Our First Day at "The Happiest Place On Earth!"

This was probably going to be the longest blog ever, so I decided to break up the days of our great "Griswald Family Vacation." It started with this care package from Grandma Gooch, that arrived a few days before we left. The girls were so excited to open it! She sent some goodies for our 16 hour car ride to Disneyland. We pulled the girls out of their beds around 4 Am MST, and McKenzie said something that we have never heard her say before "No, I want back in my bed!" They weren't too excited about being taken from their beds that early, until we told them where we were going. We thought they would fall right back asleep, but I think they were a little too excited after that conversation. So, they stayed awake for an hour or two and then slept until 8 or 9 Am. We stopped for lunch in Las Vegas around 1:30 PM MST, which is really 12:30 PM PST. That was nice to gain an extra hour to play or in our case drive. Unlike Clark Griswald, we didn't see a hot blond in her red sports car; we did however see this nice van.

Fred was so excited because he has actually stayed at the Little AleInn before with some friends when he was in college. The girls were excited also "Look mom, it's AT!" McKenzie has changed the vowel in ET's name, he is now AT in our house.

We arrived in Anaheim, CA around 6:30 PM, so we made pretty good time. Our girls were troopers, they did great. I think they are used to traveling in the car, since we go down to Utah at lest once a month or so. We did have one little incident along the way, the road must have been a little too windy for McKenzie b/c she just started throwing up. Thankfully she hadn't really had very much to eat, so it really wasn't that bad. She was still in her PJs, so we just pulled off some random exit in the middle of no where and changed her into some clean clothes. So, overall they really did a great job for how far we traveled. As you can tell from the pictures, they were very excited to get out of the car and run around and wrestle with each other once we got into our hotel room.

Friday was our big day! Our first day at Disneyland and our big lunch date at Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure Park. McKenzie was so excited she wanted to go straight to Ariel's Grotto when we got there. We had to distract her for a little while until it was time.

I had heard that it would be expensive, but I knew the girls would love it and they are so into princesses right now, we just had to do it. I wasn't expecting it to be as fancy as it was. It was definitely worth $$$ b/c we didn't really see any princesses around the parks later.

So, Here we are with Ariel at the beginning of the lunch. Ariel was very young and pretty. Emma was busy looking at Ariel's pretty dress or maybe she was wondering where her mermaid fin was, I'm not quite sure. As you will see in more pictures, McKenzie likes to cheese-it. After our picture with Ariel, they showed us to our table where the girls got crowns that they decorated with stickers (which were way too big, so they wouldn't wear them but they had fun putting the jewels on anyway) and they got crayons to color with for a little entertainment. Everything was so organized there, I think they had a waitress for each table, so they were right at your side if you needed anything. The princess are introduced and came out one by one, about 5 minutes apart. Then they come to each table to take pictures and sign your autograph books. The girls thought that was awesome!

Princess Aurora was the first princesses.

Cinderella came 2nd and both the girls were very excited.

Then came Emma's favorite, Snow White

(Emma really was excited to see her, you just can tell in this picture).

It's so amazing how perfect the characters are, voice and all (especially Snow White).

Belle was the last princess to come to lunch, but I thought she was the prettiest!

This was towards the end of our princess lunch, we were all full and very happy. The restaurant itself was amazing too, this was one of the cool lights hanging down. It was so much fun! Defiantly one of the most expensive meals I have ever had, but so worth it for the girls.

Grandma Hawley and the girls ready for the 3D Toy Story ride.

Fred the little Fire Fighter

Emma and I with Wall-E

Fred and McKenzie standing by the girls favorite ride,

Heimlich's Chew, Chew Train, in "a bug's land" area.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

After lunch we mostly explored the California Adventure Park. We went on a few rides; the girls played on some slides and explored a boat; we went to the Playhouse Disney Live show; and the Disney Aladdin Musical. I wasn't sure the girls would like to musical, but they loved it! I recorded the whole thing, and the girls ask to watch it every day now. After dinner, we went over to the Disneyland Park and looked around and watched the Dreams Come True Fireworks. Which was very cool b/c Tinker Bell flew over the castle during the fireworks.

As you can probably imagine, this was the usual scene each night leaving Disneyland, very tired, and sleepy girls!

Good Times With The Family!

I can't believe it has been a month already since I have put up a post. I guess we have been busy. We went down to Utah with my mom the other weekend because my sister-in-law was being induced and my mom had to help my sister-in-law, Heather, paint her house. The first night we were there I stayed at my brother Adam's house (yeah to chef), who was at work of course. So, Heather (Adam's wife) and I hung out. We decided we would stop by his work and have him make us some pizzas. The pizza was so good, but he also made us some bruschetta. He made two kinds, the regular bruschetta with tomatoes and spices...but then he made this amazing kind with eggplant (which I normally don't care for) and some other toppings. Oh my, it was seriously one of the top ten best things I have ever tasted. You know like on Ratatouille how Remy is explaining what a good mix of ingredients together taste like to his brother, and there are fireworks going off as he is describing it. That is exactly what I thought about when I tasted this bruschetta, it was truly amazing. I'm drooling just writing about it, just kidding but close. Anyway it was really fun just to hang out with Heather and Jayden that night, Emma might tell you other wise ;) Then the next day while there was painting going on Adam and I took our kids to the Children's Museum. We went on President's Day, so it was pretty crowded, but McKenzie, Emma, and Jayden still had a blast.

McKenzie putting gas in Jayden car!

(and some random kid in the background)

Jayden pumping water!

Emma riding the fake horse,

she wasn't too happy about being on him.

Emma playing a little door lock, while McKenzie is figuring out the directions
(or so it looks that way)!

They had a great time! Thanks Adam and Heather!

The next night we went down to stay at my brother Aaron's house. They had just gotten back from Florida, they went for the NASCAR Daytona 500 race (which now they are total fans)! So we were all ready to relax, and so were the kids.

We put PJs on all the kids before they all laid down to watch Flushed Away. It was such a cute sight (except for the scary red eyes) to see them all in a row. Don't you just love Emma's hair!

The next day Brighton Lynn Vickers was born. She was 9 lbs. 4 oz. and you could tell. She had about three chins, big cheeks, and tons of black hair. The scary thing is, she was a week early. I sure hope I never have a baby that big, but big babies run in the family. I can't believe it, but I don't have any pictures of her. I guess they are all on my mom's camera. Oh well, I guess I'll just have a mental picture of her until I can get a real one. Congrats, Michael and Trina, she a cute girl.

The girls and I had a great time with my family, it's always good to see everyone!

Excited for Dinner!

It's amazing that I'm saying this, but I am excited to make dinner tonight! I found this awesome website, http://favfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/, with great ideas for dinner and kids meals. Anyway, I love the Sweet Pork Salad from Cafe Rio! Well I found a recipe for the whole meal on this website. We'll have to see if I can replicate it, I'm not the worlds best cook (that would be my brother).

Speaking of my brother, Adam Vickers the amazing chef in Salt Lake, had the opportunity to cook for the stars at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The event, Chefdance, went for 5 nights and featured a new "celebrity"chef each night. It's really weird to think of your brother as a "celebrity." He and his friend, Franck Peissel, cooked on Monday, January 19th. Their dish consisted of Pomme frites fried in duck fat, pan-seared Opakapaka "Hawaiian Pink Snapper" with a white chocolate wasabi sauce and Kobe beef short ribs with shaved black truffles. What a mouth full, I wouldn't even begin to know how to cook something like that. One magazine reported "Chef Vickers said it took him five hours just to brown off the shortribs; then he deboned them and cook them for seven hours in a very slow oven while the sauce reduced for hours." Wwwooooowww! And I complain about a dinner that takes 30 minutes to make! Patton Oswalt, the voice of Remy from Ratatouille, was one of the celebrity guests there the night my brother cooked. He raves about the ($500 a plate) dinner on his website and says how next time he is SLC he will defiantly be going to Tuscany with a feed bag attached to him (so he can eat more than his stomach can hold). What a complement!

Your amazing big bro and I love you tons!