the happiest place on earth

We haven't been on a vacation for quite awhile.  3 years to be exact.  Gustavo was anxious to go do something so he planned a 10 day family vacation to Las Vegas, San Diego, and Disneyland.  Our first stop was "the castle" in Las Vegas.

 

Ella & Sophia had never been in the car for longer than and hour at a time so we were a little nervous about how they'd do driving to California.  We wanted to break up the trip by staying in Las Vegas for 2 nights.  Ella was SO EXCITED to stay in a castle (The Excalibur).  She fell asleep on the last leg of our trip and woke up right as we were entering the parking lot.  I heard her whisper in awe, "Mom, we're at the castle."  A few minutes later she woke Sophia up by sweetly repeating, "Sophie, honey, we're at the castle."  It was such validation for us to hear her so happy.  After we parked the car she continued saying the cutest things, such as, "How in the world do we get to go inside the castle?" and "This castle is beautiful like my life."

 We spent the majority of our time in Vegas swimming in the 90 degree weather.  It was so fun and relaxing.  We spent a little bit of time on the strip and wore the girls out.  Ella loved M&M World and enjoyed the most expensive M&M's I've ever purchased (over $12 per pound!)

 Our next destination was a beach cottage on the naval base in Coronado.  It was beautiful.  After staying in a hotel and not getting much sleep due to our girls being out of their element and not being able to let them cry, it was so nice to have a house again.  Yolanda and her family met us there Sunday night and Abuela & Abuelo met us on Monday.

  

Ella refused to go near the water, but enjoyed playing with her toys in the sand.  Her favorite activities were stomping Daddy's sandcastles and burying her princesses.

 

 Sophia was as happy as can be to play in the water and be with all of us.

 

 

While we were in San Diego we went with Abuela & Abuelo and the boys to Sea World.  I'd never been and Gustavo had great memories from when he went as a child.  We had a great time because there were no lines and the weather was perfect.  Ella loved riding all of the rides in the Elmo area and enjoyed watching the mermaids in the shows.  Yes, while on this trip I learned that Ella believes mermaids are real.  As I was starting to tell her the truth about them, Gustavo stopped me and told me that he wanted us to let her believe for a little longer because she was so excited about seeing them.

Ella LOVED the "Oscar the Grouch" ride.  She went on it as many times as we let her.  It was so fun watching her get excited each time we rode it together.

 

While we were at Sea World Abuela was amazed by what a great baby Sophie is.  She couldn't believe how calm and content our little angel is.  We are so lucky.  Look at this smile!

 

 After 4 days in San Diego we headed to Disneyland.  I've only been once before when I was 11.  We went to Disney World back in 2009 when Ella was 6 months old and I am falling in love with Disney.  It is amazing!  Moments like these melted my heart:

Ella was absolutely star struck when she met the princesses and fairies at Disneyland. 

 Right now she is in love with everything princess so this was absolutely the most exciting thing she could ever imagine.  She loved riding the rides, especially Buzz Lightyear and The Little Mermaid ride.  On the first day Abuela and Abuleo gave each of the kids a special present.  Ella got a little Tinkerbell wand.  Right after she got it she informed me that she wanted to show all of the princesses (of course she named them individually) her special toy.  That night she got off to a good start by showing her wand to all of the princesses who participated in the parade.

 

The next day we went straight to the princesses so Ella could show them her Tinkerbell toy.

 

Unfortunately, Ella wasn't equally smitten with all of the characters.  She was so excited to meet Snow White, but was nervous about seeing the queen.  When they met, she tried to pull Snow White away from the wicked queen!

  

We wanted to end our 2.5 days in Disneyland with a bang so we saved the best for last, or so we thought.  We waited for almost 2 hours in the heat to meet Rapunzel.  As soon as we got into the tower we realized that Flynn was with Rapunzel.  I thought that would make things even better, but unfortunately Ella was afraid of him so she fell apart.  She started throwing a fit and trying to hide!  Gustavo and I were absolutely shocked (and let's be honest- a little frustrated).  The characters were incredible.  Rapunzel jumped right in and started talking with her while Flynn hid behind a curtain.

  Rapunzel got out her paint set and saved the day (sort of).  Ella stopped crying and seemed to be okay.  We left the park and Ella started talking about how much she loved Rapunzel and told us that she felt bad she didn't talk to Flynn.  She wanted to go back, but of course we didn't even consider that!  All in all, Disneyland was amazing!  We won't go back until we feel like Ella is old enough to appreciate it and Sophia is in the princess stage, but I definitely think Disneyland is the happiest place on earth!

9 months

When I took Sophia to her 9 month appointment I was slightly nervous about her weight, but the doctor assured me that she is perfectly healthy.  Here are her stats:

weight:

height:

head circ: 

This month Sophie started army crawling.  She has been getting around for the last month or so and eating everything she can get her little fingers on.  I can never keep anything clean enough!  She now pulls herself everywhere.  She also cut her first two teeth.  She is getting so big and growing up way too quickly.

8 months

We love our little Sophia so much.  She is such a sweetheart.  Sophie sits up all by herself now and eats everything in sight.  She didn't like rice cereal and still refuses to take a bottle, but she loves food.  I hope she'll continue to be a good eater because it is so nice- we're definitely not used to it!  The girls love each other, but Ella can get a little rough and Sophie has learned to cry wolf whenever Ella even comes near her.  I hope this isn't foreshadowing what's to come. 

 Sophia is a very happy, content baby, but I had to include this sad picture too because I thought it was so cute!

2 in diapers

Easter

 Easter has become such a fun holiday now that the girls are old enough to participate in so many activities.  We go to Easter egg hunts, family dinners, and neighborhood get togethers.  This year we went to the Nuskin Easter Egg Hunt with Abuela, Abuelo, Nena, Gabe, Gavin, & Genevieve. 

Over the weekend we went to Nephi to visit Grandad, Grandma Liz, and Isaac.  We had lots of fun celebrating Grandma Liz's birthday and then going on another Easter egg hunt in their yard.  It was so much fun that we didn't get any pictures. 

 

We also had our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  Since all of our backyards are joined together and only one out of eight families has a fence, we have a massive grassy space to hunt for eggs.  It is a great tradition and reminds us how much we love our neighbors.  After all of the kids find their eggs we have a big brunch in the Long's backyard.

  

On Sunday the Easter Bunny filled our basket with even more treats and some sidewalk chalk and sand toys for our upcoming vacation in San Diego (and our sandbox whenever we get around to making it).  After church we went over to Yolanda and Shevin's for dinner with Abuela and Abuelo.  It was a great day.  We love our family and are so glad we get to spend so much time with them.

7 months

Sophia at 7 months is still such a sweet, easy going girl.  She's constantly attached to my hip.  I've realized that has hindered some of her independent skills so we're working on helping her sit up.  She is definitely a momma's girl, but I'm not complaining about it!  As long as I'm holding Sophie she is as calm and quiet as can be, in fact I often don't realize what she's doing because she's so quiet.  For instance, she'll grab signs off of doors or candy off of shelves and I won't notice until she has made a complete mess of whatever she's grabbed.  One day I took Ella to get a doughnut and while I was getting out my wallet I looked over and realized that Sophie had been eating my chocolate cake doughnut.  It was all over my arm, her face, and the grocery store floor.  She is so quiet I had no idea she was being sneaky!