First we had breakfast at the hotel with a bunch of characters.  Ashton was in heaven!

Emmy was a little freaked out…Here she is trying to be brave.

We hurried straight to Pirates of the Caribbean but Ashton absolutely refused.  We thought that was strange since he loves the movie and loved the ride last year.  So we went on to the Haunted Mansion.  Ashton watched “The Nightmare before Christmas” all the way to California so we thought he’d LOOOOVE it, all decked out for Christmas with Jack Skelington.  Well, he HATED it and was scared all the way through.  Okay….so what did we decide to go on next?  Splash Mountain!  I LOVE Splash Mountain and Ashton was tall enough so we brought him with us, even though he REALLY didn’t want to.  Here’s a  picture of my poor baby being thrown into the briar patch…

And a video….

So, as you can imagine, he was way soooo scared of all the rides from then on.  We are the meanest parents in the world!  He was still brave and went on rides, but as we stood in line he would ask a list of questions that grew pretty long by the 3rd day…”Are there any tunnels on this ride? Any witches? Any spiders? Any waterfalls? Any bad guys?”

Anyhoo, here are just a few pictures of that first day with Grammy.

What are the TAR PITS, you might be asking yourself???  Well, right in the middle of Los Angeles are actual pits of tar bubbling right out of the ground!  They were there a BRAZILLION years ago and they are still there today, actually bubbling and oozing from the parking lot and random places throughout the park.  So some guy discovered some bones in the pit and then they starting going crazy and found a trillion other dinosaur, mammoth and other prehistoric animal bones….SEE?!?!?!?  I forget all the numbers and junk since it’s been a month.  If you want details, talk to Josh.  He remembers all this kind of junk.   What I DEFINITELY remember is trying to pull a metal bar out of the tar and how I was imagining it being my leg and how I was about to have a panic attack.  SCARY!  You do NOT want to die in a tar pit!

We finally made it to the Grand Californian at Disneyland.  We met Jason and Caroline Turner for dinner at C.P.K.  We hang out with them whenever we get a chance!  Even if it means ruining their family dinner by bringing our totally tired kids along.

We went back to the hotel to get the kids some sleep before the busy days ahead.  They were pretty cute all cuddled in their beds.  Ashton asked, “Mom, where are you and Dad gonna sleep?”

Grandpa and Grandma took us to the L.A. Zoo on Monday.  There were probably 5 other people at the zoo that day.  It was fabulous.

After the zoo, we hung out at Grandpa’s studio while he finished up some stuff.   Then, to celebrate my parent’s 36th Wedding Anniversary (sure, we crashed their party), we all went to my Dad’s favorite seafood place, Clancy’s.

The Happy Anniversary Couple!  They are THE BEST!!!! (My dad is thinking “Are you guys STILL here??!?!?!”)

I always wish we could leave the kids out in the car so we can enjoy our crab to the fullest.  They were pretty good, though.  Ashton ONLY wanted a fish with “a head and tail and fins”.

They did not have any fish still in tact (besides their display) so we convinced Ash to try shrimp.  He tried it and liked it!  I was so proud of him.

In order to have a moment to eat our crab legs, we had to make a couple of sacrifices…and I mean SACRIFICES!

The Mom’s

You know the seafood is gonna be good when they bring out the bibs!

You might have thought I posted all of our California Thanksgiving/Vacation adventures…Oh heck, no! I haven’t even made a dent! Since I am sooooo behind, I’m going to make it short, quick and to the point!

We all went shopping at the Valencia Mall. The kids always love going to the mall, but this one is way fun with a pet store (with PUPPIES), Santa Claus and a Carousel….

Then we went to dinner at…a yummy Mexican place…see what happens when I wait a month to “write in my journal”?

The kids played in the backyard for hours and hours (thank goodness for warm California weather!).  Grandpa brought his little tiny pet birds out and let Ashton hold his peregrine falcon.  Ashton LOVED it!  I was so proud of his bravery.

Once we were peering into the cage trying to find the peregrine, waiting for our eyes to adjust.  As soon as Emmy’s little face was close enough, that bird came screaming out of the darkness and scratched her cheek with its TALONS. (Who can say that word without laughing?  Thanks, Napoleon!)

This was truly a highlight of our California trip.  It is always so much fun to be with the Stephens.  We love them sooooo much!

]]> http://www.joshandjenn.com/2009/12/bonfire-with-the-stephens/feed/ 0 http://www.joshandjenn.com/2009/12/bonfire-with-the-stephens/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/joshandjenn/~3/KTZFAyR85xE/ http://www.joshandjenn.com/2009/12/thanksgiving-2/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:35:17 +0000 Jenn Carr http://www.joshandjenn.com/?p=1265 We drove to California for Thanksgiving this year.  This is what Emmy looked like MOST of the time.

We finally figured out how to keep her happy (playing games on Josh’s iPhone) and the last two hours weren’t so bad.

We were missing Rob and Angie’s families, but the rest of us were together.  It was lots of fun and VERY delicious!   We had to get the kids out of the house for a while Thanksgiving morning, so we played at the park.

We decided to go back home and help a little bit .  I was the table-setter, I’m definitely not a huge help when it comes to cooking serious Thanksgiving dinner.

We decided to start the festivities early this year and go Trick-or-Treating on Main Street.  I cannot believe the perfectly gorgeous weather we had!  It was a lot of fun but it quickly got completely crowded.  It was still fun to walk around and see all the costumes.

When we got home, Ashton was pretty tired and just wanted to watch Ichabod Crane and eat his candy.  Look at that, with that bag full of candy he really just wanted an APPLE!

So we went Trick-or-Treating that night.  We all started together, but after the first house we were separated.  Josh walked around with Emmy who loved it all and never wanted to come home, even at 8 PM she was still going strong.  I RAN after Ashton.  He and his friend, Mac, were running from house to house.  Ashton would skip houses that weren’t scary.  He was searching for two things: scary houses and KIT-KATS.  At about 8 (he was walking by then), he said “Moooom, there aren’t ANY scary houses and NOBODY has kit-kats.”  We walked down a whole street without knocking on any doors.  Then he saw smoke and a strobe light and ran to that door, picked a KIT-KAT out of the bowl of candy (THANK YOU!!!!) and then told me he wanted to go home.  Pretty cute.

When we got home, the kids ate some candy and watched a little bit of “Batman” with Josh and Kris.

After the kids were in bed, we were ready to watch our scary movie, BUT FIRST Kris and I had to dance to “THRILLER”!!!  I know you have always wanted to see Eleanor – the chubby Chipette, and Jeanette – the nerdy Chipette, dance to “Thriller”, so here you go….

Kris and Josh BEDAZZLING like crazy!

Josh was Richard Simmons

Kris, Cari and I were the Chipettes

Jason’s party was DA BOOOOMB!

So anyhoo, the parents were invited to come watch the kids in a Halloween Parade around the block.  We got there as the kids lined up and Ashton was all ready to go in the front…..

We borrowed some cowboy boots to complete Woody’s ensemble (Thank you, Aunt Koty!) and Ashton was soooo excited about them.  I noticed, as he was walking around before preschool, that he was walking strangely.  I thought “I guess that’s why cowboys walk the way they do, it’s the boots.”

So the parade started and my poor little Woody was falling behind quickly…

All they did was cross the street and then turn the corner and here is Ashton, in the very back…probably screaming in his head “MOM!!!!  HELP ME!  MY FEET ARE KILLING ME!”

Poor little guy, he still walked around the whole block with boots on that were a tad too small.  By the time he got back to us, he was walking slowly and all pigeon-toed and messed up.  Josh and I were laughing so hard while our hearts broke.