...and we're back!

I forgot to post these from our visit in...well...sometime in March (haha). It was close to a month after we had gotten up inhumanly early to be there for the Leap Year event (remember that? If not, it's probably on page two now.)

Can you tell i'm happy to be back after one of our longest dry spells!? 

**We used an app called FastCamera---turns out the quality isn't so good with that app, and it caught me as I was coming down, oh well. You don't want to do that move too many times, and test fait in not kicking someone. ; ) **

This was taken with our fisheye lens for the iPhone! It was perfect timing to get all the Mickeys lit up on the left and the fireworks. I love it!! : ) 

It's always SO nice to be back after some time away! 

Although after 10+ years of having a pass, and as much as we normally go, I NEVER get sick of it. : ) 

Saturday afternoon at the ballpark

They did another fly over for this game, so fun!

Pujols sliding into home--although it ended up not counting. 

Nothing better than Ice Cream on a hot day! 

They gave away fleece blankets again this year! 

<3

The game was so hot, Brody had the brilliant idea of stopping into DCA to go on their Water Rapids ride to cool off!! We valeted at the Grand Hotel and popped in just to get wet, and grab some dinner. 

Such a perfect way to end the day! And the ride cooled us right off! : ) 

Happy 30th!!

Brody's Birthday was the end of March and I made it my lives mission to make sure he felt VERY spoiled. The past couple years have been rough, with miscarriages, my hormone and panic issues and he has been nothing short of loving, cheerful, positive, helpful, supportive, patient and everything else wonderful (and so has my family, i'm very blessed). Even when we were up long nights and didn't get much sleep, he was cheerfully off to work hard the next morning. It reminds me of a quote by Martin Luther King (I believe), "The true test of a man is not where he stands in times of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of conflict and great strife". I know this was said on a much greater issue, but for me, everything he has done for me had meant the world to me. It has been a test and each one only brings us closer and stronger together in our marriage. 

With all this on my mind and it being a milestone Birthday, I went into full planning mode--- taking in consideration what he wanted. When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he'd like to keep it mellow and stay up at Disneyland...I took the rest from there! : ) 

On his actually Birthday I stopped by a picked up 30 balloons to surprise him with (but then my car battery died, and he got to be surprised with a car full of 30 balloons. haha. Oh well. 

That night we went out to dinner with my parents at Napa Rose (at Disneys Grand Californian Hotel). We have always wanted to try it, and what better occasion to try it out than for his birthday! : )  

The food was amazing and the atmosphere was so beautiful. My favorite part was looking out the huge window in California Adventure. 

These desserts were insane! 

Little back story: Brody suggested staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel since it was a little cheaper than the DL Hotel. So thats where I told him we were staying. And thats ALL he knew about the weekend. 

We where going to get there early and spend some time in the park, but he ended up having to see a client, that ended up being Kareem Abdul Jabber (not a bad days work). So we pulled up to the resort around check in time, and as I started to pull into the DL Hotel, he was SO surprised and excited! It was so fun!! 

We checked in a headed up to our room, where he found all this waiting for him!! 

The room looked SO good! And all the decorations are fabric and nicely embroidered, we figure we'll have them for years! 

The singing balloon ; ) 

The little weekend schedule I made on my own, it listed other surprises I had set up for him. World of Color dinner reservations, Minnie's Birthday breakfast in the park and more. : ) 

They personalized so much of the little gifts and decor! It was so fun! Even the Birthday ears where embroidered with his name!! 

The banner that was on the door! It saying surprise could not have been more perfect!! 

One of the things he wanted to do was spend some time at their new pool. It was so fun! 

Little videos of us going down the water slide 

Our 'World of Color' dinner and premium "seating". 

The waitress even gave us a box of desserts for the show! : ) 

With our stay at the hotel, we got Magic Morning, where you can get into the park an hour before it opens. It's the best! The park feels so empty! 

One of my favorite pics of the weekend! : ) 

From Minnie's Breakfast in the park! : ) 

Playing around in Toon Town 

Autopia 

This was my first Disneyland Carmel Apple. It was SO good!! Sometimes they will cut it up for you, or you can ask for a knife. Makes the job of eating it, so much easier. 

We took the time to get some character photos, and ride in the very front of the Monorail. 

One of my favorite things about staying at the DL Hotel is the light up firework headboard that plays a bit of 'When you wish upon a star', and the audio channel that plays atmosphere music from the park!! And this time, the view from my bed was beautiful! : ) 

Brody got me this back by Matterhorn. It's Tangled theme, since we went as them for Halloween this past year. :) I love it, and am thinking of adding some floating lanterns to it. 

That night it started raining a bit, which made for some fun pics! 

All the surprises came together perfectly and it was SUCH a fun stay! 

Happiest Birthday to my Prince Charming!! : ) 

Angels Opening Night!!

We have always wanted to go to opening night, and with our awesome new season ticket package, we made dreams come true! ; ) 

Stadium fly over 

(ya, we were running a bit late that night. But it made for a great photo) : )

With all the player changes, the crowd has a completely different feel from seasons before. Everyone is always so pumped up and standing for almost anything (well, at opening weekend anyway). 

We won opening night!! 

We had a great seat for the fireworks. This was my favorite part of the whole day!! 

haha, trying to get both us and the fireworks in the same shot. 

(the couple next to us took a couple for us, but they were SO blurry, plus I really love how this came out.) 

Countdown to fireworks and part of the show!! : ) 

Us with the Halo all lit up! 

Brody got me a Rally Monkey hat! It's so fun, I love it! : ) 

So excited we were able to make it to opening night! Hopefully this well be a great season. We'll see. Ether way, we love our games! : ) 

San Diego Getaway!!

Soooo back in the first weekend of March we took a MUCH needed getaway to our favorite little spot---the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego! It was SUCH a relaxing weekend and we did everything we wanted to, which was pretty much do nothing but relax and take it slow. : ) 

We started out our first morning by sleeping in, and having breakfast at our favorite spot, Maryjanes. It's attached to the Hard Rock hotel and has the greatest breakfast in a fun atmosphere.  

After Breakfast we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the beautiful weather out by the rooftop pool! 

Seaport Village is just a little walk from the Gaslamp, and is such a cute little place! We decided to try the Harbor House down there, and had the greatest view of the sunset as we ate. It was so lovely and relaxing. The food was amazing and we can't wait to go back. 

After dinner Brody struck up a deal with a horse and carriage guy to have it take us right back to our hotel!! It was SO SO fun! I have always wanted to take one of these! It was a little fairytale moment. <3 

That night we set up room service for breakfast, you just can't beat that!! And lounged around before checking out. : ) 

On our way to Coronado we stopped off at this little Dessert place called, Extraordinary Desserts. My sister has raved about this place for years, and had a cake for her birthday one year from here---so we stopped off to check out what else they had. : ) 

Coronado is one of my favorite places to stop off at!! Walking out on that beach, you feel like you aren't even in CA anymore. It seems so different from all our other beaches, and everything is just so grand and beautiful!! It was such a fun day! : )!

The trip was perfect! And it was great to finally do a weekend away. 

Can't wait to head back! : ) 

One More Disney Day - Leap Day

This is how behind I am on our blog! haha. This is from Leap Day (Feb 29th). The Disney parks (Disneyland and Walt Disney World) stayed open for a full 24hrs on the 29th. As a result there where many who took this as a 24hr challenge, and stayed at their respective park the entire time. I love the parks, but most of the time It's taxing to stay more 6 hours. haha. 

There was a part of us that was curious to be a part of this event in some way, and decided to go at an hour that we would normally not be able to be in the parks. We meet up with Tiffany and Ryan from our stake around 3am! : ) 

Below was the ticket lines at 3am--crazy huh? 

Main Street at 3am - and our Breakfast at Riverbelle around 4am : ) 

KIIS FM DJing from the event 

As you can imagine there were a lot of people sleeping randomly around the park on benches and such (as shown below)

Star Tours! 

When we came out of the ride, the sun was coming up!! It was SO cool to be at the park at sunrise. 

Castle shot around 6am : ) 

Main Street a little after 6am - As you can see from the clock 

Cast Members and Characters saying goodbye 

It was surprisingly crowded the whole night, but we got breakfast did some rides and got to be in the park together at a rare hour to see the sunrise! I am so glad we got up at 2am to experience this Disney Day in History (not sure if they will ever do this again)! : ) 

Little delirious (haha) and walking back to the parking structure since the tram lines were WAY too long! It took a couple days to recover from the lack of sleep, but it's a lot of fun to look back on! Thanks again Tiffany and Ryan for braving this morning with us! : )