We had so many great pictures from our recent trip, I thought it would be nice to use this post to show a few more of them.  We got a number of photos of Sydney's favorite rides, and her overall resume of thrill attractions is growing.  Hard to imagine she's almost three, and she's already conquered some of the best rides!  She will always have a soft spot and looks forward to return trips to Disneyland, but she definitely now has her sights set on DisneyWORLD.  She understands it's much bigger, and her thirst for adventure is ravenous.  Her next visit will certainly define her as a Disney veteran, but these pictures will always serve as a record of those first couple  of trips when she was young, innocent, and two!

While the castle says it all, I thought I would at least mention that this week there is another 'happiest place on earth.'  That place, as you would likely not suspect, has been the bathroom.  Sydney has done excellent with her potty training the past few weeks, and it's been almost a couple of weeks since she has had a diaper with 'substance.'  Even beyond that, she regularly says when she needs to go.  We certainly are excited about this transition.  She's had progress before, but she's hit a new plateau for consistency.

There's much more that's been happening, but that will have to wait until next time!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Disneyland...Part Two!!!

I often wonder if Sydney has been sprinkled with pixie dust, because she has now been to Disneyland twice in the last six months. Although the recent trip was the result of a work trip, I still consider her a very lucky little girl.

Again, Sydney loved all of the rides. Since Karen physically isn't a resilient 'circular' rider, dad was the recipient of many rides. This resulted in no fewer than four Carousel rides, three Tea Cup rides, and two Astro Orbiter rides. All were rides that went round and round, and most were experienced with a little blond girl yelling "faster...faster!" While I had no control over the actual speed of the carousel and other rides, I did have some impact on the Tea Cups. The more I would bear down and use my monstrous biceps to spin our cup faster, the m,ore Sydney would just laugh and laugh with excitement.On this trip, Sydney got to meet a number of characters, some of the same and some different than in January. This trip's list included Tinkerbell, Iridessa, Pluto, Rapunzel, and Flynn Ryder. She saw many others in passing. As excited as she was to meet them, she got shy with each character (probably a factor of her age). I'm sure she'll break out of that stage soon.

Not surprising, Sydney (as well as Karen), was willing to throw away femininity and show that they were certainly not shy when it came to park food. That's right, Disneyland ice cream bars and churros stood no change once in the path of these two...he he! But honestly, who doesn't love those things. Each meal and refreshing treat seemed to give everyone a little boost and willingness to be in the next line.

Outside the parks (Disneyland and California Adventure), Sydney enjoyed some time in the pool as well as performing one of her favorite activities....elevator button-pushing. All in all, a great few days with many fun memories!

Just a future note for Sydney-just remember your daddy stood in the searing heat for 40 minutes, risking heat stroke, keeping a place in line so that you could meet Rapunzel :)

My two girls are still hotter than Rapunzel!



I will always deny that I rode a lady bug!

Have a nice weekend everyone!!!



A Picture is Worth...

Sydney recently had her picture taken with her BFF Maggie.  Rebecca Brethauer took these amazing pictures, so instead of rambling on in another post, even as intellectually stimulating and humorous as every single post may be, I decided to share these great photos instead.

Have a great weekend!!! 

Friends, Fireworks, and the Fourth!

Every few weeks Sydney gets online and Skypes with her cousin Reina.  Reina, who is just two weeks younger than Sydney, currently lives in Okinawa, Japan, and typically comes back to the U.S. each July.  While Skype is great to keep in touch, Sydney thoroughly enjoyed having a house mate for the week.  She loved playing, coloring, sharing, and talking with Reina.  This also meant that bath time was a little more fun, and it also gave her the first chance of playing with makeup (they of course will not be allowed to actually wear it out of the house until the correct age of 37...ha ha!).

It was great spending time with Chris and Jillian, too, who in addition to serving as Reina's parents are just cool people.  We don't get to see them enough so it's great to make the most out of the time they're here!
 
This past weekend also marked the 4th of July.  So, with extremely close supervision Sydney got to experience her very first fireworks.  The only purchase for this 4th was a couple of sparklers, and she decided that she liked them very much.  I'm sure we won't be able to get away with just a few sparklers forever, so we'll enjoy these low-key years while they exist.

Sydney also enjoyed her second cinematic experience...at least from within the actual movie theaters.  She watched Cars 2.  She was very excited to watch this sequel, as she has viewed the original film a few weeks ago.  She did, on occasion, say that she liked 'Two Cars,' but we made sure she understood that it was the second movie, and was not a movie just about two different cars.

We have a ton of pictures from Reina's visit, so we look forward to posting more of those in our next post!!!

First visit...





Second visit...



Third visit...



Scarves Up!

There's something blue and green of which Qwest stadium had not seen the likes of before...and that, of course, is Sydney.  She got to go to her second official Sounders match.  She was very excited to make her return trip to cheer on her team.  As with the first trip, Grandpa Don also made the travel.  Linda was also able to join us for the game this year.

So, as is Sydney's nature, she doesn't do anything half-way.  She made sure if she was going to go to support her team she would make the most out of it.  As a result, she decided sporting the blue shirt that day, but more importantly it was key for her to remember her tutu, her Sounder Monkey, and the Seattle Sounders fan's weapon of choice...the scarf!

"Are you blind ref!!!"

GOOOOAAAAL!!!

We only had a minor set back during dinner, where towards the end she decided that she would not swallow her food, but rather let it sit in her mouth and liquefy.  This granted her the time out she earned, and despite sitting outside of the restaurant for 15 minutes, she still did not swallow her food.  Personally, I think it's just gotta be nasty if your food is now juice, swishing around in your mouth.  Once we passed that hiccup, though, she was a princess the rest of the time.  She got many comments about how cute and adorable she was.

She not only would join in the chants (fortunately one chant she did not know the words to...yikes), but she even looked at us on occasion, raised her her scarf high above her head, and would say "scarf up daddy."  Overall, she had a great time.  Of course, the following day this led to "I wanna watch soccer game," almost as if we can just go anytime.  Certainly I appreciated the enthusiasm, but the organization actually has a schedule they follow, and aren't able to play on the whims of a two-year old...ha ha!  We look forward to taking her to more games in the future.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Hair, Haggis, and More

The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy.  Last weekend Sydney's BFF Maggie came over to BBQ, get some sun, and have some fun.  They always enjoy spending time together.  The morning after Sydney asked, "where's Maggie?"  Since the last place she saw Maggie was playing with toys in the living room, naturally she should be there the next morning still playing with them :)

I wanted to include a few more pictures from Nana's recent visit.  Nana's visit was certainly a fun-filled time, and on one occasion we took a small jaunt to Lake Padden.  Not only did Sydney get to play on some of her favorite toys, but she also got to locate some ducks.  Fortunately there were no mean geese there.

One monumental thing did happen recently.  Sydney got her very first hair cut.  We decided it was getting to a length that was a little unmanageable...she kept tripping on it...ha ha!  It wasn't as bad as in the movie Tangled, but it was time to at make some change.  So, after Karen consulted Vogue, Cosmo, and a few local stylists, the decision for the appropriate hair cut was made...just a slight trim off the ends.

In other news, last weekend also included a short trip out to Ferndale to get in touch with my cultural roots at the Highland Games.  It is always a fun event, and Sydney had another first experience...haggis.  That's right, haggis.  And for those of you who do not know what it is, you'll have to Google it.  But Sydney was braver than her mother and easily tried it.  In fact, on the way home she kept asking for more (no joke).  So, we'll see if that is something she continues to enjoy.

Well, that's it for now.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!



Got haggis???



What Could Be Better?...

Sydney was so excited...she could
'bear'ly contain it...haha!

Sydney's Nana from Montana came for a recent visit.  This meant a lot of fun catching up with Sydney, and she proudly showed off her many talents.  Since Donna saw her previously, Sydney's speech, humor, and general personality has blossomed even more (even though that's hard to imagine).

So, what could be better than spending time with Nana?...a trip to the zoo with her Nana.  We took a quick jaunt down to the Woodland Park Zoo to look at the lions, bears, tigers, elephants, birds of prey, and other wild creatures.  It was a little busy because of Memorial Day Weekend, but it was still a great time. 

Ever have that feeling of being
watched by a prehistoric animal?


Strangely, we had many people approaching us, pointing at Sydney, and asking 'what species is that?'  I told them we were unsure, but that she certainly was not tame, and not to feed her.  We fed her once and haven't been able to get rid of her since.  On a similar note, I did tell Sydney that if she saw anything big and hairy not to call out and say 'hi uncle'...haha, I'm only kidding, or am I?

Sydney was fascinated with many of the animals, but in contrast to previous trips to the zoo she could actually name most of the animals that she saw.  And to take advantage of the situation, I thought it would be fun to take some comparison pictures to show how much she's grown in the past year or so.  Probably to their own delight, Karen and Donna do not look any different than the year before.

We have many other fun pictures to share from Nana's visit, including Sydney's first hair cut and Sydney sporting some new attire, but that will have to wait until our next post :)



Does the elephant have any junk
in his trunk?  I don't know...

Have a great weekend everyone!!!