FINALLY...Disneyland

(9th Update)

Prepare for a Disneyland picture crazy blog! I tried to narrow down, but there are too many GREAT pictures. :) so...enjoy!!

Walking into Disneyland, our hotel was right across the street (thanks Seth and Jess for the recommendation). 

Spencer's first look into Disneyland.

AND...here it is!!!!!! Dannon's crazy Disneyland, down to business, goofy hat wearin', fanny pack totin' self. Tyler and I thought he looked crazy, so I had to take a picture. :) 

Can't go to Disneyland without a picture with Mickey Mouse!

And Minnie of course! This was at Minnie's breakfast which was my favorite!

Spencer with Eeyore, who I believe Spencer felt so bad for because he kept trying to give him hugs to make him happy. :) 

I caught that wicked witch watching us!

Ready to ride the Peter Pan ride.

Spencer amazed by Small World. :) This is why we went to get these kind of looks out of him. 

In wonderment.

So we are walking into California Adventure, and I hear something in the distance. Wait...could it be?? REALLY!?!?! High School Musical!!! I love the songs they sing on there, and just the fact it's a musical. So we had to stop and watch, it was SO HOT (yeah while we were there it was 107 and 104 degrees outside!). 

While watching them, they picked Ally out to dance with them. 

THEN...they picked Spencer to be one of the SUPERSTARS!!!!! It was great. Although when they said his name was Spencer and he was from Apple Valley, I'm pretty sure they didn't believe he was saying Africa. :) 

We went to the Aladdin show, which I wouldn't have put in here, except it was a hilarious show!!! SO GREAT! That genie is funny, and does jokes about the times now. He did one about Jon and Kate, and then one about "tweeting my peeps". 

In some of the teacups in The Bug's Life. We love spinning round and round. 

Watching fireworks.

One of the fireworks....a heart. 

Another parade we saw, the Celebrate parade. 

Us in front of Mickey Mouse's note to us, thanking us for celebrating with him. He's so sweet. 

My strong muscle man!

Making a movie Spencer??

Then we decide to catch the Jedi training show. Hoping that Ally and Spencer would be chosen. 

AND....YEP they were both picked!! Here's Spencer all ready to get trained.

Training, he's on the left with the blue hat. 

Uh-OH!!! Darth Vader decided to crash the training, luckily at the end. 

Then, Darth Maul decided to stop by too?!?!

So Spencer fought Darth Vader....and....he totally whooped him!

They left and Spencer got his certificate of being Jedi Trained and ready to fight! 

Tyler and Spencer with Buzz. Spencer was all about Buzz and Woody during Disneyland, since he loved those rides the best. 

The next parade we saw was the Pixar parade which was LOVED! Our family was the only ones to go and see it, but it was great, especially since they would spray us with water. 

Yeah, those people on the poles were swinging all the way around those poles, up and over. CRAZY!

My favorite ride??? SCREAMIN'!!!!! This is me and Ally at the beginning of the ride. See you get on the roller coaster and then it takes you around this corner and you stop. Next there is a countdown and then it goes from 0 to 55 mph in like 5 seconds!!! It's crazy fun! 

Happy Birthday Spencer!!! Opening presents in our hotel room. 

Dancing with Goofy at Goofy's Kitchen (which we ate at that morning for his birthday). 

Chip 'n' Dale making Spencer crazy by messing with his stuff, luckily he didn't get too frustrated by them and laughed. :) 

Posing with Princess Aurora (or Sleeping Beauty), she asked him to pose like that because that's what her Prince Charming does. He thought all the princesses were so "beautiful". Notice the birthday ears we got him too. :) 

I have to say that this was my first time at any Disneyland (or world) and Spencer's first time. It was a great place, and we had a ton of fun!!! Thanks everyone who went with us. I know why everyone says Dreams Come True here. Magical for sure. 

Thanks Walt Disney!!!

SeaWorld!

(8th Update)

Okay here start the SeaWorld pictures. We were able to go down and there before going to Disneyland and we had a blast! It was just our family and Tyler's parents and sister, but we had so much fun!! 

All of us after our Arctic helicopter ride we did. I told them all to do thumbs-up and funny faces. :) Can you see the like father like son with Tyler and Spencer?? :) 

Ally and Spencer in an arctic cave. 

Spencer has this book called "Baby Beluga" and there is a song for it, at least on Full House there was, and so whenever I read that book I would sing some of it. I told him if he sang the song the Beluga would come and see him. So this is Spencer singing "baby beluga....baby beluga..." over and over again. I thought it was so cute!

Journey to Atlantis ride. This was Spencer's first roller coaster ride. I'll have to download the picture they take on the water drop of him, because it's hilarious!!! He liked it, but worried about the drops, so the second time we rode it we got stuck!!!! At the top of the ride!!! And we got to walk down those yellow stairs on the side all the way down. It was pretty cool, but Ally and Spencer were a tad nervous about it all happening. 

Todd, Ally, Spencer and I all ready to ride another ride.

The WEIRDEST looking eels I've ever seen!!!! A little freaky too. And there were a TON of them, just coming out of the rocks!

The biggest catfish I ever saw!

While at SeaWorld we decided to do a dolphin encounter, not the one in the water, the one outside. We were able to learn some signs for them to do stuff, and feed the dolphin fish. And now, of course, Tyler believes he can train any dolphin now. :) 

All of us touching the dolphin fin. 

He was waving his flippers at us. 

This is when he sprayed us, as you can see Ally in the yellow ran back a little ways, Tyler is trying to protect Spencer who was sitting on the wall and got totally drenched! And I was hiding behind Tyler. :) 

This next picture is when we played hide-n-seek with the dolphin. It was so cool how he did this! We "hid" behind the wall and then the dolphin did this:

jumped right up ONTO the wall!!!!!! It was crazy, I thought he was going to come over the wall. But so much fun!

Feeding him fish. 

Then we went to watch the "Shamu" show!!! It was AWESOME!!! 

This is Shamu break-dancing. 

I have to admit, Tyler did take the BEST Shamu jumping pictures. This one was the best I thought. Pretty awesome, huh? 

SeaWorld really was so much fun, and I will probably drag Tyler back to there again. I even made him buy "Spencer" a big Shamu stuff whale...okay so I kinda wanted it, but it seemed like it would be a great pillow! :) 

Back to VA

(7th Update)

My dad, myself and Spencer went to Northwest River Park one day to go paddle-boating. We saw lots of things.

The big turtle on the log sunning itself. 

We scared it, and got too close so it jumped into the water.

There's a deer right behind those trees. 

Beautiful view while paddling. 

Spencer having fun. 

Dad having fun too. 

Pretty flower.

More pretty flowers.

Spencer all ready for school!!! Nope, it wasn't his first day of school, just a photo shoot of some new clothes. 

Such a handsome boy! 

Utah

(6th Update)

After SeaWorld and Disneyland we went back to Utah and spent one more week there. Here are some fun pictures I took there. 

Spencer and Aunt Ally holding hands while on our walk. Spencer ADORES Ally. 

Spencer and Ally during a little photo shoot. 

Cute Ally. 

I love this picture of the silhouette of them. 

Spencer running far ahead. 

While there I got to have lunch with a FABULOUS friend! :) Sommer was a neighbor of mine out at Ricks College. She is expecting her first child soon with her husband. It was so great to see her again. 

Before heading out to Disneyland we gave Spencer one of his birthday presents before the long ride down to California. We spent his birthDAY in Disneyland. Anyway, he loved that he got a DS for his birthday. 

Beautiful mountains on the ride to California. I had to keep listening to Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" through this, to make sure I made it over every mountain climb that just kept coming. I swear that was the whole ride, up and over, up and over, up and over. 

My favorite picture. 

Took this picture, and then got it on the computer...now is that a UFO shining there???

Crazy named road we saw on the way to California. Can you pronounce it? 

Bridge we saw in Cali. 

While in California I was able to see one of my very bestest friends, Diana!! She's crazy, and wacky and one of the coolest girls I know! I love her! We went out to eat and I was able to meet her husband too for the first time. Which he's pretty awesome too! :) 

Sultry Diana and Aaron. 

Lewiston

(5th Update...did a 4th Update today also, see below)

We also had some time to go visit my grandma, who is just so great! Love her so much! She hurt her back, so she was wearing and brace, but she is getting a little better each day. 

This is outside my grandma's front door. We love this place that all of us have had the most fun at every July 4th and family reunion. My grandparents have been the rock of our family and we love them so much. Here are some pictures that remind me of them everyday. 

The birdhouse out back. 

The HUGE stone fireplace. Used many of times for fireworks. 

The tree that gave us shade, and our two tire swings. 

My grandparents live in an old LDS church. Yep it has a full court basketball court inside with a stage!!!! A kids dream come true!!! No there are no pews, and no there is no huge bathroom. They did do some remodeling and it was one of the old old church buildings, not like the ones nowadays. 

Spencer needed to get out of the house so he decided to go in the sprinkler that was freezing cold! But he still had fun. 

Playing cards is something you HAVE to do at this house. So Spencer joined in on the fun while playing baseball. I love the pure joy in his face in this shot. 

Our family with Grandma Rigby. 

3 generations.

My grandpa passed away last year, and I hadn't seen his headstone yet. Here it is, I think it looks perfect. 

We love Lewiston and are always so happy when we get back up there to visit. 

The Price's!!

(4th Update)

So we got to spend some time with my brother and his family while we were in Utah. So here are some fun pictures of the kids. Sorry Seth and Jess...totally didn't realize I didn't get any pictures of you guys. But the kids are DANG CUTE! :) At the end is some funny pics of Carter's many faces...bear with the pictures till the end...I know there's lots!!! 

Austin and Spencer with their pizza faces. 

Austin ready for his first soccer practice! 

The kids eating pizza. 

Cute Carter!

Kaylee, Austin and Spencer. 

Okay here are the MANY faces of Carter. :)

Dang cute, right?? :) I KNOW!!! 

Girlie Weekend!!

(3rd Update)

For a weekend while in Utah I got to have a girl's weekend with my very best girl-friends from growing up in VA. Growing up we were always together, so to help us stay in touch with each other we get to have a girl's weekend every other year. This year there were five girls total who came, but I was just SO happy to see these girls! 

We went up to Park City in Utah, and stayed at Bear Hollow Village, which we had stayed in before, except this time we stayed in a 3 bedroom condo. It was gorgeous! Here are some pics of the condo.

This is the eating area. 

Sitting area/ watching Twilight area. :) 

Kitchen. 

Hallway. There were three rooms and two bathrooms and it included a washer/dryer. 

Master bedroom which had a bathroom in it. 

Master Bath. 

This is the third bedroom, on the other wall was a closet, dresser and a TV. The second bedroom had a queen bed with a closet, dresser and TV. 

Here's Laura looking very professional while looking through movies. We watched SO many this weekend, I LOVE IT! :) 

Mickelle pondering what this weekend will be like, unfortunately Mickelle got sick, but she got better quickly. 

Cute Mickelle!!! :) 

And THIS..this adorable girl is Kate!!! :) I loved meeting her for the first time, and she was so cute because she remembered all of us from Friday when she came up again on Sat. She liked us! 

Bonnie and her little girl Kate. 

Funny Bonnie. 

McBaby came too!!! Actually her name is McKenna, and it was wonderful to see her again!! She is going to be such a heartbreaker when she gets older with those bright blue eyes. Kate loved McKenna too. 

McKenna not quite sure about all of these cameras pointed at her. 

Kate having a blast with the girls! 

McKenna tired out from all of this girlieness. 

And here we are!!! From left to right: Kate and Bonnie, me, Andrea, Laura and Kenna, and Mickelle. 

Hopefully we can get some more girls in a couple of years, and perhaps it'll be in VA this time, we'll see though. I'm just glad I have such great friends to be able to talk all weekend with, and that's exactly what we did!! We talked SO much, and found out more stories about each other that we didn't know, which seems impossible since we spent so much time with each other. It was so much fun though, thanks girls!!!! Love you all!!!