Disneyland Pre-Trip Preparations

So as you know, we're heading out to Disneyland in just a few days, so I thought I'd do a quick blog update about or Disneyland preparations.

Obviously, one of the biggies that I do is plan our itinerary for what rides we're going on when.  But instead of showing it to you know, I'll wait until after the trip and do a side-by-side comparison to see how closely we followed the agenda.

But I will show you our typical "things to bring" list for our Disneyland trip [click to enlarge]:

As you can see, it's pretty much like heading into battle.  Is there anything we forgot?  The kitchen sink, perhaps?

Speaking of the kitchen sink, there's a dessert called that at the Paradise Pier Hotel next to the parks.  

 Here's a picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/prettydaisies/2616259927/ 

Yeah, we're gonna get one for all of us to share on the day we arrive in Anaheim.

Lest you think we're gluttonous, notice that our food list doesn't contain a lot of candy and sugary treats.  We're trying to eat healthier on our trip--plenty of fresh fruit, wheat crackers, string cheese, etc.  One treat we are having on the drive, however, is homemade trail mix:

Last night, we set out bowls of various trail mix items, and let the kids bag their own custom mixes:

Elliott got a little too excited and spent most of the time eating it:

We've also been watching our many Disneyland trip home videos, and we even found Maddy's old Mickey Mouse hat, which Elliott has been wearing all the time:

Next update: Disneyland Trip 2012!!

2011 Wrap-Up Party-o-rama

"Uh, Andreas, you've neglected to update your blog for over two and a half months. I would advise you to post a new entry; preferably one which recounts the events in a brief but entertaining way."

Ok, Elliott the Nerd, whatever you say. Here it goes: Since we had to move to a new house Dec. 3, the old house looked like this for most of November:

But we still had Thanksgiving dinner, much the same way as the pilgrims and Native Americans:

(Obviously, shirtless Joel is playing the part of a Native).

The move went pretty smoothly, and if nothing else, it made it really easy to find the Christmas decorations. We put up the decorations before we even finished unpacking:

Of course we took a trip to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple, disrupting the spirit of peace and reverence there:

Along the same lines, Abe decided to put on his own Nativity scene--here he is as a swarthy wise man:

Judy and Libby and Ethan came to visit for Christmas. Amanda knitted Libethan a smitten:

The kids opened books for Christmas Eve (also note the fireplace video on TV--thanks Netflix Instant!)

Elliott is obsessed with the vacuum

So we got him his own toy vacuum; alas, he still prefers the real one (though he does use the toy one pretty often, too).

At work, we WERE going to have a White Elephant exchange, so I found 2 potential gifts at Goodwill:

This hand-crafted Harry Potter statue was both amazing and frightening. Someone clearly went to a lot of work sewing, painting, possibly even welding (since it's metal on the inside); yet THIS was the best they did.

I also found this picture/stitched image, which I find fascinating:

A sad clown painting happy clowns on clouds with faces, while another clown watches. And some of it is STITCHED. I want to know what was happening in the mind/life of this person. I gave it to Libby for Christmas, but she just couldn't appreciate it like I do, so she let me keep it. It's currently hanging by the computer desk, much to my wife's chagrin.

Elliott also had a birthday the beginning of this month. Look at the pure, unadulterated joy on his face as he sees his new present (cars toys):

He also got some new Cars pajamas recently--thy make him look very sophisticated, though the buttons tend to pop open, making him look very macho:

So, that pretty much catches things up, except this picture of our countdown chain:

Yep, we're headed to Disneyland in a few weeks--we had planned on going in May, but decided to move it up to February, for numerous reasons I won't list here.

Happy 2012 everyone!!

A Scary October

Man, this has been a WILD month. I started the month with a huge project at work with tight deadlines--I ended up working some 60-70 hour weeks (including working a full day on General Conference weekend). But now things have settled down a LITTLE (although it seems I'll have a pretty busy work schedule the next few months--that's a good thing!)

Then I won TWO contests on Zooppa.com. The first was the $500 "Early Entry Prize" for the Horizon "Back to School Blues" contest:



Then I won 6th place ($700 prize) in the Amazon Wireless Contest:


It was nice to have won something on each--enough to pay for my time and effort, at least. Now I'm just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the checks to arrive!

Amanda and I also got invited to a Pumpkin Carving Party by some people in the ward. Let's just say, we went, but it's obvious we're not fit for social gatherings.

Lots of other stuff happened, too, but let's skip ahead to Halloween. OK, this blog is being posted the day BEFORE Halloween, but the festivities started early.

Saturday night was our ward's "Trunk-or-Treat." After our fairly boring trunk decoration last year, we decided to step it up this year with a "Nightmare Before Christmas" themed trunk:

[Click on any images to enlarge]

We added lots of fun little details, as you can see, including roaches on the candy canes and a dead bird wrapped in the spider web. The kids also carved pumpkins:

Here's Abe's "Ben 10" themed jack-o' lantern:

And Joel's scary face with an axe in its head:

And Maddy's DALEK (that's from the TV show "Doctor Who"):

As usual, the older kids went as characters no one can recognize. See if you can guess [answers after the pictures].

Joel was Doctor Who:

Maddy was an old-fashioned, "Anne of Green Gables" era lady:

Abe was cartoon superhero Ben 10:

And of course Elliott was Buzz Lightyear (nice to be able to re-use at least ONE costume).

They all got plenty of candy, though before the Trunk-or-treat, we had to teach Elliott how to hold out his candy bucket:

But he didn't need any lessons on EATING the candy (or getting messy):

Well, that about sums things up--bring on Thanksgiving!!!!!