On Wednesday, we went to California Adventure. I was always under the impression that it was like MGM at Disneyworld, which it did have a could similar rides, but there was so much more there, including the new Cars Land! Eva loved the Bugs Life Land and rode many of the rides with her Nana since she doesn’t get as motion sick on spinning rides… haha!
For lunch, we went to the Rainforest Cafe! Eva loved watching the fish during lunch!
Usually when I take Eva on carousels, she is so excited before it starts and then doesn’t love it during the actual ride. But this Little Mermaid themed carousel was a hit! She did it all by herself and smiled the whole time!
My favorite ride at California Adventure was, by far, the Cars ride! Thankfully it was smooth, didn’t make me too motion sick, nor did it scare me with heights like some of the other ones. Great day with a great bunch of people!
Oh, guys. Thanksgiving break was perfect. We went to California with T.J.’s parents, his sister, and her family. We stayed at Disneyland for pretty much the whole time, except for the last day when we checked out Huntington Beach. The weather was perfect the entire time, the kids all did great, and even though it was very busy, we still got to see/ride just about everything!
Monday night after our longggggg nonstop flight from JFK to LAX, we walked around Downtown Disney. I literally cried because it was so wonderful-lit up with Christmas lights, Christmas music playing in the background, reunited with family!
The lego store was SO neat!
Tuesday morning, we all went to Disneyland. We had park hoppers, so the plan was to go back to the hotel when we were tired, but we never could make ourselves leave because it was so much fun! When Eva was tired, she just hung out in her stroller. Just about every day she would go ALL DAY LONG and wouldn’t fall asleep until the evening. But she was happy, so it was fine with me! By the time we got back to the hotel each night, she was so exhausted, she’d sleep through us getting her ready for bed. Easiest time sleeping at a hotel with a toddler.
Later in the afternoon on Tuesday, we hung out around the castle and waited for the parade to start. We got to be on the front row, which was really nice since we had the little kids. I thought the parade was so great! It was Christmas themed just like the rest of the park, so all the floats and characters were decorated and dressed for the holidays. Disney + Christmas = magic! And I’m pretty sure it was the best time of Eva’s life. She was waving like CRAZY at each character that passed and was just SO excited. It was amazing to see all of Disneyland through her eyes!
I know the picture above is blurry, but it still shows how excited Eva was!
Lacey and her family left soon after, but we decided to go on a couple more rides with T.J.’s parents. The exterior of It’s a Small World was incredible… it was lit up with an insane amount of lights and then every 30 minutes or so there was a light show to music. It made the wait for the ride very enjoyable!
Eva was so tired ^ but still enjoying the ride! “Are their witches?” She asked me if there were witches on just about every ride, about 50 times each. The first ride we took her on was Snow White, which turns out is actually quite horrifying! Haha, so it made Eva a little weary from there out. She was still a champ and pretty brave though. If she ever got scared on rides, she would just cover her face with her blanket.
Eva, as usual, cracked me up with funny one-liners. I showed Eva the pretty Christmas tree, that was SO big, thinking she would be impressed. But instead she said, “It’s TOOOOO big!” Apparently, she’s 100% okay with our teeny Christmas tree at home.
Hope you enjoy these wonderful Christmas videos on this Black Friday! Let Christmas Season officially begin (even though I’ve had my decorations up for weeks)!
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2014-11-28 12:45:382014-11-21 22:58:09It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
As usual, around a holiday I always like to think of what I was doing in years past.
2013 • Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade with my sister and her family
2012 • Thanksgiving dinner with T.J.’s dad’s side of the family. Eva is such a cutie pie!
2011 • Thanksgiving dinner with T.J.’s aunt and family. I was about to have Eva and was huge so this is the only photo I am going to share.
2010 • Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple! We went down to Enterprise, Utah, and had Thanksgiving with T.J.’s mom’s side of the family. It was the first time I went into the wild to find a Christmas tree. Can you believe there have been six grand babies born since this photo? Such young newlyweds!
Every Thanksgiving I also think about the little girl I used to mentor back in Provo, Savannah. She wasn’t in my life very long but she taught me so many lessons on service and Thanksgiving.
Right now we are taking Eva to Disneyland for the first time (don’t worry, I scheduled these posts last week). Words can’t describe how excited we all are! Last time we were in Disneyland was for our Honeymoon! We were such babies! And I was thin! Oh… so much has changed!
This was the last day of our Honeymoon after we had fallen asleep on the beach all day long. T.J. face was SO burned… hahaha poor guy!
Hannah and I had a fabulous time on Halloween. Since she visited us last year, we didn’t need to see all of the sight seeing stops. We also did not exactly stick to our Halloween plan. We crossed Alice’s Tea Cup off the to-do list and added Chipotle because we thought we could get a cheap burrito if we dressed up. So, Hannah put on the dwarf beard and hat and got in line. When she got up to pay, she saw the sign that said the burrito discount only applied AFTER 5 pm. Oops. Embarrassed, she pulled off the costume and forked over the full amount. Stupid Chipotle.
Next stop was Levain Bakery. I gave Hannah my card and had her get in line for us since I couldn’t get in the bakery with the stroller. She made conversation with the man in front of her who was a local. When she went to pay for the five cookies (which are $4 each, $20 total… and yes they definitely ARE worth the four bucks per cookie), she gave the cashier my card and it wouldn’t work. Turns out, I gave her my JCPenney card. Everyone probably thought, “Oh, poor Texan girl doesn’t know how to pay with a credit card!” Haha! Anyway, she was about to pull our her own card when the man she had talked to in line said, “Here… it’s on me!” Uhmmm…. THANK YOU! Best treat ever!
Next stop was the park which is where Ashley met up with us. We were very close to Bethesda Fountain, which I had never been to but have always wanted to see since it’s in one of my favorite movies: Home Alone. Also, Enchanted… and a million other movies. The weather was perfect, the trees were beautiful, we felt like we were in a movie ourselves!
We thought we’d take the long way out of the park to end up at the Natural History Museum, but somehow we got reallllly turned around without knowing and ended up on the Upper East Side instead. I was so embarrassed! I couldn’t believe I got us so turned around in there… but to my defense, we weren’t on the main path, we were back on little trails. Anyway, after another long walk across the park, we got back to the West side. By that time it was already 5 and so we decided to skip the museum trick or treating and go down some of the streets instead, one of which was closed off to traffic. I’m very glad we did that! It was SO fun! All of the lobbies and brownstones were decked out in Halloween decorations and it wasn’t terribly busy. We had a great time and at one point I almost started crying thinking about how wonderful it was. I loved going trick or treating as a kid and just couldn’t believe I was now sharing that experience with my own daughter and in New York City of all places.
For dinner, we went downtown to Brookfield. It wasn’t crowded at all and was perfect for families and big groups… so if you’re in NYC next Halloween, go there! Go there any time of the year too obviously, I’m obsessed.
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2014-11-05 08:59:112014-11-05 10:17:16Halloween in NYC
The Saturday before Halloween we had our Halloween Party at church. It was completely packed with people. The decorations were so cute and all of the games were very fun for the kids. I love this Jersey City ward, I tell you! They know how to party!
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2014-11-02 20:04:432014-11-02 20:05:44Church Halloween Party
I don’t know why I look so strange in this photo, I just didn’t know who to pose with a beard on, I guess. We’ll just say I am the grumpy dwarf!
I hope you have a wonderful day! We are all off celebrating Halloween in the city today. I’m taking Hannah and Eva to Alice’s Tea Cup for lunch, then trick or treating at the Natural History Museum, and maybe even the NYC Halloween Parade if we have energy!
