Some Random Short Little Stories...

Here's some favorites of mine from the trip....I have A LOT of favorites.

Is this Kaila, a kitten or the newest member of the band KISS?

Kaila and her cousins Zane and Isaac

One of the best rides at Disney is Indiana Jones. Kiana got to drive the jeep during the ride. She's a pretty crazy driver. Cant wait til she turns 16!!

This picture is for my sisters.... they know why.

At the show A Bugs Life. It was a great show! I love the glasses, wish I could have taken a pair home with me.

Sooo much like her Dad. :)

Our last night in Dinsey we played a lot of games trying to win some prizes. All I won was these 2 little ducks. I played Kaila in this horse race game (and about 5 other people) and she won this horse! She was so proud. Then us girls tried another game and Kiana won the big Dumbo. I think we went home with 8 or 9 of those little stuffed ducks. It's just a matter of time before Jackson finds them.

The girls with all their trophies!

Disney Land Characters

Sooo many pictures to choose from. I didn't realize how many characters we got to meet and I wanted to meet more! The girls bought autograph books and every time we saw a character they got their autograph- too cute.


Kiana and Dale- he was famous for blowing kisses at us every time we saw him.

Aladdin- We were eating and Kaila kept seeing Aladdin and wanted him to come to our table so bad. When he finally did she froze! She would not talk to him and kept blushing. I'm surprised I got her to take a picture with him. We joked with her the rest of the trip about her big crush on Aladdin.

Baloo

Tinkerbelle at her house- I think she was Kailas favorite

Cinderella- she was teaching the girls how to pose for pictures

One of my favorite times, eating breakfast at Goofys kitchen. Goofy joined us for breakfast. He asked the girls to dance so they went in the middle of the restaurant and danced to the Twist.

Dancing!

Chip joined us for breakfast for a little bit too.

The 4 of us with Pluto at Goofys kitchen.

And last but not least Minnie Mouse. She was actually the first character we saw and we saw her a lot!

1st day at Disney Land and our Mickey Ears

I have never been to Disney Land before so Gary brought me this button that said "1st visit!" Anyone else that I saw wearing one was about 2 years old. But it was so cute I wore it all 3 days.

I think I was more excited than the girls. I told Gary I wanted one those hats with the Mickey ears. So our first day there all 4 of us got a hat. I had no idea there were so many! Every kind of Mickey Mouse ears you can imagine. I couldnt decide so Gary and I just got the regular plain Mickey and Minnie ears. The girls picked out some pink ones and had princess stuff put on them. We all had our names wrote on the back and wore them all day!


Showing off my 1st Visit button!!

Me and the girls headed to the park our first day.

See... every kind of ears you can imagine. We had to try on the bride and groom ears for fun. This whole trip we had friends and family asking if we were going to get married or engaged, especially when we went to Vegas. So we took this picture and emailed it to my mom that night...I dont remember getting any response from her tho. She probably just shook her head and said- those brats.

Gary and Kiana

Gary and Kaila watching the parade.

One of my favorite pictures. We had so much fun that first day!! I cant wait to go back again.

Another Joni...??

When Gary and I first met something about my little sister Joni came up. I remember him saying, "you have a little sister named Joni- so do I!" I was like yeah right you're just saying that because NO ONE else has a Joni. Well I was wrong.... his little sisters name is Joni. Pronounced and spelt the same way. I finally got to meet Joni and her family on our vacation!

Me and Joni

By the way did I mention he also has a Grandma named Joni!! She came with to Disney Land too. I didnt get many pictures of her but here she is with Kaila. It was so funny saying Grandma Joni all the time... So now I have 3 Jonis in my life- what are the chances of that??

I love San Diego...

One of my favorite days out of the two weeks was our last day in San Diego. I think we all wished we could have spent a little more time there, especially along the beach. I got to show them where I used to live when I lived there for a summer.

Our last day before we headed to Disney Land we ate breakfast along the boardwalk. I cant remember the name of the place but under the name it said "the best breakfast on the beach" and it was!!

Love this picture of the girls! After we ate we headed down to the water. I think all of us would have loved to spend the entire day there together.

One of my favorite pictures from the entire trip.

Looking for sea shells.

Kiana was on a mission to find the PERFECT sea shell. She had handfuls of them to go through.

While we were eating breakfast I was telling them how when I lived there and went swimming I loved the water but was afraid of it because I always got sucked in and the waves are soo strong and you just get carried out sometimes. Well while they were hunting for sea shells Kaila got caught in the water and fell completely in. Here she is all upset waiting for Gary to come back with nice warm DRY clothes. I asked her Kaila what happened..."the ocean got me."

After she had some new clothes she was right back in the water!

The Grand Canyon

Garys hometown Williams, AZ is the last town you go through to get to the Grand Canyon so we definately made it there. It was cold and snowy! We didnt get to see a lot of it. We saw one part of it and then we went into the gift shop and then ate lunch. When we came out after lunch it was snowing so hard we couldnt see the Grand Canyon at all. So there will definately be a 2nd trip back there to see more of it because it was beautiful!

Absolutely love this picture of me and the girls!!!

Almost looks like a painting.

Anytime we take the girls anywhere and there is a gift shop of some sort Kaila will find the rocks. Hmmmm.....who does that sound like?? She has so many bags of rocks from all over the place! I am guaranteed to find one or two in her pockets when I do laundry.

On our way back to the car of course a snowball fight started. Gary against me and the girls...I think Gary won. We were all thrown in the snow banks at least once!!

First stop, Arizona.

The first stop in our trip was Arizona. Friday we headed down to Pheonix to pick up the girls. We were so excited to see them!! Then we stayed up in Flagstaff and Williams where Gary grew up. He got to show us his old schools and some of the houses where he lived. We also got to meet a ton of his family! Saturday they had a big welcome home party for him. Then we spent super bowl Sunday at his aunt and uncles house.

One of the days in Flagstaff we took the girls shopping for their Christmas present. Kiana has been wanting a skateboard so bad for the last few months so that is what she picked out. She was so cute she had one all custom made with matching wheels and everything. Of course Kaila decided she wanted to be like her older sister and she needed a skateboard too. She found the perfect one, a pink Hello Kitty board! Had her name written all over it. The girls got backpacks to carry their boards and walked around the mall with them. They were so funny, Kailas is about as big as she is. I didnt get any pictures of them with their boards tho...too busy and kept forgetting.

Too many pictures to go through from Arizona so here is just a few favorites mostly of the girls. They were the same yet different. Taller for sure and growing like crazy but after 5 minutes it felt like the 4 of us were never seperated at all.


Gary holding Kaila at the airport when we first saw them. I'm a little bummed I didnt get more pictures but we were too excited and distracted to be taking pictures.

Me and Kiana. We have gotten so close I love this girl to death! She told me once that she thinks of me as one of her best friends. She is one of the sweetest most thoughtful people that I know. I see so much of Gary in her, not only in looks but personality wise they are the same!! She is so smart and is getting straight A's in school. We know she will be successful in whatever she does in life!

Me and Kaila. Well I call her by her middle name, Jude. She is quite the character, never a dull moment when she is around. We had so much fun this trip with her. She is always willing to try anything (as long as Daddy is not too far away). Definately always attached to his hip. We all call her his mini me because they look sooo much alike! All of Garys family was like wow...twins.

The Twins :)

This last picture was taken at his aunts house. They had a wii with dance competitions on it so everyone was taking turns. Me and the girls did a couple together....I'm pretty sure I lost but it was a lot of fun.