Disney!!

February brought our annual pilgrimage to Disneyland. As usual, the kids were insane with anticipation leading up to the trip and, as usual, it was delightful. We are so lucky to get to go and we had a ball. If you are bored by a whole bunch of photos of my kids at the Land, you can skip ahead (or go visit my other website and read some fun stuff!)

This year brought the interesting addition of having a child who wants to meet characters. Lila talked for weeks about meeting Mickey and the Gang. Jonah and Noel are still terrified of characters and won't get within 10 feet of them. And guess what, meeting characters is kind of annoying. Don't get me wrong, they are darling

but you kind of have to wait in long lines to see them. Including staying in those lines when Pluto "goes on a break." 

But Lila loved it. In addtion to Pluto, she got to meet Tiger and hugged him for honestly about 4 minutes straight.

It was darling. And I have always had a special place in my heart for Tiger, so I got in on the "meet and greet" action too.

And as long as we were entertaining guests in Pooh Corner, we met Winnie too.

But the real coups de gras was meeting the Princesses. Those ladies have their own special meeting area behind closed doors with an extra long line to get in. But it was worth it. Lila is sort of in love with Snow White (who isn't?) and was dying to meet her.

And as long as you have waited in the line, you might as well meet a million other princess, too.

And when your daughter loves the Princesses that much and then asks you to get these little beauties, how do you say no?

We always have a lot of fun with the cousins, including when everyone, independently, decided to get a Perry/Agent P doll. 

And we, of course, rode many rides. Noel is pretty much game for anything. And he loves them all. He is just as happy to be on The Little Mermaid as he is to be on a thrill ride. Here are he and I on Splash Mountain (Papa in the background.) We got really wet that time...

I even talked my kids into riding the inappropriately named "Fun Wheel." It is that giant Mickey-faced Ferris Wheel in California Adventure. It has normal cars and then other cars on tracks so they slide back and forth as you go about 100 stories into the air. I haven't ridden it since I was a teenager and it is TERRIFYING. I put on a brave face, but there was a lot of screaming from kids. Here we are moments before the tears set in.

You can still sort of sense the tension in their faces.

Small world. Greatest ride ever. 

Flick's Flyers. I always get to ride this one a million times since I don't get too sick. But let's be honest, it makes me kind of sick.

Heading over to Heimlich's Chew-Choo. Second greatest ride ever. Where else on earth do you get to smell Watermelon, Vanilla and talk endlessly about Candy Corn in a funny German accent? It is a classic.

This is when Jonah told the other kids to "act cool" as we waited to ride the Finding Nemo submarines. Nailed it, Noel!!

This years big hit was Big Thunder Mountain. Jonah rode it once when he was about 2 years old and has been too scared to ride it ever since then. This year he felt up for it..and then we rode it about 30 times. They boys loved it. And they are pretty cute when the ride. (Noel's snaggle tooth has since fallen out, thank you.)

We are also big fans of Gadget's Go Coaster (really, Gadget? You were such a part of the Disney Pantheon that you got your own ride?) and Goofy's Fly School. Here is the typical reaction - Noel: joy. Jonah: Having fun, but also a tiny bit terrified. 

Speaking of Candy Corn...I am really at Disneyland for the food. I could (and should) write a whole post about that. But here is my latest discovery. You can buy these little bags of Cinnamon Crisps at the dessert station at Rancho del Zocalo AND you get get DC with lime there (only place in the park.) The Crisps are life changing. It was a pleasure. 

It truly is the Happiest Place on earth and my kids are always so happy and so well behaved and so fun to be around when we are there.

And when they act up we can throw them in this weird-skull-cage-net thing.

Or a giant toy box. (I'd buy those action figures.)

Thanks, Walt!!

Part Time Authors

So, I've started a new blog. It is called Part Time Authors and I am writing it with three of my good friends who are all three funnier and better writers than me so I am pretty psyched that I tricked them into doing this.

The four of us contributed essays to a new book about parenting in the digital age, blogging, family history and story telling that is coming out soon called "Tell Me Who I Am." It will be sold at the Story@Home conference that is taking place in Salt Lake City in March and then available elsewhere after the conference. More details to come.

We thought it would be a good idea to start something to keep us writing, promote the book, etc. So we did.

Please go check it out, tell your friends, link to us on Facebook, buy a billboard on I-15 or whatever you feel is necessary to help spread the word. We officially launch tomorrow so we are giving you, gentle readers, a sneak peek to start getting the buzz going.

(PS. Table and Singlepot is not going anywhere. You can stop panicking.)

I am a bit of a liar

It turns out I am a bit of a liar. Not a big one. I don't cheat on my taxes or tell people that I am 5'3". But there are a few things that I feel like I should come clean about.

It all started when I was at work the other day. I have an enormously powerful sweet tooth, so when I packed my lunch I had filled a little Tupperware with fresh berries and Cool Whip. (I'm all for actual whipped cream, but there is something delightful about that sweet, room-temperature, stable, vegetable-oil foam.) Berries and Cool Whip is not actually all that bad for you (if you are just looking at calories) so some berries mixed with the Whip isn't too unhealthy of a snack. But when one of my other manager walked into the break room and asked what I was eating I instinctively said "Yogurt and raspberries." Because suddenly I felt sheepish about eating a big bowl of cool whip. I don't know why - it just came out without thought. IT made me think about what other little lies I told for the sake of making myself seem more cool or worldly. So in the spirit of disclosure, here they are:

1. When people ask what I studied in college I say "English, with a creative writing emphasis." I guess it sounds more bourgeois and interesting than just English. Well, I had no creative writing emphasis. I just was a straight up English major. I did take some creative writing classes. Most of the time I didn't even do anything creative. I just turned in stuff I had written for other creative writing classes. That was sort of my MO in college. So, no, I didn't sit in hip cafes and write amazing poems and compelling short stories. I just read (or pretended to read) lots of books.

2. I read a lot of Young Adult novels. I do it because I love young adult novels. I think they are clever and well written and have great stories and characters. And if you are an adult male reading Harry Potter you are good. But if you are a 30 year old and you are reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, then it seems a little weird. (Great book, BTW. My review here.) So when people ask what kind of books I like reading and I say Young Adult, I usually follow it up with "I am writing a Young Adult novel, so I like to see what is going on in the genre." That is kind of true. I am "writing" a young adult novel (I have about 4 pages so far.) But that isn't why I read young adult novels. I don't get myself - I am not at all ashamed to admit that I watch America's Next Top Model but I get embarrassed when I tell people I am reading Delirium (also a great read.) So there you have it. I am a YA reader.

3. I didn't like Battlestar Gallactaca. There I said it. Sci-Fi. Critically acclaimed. Cult following. It seems tailor maid for me. But I couldn't get into it. I'm sorry!

4. I really do LOVE dogs.

Just kidding. I really do totally hate them.

5. I'm really 5'3. I wear really tall shoes.

There. I feel better.

Free at Last!

Gratuitous cute picture of Lila that has nothing to do with this post. Because I think blogs should have pictures.

So we are going public. Or, indeed, we are public now. We took this blog private a couple of years ago. We didn't really have a clear reason or thought process behind it. It just seemed that the blog was mostly about the kids and there were a lot of pictures of them and a lot of pictures of the house and it seemed like it would be a good idea to control who had access to that.  So we went private. And I think our readership went from about 12 to about 3.

Not that we were really worried about readership. We are not trying to retire from our jobs and blog professionally (unless you have 1.2 million friends that you want to have read this blog every month.) We were living in Oregon and the blog seemed an easy way to keep the grandmas up to speed with our adventures in pumpkin picking, and berry picking, and tree harvesting. (Wow, we sure did a lot of agri-tourism in Oregon.)

But we are back in Utah. And it seems less necessary to blog about every cute thing our kids do. (Though, fair warning, we may still blog about cute things the kids do.) So the blog is evolving. And I am trying to write more. (See my 2011 wrap up.) And Amy has told me she probably will be blogging less (even though she is clearly a better writer than me, amirite?) So we are becoming something new. And I don't know what that will be. But it didn't seem to need to be something private anymore.

So tell your friends and loved ones who got tired of trying to remember their password and stopped reading. They are welcome to come back and read every scintillating word! And feel free to weigh in in the comments. Are there particular posts you like or dislike? Things you want to see more of? Or less of? And please note: I measure my self worth by the number of comments I receive. So weigh in.