The Zoo

The Zoo

We decided to head to the zoo, so we took a few friends with us. It was great to be outside in the fresh air and spending time with family and friends. The kids like to see all the animals and the adults like to let them run!

Doug helped the kids look at the turtles in the pond.

Lil'miss L, Daisey, and Lil'mr K looking at the prairie dogs in the zoo. They were eating lettuce and other vegetables and making all sorts of noise!

Daisey  had a great time watching the Giraffes.

Lil'Mr. K, and his sister Lil' Miss L. 

They loved each other, and looking 

at the  animals! 

The kids had such a great time looking at all the animals! We brought a picnic lunch and sat to eat by the Giraffes. We walked around to see all the animals. The Lions and Tigers were out laying in the sun and the Otters were busy playing in their little pond. It was a great day with each other and we were glad to have been able to bring some good friends along too!

~Doug, Joyce, and Daisey

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning!
We love Christmas! We get together with our family here in Arizona on Christmas Eve and sing carols, eat good food, and then go see the Christmas Lights around town. Daisey always gets a new nightgown from her Grandma G to snuggle up tight with while she waits for Santa to come.

Daisey modeling her nightgown

 

In the morning, we all had a great time opening presents. Daisey loves everything she got from Santa, her parents, and all her grandparents!

Our Christmas Tree

 There's nothing like a decorated tree, filled with presents!

Daisey loving opening her presents.

 Doug got a K'Nex kit for a semi trailer of
his favorite Nascar driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Joyce got a new set of sheets. There's nothing 

better than a nice, soft, smooth set of sheets!

We loved spending the day together, and enjoying the Christmas Spirit with each other! We hope to have another piece of our family to enjoy Christmas with in 2014!

Merry Christmas!

~Doug, Joyce, and Daisey

Decorating the Tree

The Tree

Our Christmas Tree has a small story. We bought it our first year married. So it's getting kinda old, we've been married 11 years in June. At first, we disagreed with the color that the lights should be. I wanted white ones, Doug wanted colored. I thought colored was kind of childish, and I have to admit, it wasn't my favorite until Daisey came along. Once she came along it seemed to fit. Then we started adding her "kid" ornaments on it. That even made it better.

Decorating the tree has always been something that we've done together. It hasn't always been Doug's favorite thing about the holidays...putting ornaments on the tree. But for me, it kicks off the season. We get an ornament at every place we go, every vacation, every new adventure. So we have quite a few. Some from the Space Center in Houston when we went on vacation to my sisters house 7 or 8 years ago. Quite a few ornaments are from Disneyland or DisneyWorld. We've been there quite a few times. One ornament is from the Grand Canyon, which was Daisey's first time staying at a hotel. There are so many memories and they all get to be put on our Christmas Tree.

Daisey putting on her very first ornament, from 2010. "Baby's first Christmas"

Doug and Daisey decorating the tree

Doug putting on the Star, the last touch.

 The star always goes on last, and Doug has to do it. I'm just not tall enough! Those few inches in height difference really make it easier for him to get it up there.

Nothing sets off the Christmas Season better than Christmas jammies and a decorated Christmas Tree. Unfortunately, there are quite a few strands of lights on our pre-lit tree that have gone out. I'm sure by the time we take it down there will be more lights out. I guess we need to start thinking about getting another tree.. I think this one will be colored lights too. Our Family Tree needs to be as colorful as our Family is.

Always,

Doug and Joyce

The Phoenix Zoo

What a Zoo!

So after Thanksgiving we decided to go to the Zoo. We had bought a year pass and were able to get in the cousins for free, so we thought it would be a good thing to get the kids out of the house and out to see something new. They had a blast running from animal to animal and wondering what they were going to see next.

Joyce's Sisters Family looking for the turtles

First stop, the turtles and snakes! 

Some of them were hard for the kids to see. Thank heavens for benches!

The littlest checking out the Gophers!

Doug and Daisey looking for the Wolves

Daisey and her cousins trying to find the Bobcat

Daisey is always concerned with where we're headed. So naturally, she had to check out the map with Daddy!

Joyce, Daisey and the oldest cousin checking out the giraffes from the Safari hut!

Joyce and Daisey in the monkey experience.

We didn't get to see the whole zoo, it's a big one! But we had a great time and got to see some tiny monkeys up close inside the enclosure. Best of all we spent time together with our family and Daisey got to make memories with her cousins. Family is such an important part of our journey here on earth. We're glad to have been together! Until next time at the Zoo!

Love Always,

Doug and Joyce

Disneyland-Again! Day 5

Riding Splash Mountain

Not much happened on our last Disney day. We had to pack our hotel room that we'd lived in for 5 days! Add in shopping, and exhausted evenings and you get quite the mess. While Joyce cleaned up and bought a few souvenirs, Daisey and Doug swam in the hotel pool with all the cousins. It was a good trip, we were glad that we were able to go, and even happier that we got to spend time with Family in the happiest place on earth-Disneyland!

We've been to Disneyland three times and DisneyWorld once in the last two years! Maybe the next big vacation we take will be to somewhere else. Who knows, we'll have to see how it all rolls out. But for this little family of three, Disneyland has been a wonderful place of magic and memories!

Getting on the airplane to come back to Arizona!

Disneyland-Again! Day 4

This morning we got together with the whole family and had breakfast at Ariel Grotto in Disneyland's California Adventure. It's a character breakfast filled with all your favorite Disney Princesses! Which is really what little girls, at least ours, is all about!

 As a group, we take up a lot of space! There's about 28 of us in all. Quite the  breakfast!

 It wasn't too long after breakfast appeared than all the Princesses started coming out! We met Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, and of course Aurora! We got pictures of Daisey with them all, but none of them brought tears to my eyes but her meeting Aurora. She couldn't get out of her chair fast enough! She was at the head of the table, so she got to meet them all first. It was awesome to see her meet her Princess Hero!

Not sure how many times Daisey hugged her, but it was definitely more than once!

After all the princesses came by, we got to actually eat the food! It was great! Waffles, Eggs, Hashbrowns, Sausage, Bacon, fruit, cheese, rolls, danish. You name it, they had it! Joyce made our little family matching outfits. Daisey had her cute dress, Joyce's shirt was yellow with a Minnie bow, and Doug's shirt was red with a matching Mickey head.

After that, it was off to the rides! Daisey rode with one of her Aunts on the Symphony Swings! They have a ride just like it at Lagoon in Farmington Utah.  It spins around and around to music!

Our little Diva! She was all decked out. Her cute dress, her Minnie Mouse sun glasses, Minnie hair bows, and Minnie mouse shoes. Not to mention all the attitude! We rode all that we could in California, so we went back to Disneyland to ride Winnie the Pooh and a few of our other favorites before we had to get ready to say good-bye to Disneyland for a while.

Disneyland-Again! Day 3

Day 3! We planned the day for California Adventure, and so that's where we started the day! There are so many fun rides over there, it's just like a Pier by the ocean. Daisey's favorite ride is the Jumpin' Jellyfish! Joyce and Doug like the Tower of Terror and California Screamin'. Since the time we first went to Disney's California Daisey has wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel. So we made sure we did that this time.

At first, Daisey wasn't too sure about it, the seat rocks back and forth! We didn't even get a booth that spun or moved anywhere that a normal ferris wheel moved. Once she got used to it, she was happy to be riding up so high in the air! The Ferris Wheel is taller than our hotel!

We found some cousins and went on Toy Story Midway Mania. They had fun pulling faces while waiting in line. This face is a classic for every kid of any age!

Doug and Joyce rode together and had a little bit of competition. Doug didn't end up very happy, he got beat by 700 points!

Joyce always wins! It's just fun to have a little loving competition!

 Lightening McQueen and Mater strolling down the street in Cars Land!

We even saw Red, the firetruck! 

 Daisey and Doug sitting outside of Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. Daisey and Joyce rode it earlier and after, we watched a tiny family member that wasn't old enough to ride. It was fun listening to all the giggles and laughter coming from the ride.

Doug, Daisey, and a cousin rode Luigi's  Flying Tires with a bunch of other family members. It was fun to watch them bash into each other on these huge floating fabric tires on a floor that's like an air hockey table. Lean the direction you want to go and away you fly!

Another fun filled day in Disney! By this time, we were so tired at the end of the day. It's been a lot of walking, a lot of sunshine, and a lot of smiles! Tomorrow, another fun and magic filled day!

Disneyland-Again! Day 2

Day 2! We aren't really morning people when we're on vacation. So we took our time getting up, getting breakfast and getting into the park. Most of the family went to a character breakfast, but we decided that while Doug had the time off, we were going to enjoy lounging in the hotel together for a bit. We all had matching shirts that Doug's Mom had made for everyone that we all wore. It was fun to walk around and have people ask us how many of us were there on vacation! Some people even asked Joyce where she got the shirt, or who made it. One lady even asked to take a picture of our shirts so she could make some like that for their next trip!

We hadn't met up with everyone yet, but we took our picture in front of Aurora's Castle.

We actually got to meet Silvermist Fairy in Pixie Hollow! Daisey hadn't met any of the Fairys before and it was so fun to watch her interact with them. 

Tinkerbell was very impressed with Daisey and all her pins and buttons on her lanyard. Daisey loves to collect little pins and things and was even more excited because Grandma made it! Daisey loved to tell Tink all about the things she had collected and all the Tinkerbell movies she's watched.

 We went up to Toon Town and met Minnie Mouse! Daisey had Minnie Mouse bows in her hair and on her lanyard. It was fun for the whole family.

One of Daisey's favorite rides in Disneyland is Gadget's Go Coaster. She'll ride it as many times as we'll let her. This time she rode with Joyce. She screamed and held her arms in the air for almost the whole time! Such a little adventurer.

 Daisey and Doug rode together on Autopia. She got to steer the car and Doug said it was quite the ride. Joyce followed them in the next car and had a rough time keeping up with Doug and his lead foot! They have so much fun together and bring laughter into our home all the time.

One of our favorite parts of this trip was that Doug's Grandpa G was able to come with us. The last time Grandpa G had been to Disneyland was when his wife was alive with Doug and all his family. This time she wasn't with us, she passed into heaven 3 years ago and it was special that Grandpa G was able to come with us. Daisey had many fun times with him, riding on rides with him and holding hands walking through the park. It was special to see them together and know that even though we don't get up to Utah very often, Daisey and Grandpa G have a bond that can't be replaced.

We got most of the family together to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. It was awesome! We took up the entire boat all on our own! 

 Four Generations! Grandpa G (Daisey's great grandpa), Grandpa, Grandma, Doug, and Daisey! All in line to ride Peter Pan.

 We met up with Doug's brother and his family right next to the Mad Hatters Tea Party. It's Joyce's favorite ride! No one wanted to ride it but her and the little girls. So all of us ladies climbed in and spun ourselves silly! Daisey loves to play and be with her cousins! Joyce likes to see the smiles on their faces and be able to make them laugh and giggle riding a ride that she loves!

 Not many women can say that they have two mothers. But Joyce can. She get's along wonderfully with her Mother-in-Law, Doug's Mom. On a previous trip to DisneyWorld, Joyce made her, Daisey, and Mom matching Minnie Mouse bows.

Of course we saw Princess Tiana again, so we went and said Hi for the second time. Tiana even remembered that she had seen Daisey the day before and this time, we had Daisey's autograph book for her to sign!

We went over to California Adventure to spend the evening and meet up with more family. 

Daisey loves any carrousel and this was even more fun because she got to ride it with some awesome cousins! 

Doug, Joyce, Grandpa G, and Dougs Dad riding California Screamin'! It's Dougs favorite ride in Disneys California. Grandpa G even had to take off his cowboy hat and hold on tight. The roller coaster goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds (or something like that- it's really fast!) It's a lot of fun and leaves your stomach behind!

We had a great day at Disneyland and went back to the hotel to get ready for another fun day filled with magic and memories!