triplets

The Happiest Place on Earth!

~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

So I’m finally getting around to the Disneyland post. Sorry for the delay! Honestly? It was an absolutely amazing 3 days. A bit crazy at times, and far different from the Disney experiences of teenage and college years, but worth every minute of it!

We made amazing time headed down there. Boy do car trips go better when you have toddlers who don’t require a bottle every 3 hours! There were a couple of monkey-related issues, but otherwise it was a issue-free trip. We might need to get one of those grabber things for Aiden so he can retrieve toys for us (like this) in the future!

We got there in such good time, in fact, that we arrived before the room was ready. You know, the big giant room where they had to move a small table so that we could fit three cribs. That room. It was pretty awesome, though, and now I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture. There was a curtain to seperate a lowered area of the room where we put the cribs, so we were actually able to put them down early and not have to sleep ourselves quite yet (though we did anyways).

We waited around a little bit, got into the room, unpacked, loaded up the stroller, and off we went!

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Once in the park we were off! One of our good friends from Washington was actually in town at the same time so we lucked out and got to spend a lot of the first two days with them, which was wonderful!

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We, of course, had to find the Star Wars area. Aiden said that he wanted to do that ride first, and daddy didn’t object. I think I saw a beam of pride as well. The Storm Troopers were out and found his R2D2 sweatshirt immediately and took to him!

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In past trips to theme parks, it’s always been ride after ride with nothing in between except waiting in line. With four kids? You start to enjoy more of the magic of it. The parades were a big hit (Jaina wanted to take off after them). And the kids really enjoyed the music and lights!

Of course, there were rides as well.

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There was actually only one ride that Aiden wasn’t able to do, but that was okay because the line was over 2 hours long for it anyways! We had a lot of fun enjoying the kids rides with short waits, and took turns taking him on rides while the other person hung out with the kids.

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Part of the fun going was that it was still decorated with all the holiday goodness. There were lights, decorations, and the cars in CarsLand were wearing Santa Hats. How much cooler could it get?!

Day 2 began nice and early and we had to rock the princess dresses and mickey tights. The first day we didn’t do too well with the napping in the stroller, but by day 2 even Jacen gave in and decided some sleep would be worth it!

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There were a lot more rides, some more time spent with our friends, and a lot of fun to be had that day. The benefits of the park hopper pass and Disneyland is that you can actually go back and forth between the parks all day, so Aiden got to ride the Buzz lightyear ride umpteen nine times while still enjoying our fastpasses in California Adventures.

Back track to how we told the kids about the trip – we had Aiden open up a package with some Mickey and Minnie shirts that a friend had made us. It wasn’t as effective as they make it look on TV (no jumping up and down, no screams, no real excitement at all actually until we explained it), but they were adorable for our last and final day there!

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We even managed to get a family picture or two, which is pretty unheard of. It was quite nice to have all of us in a photo!

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Overall, the magic of Disneyland still exists. It was there for the children in the music and rides and parades. For us in watching their faces light up as they tried to comprehend why the characters from that magic box at home that makes noise and shows movies were full size and standing in front of them. It was there for the newly engaged girl who had just been proposed to in front of the castle (in the group of people behind Aiden’s head in the picture). It’s so much better this way than just running ride to ride. While you are more frustrated by tourists and crazy people in the mobs of people at the park, it’s also refreshing to see all of the laughs and smiles from kids and adults alike. I mean, it’s the happiest place on earth, right? I can’t wait to take them back in a few years and see how much it (and they) have changed!

Thanksgiving across the years

~ hunt2005 ~ 2 Comments

Rewind to Thanksgiving day 2010…

I woke up early that morning, and decided (though I knew I was a few days early still) to test and see if our plan had worked. If the IUI had worked. If we really were going to get a shot at this whole pregnancy thing again. And much to my dismay, it was positive. Very faintly. So faintly that Steven wasn’t sure it was there at first.

The first concern? A neighborhood Thanksgiving potluck involving wine. Crap. How do I avoid wine in front of ladies that I’ve had plenty of nights enjoying a glass or two with while our husbands were out to sea?! I decided to tell a couple people, mostly because I couldn’t hold it in, but also because I knew someone would catch on!

During the dinner I went back for seconds. Was teased about how I was pregnant after all so that was okay. I started to feel guilty when I went back for thirds, but was gently reminded by my husband that, “You’re eating for three!” (our little joke since there were two follicles that we knew of, and knew the possibility of twins existed!). Little did we know that the next year….

We would have three little munchkins joining us at the table! Sort of. They didn’t really get to partake much (though I might have slipped them a bite of mashed potato!) And certainly were a lot quieter than they were this year.

And then we have 2012:

Chaos, mayhem, and destruction abound with three 17 month old toddlers! Hard to believe they are 17 months now! Fun to think back at all we have to be thankful for on a Thanksgiving holiday, and what the future will hold with four little (and not so little) ones running around.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. To those near and far away, to those home safely and those deployed, to those alone and with family on this wonderful holiday. Here’s to the start of a very merry holiday season!! Cheers!

In true MoM fashion…

~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

So I normally tend to be a little OCD lately. We get ready to leave half an hour before we really need to (and are often still running late due to unforeseen circumstances). I have their shoes in a bag ready to go so we can just take all three pairs out at once without searching for them. The car is stocked with extra clothes/jackets/diapers/wipes/snacks so that we don’t need to pack a bag every time we leave the house. The wagon is permanently stowed in the car for the same reason.

Well, today was one of those days. We KNEW we had family photos this afternoon. There was no question in my mind as to the date. I even looked on the site three times to make sure I had the right time down (I thought it was at 2:30, turns out it was at 3:30). Double checked it again to make sure I read it right. Never once did I double check the date.

We arrived, and I didn’t see the family scheduled before us nor did I see the photographer. I started to worry I had the wrong location. Checked the event page again – nope, I had the right place. Hmm, where is she?! I almost called, and decided to finally check the date just to make sure. Oh look. Not only was I 5 minutes early, but I was also 28 days early. Yes. Days.

So here we are, missing part of our football game, everyone dressed up (hair straightened and makeup on too!), standing in an empty park, and the kids are having a blast playing in the leaves. Well, guess I should at least pull out the camera since they look so cute!

I cannot wait to go back there in a month, with a photographer who actually knows how to use her camera, where we can get all six of us in a photo together, and get some Christmas card photos taken. But for now, here’s the kids today! It’ll be fun to see how much they change in the next month!

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