Happy Father's Day!

Dad, I need to take more pictures of you!!
This is from a long time ago.

I want to wish a great Father's Day to all of the fathers in my life, especially my own for always being there for me and being a great example of how I should live my life. And Matt for being an awesome father to our girls.

Dad, Matt, Don, Grandpa Ludlow, and Grandpa Blatter, you are all wonderful fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. You're the best and I love you all so much!

So Much Fun!

Angie and Graham came to visit us last night- as Rylee said when they left, "That was so much fun!" They are visiting from Pennsylvania while my brother-in-law is in medical school. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so it was fun to see how much Graham has grown. The cousins had so much fun playing together. We saw the neighbor's bunnies, jumped on the tramp, saw the other neighbor's dogs, and played on the swingset. It was too bad that the other neighbor's horses weren't there- it would have been like a zoo! We hope to do more fun stuff with them while they're here for a few weeks.

Home

Matt came home this afternoon. He of course can't lift more than a gallon of milk and has to wear a brace for 6 weeks, but he's doing very well.

Race Cars

I saw Rylee putting some of her toys in these shoes and asked what she was doing. She said these were their race cars. So after each toy had a car, she lined them up like they were racing. Too funny!

Matt's Doing Well

Matt's surgery went well and he's doing pretty good. I think he'll be coming home tomorrow.

Another Surgery

Matt went in for another back surgery this morning. It's for his lower back this time. We went in at 6:30 and he went into the holding room a little after 9. That's when I left him. I just called and he's not in his room yet, so he's either still in surgery or in recovery. He was more nervous this time than last time. I was pretty nervous too. I will update with more information later.

Happy birthday, Ricky and Lucy! (my brother-in-law and sister-in-law)

Happy Flag Day!

Disneyland Day 4 (last day)

Ashlyn loved the teacups-
I think this was when she started having fun!

Getting ready for the Storybook Canal and going through the whale!

On the Jungle Cruise- Rylee loved this one too
(I guess there weren't many rides she didn't love!).

Matt and Rylee went on Splash Mountain,
so I took Ashlyn on Winnie the Pooh.

Ashlyn was just happy watching the characters from a distance.
She especially loved watching Pooh!

Loving the Columbia ship.
She was able to walk and crawl around everywhere!
We had just ridden the Mark Twain too.

Finally sleeping at Disneyland-
besides Fantasmic this girl would not sleep in the stroller!
But the poor thing was soooo tired!

We went to California Adventure one last time
to see what was there again before we left and
Rylee fell asleep in the stroller.
So just Ashlyn and I got to see Donald.

Is that a smile, Ashlyn?!? Finally she was happy- and this was just before we left! There was a great worker here that made friends with Ashlyn and that's who she was smiling at. Where was she this whole time?!? She let Ashlyn touch Chip and Dale's noses!

Enjoying the popcorn at the hotel!

This was the day we went early around 7:00. We had to wake the kids up and by now Rylee was just worn out! But when she realized where we were going she was ready! We went straight to Peter Pan and still waited in the longest line the whole time. Then we did the rest of the Fantasyland rides that we hadn't done yet and some that we had like Dumbo again.

Ashlyn's tooth had finally come out and she loved this last day at Disneyland (finally!!). We also did things that were a little more her speed like going on the big boats and not waiting in line for as much. The last day was definitely more relaxed because we had pretty much done everything we wanted to get in. We could just enjoy it.

Rylee didn't want to go on The Haunted Mansion the day before, but she decided that she wanted to go on it this day. Ashlyn had fallen asleep on Pirates, so Matt sat with her and I took Rylee to the Haunted Mansion. I told her she could close her eyes and that I was right there if something was scary, but she told me she wasn't scared. I used to be so scared of that ride! I didn't start not being scared until I was about 16 or so!! She's such a big, brave girl!

I know that this is Disney overload, but I had such a good time that I wanted to share! I wasn't sure how it would be with 2 kids, but I have to say it was much better than I expected! I was a little stressed at times, but it was wonderful! I loved experiencing something I enjoy so much with them. We will definitely go again, but we'll wait until they can remember it more and Ashlyn has all of her teeth!

This was the best time to go- the weather was great, (not too hot, not too cold- I never needed a sweatshirt) the lines were short, and all of the rides were open. The last day was the best- the line for Splash Mountain was only 10 minutes- usually it's an hour when I go. The longest line was Peter Pan (about 20-30 minutes) and of course the tram to the parking (an hour!). So when we do go again, this is probably when we'll go!