Back in May, we drove to Disneyland with my parents. The day after Mother's day we used our free 1 day ticket to visit the Magic Kingdom. Grandpa and Grandma walked at just the right pace for Zarina (she walked to the park and then spent the rest of the day in a rented stroller). It really was so much fun. We went on as many rides as we could squeeze in since the park was only open 10am - 8pm that day.
My sister Lacey decided to hijack our trip, so her family was there along with their travel buddy, my sister Carolyn. We were staying at different locations, so we met up for Mother's Day dinner. We actually saw very little of each other at the park, but had lunch together. Zarina loved seeing all the Mickey ears on people, and near the end of the day all the girls picked out their ears. Brien and I had an opinion about which ears Zarina should get, but she saw these pink ones with ribbons and some princesses on the front and fell in love. A few weeks later she told me that we needed to go back to Disneyland so mom and dad could get ears (so thoughtful and selfless).
Zarina's favorite part was probably meeting Tinkerbell and seeing Princess Tiana sing (she really loves The Princess and the Frog). She enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean and Snow White's Scary Adventure. When Zarina saw the carousel in Fantasyland she let out a scream of excitement. A few days early she saw a carousel in Henderson, but wasn't able to ride it because it was closed. We made a point of never using the word "scary" in front of her. If we say something might be scary she doesn't want to try it. With some of the rides we let her know it was pretend and we would use the word "interesting" a lot.
To keep to a reasonable budget, a hard thing for Brien and I, we decided how much we could afford to spend and took out the cash. When the cash was gone, we stopped spending. It worked out well for us. One of my conditions for going on the trip was that we would not be paying for it even a month later. It felt good to know that when we left California we were not taking any bills home with us.
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June was a hectic month for us. We had a dentist appointment and found out that Brien would need a crown sooner than we planned. I decided to dive into the exciting world of potty training. I went with the "straight to undies and only use pull-ups at night" method. It worked out pretty quickly for us. Two weeks in I went to Girl's Camp for 4 days and Zarina didn't have any accidents, at least during the day when she was being watched by friends. I was happy that Brien would have some one-on-one time with his little girl to remind him how much he should appreciate me. Girl's Camp was the first time he was alone with Zarina overnight. I wasn't worried about her, I was more concerned with Brien, but everyone was alive and happy for the most part when I returned.
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July Brien had a week-long training in Davis, CA, and we joined him for the trip. It's a great area, we found a great Thai restaurant and there was a Farmer's Market while we were there. Zarina kept changing her mind about if she wanted a pony ride, but in the end she decided to saddle up. She laughed and giggled the entire ride, it was some of the best $5 we spent the entire trip.
The beginning and end of July we also took trips to Utah. The July 4th weekend we had a baby blessing, and the end of the month featured a double family reunion for Brien's side of the family.
We traveled a lot this summer.
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August we were able to spend a little more time at home. The Blake family came out for their annual August visit and we spent one of the nights camping. It was perfect weather that night, so we left the rain fly off the tent and were able to see a bit of the meteor shower through the net ceiling as the three of us snuggled in the sleeping bag.
Brien had his permanent crown put on his tooth in August. We actually don't visit a dentist in Ely, we've kept our dentist in Las Vegas, so every dental trip is more time consuming and slightly more expensive. I had priced out how much the Ely dentist charges for a regular visit and, factoring in the cost of gas, it's only about $20 more to drive to LV and see the dentist. When we start Zarina's dental visits it will likely cost the same as staying local, it's just that extra travel time.
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This September we visited Yosemite National Park with Brien's parents. I haven't downloaded any of the pictures yet, so nothing to show for it, but we had a great time. We all brought our bikes and Zarina's bike trailer and road around Yosemite Valley our first full day there. Brien, Zarina, and I had a short visit to Yosemite last November, so we tried to make sure Brien's parents were able to see all the pretty sites. For most of our 2nd full day at the park we were down at Mariposa grove, it's a sequoia grove, and it was beautiful and wonderful. We only had 2 full days, but everyone seemed to be quite happy with the trip.
Now that I've shared all these pressing thoughts with you, if you've read to the end, I can move on with recording my life and thoughts in blog form without any regrets.
2 comments:
Sounds like 5 months of fun.
Hijacking Disneyland trips is soo much fun. Everyone should try it sometime. When's the next time you plan on going? ;)
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