Our 13th Anniversary

Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary! I love him more and more with each passing day. He started out as a mystery to me, a stranger.....this tall, dark, handsome man, somewhat quiet and reserved. However, as I started discovering all of the intricate pieces of him, I fell in love with him. I saw a man who would open my car door and take me out for a drive with all of the windows rolled down because he knows that I love car drives. A man who listens to me talk on and on about anything for hours just to spend time together. A man who wrote letters for me from the very beginning, that I still cherish to this day.

As we started out as strangers, we quickly grew into a couple, fell in love, got engaged after 6 months of dating, and 11 months after our engagement we  were married.  He is my best friend, one I can trust and confide in.  He is also a wonderful father to our 3 girls.  A man who would sit up all hours of the night rocking our babies back to sleep until he himself also fell asleep in the rocking chair. A man who works as hard as possible to take care of his family, to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads. A man who remembers the important things, and always holds my hand, who unwittingly cracks himself up, and always knows how to bring a smile to my face.

We have celebrated successes, comforted each other through failures. Celebrated new lives born, mourned loved ones lost. We have had job changes, housing changes, location changes. There have been lots of changes over the years. But I’m thankful that our love for each other hasn’t changed. It has only grown and strengthened, and he is still the only one for me. I have never felt my love for him waiver. There has never been anyone else on my mind or in my heart. There has only ever been him! I love him more than words can express, and I am SO thankful for him.

I want to thank him for always being a supportive husband, for always encouraging me in everything that I do. Thank you for always being a positive role model for our kids. You are loving and nurturing to them and even though you work long hours and late nights you are still very involved in their lives. Thank you for choosing me. I hope we have many more years together...Happy 13th Anniversary!
 

Disneyland

We surprised the girls with a trip to Disneyland.....they were sooooo excited!

On Saturday November 29th we headed to Saint George to stay with my parents for a night. The following morning we ate breakfast and headed to California. The drive was insane. What was supposed to take around 6 1/2 hours to arrive took about 9 because traffic was so bad....

We checked into the Disneyland Hotel and headed up to our room. We had an awesome room in the Fantasy Hotel on the 4th floor, room 2235 to be exact. It was perfect! It had a view of Downtown Disney and we were able to see fireworks from our room every night IF we didn't want to watch them in the park...

This Gingerbread house was in the hotel lobby:

This was the headboard to our beds. It lit up and played "when you wish upon a star." The girls loved it!
                                     

On Monday we were able to get early entrance to California Adventure and we took turns on the new Cars Ride Radiator Springs. Aaron went with Emma and I waited with Livi and Abby (she was too short to ride). Then when they finished Livi and I went and rode while Aaron and Emma stayed with Abby. I am SO glad we got there early enough for fast passes, because that was the only time we were able to ride it. It was fun to ride once with fast passes, but I would never wait the typical 2 hour wait to ride it without fast passes, that's crazy to me.

We spent the majority of the day at CA. We were able to meet Daisy Duck:

Abby got to meet her FAVORITE cartoon character Doc McStuffins. Abby was so happy that Doc gave her a check-up...

On Tuesday we decided to do Disneyland, and I was able to snag fast passes for the girls to meet Anna and Elsa. As of right now, if you don't get fast passes for them, then you don't get to see them at all. I had to run (walk briskly) in the park to a fast pass waiting line that was located behind the castle and I ended up waiting for about 20 minutes to get fast passes. Aaron walked with the girls and the stroller while I ran. It was worth it in the end, because the girls were so happy that they got to meet them and they got to see Olaf too.

Olaf

On Wednesday we were supposed to go to SeaWorld, which we had tickets for. The girls said they didn't want to do SeaWorld because they wanted to do Disney and California Adventure. So, Aaron and I were OK with that. Neither one of us wanted to drive to San Diego after the horrible traffic experience we had getting to California. So I called the travel agency I booked with and had them cancel and refund our tickets to SeaWorld. We then extended our park hopper an extra day, which surprisingly was CHEAPER than our original tickets to SeaWorld. It was a rainy day at the park. There were a few showers. So during one of the bad rain showers we went to the movie theater that was at Downtown Disney and we all saw Big Hero 6. The kids loved it, it was a cute movie which we will be buying when it comes out on blue ray.... After the movie we went to the parks, but we were prepared. I had purchased rain ponchos before we left because I was watching the weather forecast. There were a few more rain showers, BUT it wasn't bad if you had ponchos. The rain cleared out the parks and the rides were basically walk on rides, with very little waiting---like 5 minute wait at the longest. We met Captain Hook on this rainy day:

On Thursday we spent the majority of the time at Disneyland. We got our souvenir shopping done on the very last day. With 3 kids I am sooooo glad we stayed and did another Disney/California Adventure park hopper instead of SeaWorld. We barely got everything accomplished that we wanted to. Definitely plan at least another 4 day park hopper next time and MAYBE a day at SeaWorld....the girls were so happy that they got to meet so many different characters. The only main character we didn't get a picture with was Donald.

On our first day there we got to eat at Goofy's Kitchen, which the girls absolutely loved. The characters came around to everyone's table and visited with the kids for a few minutes, so we had to take some pictures...

The lobby at The Grand Californian Hotel:

 A REAL 6 foot gingerbread house:

 Here are some more pictures from our trip:

We are big Nightmare Before Christmas fans. Apparently Jack and Sally don't come out much together, because Sally's make-up is very time consuming. So when we saw them out together we HAD to get pictures with them.

On Friday we checked out and headed back to my parents house in Saint George. The girls were so excited to tell grandma and grandpa about their trip. On Friday night my mom took me and the girls to the Dickens Christmas Festival at the Saint George Convention Center and Saturday morning we headed home. The girls loved looking at all the different booths.....we had a fun trip....

We also have decided when we go back to Disneyland we will definitely be going during Christmas time again. We all just loved the atmosphere and decorations during the Christmas season...

Christmas Tree in Cars Land