~Family Vacation~ Sea World~ Day 2~

One of my dad's favorite places in California is Sea World, so he insisted we go there. Lexi LOVED it. She loved seeing all the fishies. She ran from aquarium to aquarium squealing.

Touching the Starfish.

We would NEVER go on a trip to California in the summer because of the heat. We thought going at the end of September would be the perfect time to go, because it is not to hot and not to cold. Boy were we wrong. The day we were in Sea World it got up to 105 degrees. Since it was so hot, I was one of the first to volunteer to go with Hunter on Shipwreck Rapids. We got drenched.

~Family Vacation~ Disneyland~ Day 1

I was going to put all of our vacation into 1 post, but we had so much fun and have so many cute pictures to post that I decided to separate it by days. We just got back from a family trip to Disneyland with my parents. It was a lot of fun. I think Disneyland is one of my favorite places to visit.

A couple of weeks before going to Disneyland, the kids each made a countdown calendar for our trip. Each night they took a chain off the calendar. This is after they took the last chain off.

Lexi giggled the entire bus ride from our car to the airport :)

I had a very enjoyable plane ride out to California. Lexi sat up with Dave, and kept him busy the entire flight, lol. No, she was pretty good thanks to Dave's laptop. We turned on Bugs Life and that kept her entertained.

Mckell threw a huge fit about going in the Haunted Mansion, which was decorated all up with The Nightmare Before Christmas. She fought, kicked, and screamed (which was kind of embarassing), but it ended up being one of her favorite rides. She went on it over and over again. I guess it was good that Dave and I forced her to go on it :)

Hunter loved all the rides. Some of his favorites were Pirates of the Carribean, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain.

Mckell's favorite rides were The Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, and the Teacups. Lexi also loved the Teacups. She laughed the entire ride, and loved trying to spin the middle. Hunter and Grandpa went on it together, and Grandpa ended up getting blisters on his hands from spinning the teacup so fast, lol.

We were all pretty exhausted by 6:00. I don't think it helped that we'd been up since 4:30 to get ready and head to the airport. Our original plan was to stay until Disneyland closed at 12:00, but that didn't happen. We were gone by 8:00.

Before our trip Hunter and Mckell went and worked with my mom and dad to earn money for Disneyland. Mckell bought an autograph book, her Princess Minnie ears, and a Princess beauty kit. Hunter bought a Mickey's Pirate set, a Mickey Indiana Jones figure, and a Mickey Luke Skywalker.

Since we were all so tired and decided not to go back to the park after dinner, Grandpa took the kids up to the roof to sit in the hot tubs and watch the fireworks over at Disneyland.

~Look Who's Two~

On September 18, two years ago, a beautiful baby girl was born into our family. We love Lexi to death. She has brought so much joy to our family. It has been fun to see her personality come out this past year. She is so funny, sweet, and such a good helper. She loves helping me pick up her toys, but I think she loves dumping them back out even more :). She loves to read her books, she loves pushing her babies around in the stroller, loves to play in Mckell's kitchen, loves to watch morning cartoons, loves to say prayers (it has been a problem trying to keep her quiet during the prayers in sacrament meeting, all throughout the prayer she is jabbering away saying her own prayer), she loves to put her shoes on and take them off all by herself, she has started talking in short sentences, she thinks she has to play with friends just like Hunter and Mckell, and her favorite food is cheese. All day long she asks for cheese, lol. We love Lexi sooo much and are glad that she is part of our family.

On her birthday we had a little party with the Wangsgard side of the family. I don't know who was more excited to open presents, Mckell or Lexi, lol.
After opening each present, Lexi would run it over to Grandpa to show him what she got. It was too cute.
Lexi in her cute Tinkerbell costume that Richard and Cassie gave her.

You can't have a party without games, right. We played the quarter game, which was a lot of fun. My mom ended up winning the first game, but everyone wanted to play again so she gave everyone their quarters back and we played again. Mckell won the 2nd game, so Grandma and Mckell split the winnings. However, Grandma was nice and gave her winnings to Hunter to use in Disneyland. He was happy.

Grandma with her winnings!!!
Hunter really didn't have a poker face. You knew immediately if he had a good card or a bad card :)
Dave reading to the girls. I love this picture.

So Lexi loved all her presents (even the socks she got), but I think her favorite was the trampoline in the backyard. She loves to jump.

~Party for the Birthday Girls~

September is full of birthdays in the Ropelato family. Darinda's birthday is on the 11th, Jocelyn's is the 15th, and Lexi's is the 18th.

The birthday girls, minus Jocelyn. She didn't want to be in a picture because she was having to much fun playing with her toys.

We had a big birthday party for them all. We had games, a pinata, and dinner. Fun, Fun, Fun! Jerry and Darinda have just turned there yard into a one stop play area, lol. Along with the swimming pool that they already had, they've added a basketball court, a high jump pit, a long jump track, and are currently in the process of putting in a fire pit. So for games, we had track and field events. There was a high jumping contest, a long jump contest, a javeline throw, softball throw, and basketball shoot. The kids had a lot of fun running around, but they especially loved the prizes Darinda had for them.

Lexi wasn't sure at first about what to do, but she didn't want any help from Mckell figuring it out, lol. Once she figured out that there were things for her inside the presents, she couldn't get into them fast enough.

Lexi with the cute cake Darinda ordered for her.

Jocelyn with her princess cake.

Even though Darinda had a cake for everyone to eat, Hunter and Mckell insisted on helping Lexi eat her cake. Mckell tried eating the cake with no hands, which is why it is all over her face, lol.

Lexi reading her new baby one of her new books. I can't believe she is 2 already. Happy Birthday Lexi!