All about Ashlyn: End of March already????

Is it really the end of March already?? We had a very busy February! This spring has just flown by. The weather has been so amazing (until now) we've managed to get some work done around the house. Lots of raking, mowing, picking up sticks, etc. Then a big wind storm will blow in and mess up all of our hard work! Grrrrh!

Disneyland was absolutely fantastic!!! We all loved it and had an amazing time! It really is "The happiest place on earth!" We had four day park hopper passes and not one of us was ready to come home. We could definitely have done another day or even two days. We had an uneventful but very early flight into LAX. Since we arrived so early we decided to hang out in Santa Monica for a few hours. Took Ashlyn to see our old apartment, she couldn't care less, she was asleep in the car. Went to 3rd St Promenade, walked to the Santa Monica Pier, played in the ocean. Ashlyn fell in of course, because she always does! We got coffee at my favorite coffee shop, ate at a couple of our old favorite restaurants. It was such a beautiful day to just hang out.

Our hotel was awesome and served hot breakfast everyday. After a little salt and pepper the eggs weren't too bad and they always had gluten free chex. We were right across the street from the main entrance to the parks, about a 5 min walk.

We rode so many rides everyday and did not stand in very long lines at all. How did we manage this on a holiday weekend? We were up and eating breakfast as soon as they opened at 7am. Our day bag was packed, cell phones charged, bodies coated in sunscreen, etc. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and took the walk to the parks. The parks opened at 8am and we were there every morning by 730-745am. They opened the gates usually around 745am, did rope drop at 8am and we were riding a ride or talking with a character by 801am! Our first day we had ridden all of the Fantasy Land rides by 9am. We rarely stood in a line longer than about 20 min. We came early, we used the Fastpass system. We rested in the afternoons back at the hotel and would go back in the evenings for shows.

Jered only carried Ashlyn twice. On the first night when we were walking back to our hotel and on the last night when we stayed late to see Fantasia. We were SO glad we waited to take her until she was 6 years old. There must've been 10,000 strollers parked outside every ride and we were very happy to not be the owner of any of them. She was tired, we were all tired, but she was a trooper! Give the girl a churro and she was ready to go! She met a lot of princesses and we were successful in seeing Anna and Elsa (thank goodness!) Seeing her face when she would meet the characters was priceless! She was just so amazed to be meeting them. Seeing Disneyland through her eyes and watching her experience it was just awesome! We can't wait to go back!!

We got home from Disneyland on a Tues evening and were gone again on Friday evening to support my brother and cousins at their district wrestling tournament. The weekend after that was the state tournament and we had overnight house guests.

First weekend in March was our niece Macy's birthday party at Skateworld in Eugene. I wish I had pictures, but I was trying so hard to just stay on my feet and not on my butt I forgot to take any! After a couple of hours Ashlyn was really getting the hang of it and was off skating by herself. She had a blast and wants to go again.