The Journey Begins

After all of our fun at Disneyland, we began our cross-country move to New Jersey.  Overall, it took us 10 days, but 3 of those days were spent with our families in Chicago and Denver.  I didn't know if I could spend that long in the car with a 3 year old and 9 month old, but it all worked out.  We stopped every 1-2 hours for Lily to go potty or to breastfeed Claire, but we got there - it just took us an extra hour or two each day.  I planned ahead and purchased some dollar store toys for Lily.  She would get one or two new toys each day, depending on how long our drive was that day.  On the way, we also planned on doing some fun activities and touring church history sites to help break up the trip.  That made it a lot of fun.  I'm going to document our trip as best I can so I'll remember in the future!

The first day we drove to Denver from Utah.  We stopped in Glenwood Springs, CO for a longer break.  Originally we planned on going swimming at the hot springs, but its pretty expensive if you're just going to be there an hour or two.  We visited a park instead and played for a while.  We got to my family's house that evening.

The 2nd day we stayed in Denver and rested.  In the afternoon, our family + Sage went to the Denver Zoo.  I really like the Denver Zoo and we had a great time and really nice weather.  Plus it was great to spend some time with Sage because we won't be there when he leaves on his mission to Sao Paolo, Brazil next month.

The 3rd day we had our longest drive (11 hours) across Kansas.  We stayed in Independence, MO at a Holiday Inn with a indoor waterpark.  When we arrived that evening we went straight for the waterpark and had a great time playing in the kiddie pool.  We went around together in the lazy river about 100 times...prolly.  We ate dinner and then went to bed to get ready for our next day when we would begin our church history tour.

Disneyland - 3rd Half

It felt like a 3rd half anyways...We went back to Disneyland on our 3rd day to revisit favorite rides and go on some of the rides we'd missed earlier because we spent too much time waiting in line to go on Finding Nemo Submarines.  Here's the photos:

I got to ride on Dumbo with Lily and I really enjoyed it!  Jeff rode with Claire.

Then Lily and I rode on the teacups.  Jeff and Claire rode together.

And we had to go on the carousel again, of course.  Notice Jeff is riding with Claire (maybe this is because I complained that I wasn't spending enough time with Lily).

We all went to meet Minnie Mouse at her house.  Lily had to go potty right before it was our turn, so we had to let a few people go in front of us in line.  Minnie was very sweet, even though we had our camera on the video setting at first (instead of the picture setting).

We also saw Princess Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog, performing.  Lily was wearing her Tiana outfit that day (from Grandma Butler).

Disneyland at Night

After our girls went to bed, The grownups went back out to play.  My parents and Sage stayed back at the hotel to babysitt and rest and the rest of the gang went back to Disneyland for a few hours.  We had a great time and got a little bit silly.  We got to see the beautiful fireworks show and then we went on Space Mountain.  While waiting in line we turned into some strange space creatures.

Apparently it was contagious.  Here's the whole group.

The funniest part was that we got on the ride this way!

We enjoyed several other rides that night.  One highlight was singing along with the pirates on Pirates of the Caribbean.  Man were we LOUD.  I felt sorry for everyone else on the ride with us (but most of them were laughing).  Our goal was to get back to the hotel about an hour before closing, but we failed.

Disneyland - 2nd Half

The second day of our trip we went to Disney's California Adventure.  I had never been to this park before, but I really like it.  It has some of my favorite rides.  We spent most of the morning together as a big group, taking turns watching Lily and Claire while the rest of the group went on an adventurous ride.  I really liked being able to spend that time with my parents and Tristen and Sage.

Lily's favorite ride was King Triton's Carousel.  She loves carousels, so we all went on it with her.  Its important to note that my dad must have been concerned about safety because he wore the safety belt!

We all went together on the Golden Zephyr, which was a boring ride for adults, but made for some great pictures.

My favorite ride is the Tower of Terror.  Its reminiscent of the Twilight Zone and it freaks me out every single time I go on it, as seen below.

Lily's favorite place, besides the carousel, was "A Bug's Land".  It is so cute!  You feel like you are a little bug because everything around you is HUGE.  She cried when we left, partly because she was exhausted and partly because she really enjoyed it.  Its kind of weird though because she gets really scared whenever she sees a bug.

The last thing we did was watch the parade.  We got there a little late and had a hard time finding a good spot, so Lily sat on Grandpa Butler's shoulders because he's the tallest person around.  She could see great and probably really appreciated having a place to sit.

After that, our little family went back to the hotel for some R&R.

Meeting a Princess

Lily was very excited to meet the princesses at Disneyland.  Jeff was a champ and waited in line 1 1/2 hours while I fed Claire and took Lily on a train ride around the park.  It was definitely worth it and one of the reasons we went to Disneyland.  Lily is a HUGE princess fan.  When she first met Snow White, she was a little shy (I would be shy too if I were meeting someone I was a fan of, like ...Robert Pattinson from Twilight).

Snow White was so sweet to Lily.  And then Lily, Claire and I all got to be in a picture with her.  Claire could not take her eyes off Snow White...maybe another princess fan in the works!

Next, we met Sleeping Beauty.  Princess Aurora is one of my all-time favorites.  Lily and Aurora are so cute together!

Lastly, we met Princess Jasmine.  She was so friendly and happy.  Disney does a GREAT job casting!

When we left, Lily had stars in her eyes.  She was acting all dreamy.  It was so cute and you could tell it was a very special moment for her.

Disneyland - 1st Half

We had a lot of fun in Disneyland together as a family.  Overall a very positive experience.  A few items of note:
1) The Budget Inn that we stayed at was more like a nice hostel than an actual hotel.  Worth the ~$50/night we payed, but VERY bare bones....and the beds were as hard as a rock.
2) No Disney vacation with a 3 year old would be complete without its share of melt-downs, both child and mother
3) No matter how hard you try, you're going to spend a lot of time waiting in line

The first day, we planned on meeting the Princesses.  At Disneyland they have the Bibidy Bobbity Boutique where little girls can get overpriced makeovers to look like miniature princesses.  I recreated this experience at home, for very little $$ and it turned out pretty good!

Here are some pictures from the rides we enjoyed:

Claire on the Finding Nemo Submarine

Lily and Daddy riding Dumbo

Lily on the Carousel - probably her favorite ride

Lily and Me driving in Autopia

Grandma Maddux driving, right before Sage crashed into her

Lily and Andrea dancing in the parade.

What fun!  More to come.

Salt Lake Olympics 2002

We visited the Olympic Pavillion in Park City, UT with Jeff's mom when she came in town to visit.  They have a little museum and you can walk around outside and see the bobsled and luge track.  We took some fun pictures I wanted to share.

The Butler Bobsled Team.  I was surprised to find that bobsleds are NOT built for comfort.

Jeff carrying the torch.  You can almost see Olympic gold gleaming in his eyes.

 Me skiing in Park City.  Its pretty scary -- the skiing and my face!

My mother-in-law, Julie, very scared of her 90's hairdo.

I think Jeff is scared that the person behind him on the ski slope can smell his gas.  Ha!