Sunset Pool

My favorite hang out during the summer is the Sunset Wading Pool. The pool is only 9 inches deep and all the children are 5 or younger. The pool has a ton of little water toys and a water feature too. Much to my surprise there usually aren't too many kids. If it's over 80 degrees, you know where to find us. My little water babies love it.


Even though Nora can swim around on her own, Ronan is twice the work. He really doesn't want me to hold on to him, but he can't crawl or walk around in the water so he doesn't really have a choice. I was pretty desperate to take pictures so I had to risk drowning to capture these shots. Enjoy.


Ronan's favorite spot is the railing at the step. He loves when I let him stand there on his own.

Zoo Concert

My favorite time of the year has arrived: Zoo Concerts! We suffer through months of rain awaiting our perfect summers here in Oregon. The best way to enjoy the weather is to picnic at the zoo while listening to live music. We went to our first concert of the season this past week. It was just as good as we remembered! Nora loves dancing with all the other kids and Ronan was on a mission to knock over a beer. I can't wait for our next concert.

Notice that Nora has a Little Mermaid chair. Ronan loves standing on these chairs. He would bounce to the music. Nora joined in the fun.

I don't think any picture has ever captured my life so accurately.

Jeff usually takes Nora up to the front so she can't really show off her dance moves. The two of them love music.

Children's Museum

Taking Ronan to the Children's Museum is becoming much more fun. He's at an age where he's into everything. He's not walking yet, but he wants to be standing. He and Nora always have a great time here.


This is Ronan in a tree. The cord that he is holding onto is actually a light that will write on the dark walls. It's pretty cool, but Ronan just wanted to put it in his mouth.



The baby garden area is perfect for Ronan. He could spend hours in there. I'm so glad that they've updated this portion of the museum.

Jeff's Day

Jeff's birthday happened to fall on Father's Day this year. We didn't do much to celebrate this year even though Jeff deserves a day of recognition for everything he does for us. We did manage to go on a hike at Tryon Creek in the morning, which is one of Jeff's favorite activities.

Nora is such a Daddy's girl. She's so lucky to have such a great dad.

I only agree to go on hikes if we stop by Starbucks first.

Good Parenting

Jeff and I both know that we aren't winning any parent of the year awards. It might have something to do with finding humor in pictures like these. Ronan doesn't seem to mind!

Princess Party

Can you believe that the day after we came home from Disneyland Nora had a princess party to go to? Lucky girl. She wore the Princess Ariel costume that my mom got her in Disneyland. You can't tell, but she has red glitter in her hair and I even painted her finger nails for the big party. I let Jeff take her, because I knew how much he missed her. I was just a little jealous but enjoyed the two hours I had at home with just Ronan.
Nora loved the crown that she made at the party. We had to hang it on our art wall as soon as she came home.

What's a princess party without a cupcake?

Nora loves dancing with the other princesses.

I know she was so happy to wear her princess dress!

Nora's best friend, Aubrey, was also at the princess party. Lucky for Jeff so was her dad! Jeff was so good to take Nora to the princess party. He's such a good dad.

Parade

I really wanted to see a parade while we were at Disneyland. On our last day there we took a break on Main Street as they were setting up for the Celebration Parade. We decided that we would wait for it to arrive. The parade wasn't what you would normally think of in terms of a parade. I would describe it as more of a moving show. The floats pulled in front of us and performed for about 20 minutes before moving on to the next station. The show was amazing and worth the hour long wait. Nora loved every minute of it.

At one point they invited the kids from the audience to join them in a dance. Nora jumped up with Nana and joined right in. I really think she thought she was the star of the show at this point.

This is one of the floats that came by. There were three giant floats that parked and then all the performers from the floats danced together for the show.

This is a picture of us waiting for the parade to come.

As we were waiting there were several performers that stopped by. There was this singing group and a really great band too.

Carousel Ride

It's funny how even just a simple carousel ride is a major event when we're at Disneyland. Ronan didn't actually enjoy the ride, but managed not to cry.


Ronan and his mama.


Nora rode with Tank.

This is a picture we took while we were standing in line. It's hard work to carry two babies.

Dumbo

Although Nora had never heard of Dumbo before our trip to Disneyland, she quickly decided she like him. Dumbo flew across the night sky as part of the fireworks display. Nora and Tank also went on the ride together. We'll have to watch the movie some day!

After Nora went on the ride we took a picture of Nora and Ronan in Dumbo.

Nora and Tank were flying low on the ride. I couldn't even see Nora the ride was going so fast.

Peter Pan

Nora is only beginning to know all of the Disney characters. Some we have learned about through movies, but most of them have come from books. It was fun to identify the characters that we would see in the park. Nora would want to meet some of them, and others she would just want to watch.
Nora has really been captivated by the story of Peter Pan. She will talk endlessly about Peter, Wendy, Tinker Bell and Tick Tock. I was so happy when we spotted Peter Pan. We were very lucky because no one else wanted to visit with him. He spent several minutes with Nora. She would ask him questions and he would answer her. It was really a great experience.

Nora was star struck hanging out with Peter Pan.

This is a picture from when Nora and Peter were talking. He took her so seriously and wanted to know all about her costume.

Princesses

Here are the pictures we took with Nora as each of the princesses came to our table during lunch. Nora became more excited with each princess. I really wish that Ariel had been last instead of first!

Lunch at Ariel's Grotto

I didn't really have much time to research Ariel's Grotto before making the reservations. The only thing I really cared about was that Nora would have a chance to meet Princess Ariel. I have to admit that I was presently surprised with our lunch. Our service was great and so was our food. Not to mention that the restaurant was beautiful.


This was our dessert. Nora actually got to eat Princess Ariel. The seashell was also made from white chocolate.



It was a little difficult to keep Ronan happy during the lunch. He hadn't had a nap yet and we were trying to soak up as much Princess excitement as we would while we were there. Luckily with three adults we were able to keep two children happy.

This is my all time favorite picture of Nora and Nana. Before we went to lunch my mom took Nora to a special princess store and bought her a Princess Ariel mermaid outfit. I really couldn't tell who was happier: my mom or Nora. I know it's such a silly thing to do, but I know that I'm always going to remember going to this lunch with Nora and her wearing her mermaid costume. I'm sure my mom and Nora will always remember it too.

Princess Ariel

We decided to splurge a little and took Nora to lunch at Ariel's Grotto. I was very impressed with our experience. Nora was able to meet Princess Ariel before lunch. While we were eating four other princesses came to our table for a special moment with Nora. One of the advantages of doing this with Nora at this age is that she really believes that she met these princesses. As many of you know, Nora has loved Princess Ariel for a long time. It was so exciting for Nora to actually meet her.

Fireworks!

The first night we were there Sheila took Nora back into the park to watch the fireworks. It was so nice of her to do that because the rest of us were too tired for anything like that, but I really didn't want Nora to miss it. Nora loves Tank and they had a wonderful time at the park together. The next night my mom and I took both kids to the fireworks. Ronan had fallen asleep, but you better believe he woke up when the fireworks started. He wasn't much of a fan, but Nora loved it. Her favorite part was when Tinker Bell flew over the castle.

Tank loves to spoil her favorite niece. Nora's balloon actually lights up! She was so sad that we couldn't take it back to Portland with us.

While they were there Nora got to meet Goofy.

Water!

There was several water areas for kids to play in at California Adventure. It was obvious who had been there before because those kids were wearing bathing suits and water shoes. Meanwhile the rest of us let our kids run around in their clothes. The kids loved it, but I knew they would hate being wet when the fun ended.


Ronan playing in the water. It was perfect for him.


Nora was so excited that she would just run from one fountain to the other. She was so cute!

A Bug's Life

I had no idea that California Adventure Park had an area for children. We spent some time there while Katie and Tank went on the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror ride.

Nana and Ronan riding on the caterpillar ride.

I had my mom take a picture of me and the kids. We look tired, don't we?

Sleeping Babies

I knew when I signed up for this trip that I would be making some sacrifices, one of them being good sleep for the kids. We basically brought them to the brink of exhaustion. They slept hard and when they awoke were ready to take on Disneyland.

Mickey Mouse

We spent some time in Toon Town and had a chance to visit Micky Mouse's house and Minnie Mouse's house. The kids loved it.

One of my best friends, Katie, met us in Disneyland the first day. I was so glad to spend some time with her and she was a great help. My kids love her! This is a picture of Nora and Katie waiting in line to meet Mickey.

We made Nora climb into the window of Mickey's house. It was just the perfect size, I can't imagine walking by it and not putting my kid in it for a picture.

One of the challenges of being at Disneyland was making sure that Ronan had some free time. He was able to cruise around Mickey's house too!

At the end of Mickey's house you actually get to meet the mouse himself. Nora was a little nervous, but managed to pull it together for a picture.

Small World

Of all the rides at Disneyland, It's a Small World is probably the most well known. The ride has recently been updated and now includes several Disney characters, including Princess Ariel. I wish that we had had time to go on this ride more than once because it was Ronan's favorite ride.

You can see Nora's little braids as she sits up front with Nana and Tank.

I didn't get a picture of Ariel....Nora will never forgive me! This is the only picture I took inside the ride.

Waiting in line! The lines weren't bad and we didn't wait longer than 20 minutes for anything.

Peter Pan

In preparation for Disneyland we watched Youtube videos. Nora's favorite was a video of the Peter Pan ride. It was the first ride that we went on and it was soooo much fun. Nora loved it!