A Long Time Ago...

... for a Halloween far, far away...

Anya was Chewbacca, Willow was Princess Leia, Daddy was Darth Vader and Mommy was a Jedi. The double stroller was the Millenium Falcon.

Anya caught on to the trick or treating concept very quickly and was picking out her own candy from the bowl by the 3rd house. As soon as we would leave a house, she would say "more trick or treat? more trick or treat?"

Our good friend Lisa came along with her 10 month old daughter Allison (who was the cutest little pea pod ever).

Mom & Dad manned the fort with Aunt Patti & Uncle Bill while we went out trick-or-treating.

I was very impressed that most people knew that Anya was Chewbacca! Yay for the cultural impact of Star Wars!

Click here for all the Halloween photos!

The Big Trip

Camp Pendleton (just outside of Oceanside, CA) is long freakin' way (2 days, 8 hours or so each). Especially with a 2 year old repeating the word "sunglasses" for hours.

The cottages on base were awesome - literally right on the beach.

Anya's first experience with the ocean? Slightly hesitant at first, but then Daddy had to hold her back from launching herself in! Willow liked the wind.

She spent many happy hours in the water with the boys and playing in the sand with Joey. Pouring shovels of sand on her head was super fun, apparently. We've been back for two weeks and I think we may have just gotten all of the sand out of her ears and hair.


It was great to see where Jake's family is living, and I love hanging out with Nat. The boys and Uncle Sean always have a blast together.

On Wednesday, we headed up to Anaheim for the girls' first trip to Disneyland - Anya was so excited! Unfortunately, she got sick for it, but no matter how tired she was by the end of the day, she would be saying "more Disneylam?" when we got home at night. The Dumbo ride, the carousel and meeting Mickey Mouse were big hits, and she just seemed to love the ambiance. Willow went on Dumbo and Pirates of the Caribbean and seemed to really enjoy it - throwing out her arms and legs, smiling and yelling "oooohhh!".


They have a new feature called "Jedi Training Academy" where a bunch of little kids (Anya was too young) get trained as Padawans by a Jedi Master and then each one gets to fight Darth Vader. Anya was so incredibly excited when Darth Vader came on stage. She was jumping up and down yelling "Darth Vader! Darth Vader!" - I thought she was going to rush the stage like an Elvis groupie.

When we left on Saturday, Sean said "Say goodbye to Disneyland!" and Anya waved and said "Bye, bye, Disneylam". Then added, very softly and sadly, "Bye, bye, Sleeping Beauty's Castle."

 

Click here for all of the Camp Pendleton photos

Click here for all of the Disneyland photos

 

Look Who's 2!

Anya had a great time at her birthday party, although you couldn't tell from looking at her during the party. She's been talking about it ever since, though!

When it came time to blow out the candles, she surprised us with an unknown skill - she did it with her nose!

The Elmo theme was a big hit, she has fun playing with the "Mr. NooNoo" who came on her cake (Mr. Noodle).

Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a special occasion for her!

CClick here for all of Anya's 2nd Birthday photos!

Things you need to know:

1. Anya is going to be Chewbacca for Halloween and Willow will be Princess Leia. In keeping with the theme, I got Anya a Darth Vader trick-or-treat basket, which I showed to her early in case she was going to freak out about it.

2. Anya is now obsessed with Darth Vader.

Last night, I had the basket on the table. After dinner, I set Anya's tray on the table next to it and forgot about it, which is a no-no in general since Belle will get up on the table (all four paws) to eat any food left out.

A little later as we were getting ready to go for a walk, I looked over at the table to see Belle up there eating Anya's leftovers, so I yelled "Belle, get down!".

Anya noticed as well and FLIPPED out. "Belle, off, Darth Vader, off! Belle! No! Darth Vader!"

She cried about it for about half of our walk and kept giving Belle dirty looks.

Apparently, she felt the need to protect Darth Vader from the evil, evil beagle.

She's going to be very disappointed someday when she finds out he's a bad guy for much of the series.

Enchanted Forest

We took the girls to Enchanted Forest for the first time. Anya was not a big fan of the animatronics along the storybook lane. She loved the bumper boats and little train (not that you could tell from the stoic expression on her face), and was very disappointed that she couldn't go on the bobsleds (ride? ride?).

The slides were also a big thrill!

She was completely entranced by the water show at the end where color water dances to music.

All in all, a fun day, we can't wait until they are both old enough to really enjoy it!