Thankful in 2017

Thankful for:

Family

Jobs

iPhones

Cars

Coffee

Heavy cream

Airplanes

Health

Orange Theory Fitness

Golf

Jackets and shoes

Clothes

Laundry machines

Books

Podcasts

Imaginations 

Pike place market

Crumpets

Hybrids

Olin storytelling

Christian building creations 

Trader Joe’s

Reusable grocery bags

Skiing

Husky football

Sunglasses

Eyesight

Cookbooks

Pellet stoves

Seattle condo

Friends

Highways

Snow

Sun

Apple Music

School

Blogs

Medical care and insurance 

DramaMine

Vitamix

Starbucks rewards 

Transportation 

House cleaners

Relaxation

Legos

DISNEYLAND

Was:

• awesome
• exhausting
• sunny
• fun
• slightly nauseating
• churro-filled
• walking-filled
• magical!!!

On the plane ride down, Leelee said there were some beautiful mountains outside our window so he asked if he could take some photos.  I think the first one is Rainier and the second one I am not sure.

First stop after the airport: In 'N Out. I was up to two burgers per meal by the end of our trip. We went 3 times.

These sticker sheets have not lost their appeal. They asked for two sticker sheets per visit.

This was our scene every morning. Dae and I would set our alarm for 5:45am so we could make it to the Magic Hour (get in an hour earlier than the rest of the park, at 7am). Leelee would be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Olin would want to sleep in.

I think I remember hanging from these horses in a picture when I was young.

A ride called Luigi-something in Cars Land

Grizzly River Run in California Adventures - pre ride. We got soaked!!! We packed extra shorts and socks for the kids, but none for ourselves so we sat in the sun wherever we could to dry out.

Toy Story in California Adventure

Horse ride in Disneyland. This horse was called Bug, but just as we boarded, they switched out horses for a black horse named Dallas

I'm the enthusiastic one in the family - can you tell?

My favorite ride - Radiator Springs in California Adventure.  Christian's favorite rides were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Honda Autopia, and Radiator Springs. Olin's favorite rides were Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Toy Story. Dae and Olin liked the scarier rides and roller coasters (Space Mountain, Guardians of the Galaxy). At the end of this ride, you race another car and there is a winner. We lost the first two times and the kids were bummed. Thank goodness we won the last one! This ride was SO popular it was almost impossible to even get a FastPass for it, so luckily we got right on during the Magic Hour two of the mornings. 

They do this chopsticks game. They entertained themselves the entire trip doing this game.

At Guardians of the Galaxy ride (Tower of Terror), they make you put your arms up to "scan" you.

Weather was very cooperative. 45 and cold in the mornings, 75 and sunny by afternoons.

Tarzan's Adventures

Outside our hotel, Disneyland Paradise Pier

Little fan

Mexican food for lunch. We'd do 5 straight hours of rides (7am - noon) and then take a break and pretty much be done for the day except for swimming and eating. Ha! During this particular day, we stopped for lunch and Olin says "this feels good - perfect time for a break"

Included in our tickets was Photopass, where we can get a photo by any of the Disney photographers and upload them for free. This first photographer was great - it was like a mini photo shoot. He told us to walk along this corridor acting natural and then he took some photos of us in front of the Disney cinema. Since these are the best family photos we've gotten in years, we decided to track down any Disney photographer we could find. 

Heehee. Since it was so bright, she told the kids they could keep their eyes closed until she said 1-2-3, and then open them. Leelee missed the count.

My bun looks like mouse ears :)

Dae and his mini-me Olin LOVED the scary rides. Space Mountain and Guardians of the Galaxy. Olin asked to go on them again and Christian asked to not go on them again. So I gladly stayed with Christian and Dae gladly went again with Olin. On that note, I was pretty impressed with myself - I could go on any ride (including California Screamin'!) and didn't get too nauseated, even without Dramamine. I just don't like free-falls, but love the twisty turns and stuff like that.

Grandma Joanne and Gong Gong drove an hour and met us for dinner at a Korean restaurant in Garden Grove! That was great of them. Food was yummy.

This is us on the Light Link Rail back in Seattle after our trip. We were SO tired at the end of every day, pretty  much falling asleep the second our heads hit the pillows around 8-9pm. Leelee had his Garmin VivoFit on so we were able to track our steps. We did 24,000 steps on our biggest day. The other days were around 14,000 and 18,000 or so.

Christmas Day!

#believers. Dae and I didn't really know about the Santa traditions (different wrapping paper, cookies, not putting all the presents out under the tree all month). But this year, for some reason we all really got in to it. It might have had to do with Polar Express. Anyway, the kids woke up this morning and reported back that Santa had eaten all the cookies, drank all the milk, and the 9 reindeers ate all the carrots. They had been really concerned about the milk "rotting" so they concocted notes to direct Santa toward the fridge.

Christmas! Kids woke up at 5:30am and we told them to wait until 6am. The main presents were Lego Nexo Knights, Lego Ninjago, Lego Star Wars (U-Wing fighter), nutcracker for Olin (that already broke), Perplexus puzzle for Leelee, and a surprise trip to Disneyland tomorrow!!! Kids seemed excited but not as excited as I had anticipated. haha. Dae got me an InstantPot and Creme de la Mer face cream and eye cream. The cream is seriously luxurious. I got him an electric knife sharpener and a Nespresso coffee maker, plus a sleeve of golf balls that I didn't order, wrap or even see. ha!

Kids assembled Legos ALL morning. They never get tired of it. How is that possible?

In a stroke of Christmas luck, it started snowing last night (first real snowfall of the year) and continued on this morning to a perfect amount for sledding near our house. We all somehow got nailed in the face with quite a bit of powder going down the hills.

We got the book "Yes Day!" and they had hatched plans to have their Yes Day be today, on Christmas. So far they have been allowed to eat Pez candies before breakfast, bring the humongous iPad in to Din Tai Fung, watch shows and play games the entire car ride to Seattle, and watch a movie at the Seattle condo (How the Grinch Stole Christmas). 

My friend Heather and I took our kids to Polar Express last week and it was fun! Surprisingly, it is now called the "Train to Christmastown" complete with the book "Train to Christmastown". We stayed at the historic Hood River Hotel. These pictures are a little jumbled in order...

On the way home, we stopped by the Stonehenge replica on the Washington side across from Biggs. Neither of us had ever been to it and it was really pretty.

Playing at the beach at Hood River

AJ and her cousins, Olin

North Pole

Olin's last Christmas program at the Primary school. He is top row next to green hat.

They wore their PJ's the entire time. Didn't change once - which was awesome.

Kelly babysat the kids while I worked a 2/3 day on Friday. It was quite nice of them. They even brunched at Sterlings. haha.

After Fujiyama Christmas Eve dinner, this is how Kelly found all the kids sandwiched in to the Suburban.

I have a replica of this photo from a few years ago that I need to search for on the blog...

Frosting cookies for advent "Make Cookies Day". It was fun.

They greeted me and told me they had come up with this awesome plan to play hockey with their rollerblades and these lacrosse type nets we've had for years. They were pretty pleased with themselves.