Disneyland part 1

James and I took the three older kids to Disneyland the week before Thanksgiving. James's Dad stayed home with Blake. Best decision we ever made!

Little disclaimer: Since there were so many pictures, I made them medium instead of large. I have no idea what that change is going to do to the layout of my text and stuff.

We left Monday and drove to Vegas, which will be a blog post of its own so I won't go into it now. We stayed over night with Jared and Valerie, then drove the rest of the way to Anaheim on Tuesday. That night we discovered that by sitting on a sort of balcony at the end of a hallway of our hotel, we could see all of the fireworks. So we did that every night.

Ethan and Taylie were pretty fearless when it comes to rides. Here they are on the Grizzly River Run in California Adventure. Brenna and I stood on the sidelines.

We met lots and lots of characters. Here's Belle.

Ariel and Minnie Mouse.

Mickey Mouse.

Brenna sitting in a chair in Goofy's House.

Brenna rode Pirates and Haunted Mansion, so she knew they were just rides and it was safe. Still, she was pretty scared of the Storybookland whale.

Lollipops. Yum.

Teacup Ride. Fun.

Before we went to Disneyland, I went to the library and tried to check out every movie that was also a ride. I can't think how to phrase that so it makes more sense. There's a Peter Pan ride, so I wanted to watch Peter Pan. I don't think the kids had ever seen Mr. Toad before, but they really liked the movie, and they really liked the ride. I think we probably rode it four times.

Brenna's favorite movie was Monsters Inc. I think we watched it in the car on the way there and on the way back. Her big Disneyland souvenir was this stuffed "Boo" doll, and if you ask what her favorite ride was, she'll probably say Monsters Inc.

Sacreligious

Here is a list of bad things I was tempted to do this week, but I didn't do them:

1. Our ward Christmas party was one of those ones where you're supposed to dress like a person from the time of Christ. I wanted to dress as a Roman Soldier and run through killing all of the baby boys. But I didn't.

2. Fast and Testimony meeting. I really wanted to take Blake up there with me and say "Brothers and Sisters, the bidding starts at 50 dollars. Do I hear 50 dollars? 50 dollars to Sister Cromar. Can I get 100?". Again, I refrained.

3. Tithing Settlement. Some day I'd love to show up with some vegetables and a few chickens and stick them on the Bishop's desk. "Yep, full tithe. Good luck". Eric could do this one. Just dump eggs on the desk.

Some day I'm going to give in to temptation and really offend a few people.

Choking

Yesterday I put Blake in his high chair with some bread and chopped up bananas. I was fixing dinner and keeping an eye on him. Suddenly he started making these sort of gagging sounds and turning red. I knew he was choking so I got him out of the high chair and did a little infant heimlich. Blake threw up all over everywhere, and then he started breathing again. He didn't even cry. As I was cleaning everything up, I found a tiny piece of plastic. It looked like it was probably part of a packing item, or a piece of a wrapper. Anyway, I guess he had that plastic in his mouth before he started eating, so it got in the way and caused some problems. Good thing I took an extensive first aid class in college. Dad, all that money you spent on my education finally paid off.