yippeee!

i won another pair of disneyland tickets this morning - 97th caller!  :)  can't wait to see minnie again.

happiest place on earth

aaron and i met up with cam, jeni, and kaelin at disneyland this past weekend and we had a blast.  last time we saw kaelin she was 2 years old and now she's almost 5.  it didn't take kaelin long to warm up to us and she is such a cutie!  a very smart cutie too.

here are a list of rides that we went on in no partcicular order at Disneyland:

• matterhorn (5 times)
• space mountain
• big thunder mountain (3 times)
• star tours (me once and with my eyes closed because the ride makes me sick, aaron went on it twice)
• it's a small world (once was enough for aaron)
• peter pan (one of my favorite rides and not sure why the lines are always so long either)
• haunted mansion (it's neat because they changed the whole thing to christmas theme)
• canoe ride (kaelin loved paddling, they even had an oar for little kids)
• winnie the pooh (kaelin was afraid at first and didn't want to go on it, but afterwards she liked it and went on it a second time)
• indiana jones (3 times, we did the single rider (you are basically a seat filler) and each time we were on the ride together next to each other and this only took 15 minutes versus waiting in line for an hour)

here are a list of rides that we went on in no partcicular order at California Adventure:

• midway mania (LOVE this ride, too bad the line was long or else we would have gone on it 10 more times)
• ariel (new ride for us as it was being built last time - was not too impressed with it)
• tower of terror (think i almost peed in my pants on this ride)
• goofy's sky high (you think this ride is tame, NOT)

first thing you see when you walk in disneyland





big thunder mountain - this ride is so fun and this is the only ride that i put both my arms up







belle apple - nope, did not buy one as it was $15 for one!



yummie hunny



haunted mansion all decorated for christmas - insude and out





sleeping beauty castle - so pretty when all lit up



one of my favorite pictures of kaelin and aaron - right before going on midway mania



my heart was beating so fast and palms started to sweat when i was on this ride.  held on for dear life.



i guess cam wanted to be just like princess aurora



at grand california hotel lobby - group picture before we parted ways



warming our feet by the fireplace in the hotel lobby

aaron got flocked!

aaron got flocked by flamingos on his birthday!  we were both surprised this morning and the look on aaron's face was priceless - what the?!?!  so much fun! 

what we both saw this morning

they leave later tonight to flock someone else . . .

oui oui

tin got sent to paris for work and came back with yummie treats for us. 


in front of arc de triomphe

Y.U.M.M.I.E macaroons from pierre herme.  aaron inhaled it!



yummie pies

forgot to post earlier that thanhha made apple pies for thanksgiving.  crust is not from scratch, but aaron (pie expert) said that it tasted very flaky and good.  thanhha did some research and got the "best" crust from whole foods.  great job thanhha!

poor mr. dex

last friday dexter had minor surgery on his noneye, got his teeth cleaned, and got one of the incisors pulled as the roots were exposed.  turned out there was an abscess on his noneye and they had to drain it.  poor guy.  he was all groggy that night when we picked him up.  he is back to his old prancing self and only needs to wear the collar a couple more days.  :)

wearing the collar does not deter him begging for treats

holi-day out with thomas

we spent part of sunday afternoon hanging out with thomas and friends in santa cruz.  i found out that lianne is afraid of santa - she hid her face when he was walking around on the train.  it was fun, but it's one of those things where you experienced it once and that was enough ;)

all aboard!

picture to the left - lianne is hiding from santa.  lianne had fun on the carousel - an employee gave her a couple of rings so she can toss it in the clown's mouth.



bird watching



happy birthday dad & happy thanksgiving

dad's birthday was last friday, so we decided to celebrate it on thanksgiving while everyone was together.  we also hosted thanksgiving for the first time and turkey turned out great - we brined it and i think we will brine the turkey from now on.  very moist.  go to whole foods and buy the brine mix, a lot cheaper than buying all the individual ingredients. 

pierce and lianne helping grandpa blowing out his birthday candles

we gave pierce a cars train set (early birthday gift) - the expression when i first gave it to him was priceless

family ;)