Happy, Happy Mally

The Birthday Fairy visited in the night and turned Mally 6 years old. She was so excited to see the 6 on her forehead to prove it.

We spent her birthday weekend in Sacramento with cousins. She got to play with all their wonderful toys, open a few presents, go to Fairytale Towne with her cousins and shared her mint brownie birthday “cake”. The girls enjoy hanging out with the cousins, especially Dallin. He lets the girls sit and watch him do Legos. They think it’s great.

Back at the apartment we did a little decorating and made a balloon banner and gave her the rest of her gifts (a coloring book, glitter glue, a beach pail and glow stick wands).

Kung Fu Panda Day

With the release of Kung Fu Panda 2 this weekend, DreamWorks dubbed this "Kung Fu Panda Day." We got to go to the office and join in on the party. They had lunch for all and activities for the kids. For entertainment they had martial artists perform a Kung Fu demonstration. It was all very cool.Go see it. Robert Ebert gave the movie 3 1/2 stars.

The Perks

Stephen began work at DreamWorks yesterday. He likes it. The job comes with some nice perks. One perk is free breakfast and lunch everyday. Stephen loves this idea so much I am worried he will be so pleased with the food he will tell them he doesn’t need a pay check the free food is payment enough. Another perk is that Friday is family day and family can come and eat too. This Friday there’s a family BBQ. We were told family can come really any day and enjoy lunch.

Tonight we enjoyed another perk, free movie screenings. We all got to go to the office and see Kung Fu Panda 2. I had to sign a non-disclosure statement so I can’t say much about the movie. But I will say, I laughed. I cried. I was thoroughly entertained. I found myself smiling so much my cheeks were hurting (that’s been happening a lot lately). I loved the moral of the story. I totally recommend it. We all loved it.

Eva posing as Tigress.

We got to see it in 3D. Very cool.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We drove 6+ hours south to Southern California to go to Disneyland the next day. My gracious Aunt Cathy let us stay at her house. She lives just minutes from the Magic Kingdom. The girls loved staying with her. Their room was full of toys for them to play with. That night my cousin Andrea threw a BBQ for us. They served great food and our girls got along perfectly with hers.

The next morning we woke up to rain. We thought we would have to postpone our plans a day. Around 8:30 a.m. the rain stopped and the sun started shining. We decided to brave the weather and to just go. The weather turned out to be perfect. It never rained and stayed sunny and slightly cool in the high 60s. The crowds were perfect, too. Most rides only had a 5-10 minute wait.

I have been to Disneyland a few times, but it was the first time for Stephen and the girls. It was also the first time for me at many of the sights. Every time I have gone before I always focused on the big attractions, but since we were with the girls we focused on the small, simple rides. We learned early on in the day that the girls weren’t going to be able to handle anything even slightly scary. It even took some convincing to get Eva to go on Small World, but she then loved it.

Our first ride was the Peter Pan ride. I prepped the girls by telling them it would be fun and magical. They were scared throughout the ride and came out a bit traumatized. It was too dark and unpredictable for them. I didn’t sympathize with them and thought they just needed to be brave. After all, we came all this way for these rides. Scary or not, we were going on them and getting our money’s worth.

So after Peter Pan we got in line for “Snow White’s Scary Adventure.” The name didn’t help ease their fears. The girls’ animal instincts kicked in and the girls began kicking and screaming that they didn’t want to go on it. The line was very short and once we got to the front we realized there was no use forcing them to go. The girls won and we walked right out the exit. It was quite dramatic and comical for me and Stephen. The rest of the day we spent going on the calm and simple rides like the carousel, Dumbo, the train, the steamboat, the jungle cruise (my favorite; I love the corny jokes) and the cars (Mally is a terrible driver). We really had a pleasant day enjoying the park at the girls’ pace.

Mally with Mickey. We waited 30 minutes to meet him and Eva wouldn’t go near him. “That’s it, no more waiting in line to see any characters.” Needless to say, we didn’t see any princesses. But the girls didn’t seem to mind.

Around 4 p.m. Stephen was ready for a nap. Eva crashed on the floor within minutes of arriving back at my aunt’s. The girls were troopers and lasted the whole day. You can still see her satisfied smile.

The next morning we headed out to L.A. to meet a few of Stephen’s high school friends. One of his friends lives in L.A. and through Facebook he found out that two others would be on vacation in the area at the same time. We all met up at a café for breakfast. It was very nice chatting with the group.

Then we were northward bound for the Bay. As we were in the Gilroy area (you know you are near Gilroy because the air literally smells of garlic from all the garlic fields; it smells fabulous) I began to feel like I was home. I love Northern California so much more than Southern. It must be the mixture of cooler cleaner air, lusher vegetation and a little bit less traffic. I feel more at home up here.

The Tour

My mom requested a tour of our apartment.

There are a few blogs I follow from women living in SF. Their lives and apartments seem so chic and hip. I envy them. There is NOTHING chic or hip about the décor of our apartment. I know I should have embraced this summer as a time to hunt for great furniture and home décor through second hand stores and garage sells. The idea sounds fun. I LOVE doing that sort of thing. But, the fact that I can’t easily take any of it home with me stops me from even trying. I did go to Goodwill today because I just can’t stop myself from just looking. I did buy a dress, though. It was only $3.00, very cute and very easily transported back to UT.

Here are the pictures of our apartment, sadly, but conveniently furnished all by Kmart.

That’s it. Five pictures cover everything. The apartment has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 air mattress (surprisingly comfortable), 2 sleeping pads for the girls, 2 lamps, 4 camping chairs, 1 plastic card table, 2 plastic chairs, 2 plastic stools, and our TV from home. It’s not much, but it’s home for now and we are finding it is just right.

We’re Going to Disneyland

We decided to drive down to Disneyland while we are in CA and have some free time before Stephen starts work. We kept it as a secret from the girls and decided to tell them today to give them a few days to anticipate it and build up excitement. We wanted to make the announcement special so we walked down to a neighborhood bakery that sells Mickey Mouse cupcakes. The cupcake was the clue and we wanted to see if the girls could guess the exciting news. You can tell from the video below it took a lot of clues from us before they could guess. Once Mally really grasped the idea she got a little emotional and teary eyed.

The Beach

Today we ventured to the coast to see the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the beach at Half Moon Bay. It was the girls’ first time ever seeing the ocean. They were in heaven. It didn’t matter that it was a cool overcast day and they weren’t in swimming suits; they still played in the waves and covered themselves in sand. It was so fulfilling for me to see them in complete bliss playing at the beach. I overheard Mally say to herself, “I can’t believe I am making a sandcastle,” as if it was her life’s dream come true.

Here are the pictures to prove it:

Tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.

After seeing images of the tsunami in Japan, believe me I was keeping a lookout for big waves.

I kept finding pieces of sea glass. I may have to start a collection.

The drive to the beach only took a half hour. I can’t believe a wonderful beach is so close by. It was a windy drive through the mountains to the beach, but totally easy to find. I believe we’ll be going back a lot this summer.