rescue as they took Bean for the better part of the day allowing me the most wonderful and needed gift of rest. I laid in bed thinking of all of the plans I had made for the upcoming week. And I no longer cared. All I wanted to do was sleep and get better.

Thankfully it was a fast moving bug/food poisoning incident (I still have no clue what caused this and probably won't unless Bean or S get sick as well) and I am currently feeling 100% better than I did this time yesterday.

But one thing hasn't changed and that is that I realized it simply isn't important if not all of the gifts are "cover of a magazine"-worthily-wrapped. I probably won't get all of my cards mailed this year but instead will focus on getting them to the ones who will care the most--my family (who also won't care if they don't get them until after Christmas.) Those sugar cookies aren't going to get baked. But then I'm pretty sure snowflake and snowmen cookies are still welcome in January so I'll just do it then. Things are okay as they are and I am most excited to spend time with my family this upcoming weekend. And they won't care a bit that I haven't had time to bring homemade gingerbread to the party.

So, albeit a harsh way to remind me to slow down, getting sick really couldn't have come at a better time.

And I was able to spend a few hours resting this morning while Bean brought me a dozen of her favorite books. We snuggled together on the couch by the Christmas Tree. It was Awesome.

Looking through pictures...

...will somebody please tell me how we went from this


to this




to this?

And so quickly?!

there must be some secret to making time slow down a little...

Since my last post...

...we've

celebrated Thanksgiving,


made our annual trip to the Festival of Trees with my mom,

(Bean's favorite tree, obviously. Good thing she was securely strapped into her stroller or she would have been up the tree!)



(And my favorite Gingerbread House. Some people amaze me!)


tried to avoid the frightful weather,

(But these are really so beautiful, right?!)


had a playdate,


and been Christmas crafting.


And to celebrate all of this Christmas crafting I have finally decided to start a new blog. It has been in the *mental works* for some time (I've even had the URL reserved for a few months after a major AHA moment at work) but being motivated enough to finally get it out there didn't occur until just a few days ago. I have always wanted to post the little crafts I've done, recipes I've tried, all that fun stuff, but overall haven't wanted to do it on this blog. So since I have absolutely nothing else going on in my life (bold type=heavy on the sarcasm) I decided what the heck?!

As to the title: I believe I have mentioned before that I work a 7 on/7 off job which gives me the privilege of being a stay-at-home mom--every other week. Hence the title, "My Week Off." If you want to follow it, awesome! If not, that's totally okay, too. But after the 1st post I can already tell I'm going to have a lot of fun doing it so I guess that's a good enough reason for me to keep going!

I guess living on the side of the mountain we could expect to wake up to a crapload (and actual measurement, by the way) of snow this morning. We came home from a family date last night to 3 inches of snow at our house. Only then did we realize that our steep driveway might be a problem in the winter. Oops. Once S shoveled a path for our car and luckily we got into the garage without any further incident.

Snow at our new home feels so much more magical. As we looked out over our backyard last night it literally felt like we were the only home for miles. Oddly, I think I'm ready for winter this year. Bean is too. We kept trying to keep her head covered last night but she just wanted to throw her head back and catch snowflakes on her tongue. Magical.

~

S has been busily working to two-tone the paint in our home. It has made such a difference. I'll post some pictures when it's all done. We are also getting some custom built furniture installed in our front room in the next few months for our tv and such. I also hung up Bean's name in her room yesterday. So we are slowly getting there.

~

Part of our date last night included heading over to B&N so I could register my nook. (We don't have a router. Yet.) So far I am not missing the feeling of turning pages in a book AT ALL. It's almost easier to read. I felt like kind of a dork asking the lady at the information desk at B&N how to access the county library system (seeing as in they are in the business of selling books) but she was really nice and gave me a quick tutorial. I checked out my first e-book in less than half-an-hour including the time it took to download the reader program onto our computer. So my review thus far, in case anyone is interested, is very positive. You should try one for yourself!

~

We had our family pictures taken again this year by these guys. They are so talented and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

It started off as an idea to just have Bean's 1 year pictures done with a few shots of her in her Halloween costume. Then S had the idea of wearing his class A uniform and getting a few shots with her. Then I decided I wanted to be in the pictures as well! I was amazed when I compared these pictures to the ones of Bean last spring at Temple Square to see how much she had grown.

2-9

I celebrated my birthday on Monday. It was raining when I woke up which might put some people in a bad mood but I absolutely loved it. S came home from work and took Bean so that I could enjoy a nice relaxing bath (first time I've ever used the tub in our new house...what took me so long?!)

Possibly the best part of my day was when S took Bean out to do some "secret shopping" and I was left home. All alone. I cranked up Pandora and broke out my scrapbooking supplies. It was so great! It's not that I don't love being home with Bean and S but, well, it can be a little distracting at times. Especially since Bean's newest game involves hiding my supplies in places known only to her. (Example: I found my embossing pen in the laundry room. ???)

I had to go see my neurologist and the dentist that day. Yup, I'll probably not schedule Dr.'s appointments on my birthday again. That was sort of depressing. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. By the way I had no cavities! Well, at least I didn't before all of the birthday cake I've been putting away this week.

My mom cooked the annual birthday dinner for me again. I absolutely can't wait for it every year. And every year it is just as good as I remembered it the year before. Bean missed out on the party. Being gone all day meant her naptime fell just around dinner time. I actually really missed her. Dinner is not as lively without her around.

And what would birthdays be without PRESENTS?!

My parents took me shopping to pick out a new watch. The last two I've had have died within a couple of years so hopefully this one will last me for just a little bit longer!

Bean got me this (S says she picked it out herself):

And S got me this:

The Nook is a heated topic. It seems either people love or hate the idea of an e-reader. I was very skeptical at first but after a coworker (who brings hers to work every night) told me about hers (...and after I realized you can access the county library with them) the idea became much more intriguing. This particular version (the Nook color) allows you to download children's interactive books and it has Pandora which I am super excited about. It hasn't been released yet so I should get it in a couple of weeks. Also, I'm a little technologically handicap so we'll see how it goes. And to go with this S's parents got me a B&N giftcard which I am trying my hardest to not use to buy books for Bean :)

So while I had a pretty good day, it was a little bittersweet at the same time because you can only go one place from turning 29 and that is turning 30. I might have a countdown going, but I'm trying hard not to dwell on it. Another coworker told me that her sister had a hard time with her 30th birthday so to cope she planned a trip to Europe over her birthday. I think that is a fabulous idea. I am open to Europe. Or Hawaii.

This little piggy...

I was going through my photos from this past summer and I found these pictures of her:

visiting them:

I love Wheeler Farm and looking at these pictures made me feel nostalgic for summer all over again. It really hasn't been to long since we were enjoying the blissful days of late summer. But it snowed this week. Which means our bimonthly visits to the farm for a picnic are over.

I've had a hard time lately for reasons that I can't really pinpoint. The seasons are changing and my life just feels out of sync. Moving has definitely taken more of a toll on me than I think I would have imagined. We are in our home home now, not just our starter home. That should feel like a relief. But I find myself being plagued by the walls that I loved most when we first walked through the home. They are bare and still reveal that our house is really just that. A house. I want to start making it a home.

Another thing I have deeply missed is the ability to go out and garden. At our first home we had a tiny garden that provided me more relief than just about anything. I would plant flowers and vegetables every spring and nurture them to adulthood. October meant hauling away all of the decaying plants and making room in anticipation of next spring. Not having that opportunity has left me feeling a little empty.

So I am going to try and haul away all of the stressful events of this year and make room in anticipation for what is to come in my life. With our home, my family, my job. I have so much to be grateful for. It is coming to be that time of year again when it is a chance to reflect on gratitude and blessings. And I am going to try to be more patient and maybe it won't feel too long until I am home. With a garden to boot.

These boots.

I finally did it. After years (no exaggeration) of talking myself in and out of buying some leather boots I went and got these last week:
I'm too frugally-minded to justify spending a lot of money on something that I may or may not get the use out of. But after wearing these I wonder why I waited so long. They are so comfortable. And I am seriously contemplating buying a pair of skinny jeans to go with them.

P.S.

There's actually a new post under the birthday one. Gotta love blogger.

They say it's your birthday; Happy Birthday to Ya'...six weeks ago...

I was thinking about my post about Bean's first birthday when...I realized I never did one! So here's a trip down memory lane.

I actually woke up a little early to sneak into Bean's room and take a picture of her at her birth minute. Isn't she sweet?


It was a tender moment as I reflected on the events of the previous year. Then I went back to bed.

All year I had told S that I would like to take Bean to the zoo on her birthday so that's exactly what we did. What we couldn't have predicted was that one of the worst rainstorms this valley has seen would begin the minute we pulled her stroller out of the car. It's not like I didn't have warning or anything. I haven't seen such black skies in awhile. But like any mom excited to share in her child's first trip to the zoo, I figured it would blow over. Which it did--ten minutes after we left the zoo.

It will still go down as one of my most memorable trips there, though. Bean didn't seem at all to mind the rain, or that the air temperature had dropped 20 degrees since we left our home. In fact, by the time we left she and I were soaked through to our skin and she was giggling and giving me love pats. It was very sweet.

We stayed indoor at one of the monkey exhibits for 20 minutes and watched the rain come down.



Then we ran across to some [dumb] exhibit with creepy creatures and stood underneath some bats waiting some more for the rain to stop.

At this point we realized this storm wasn't just going to blow over so we ventured out: no umbrellas, no jackets, just two crazy parents bound to make the most of the experience with their birthday girl.

The funny thing is most of the animals were taking shelter inside from the storm (hmmm...) Here's the baby elephant that is, in fact, only a few weeks older than Bean.

Bean looked so cute in her little sunhat/rainhat.

After we left the zoo we went over to S's parents. They were gracious enough to let us have Bean's party at their house since we didn't exactly know where we would be living at the time I sent out the invitations. Every single cloud in the sky had disappeared by late afternoon so it was time to start setting up for the party. I had spent the previous weeks crafting whimsical decorations and making the party into a living photo album of Bean's first year. Ironically I didn't actually capture any of it in photos the night of the party to preserve in a future album. (My mom says she has pictures, thankfully, but none are at my disposal to use in this post.) We invited several close friends and family and ended up having a really good turnout. I was so surprised and grateful! We set up a dessert bar with brownies, cupcakes and, of course, my favorite: rice krispy treats. I think S's nephews ate more than anyone at the party and my coworkers (many of whom attended the party themselves) helped me polish them off the next day.

So since I lack several pictures of the atmosphere or Bean's guests, I will focus on the EVENT. A one-year-olds first experience with their birthday cake.

Here it is before: (S baked, I decorated)

Here it is after:

Yes my daughter ate half of the cake. Here's how it went down...

We lit the candle while singing a very sweet and tame version of Happy Birthday to You (very unlike my side of the family.)

We presented the offerings. (We may not know alot as one-year-old parents but at least we had the foresight to salvage her party dress prior to giving her the cake.) S helped her blow out the candle.

Food? She's game. Here she is taking her first few tastes.

Here she is taking her 30th taste. She was a mess but she still ate it so daintily!

Here she is after I gave her a cup of lemon water to wash it down. A teaspoon made it into her mouth (to the delight of the crowd,) but at this point did it really matter?

And one of my favorite pictures of the day: Bean with her little buddy E who celebrated his first birthday a few weeks prior to hers.

The party came to a close as Bean was stripped of her frosting covered onesie and put in the bathtub by her daddy. I'm not particularly great at hosting parties (I want to get better!) but this was such a fun experience and we are so grateful to all of those who came and celebrated with us.


And to anyone worried about strolling around the zoo with their baby in the pouring rain and then giving her large quantites of sugar late in the evening: she slept like an angel that night.

Two weeks later.

On my goal sheet last week (yes, I have a goal sheet; it is seriously the only way I can get things done) I had listed to post on my blog about the fire and I...just couldn't do it for some reason. Today I finally felt motivated so I thought I would at least try to sum up what has happened since my last post. And it's all good. Things have turned out better than I could have imagined.

From S's first time walking in our home after the fire it seemed like it would be a long haul to get things cleaned up. But I don't know if it is an awesome HVAC system (or the fact that a lot of prayers have been answered) but I can hardly smell smoke at all anymore. Every once in awhile I find it in odd places. Our basement smelled for days (which makes sense because we have very little ventilation down there for now) and I caught a whiff from Bean's crib. But the new home smell has actually come back.

It's amazing how, 2 weeks later, I've almost even forgot it happened. I was in church the following Sunday and I couldn't figure out why it smelled like a campfire until I was like, duh. Our building was right on the fire line. There were several prayers of gratitude offered that day to still have a building to meet in.

So rather than go into every detail about the event (since I think my previous posts summed it up pretty well in 400 characters or less) I will simply say that I am grateful that we didn't lose our home that night. It wasn't until I got back home that I was able to look around and see all of the things that were irreplacable.

Life moves on. The last bit of residue will leave when we get our carpets cleaned. There is a black mountain where the beautiful oak leaves were beginning to charge. There are families who are having to start over from nothing. But this experience has taught me a lesson in resilience. And that I have an awful lot to be thankful for.

Oh, yeah. And I have some pictures.

Here's a picture of one of the homes that burned down. All that remains is the chimney. I took this from our front doorstep.

A view of the mountain from our front doorstep again.

This is the next street to our east. Anyone following KSL during this whole thing might remember the pictures of the home with flames burning around it, as well as an aerial shot of a home that had the fire burn a circle around it. The blue house you see is that house. The owner of this home actually shared his testimony in Sacrament meeting the following Sunday. It is an amazing story.

A view of our church building. The fire is still smoking 48 hours later in this picture.

Another shot of some homes in our neighborhood area.

More updates from fb. (It's just easier that way!)

Monday at 1:30 pm: Update 3: Evac has been lifted! Home confirmed burned to ground 3 streets over. That is a little too close for comfort...hopefully that will be all of the updates for now.

Today at 1:30 pm: Final update (I'll be putting pictures up later I'm sure): S says home is livable, it just smells like a campfire. Waiting patiently for our home to be assessed to be cleaned--sure it will take awhile. So if I smell like smoke for the next few weeks... :) Going home tonight and so excited. I'm not only overwhelmed by the sense of comradre amongst our community, but on a personal level for also for all of the offers to help us out with material things and a roof overhead. I am so touched, thank you. S said they had people cheering for them as they drove by in their firetruck in an adjacent neighborhood yesterday. I got chills. He stopped by our house in his bunkers, neighbors came out to talk to him. What a great way to meet neighbors! haha Amazing to see that we can all rise from the ashes. Literally :) And the cats are okay :)

We're okay. We're lucky.

Just wanted to give a quick shoutout--here are my facebook updates:

• Around 7 p.m. Sunday night: Guess who could possibly be going to fight the fire that has evacuated us? Crazy Sunday!
  
  ksl.com - Large fire burning near Camp Williams
  www.ksl.com
  Crews are working to contain a large fire burning near Camp Williams and Herriman Sunday afternoon.

• Just after midnight: The latest: sounds like the fire is pretty close to our street but I am optimistic our home will be okay. Still, I wish I had been home for the evac so I could have gathered some important things (including the kitties.) We've only been in our new home for 3 weeks; S pointed out we haven't even made our first payment yet! We both admitted that we looked at the mountain when we moved in and thought, hmmm, if that ever catches on fire that could be bad...I'm sure I'll be bloggin about this one!

• 11 o'clock this morning: Update 2: Just heard from S. He snuck up to our house at 4 this morning (being in a firetruck helps! No one questioned him!) It's still there but there is a lot of smoke damage. We are going to have to do some major cleaning. Just hoping our pets are okay. He is headed up to fight the fire right now. This is all so surreal...Evacuation still not lifted for our area so I don't know when I'll be going home. And even when I can go home, it's still uninhabitable for the time being. Taking some time off work to go shopping to get through the next couple of days. Good thing I like to shop! Thanks everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. Prayers are what made the winds shift from the north last night.

I probably shouldn't be working right now. My mind isn't exactly all here :) We are all affected by it some how. Lulu opened of the Red Cross shelter last night. KK's sister lives a block west of me and was also evacuated. Moreno lives down the road from me but was far enough away to have it not be a problem.

I can officially call myself an evacuee.

Starting her young...

S and I would agree that our mutual favorite vacation spot is San Diego. This last week we had the opportunity to go with our friends, the W's, and take our little kiddos on their first Southern California trip. I think our little Bean had a really good time.


Here are some highlights from our trip:

We opted to rent a car and drive down. At first I was thinking a minivan would be just fine. Thankfully this is what we ended up with instead.

We totally looked like a goober-mobile driving down the interstate at 90mph+, with the luggage and stroller strapped to the roof and all. The only thing missing was a sign in the back window saying Disneyland or bust! It was such a nice ride, though. I'm sold on Yukons. I asked S if we could get one. He said no. Four adults and three kids in carseats and it still felt roomy. The drive itself was a little tough with three anxious kids, but I think they did as well as we could have expected them to. Ironically, one would start to fall asleep just as another one would be waking up. There weren't a lot of naps taken. The brains of the trip decided to leave at 2 a.m. on our drive back, so the kids slept half of the time. It was much easier that way. Either way, I'm flying next time.

We got to go to the zoo again. San Diego Zoo is such an awesome place. We had taken Bean to the zoo on her birthday and were rained out so this was sort of a make-up trip. My favorite animal was the Koala. I think his sleeping position is awesome.

Bean seemed to like everything. Look at how close they let you get to the animals at this zoo...

By far one of the biggest surprises for me this trip was how much I enjoyed SeaWorld. I've been before but I usually get bored. I don't know if it was having Bean around or if it had just been awhile since I had gone, but I felt totally excited to be there.

Our friends wanted to sit in the splash zone at the Shamu show so we figured "what the heck?!" C aka "Astroboy", the four-year-old, totally got soaked. We got mildly soaked. It was a riot.

Here is an awesome picture I got of Astroboy petting a sting-ray. This ray totally just camped out for a couple of minutes and let Astroboy play with him. It was pretty cool.

This exhibit was new since I had been there last. Here is my favorite animal at SeaWorld, the balooga whale. They almost look unreal with how they glow under the water. Also pretty cool.

We spent quite a bit of time at the beach this trip. Here is Bean and her dad on Sunday after we ate at our favorite restaurant, Gringos. Astroboy totally took off and ran into the ocean. S barely caught up with him in time. They both got drenched and that water was cold! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

We were able to spend an entire day at the beach on Tuesday. I think Bean wasn't sure what to think of sitting in the sand at first but by the end of the day she was shoveling in it like a pro. A sad thing happened that day, too. We left her favorite dinosaur toy at the beach. Luckily I don't think she has noticed yet. Her Grandma H. bought her this swimsuit for her birthday and she looked so stinkin' cute!! Here she is sitting with J aka "new bff" . They are 16 months apart. And they wear the same size clothing. Awesome!

And what's a trip to SoCal without going to Disneyland?!?! The last 3 times I've done Disney (2 in florida, this trip to Cali) it has been Halloween time. I love how they decorate the park this time of year. It is so festive. I can't wait to get home and pull out my Mickey pumpkin.

Disney rides are the entire reason I love Disney parks. Astroboy was just barely tall enough to go on most of the big rides with the guys while we mommas took our daughters on less adventerous rides. We were actually able to do several rides with Bean. I took her on King Triton's carousel at California Adventures several times while we took turns going on California Screamin'. At first I don't think she got it but by the end, she was picking out the exact creature she wanted to sit on and laughing the whole way. (Astroboy is in the background of this picture--just a little too short for California Screamin' which is, by the way, my favorite roller coaster. Ever.)

All of us went on the Zephyr together at California Adventures. I thought it was pretty intense for a 13-month old, but she seemed to like it!

And the ride I've dreamed about taking my little girl on. Dumbo's Flying Elephants. This was actually the first motion ride we did. She was, like, WHOA! This is awesome!

I would have to say the moment that made this trip was when Bean met Mickey. New bff and her mom and Bean and I decided to make a quick trip into Mickey's house (thank goodness there were no lines) while we were waiting for the guys to do the roller coaster in Toon Town. New bff had been very timid around all of the Disney characters. I wasn't sure how Bean would react but when she saw the big mouse she went crazy!! She started smacking him (literally) on the cheek and grabbing his nose to which he took his nose and started tickling her. To which she started shrieking in delight. I will never forget it. I made sure to buy her a Mickey doll before we left. Like I said, I'm starting her young.

At the end of the day we are still all trying to recover a little bit. I told S I really need a vacation now. But it was honestly one of the craziest and funnest trips I've ever been on. I can't wait to go again.