Disneyland

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Now to the Disneyland part of our trip!!! We had so much fun! We spent one full day there. It was plenty of time yet it wasn't enough time (if you know what I mean). We started the morning by riding rides. We arrived at the park at 8:45 and landed ourselves in Fantasyland! Dumbo was our first ride of the day!Elyse getting ready to ride the pink Dumbo!

Daddy and Mady getting ready to ride Dumbo!!!Elyse and Mady on one of the rides sitting together with Mommy and Daddy in the back!
Mady and Daddy on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!

Dumbo is a MUST (for the little ones that is!) Elyse's favorite ride from all of that was probably Peter Pan. We rode 4 rides in an hour. Which was really good! After each ride she asked if she could ride it again. We told her there was a lot more rides that we needed to ride before we could come back and do them again. After the four rides we went and saw the Disney princesses. That for sure is a MUST for little girls! It was great! We waited an hour in line. After we were through Clay and I looked at each other and asked if it was worth it and both said that it was so worth it because of the look on Elyse's face. I will never forget that happy smile! I loved that they spent time talking with Elyse and trying to talk to Mady. Mady was a little shy of them. I wish I would have gotten it on Video Camera. I was more focused on the pictures. Not sure why? Elyse met Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Mulan. She LOVED Mulan! I think that was the highlight of the trip.Hooten "Princesses" with Sleeping Beauty!

I really liked Snow White with Mady. She was the only
one Madyson would go up to by herself!Elyse with Mulan. I think Clay took some better ones with his camera. At least I will have those for my scrapbook!

After the princesses we made our way to see Mickey and Minney. Here again you can't leave Disney without seeing the ones who made it famous!!! Elyse was really excited to see Mickey. Madyson was scared silly of him so we only got the picture of Elyse with Mickey Mouse.

Elyse happy to be sitting on Mickey's Chair in his house!Elyse playing on Mickey's Crazy Piano!!!

Mady and Daddy waiting to see Mickey. She looks excited...ok not really.
Elyse with Mickey Mouse! She was so excited to see him! Can you tell on this one?!?!Elyse and Minney Mouse!


Hooten Family with Minney Mouse! My favorite photo from our Vacation! Well, this may be the only family photo we have.

Minney was another story. Mady LOVED Minney! She even took a good picture with all of us in it! It was great! I bought a frame that will go perfectly with that picture! Elyse loved Minney's house and would have spent ALL day in there if I would have let her!

After that the girls were starting to get tired so it was off for a snack and to get Fast Pass tickets for Toy Story Mania. By the time we got the Fast Pass tickets Mady had fallen asleep. So it was off to give the girls and us naps!

We came back and weren't sure if we could use the Fast Pass tickets since it was way after the designated time and sure enough we could! Which was good and bad. Because if I would have known this I would have grabbed Fast Passes for all the popular rides because the park was ridiculously crowded by the time we came back.

Then it was off to buy the girls their Mickey Mouse ears of there choice. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of Mady in hers and it got lost between the Disneyland and the hotel that night. :(Elyse's Princess Minney Mouse ears! They even monogrammed her name for free!

Elyse like Toy Story, but not as much as the rides earlier in the day. We rode Autopia next. That was a fun ride! They even gave the kids there own driver's license. Elyse LOVED that!

We also went on...
*The Jungle Cruise (a nice break from the heat!),
*Pirates of the Caribbean (couldn't go to Disney without going on that ride! When the 1st movie came out that was our first date!) They even had Jack Sparrows character from the movie. It looked IDENTICAL to how Johnny Depp looked in the movie. I had to do a double take a few times! It was great!
* The Haunted Mansion (Elyse thought it was scary at first and then at the end she said it wasn't scary. I think it just scared her that at the beginning the lights went out and it was completely black inside.

The wait times weren't too bad for the rides. Clay and I talked about it and they actually have things for you to look at while you are waiting. Disney was a GENIUS! That is all I have to say!

Unfortunately we didn't make it on any of the big rides that I wanted to do. The lines for those were ridiculous! I didn't want to wait an hour and a half with a toddler and a preschooler. TORTURE! Next time they will both be big enough to ride them and that will give them something to look forward too!

We had a great time! When it started to get dark we went and saw the Fantasmic show! AMAMAZING!!! The girls were so tired by this time we put them in the stroller and found a good spot to park and watch the fireworks. They were both SOUND ASLEEP before the fireworks were even over! We went and sat under a pavillion. Earlier in the day Clay went and bought me a T-shirt (that was too small) so I needed to go back to the New Orleans area to return it. Clay stayed with the girls so that we wouldn't have to fight the crowds with the stroller. I brought back some Clam Chowder for me and Gumbo for Clay. We sat peacefully and ate dinner. It was totally a date night at Disneyland! It was great! We both looked at each other and decided we should where the girls out when we want to go out late and bring them with us ASLEEP!!! Granted it was 11pm PST and 1 am Central time. They were exhausted. After our yummy dinner we went shopping in Downtown Disney.

Clay had so much fun for not really wanting to take the girls yet! He spoiled them rotten! But we went to Disney and I guess that happens! It was a great day! I had so much fun with my little family! I love spending time with them! These are moments that the kids may not remember but Daddy and Mommy certainly will!!!

California!

Before I write about our trip I wanted to announce who won my giveaway for the cubes!!!

Da Ta Da da.... Rosie and Jessica! Congratulations guys! I just need you to email me with 9 pictures and tell me if you want them on photo paper or regular paper. Remember the regular paper causes it to smear,but it still looks way cute! Also Liz and Crystalee I need your 9 pictures as well so I can work on yours, too. The sooner the better we are still moving sometime between now and September and I would like that project off my plate before we move!!! Again my email is amber0684@yahoo.com.

Okay now for California pictures and stories!!! I am so excited to write all this down. It has been well over a week and I totally miss it! I would move there in a heart beat! Cross my fingers that some time with Clay's job we will make our way there!



Day 1 (Mon June 20)

The girls and I packed the car and headed to El Paso after I went to my successful Weight Watchers meeting. (Yeah for the success because I probably would have been more cautious on what I ate while on the trip.) We left San Angelo around 10 and drove 6 hours to El Paso where we visited Grandpa and Grandma Hooten for 1 1/2 days. We drove in and were greeted by Ashlynn (Elyse and Madyson's cousin!) We played in the pool all afternoon. And then Aunt Cari and Uncle Marshall joined us for dinner at the house after dinner. Our stay in El Paso was fun. The girls had a great time with their cousins Ashlynn and Bryson. I am so glad my girls have a girl cousin their age. It is sad that all the girl cousins their age live far away from us!
Elyse, Ashlynn, Madyson, and Bryson
The Hooten Clan!!!

Day 2 (Tuesday June 21)


The girls spent the day with Grandma while I went to the dentist, got the oil changed in the car, and bought a new phone. I wasn't happy about buying a new phone (neither was Clay) my phone has been acting funny for the past few months. Thanks to user stupidness but that is neither here nor there. I got a new phone and I actually like it better than my other one so hopefully I will have this one for the next few years. Clay would say FOREVER! It was a relaxed day. Elyse and Mady got to play with Ashlynn again. (Grandma watches them during the day.) We went to bed early to get up and make our 10 hour trek to California.

Day 3 (Wednesday June 22)

We left El Paso around 7 am. I realized earlier that this was WAY TOO LATE in the day to leave because of how hot it got in the desert! I had the sun directly on me for most of the trip. My legs and chest were sunburned after that! We stopped in Tuscon and ate lunch. We also stopped at a rest stop (not sure where), but they had AWESOME rock mountains. I had to take some pictures and some of the girls! (Top picture on blog)


10 hours later and we made it to our hotel in La Mesa, California just 20 minutes outside of San Diego in the mountains. We stepped out of the car at 4 pm Pacific Coast time and LOVED that it wa only 72 degrees outside! Now that is my kind of weather!!! We took a wrong turn when we were headed to the hotel and found a Dominoes was having a sale for $3.99 Medium pizzas. I was in LOVE right from the start. Who can get a $4 pizza in Texas?!?! We unloaded our stuff and then drove back to Dominoes to pick up a pizza. When we got back to the hotel. The girls and I had a "GIRLS NIGHT!!!" It was so much fun! I am sure that was the first of many more to come! I knew I LOVED having girls! We jumped on the beds! I know... a no no at our house, but Hey we weren't at home! ;) We then ATE pizza on the bed! AGAIN something we don't do at home! I think that is what made it special for us! I will remember that night for years to come! I had so much fun with my precious girls! We went to bed early Pacific Time not so early for our Texas time!

Day 4 (Thursday June 23)


The girls woke up SUPER EARLY! 5 am! It was partly my fault because I was awake and I turned on the light to read to try and go back to sleep. MISTAKE on my part! They were up for the rest of the day...well until nap time. I turned on a show and then tried to go back to sleep! After we got dressed for the day we called my new Sister-in-Law Jessica and made our way over to her house! We visited for a while and I got to hold my new nephew Bradley. I wish I had taken pictures of me holding him! He is ADORABLE Scott and Jessica!!! I did get a picture of Elyse holding him with my phone. It is not very good. Oh well. I am going to see if Jessica took a better one. Jessica was so fun to get to know! She has such a sweet heart! I am so glad that she is part of our family!!!

After we visited for a while we got our things together and all went up to Camp Pennelton to see my brother while he was "Working." In quotes because I don't think that we was really working. HA HA! We went and bought our discounted Military Disneyland tickets! Thanks again Scott! It was great not having to pay full price even if the discount wasn't great!!! We then went and had lunch. After lunch I went and took Jessica back to her house and the girls and I headed to San Diego to
Elyse's first small taste of the ocean. A much bigger taste came a few days later!!!

Elyse practicing her gymnastics on this brick wall. She was sooo cute to watch! I love this photo with all the boats in the background!


Mady playing on the playground at the park on the Harbor!

We then went and had lunch. After lunch I went and took Jessica back to her house and the girls and I headed to San Diego togo pick our Daddy up at the airport. We got there a little early so I drove around San Diego for a little bit. We were driving around the airport and happened to find a park on the beach near the Harbor. It was the perfect spot. We were less than 3 minutes from the terminal and had some time to kill so we got out of the car and played!!! Elyse had fun being on the beach for the first time. She wanted to put her feet in the water. She said it was cold. In my opinion it was FREEZING!!! Madyson would have nothing to do with the water. Nor would she stand still long enough to take a good picture. I did get one of her playing. What happened to warm water? Apparently not in San Diego at least not this time of year! She LOVED it though. We went and played on the playground for about an hour! It was then time to pick up our Clay.
We picked up Clay and started driving to Anaheim!!! Yeah for this next part! We surprised our girls (well mostly Elyse) with a trip to DISNEYLAND while we were there! She didn't have any idea until Clay told her at dinner once we arrived in Anaheim. She was so excited. She started dancing and yelling, "I'm going to Disneyland!" It was so CUTE!
After dinner we made our way to the hotel and settled in for the night. The hotel that we chose was called the Carosoul Inn and Suites right across the street from Disneyland. It was perfect! I will definately do that again the next time we go.

Just as a side note...this was also the day that we heard Micheal Jackson had died. My mom texted me. I was saddened by this information. I really thought he was a great performer no matter what his personal life was like! He will live on in his music that is for sure. It was interesting to read in my baby book that when I was born he was the most popular musician. But i guess he pretty much ruled the 80s!!!

Day 5 ( Friday June 25) DISNEYLAND!

This should be a post all in itself. In fact I think I am going to do that. I have already been on the computer FOREVER! I am going to take a break and make my next post just on Disneyland! Stay tuned! Hopefully I will be able to get that up sometime tonight!

Sorry for all those who were jealous of Boston

I am sorry for posting about us moving so early on. While I was away on vacation I found out that we are NOT going to Boston! His company sent us through a big loop! Oh well! So I am sorry for announcing it! We thought it was a done deal, but apparently not. I am slightly disappointed and relieved at the same time. I don't know how I can live THAT far away from my mom! Besides at least we are not moving in the middle of July! I am not even home from vacation yet! Just think of how crazy packing would be for me! So I am more relieved than disappointed. Hopefully next time we find out where we are moving it will be a for sure thing and I won't embarrass myself!

I have lots of pics to post from our vacation to CALIFORNIA! I will save that for a post all by itself!!!