We spent two fantastic days at Disneyland to celebrate my 30th birthday. I love Disneyland! We had such a blast. It had been nine years to the day since my last dose of Disney and it was Sara’s first visit. There is nothing better than seeing your baby light up with so much happiness. Sara loved every minute of it.  From the rides to her favorite characters to the musical parades, everything was new and exciting. Disneyland was such a great vacation for us. I can’t wait to go again!

Sara was so cute with the Sword in the Stone.  She tried and tried to pull it out and then she told me, “It’s stuck, Mommy. It’s stuck!”  Too cute!  Her first ride was The Haunted Mansion.  We prepared her for the darkness and told her it was all pretend.  She actually really liked it and wanted to go again. Sara kept asking for a Mickey Mouse cookie, but all she wanted was to eat off all the frosting.  She didn’t actually eat any of the cookie.

Who doesn’t love posing with the characters at Disneyland?! We were lucky that the character lines were rather short (except the Princess line, of course). I was more than happy to wait for over an hour so Sara could meet some of the princesses. She was a bit shy at first, but once we got to Cinderella, she was so happy. Sara hugged her and played with her dress and even tried to snuggle with her. I’m pretty sure it was the highlight of her day!

Halloween is always fun and eventful for our family.  We love to carve pumpkins and make sugar cookies. We took Sara to a pumpkin patch and helped her cut a pumpkin straight from the vine. Most of the big pumpkins were already taken, but that was perfect for her because she adores anything that is small and calls them babies. She got two baby pumpkins this year.  In an effort to have a matching theme with our costumes, I made Jeff’s Peter Pan costume and my Wendy Darling dress so we could match our little Tinkerbell. I am pretty happy with my sewing results, but next year I think I’m going to pick something a little simpler.

We spent a warm Sunday afternoon walking the trail at Bridal Veil Falls.  Even though it was hot outside, the water was still ice cold. It has been several years since the last time we hiked Bridal Veil, but it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the scenery is.  I feel so lucky that this is only 15 minutes from our house.  We walked a couple miles of the trail and even found a little snake that crossed our path.  Sara enjoyed the ducks that were playing in one of the ponds and loved throwing rocks into the water. I’m so glad we were able to share this fun adventure with such great friends.

Pioneer Day was so yummy.  After a BBQ with the Newcombs, we made dutch oven cobblers.  We ate chocolate-cherry cobbler and peach.  It was so tasty. Jon and Kevin were such great cooks. We had a bunch of fireworks that we forgot to use on the fourth of July, so we had our own little light show on Pioneer Day.  We even let Sara play with her own sparklers.  I know, fire is not safe….but I was a little pyro when I was younger so I figured she would enjoy it.