Disneyland Tips

People have been asking me lately what things I suggest with a trip to Disneyland, here is what we like to do.

We have always stayed at Deseret Inn and Suites across from the park.  It's the cheapest one in walking distance and it has a continental breakfast, a pool and Jacuzzi, and a family suite (2 king beds in one room and a pull out in the other).  When we have little kids, or I'm pregnant, staying close is a life saver.  That way if someone throws up, you are just a hop skip and a jump from getting cleaned up.  However, the last couple trips we have been staying farther away and driving to the parking garage because the prices are a third less after all the fees.  If you only have older kids and no stroller, I wouldn't pay the extra to be close.  When we have two little kids, and have to bring the double stroller we always stay close because it's a huge pain to have to pack up the stroller and fold it up to get on the shuttles.  As a price example, it would cost us $1000 to stay at the Deseret Inn and Suites for the week, and only $675 to stay at one farther away.

As Disney fanatics, we suggest going for 5 days.  There are a ton of things to do at Disneyland, and some take time but you won't want to miss.  A lot of people come and only go on the rides.  I think you are missing the point of Disneyland if you do that.  There are bigger rides at Knotts and other parks, so if you are there just for rides, it's going to be disappointing.  A couple of our favorite things to do that people overlook :
Fantasmic- the show on the water by Pirates.  It's amazing.  Our whole family love it.  Bring in a blanket and some snacks and show up early. One of you can stay and hold spots while others go on the rides close by.  If you go 45 minutes early you should get an ok spot.  
The Aladdin Show-  It's one of the best musicals you'll see.  Even our 18 month olds have sat through this one.  It's only 45 min long.  Grab a Tower of Terror fastpass before you go in and you can get right on that ride after.
Captain Eo- My kids are just discovering Micheal Jackson, and this show is really corny, but they all liked it. The other shows are fun too, the bugs life one and the Muppets.
Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyers Island and the Obstical Course over in Cal. Adventures-  Just fun to do to get away from the crowd.

One thing that makes a huge difference is just taking it slow.  If you get stressed about getting to everything, it's not as fun.  There are ducks on the pond, and the tables downstairs at the Hungry Bear are right next to them.  So when things are getting crazy, go take your lunch over there and let the kids feed the ducks.  The bathrooms are right there too, which is convenient.

Food-  You could loose a million dollars at the parks in food.  One thing that has helped us it to set an amount of money for each day and have it all in cash, then each day pull out just that days worth and bring it with you.  Then only buy food with cash and not your card.  We spend so much less that way.
As far as eating in the hotel, we have little kids and it take forever to get back to the hotel.  So for us it's a waste of an hour and a half to do that.  My brother with older kids, they just walk down the the McDonalds outside of the park and can do it in 30 minutes, so it just depends on you kids ages.  We found we don't end up eating our stuff if we bring in a lot.  What we do now is everyone brings in their own water bottle and then we refill them in the drinking fountains, which have really good water.  Then we choose one main snack for the day that I make ahead and freeze- zucchini bread, cookies, etc.   Then each day we just bring one of those snacks.  We also bring a piece of fruit for each person, a gogurt, and an individual bag of chips for each.  That way we can buy a turkey leg or two ($9 each) and make it a meal.  Then we eat one real meal in the park (which, because we share, costs us about $45 for that meal for our young family of 7).  During the shorter hours, we don't always eat a meal in the park.  When the park closes at 8 we will go back and eat sandwiches or ramen at the hotel.  Then we usually share a treat too, which is about another $15 (Dole whips are the best and one of the cheapest things in the park for how much you get).

Some pointers-
USE FASTPASSES!  People don't know how to use these so they just don't and it saves an enormous amount of time.   Pick them up as you are walking by rides.  You can get new ones as soon as the first time is up on the pass, and you don't have to use them during the suggested time, just any time after that time is up. Some fast passes are better then others.  The best ones are- Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Soaring Over Ca., Tower of Terror, Ca. Screaming, and Space Mountain.

Parent Swaps- if you have kids too small to go on some rides, ask for a parent swap.  You both have to get it at the same time, but it allows you to take one other person threw the exit or fastpass lane.  If you combine them with fastpasses they can get your whole family on 2-3 times.

Go Left-  It's natural for people to go right when they enter the park.  So the most crowded parts in the morning are Tomorrow Land and Fantasy Land.  If you go left at the hub, you can walk onto Indiana Jones first thing.  If you have younger kids, especially in a stroller, while the rest of your group is going on Indiana Jones, have the person with the stroller take all the park passes and get fast passes for Space Mountain (which is the other direction) then walk back to Indiana Jones and go on Tarzan's Tree house.  Then swap parents and go on Indiana Jones again while the little kids go on Jungle Cruise.  Then go over to Frontier land while someone runs and gets fast passes for Splash Mountain.  It sounds like a lot of running, but it's not bad first thing in the morning and then you have fast passes for the big rides and can go where ever you want for the rest of the day.  Remember for the rest of the day to pick up fast passes for rides as you pass them, then you never have to wait in a long line.

Fantasy Land is just crowded all the time lately.  Bite the bullet one day and just do all of it.  Most days you can pretty much walk on most of the dark rides, but Peter Pan is almost always 45 minutes long.  The morning it's worse, wait till afternoon and then hit it.

A note about Thanksgiving Week-  Thanksgiving day and the weekend after is the second most crowded time of the whole year.  However, the week before Thanksgiving is awesome.  It's our favorite week of the year to go!  The Christmas stuff is all up, but it's not crowded because people are waiting for the school break.  I wouldn't stay longer than the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, hope you have fun!

My Boy is Turning Three

I miss my little kids when they grow up, and I forget what they were like.  Watching my kids be little right now makes me sad I will forget them at this age.  This is my attempt at remembering the things I love about my two year old little boy.

Max runs everywhere, usually pumping his fists or forcing them out in front of him like Superman.

His new thing is to start every request (or demand) with "Mom, I told you that I wanted . . ."

He is addicted to electronics.  He would go anywhere with anyone if they let him play with their iPhone.  I don't know how he has figured out how to quickly navigate the Xbox dashboard; he's better at it than I am.  The boy even plays video games.  He loves the Lego Star Wars game.  I sat and watched him play it.  He can do everything, climb a wall, blow things up, even switch what character he's using.  How did he figure that out? He's two!

He has a happy dance.

He loves Disneyland and watching the video of us there.  He has it memorized.  He talks along with everyone while he watches.

He loves Penny.  He has to say goodnight to her and gives her a hug before he goes to bed.  He climbs on her, slides down her.  We are trying to get him to stop jumping on her when she's laying down.  He plays tag with her.  He'll chase her down the hall and grab her, then run the other way and she follows him.  When he stops, she sniffs him, he giggles and she runs off down the hall and he chases her down the hall again.

He sings in the car, and pretty much everywhere he goes.  Some of his favorite songs are the Al Green song "I'm So Tired of Being Alone", Dean Martin's "Good Morning Life", Bohemian Rhapsody, which he calls "Mama Mia,"  and all the Brak songs.  Jared loves to film him singing and post it on Facebook.

He's a total stink that rarely listens, and it's cute because he's two, but it won't be when he's older.  So I can enjoy it now and keep teaching him that he has to listen, whether he is cute or not.  Yesterday, we were having another battle with him about going to sleep.  After 2 hours of trying to get him down, we heard him coming down the stairs, again.  Jared, in his stern voice, said, "Max go back to bed or I will spank your bum."  Max said, "But, but, but my blankie!" and starts to cry.  I told Jared he probably needs help getting his blanket on again.  Then in comes Max, dragging his pillow pet in one hand and struggling to drag his twin size blanket in his other hand.  He sees Jared start to get up and runs to make himself a bed on the floor.  "I sleep here, okay? I sleep here."

Oh yeah, he stutters when he's flustered.  It's so cute.

There are things that are frustrating about two year olds, but I'm with Jared when he says he would keep Max at this age forever if he could, or at least until Elliot turns two.

An Almost 3 Year Old's Favorite Books

Tall by Jez Alborough
George Shrinks
Caps for Sale
Baby Says
From Head to Toe
Alice in Wonderland (Disney version)
Goodnight Moon
The Goodnight Knight Book
Hop on Pop by Dr Suess
Fox in Sox by Dr Suess
Moo Baa La La La

Talk- Power of the Scriptures

I'm horrible at recognizing faces. I will probably introduce myself 5 or 10 times before I will recognize someone reliably. After Jared and I got engaged, he went to Washington, DC for an internship for a couple of months. I was to pick him up at the airport when he flew back. I saw a guy grinning at me walking down the airport hallway and thought "What's with him?" I didn't realize it was my fiance until he was hugging me and had started talking.

Everyone always refers to that first year of marriage as the "Honeymoon" year. That was not how it was for Jared and I. That year was horrible. We fought constantly. I'd like to say it was because we decided to have children right away, so it was just pregnancy hormones, but it wouldn't be true. Jared was just really immature back then. Any small irritated snap would cause a full blown fight and if Jared didn't apologize, I wouldn't talk to him, for days. I like to fume and do nice things just to make Jared feel bad. I'm pretty sure we spent at least half of that first year married not talking to each other.

The second year, we were still fighting like crazy, but we started getting our spiritual lives together a little more. We started doing family scripture study; which consisted of Jared, our daughter Scout, and me. Like most spiritual things, we didn't notice it making any difference when we read daily, but on the days we forgot to read, we fought all day long. Then it would take a few days of reading again to get back to having a pleasant family life.

Elder Richard G. Scott explains, "Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope and restoration of confidence in one's ability to overcome the challenges of life. They have the potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior."

D&C 68:4 "First seek to obtain my word, and then... if you desire, you shall have my spirit and my word, yea, the power of God."

How can we get more, spiritually, out of our scripture study?

First, we need to remember as we read, individually or as a family, that the main purpose is to fall in love with the scriptures. Pres. Eyring said, " If you don't really love the scriptures yourself, then scripture study doesn't have as much power (for you or your family)."

I am not a touchy person and sitting on the couch with kids climbing on me, while one throws a fit because they wanted to sit in that spot, and the two year old is screaming because nobody is watching him sing every song he can think of all while I am trying to have a deep theological discussion didn't work. I didn't love getting kicked in the head by kids trying to do head stands on the couch and the kids didn't love getting yelled at and sent to bed once I finally blew up at them.

Now we scale back. We even switched to the Old Testament to change it up. My kids are young so we only read the scripture verses that tell stories right now. I figure, if I can get my kids to love the scriptures by just sticking to the stories, then they will have the rest of their lives go deeper. The goal is, when we go to read the Old Testament again, for they will be excited. It's working, too. A month ago, my nine year old told me, "Some people think reading the scriptures is boring, but I don't. I think they are like Indiana Jones."

Whether we aren't reading, or we are but infrequently, we need to start reading our scriptures daily. Elder Bednar said, "One of the best ways to draw near unto (the Savior) and to both learn about and become more like the Lord Jesus Christ is to consistently study the holy scriptures- to daily feast upon the words of Christ."

Pres. Henry B. Eyring said, "The Holy Ghost confirms to us the word of God when we read (the scriptures). That confirmation, repeated often, strengthens our faith. And it is by faith that we overcome obstacles and resist temptation."

Commit to reading at least a few verses every day. To do this, Pres. Eyring suggests setting a time of day to study the scriptures. He does his every morning and night, which I really like. If your goal is to read every morning and night, and you accidentally miss one, you have still done it daily.

Another suggestion to help with daily scripture reading is to keep track of how many consecutive days you have read. Make a game of it, see who can read the most days without missing. Plan a special activity or treat for every 10th consecutive day you read. You could also team up with a friend and check in on each other every day to make sure scripture reading got done.

Pres. Eyring gives encouragement saying, "Once you get used to a regular scripture study, you miss it if you don't have it." That will help you get back on track if you don't ignore the feeling.

Pres. Eyring does mention that reading scriptures with teenagers can be difficult. Often they will say they would rather read by themselves then with the family. He encourages parents to see this as a victory instead of a defeat. He says your child may be saying, "I'm getting something when I'm alone that I don't get when we are all together.' Take that as a wonderful sign that the scripture study is beginning to take hold in your teens heart." I know a family that sets reading assignments for each family member to read that day. Then they gather around the dinner table and discuss insights each has gained during their study.

Daily reading and a love for the scriptures in my children is all I really hope for right now in my family scripture study. But sometimes we want or need more out of it personally. Elder Bednar advises us to pray for understanding and to have the spirit, then ponder how these scriptures apply to us, and write down our impressions, thoughts and feelings.

President Eyring strongly encourages us to go looking for help in the scriptures in times of trials. He will buy a cheap Book of Mormon and type questions or problems he is having in different colored ink. Then when he reads he looks for verses that relate to those questions and problems and highlights them in the corresponding color. Pres Eyring said, "The Lord seemed to anticipate all of our problems and all of our needs and He put help in the scriptures for us- if only we seek it."

Both Pres. Eyring and Elder Scott suggest memorizing scriptures. Elder Scott said, "Learning, pondering, searching, and memorizing scriptures is like filling a filing cabinet with friends, values and truths that can be called upon anytime, anywhere in the world."

Pres. Eyring related his admiration of President Hinkley and Bruce R. McConkie's ability to speak the words of the scriptures in their daily conversations in a way that you couldn't tell if they were quoting a scripture or just talking. He tells us, "We all can have the dream of someday having the word of God be so much a part of us that the Lord can draw upon it and we can learn to think as He does. And in the process we can come unto him."

I know that reading the scriptures can invite the Holy Ghost to play a prominent part in our lives to change us all for the better and brings us closer to the Lord.

Week 1

I found this blog on Pinterest for 31 days to Happier Kids. I liked the ideas but figured it takes me longer then a day to implement things, so we are doing it in weeks. This week, we are doing the first "assignment"- What to Expect.

Right now we are severely lacking in this category. My kids think they can get out of doing home school by taking to long for their chores or just not listening. Unfortunately, too often, it works for them. So, this week I am giving us a schedule, with times to stick to, set meals, and naps for the little ones. It will be easy to implement it next with without Jared around the throw us off it.

Also, I am making our rules list with the punishment written down. I am tired of Scout telling me I don't ever forgive anything because she wants out of a consequence. I am also tired of the kids not doing their stuff till I forget they had it. I'm sure the kids are sick of not knowing if something they did wrong is going to give them a "Don't do that," or a grounding, depending on my mood. We could all really use a little more structure and follow-through.

And lastly, I am going to give them set days they can play with their school friends. It's much to stressful for me to constantly be running back and forth picking up and dropping off people from noon till dinnertime. This will hopefully pare it down a little.