Disneyland!!

As a former Disney employee nothing could make me happier than to take my one and only son to the happiest place on Earth for the first time!! And to make it even better, it was a total surprise! My good friend Bo had an extra 2 tickets he gave to me so I could take Logan (for free)!! Are you freaking kidding?!! I couldn't believe it when he sent me the news! So here is a big Blogger hug to my awesome pal who made this day happen: Thank you Bodacious!!!! Now keep in mind that Disneyland has changed quite a bit in the 12 years since I worked there (and even more in the 20+ years since I went there as a kid). In the place where I used to work lies California Adventure, and great new park (that we decided not to visit) and on top of that no one and I mean NO one visits the park for 1 day! They sell passes for many days at a time at totally reasonable prices so you can really enjoy each day and take your time. Now since we only we only had one day, and I am from the olden days (the 1980's gasp) I made the decision to get there the second the park opened and stay until we couldn't walk. I also viewed the map ahead of time so we could be as efficient as possible ( I learned this from my Dad, thanks Timmer!!) with our route. I also decided that it would be fun to invite Aunt Ellie and Mumi for the adventure, and luck us, they both said YES...

Here is Lo and Ellie at our first stop in Fantasy Land. When Aunt Ellie was little her favorite move was Sword in the Stone, and Logan loves too! So here they both are trying to start the day with a little magic...

And then off to the ride that tributes my most favorite Disney movie of all time: DUMBO! As an adult I still get teary when Jumbo rocks her baby while she is in jail (sniff, sniff), I just adore this movie, so it was so fun to see Lo hold the magic feather and make Dumbo fly.

Now we did hit all the favorites (without any lines) Peter Pan, Snow White, Pinocchio, Mr Toads Wild Ride, Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Alice, but the one ride we missed (perhaps on purpose) was the teacups. Funny that's the only one we captured a picture of...

And one of the best parts of Fantasy Land is that everything is Lo's size, here he is at a little Lo sized house, right next to the Alice ride.

And then we walked over to New Orleans square, and much to Logan's joy and surprise we say Woody on the way there...

New Orleans square houses two of mine and I am pretty sure Logan's favorite rides; Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately I did not get photos of either of these rides (but as everyone know flash photography scares the ghosts), but I did get a shot of Logan enjoying a frozen Mickey ice cream sandwich that he shared with his Mumi.

After all that is was time for a ride on Aunt Ellie's shoulders, what a lucky kiddo!!

Then it was time to spend some time in Frontier Land, we shot guns at the Ol' Saloon and then headed for a boat ride on the Mark Twain. Here is Logan shooting a cannon at the bad guys.

The off to Pirate Island, where Lo scored!! Seriously look at that loot!

Now this island seriously has so much fun stuff to do, here we are pumping water to see a pirate skeleton!

Now as a kid we never went on the canoes at Disneyland, and that was because "you can canoe anywhere" and that makes perfect sense. But I'm not sure if its because I never canoed at Disneyland before or if the sun and moon were in the right alignment, but this was one of my most FAVORITE things we did all day. I even wanted to go again....

Silly Mommy!

Now I never expected as we planned this trip that any roller coasters would be in our plans, but much to my pleasant surprise Logan was tall enough to ride the Matterhorn!! Can you believe it?!?

AND he had a blast! Here we are after the ride was over and he was smiling and ready to go again. That's my boy!!


And then after a relaxing ride on the train, we hit Tomorrow Land, where Logan is old enough for a drivers licence!!

And here he is just barely peeking over the steering wheel, ready to drive!

And there is a new ride in Tomorrow Land , the Buzz Lightyear ride, and I honestly believe that I liked this one more than Lo (if that is even possible). It was so fun, you got to shoot the bad guys with the gun in your buggy and got a score at the end. Absolutely Awesome!

After visiting "tomorrow" we hit Adventure Land, where we got to see the Flowers sing in the Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room! And then off to the Jungle Cruise where we saw Elephants, hippos and natives, and the tour guide was campy and fun!

And our trip would not be complete without a ride on Its a Small World (and a snuggle with Mumi)


Now I thought if you have seen one set of fireworks, you have seen most of them all. BUT man was I wrong!! We were on the way to the car when we got caught up in the fireworks show, it was absolutely amazing. Not only are the fireworks set to music, but then Dumbo flew across the sky and so did Tinkerbell. It is a show not to be missed!

Here is Mumi and Lo snuggled up on the tram ride back to the car. Logan is not only lucky enough to have three ladies accompany him to Disneyland but he has a Daddy who made sure he could buy the sorcerer hat he wanted and a Disney Character gummy candy. Thank you Daddy!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July all!! Another great summer holiday that I completely enjoy celebrating. I believe there is no better way to celebrate our wonder country than with good ol' American food and good friends. So I made what I consider to be the most American dessert know to man...

It has Nila Wafers, cool whip, lemon jello, raspberry jam and strawberries and blue berries on top. And was totally eaten up at work!

What better way to spend the day then at Cabo, here is our whole crew in the pool.




Then our crew disbanded for other evening activities, Lo and I headed over to the Osmans for dinner and Fireworks. Logan promptly got in the hot tub and started entertaining the older ladies. Some how I think this is how is teenage years will be, Oh my lord!!!

He fell asleep shortly there after, but was willing to get up to see the fireworks..






He looks pretty worn out in this shot, but we got to see all the fireworks displays across the bay. It was pretty spectacular, and he at least more interested than last year.

Happy Forth All. I hope you had as much fun as we did.

Del Mar Fair

It is summer in San Diego and the fair is here!! Logan and his buddy Koa absolutely LOVE monster trucks (and honestly so do I!!) So we all went to the monster truck show this year at the Del Mar Fair. Before the show even started we were lucky enough to get to ride on a Monster Truck called the Extinguisher. It was loud and bumpy and a little scary and TOTALLY AWESOME!

The Extinguisher!!

Lo and I getting ready for our ride

A shot of all the kids having popcorn, notice how Logan is taking a handful from the other bucket.


Then we went off to play some fair games, Logan did a great shot at darts and won himself a stuffed dog named Meats.



The kiddos and their new stuffed toys. Check out those happy faces!!


And then it was time for some rides...


some bumper cars...

Followed by more games..

Here is Lo trying to win a fish by tossing ping pong balls in their cups


And his new favorite buddy "Mitz" who seems to be adjusting to life at the Kammerer's quite nicely.

A truly lovely time at one of my most favorite summer activities. We also had hot dog on a stick, fresh squeezed lemonade, made a visit to all the 4 H animals, watched the pig races and got our picture taken in the photo booth. I guess we did it all. Til next year fair!

Horseback Riding

Mumi loves horses!! As a little girl her greatest wish was to have a horse she could ride, brush and love. As an adult she made her wish come true with a lovely mare named Cheeka. She tried to get me interested in her horse too, but I was way too interested in other things to get excited about Cheeka (I am fairly sure this was a HUGE let down for Mumi). The good news is that Logan is usually up for anything so Mumi decided to take him for a horse back ride. I was busy riding my bike at the beach with my girlfriends so this was the perfect opportunity.

Riding a bike is much more my speed :)

Mumi took Lo to a local stable for a riding lesson. Here he is with his trusty stead, Peaches. Logan got to brush her...

And lead her on a rope to the arena to ride..

And even got to practice riding all by him self. He even directed her around the red and blue poles just by using the reigns!!! Mumi always picks such fun activities, Lo is still talking about Peaches.

Thanks Mumi!

Father's Day

Logan and I love to celebrate the people that we love!! This past weekend we celebrated all the Fathers in our life. We worked hard on cards for Grandpa Tim and for Daddy, Logan chose to make his cards this year with "maps" on them. I didn't get any photos, but they turned out really cute!

We started our Father's day celebration with a trip over to Sylvie's house, to wish Thomas (Logan's god-father) a very Happy Father's Day!

Logan in the Orliczky's back yard enjoying a cow pop in a cow chair

Sylvie having a pop too

Here is Thomas helping Sylvie escape from her new house out the window. Logan invaded and Sylvie took the quickest route OUT!

Logan in a dinosaur hat

Sylvie in her dinosaur hat

Then it was off to Grandpa Tim's house for a Father's Day BBQ

In true Stephens tradition we played a very close game of Bocce Ball.

And Lo and his Tim put Ironman Legos together using the map

Some backyard time

Here is our wonderful lunch on the grill, doesn't it look lovely??? I don't have an "after" picture, but I did accidentally set the corn on fire. Oops!! It was still delicious.

And here we all are, enjoying lunch!

Then Logan got to celebrate with his Daddy. (I don't have any pictuures, but Logan gave his Daddy his map card, it was very sweet)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads we LOVE!!

Bryn's Birthday

We were invited to celebrate our good friend Bryn's 2nd birthday at Victoria's garden this past weekend. She had a farm themed party and we had a blast! This party has all kinds of great outdoor farm things to do...

The birthday girl

Lo in the petting zoo, petting a very soft bunny

Climbing a tree

Rope swing with good friend Kaian

And riding a pony

Time with Mumi

I took a weekend vacation with some of my girl friends to the Colorado River,(I am not in the picture becasue I was taking it, but you get the idea)

and Logan was lucky enough to get to spend the weekend with his Mumi! Mumi ALWAYS has great fun things planned for Logan.

Here he is making breakfast

And then Aunt Ellie, Mumi and Lo all went to the circus, there aren't any picture of the circus, but here is the after party at a restaurant. Aunt Ellie is wearing a funny red nose!

Mumi and Lo share a funny red nose kiss

And to round out the day Logan helped Ellie with her new sod, look how helpful he is!

Thanks Mumi