My Happy Girl after playing in the water

Just two weeks after the “actual day”, we embarked on our little trip to Disney California Adventure, Disneyland, then on to the “camping” portion in Bryce & Zion. For brevity of each post, I’m splitting into sections of the trip. While California Adventure didn’t have a plethora of pictures, Disneyland does, so I’ll start with the first day and leave the mega-post for tomorrow.

We decided to do the California Adventure park first, for a few reasons – #1 we had two days, so thought we could see one park each day, #2 it opened later in the day and we were driving from SB, and #3 we were told it had a lot of younger-kid activities. I’d say that it definitely doesn’t compare to actual Disneyland, but I’m certainly glad we did it. It started a little rocky with a brief (and unsuccessful) stint in the Bug’s Life 3D video, where a larger-than-life 3D spider was just not Selah’s cup of tea (smart girl we have, yes?), and we spent the earlier portions of the day attempting to recover from the “scare” which put her in somewhat of a funk. But the day only went up from there, and I’ll have to post a few videos to cover Selah’s favorite activities there, which included dancing to the Mickey Mouse Club live show and running around the water fountain (this sounds much less impressive than it was – it was an interactive water fountain that kids could play in).

For now, I’ll stick with the still-photos of a few highlights.

Meeting Mickey Mouse was certainly right up there with the best of them. From her body language and shyness, you’d think she was slightly traumatized, when in actuality, I think it was her favorite. But much like meeting a favorite celebrity or teen idol, she froze up on the spot. However, recounting the event of “meeting Mickey Mouse” is a popular topic of discussion even to this day (over a week later! That’s eternity for a two-year-old memory!).

The man himself:

Warming up a bit (yep, only a bit):

The balance of the pictures I have are from a ride Selah enjoyed, but I feel like the adults were rather cheated. It had to be a 20 minute plus wait, and the ride probably took just under one minute. Literally, 60 seconds. Of which, 40 seconds of it were sitting still, waiting for it to unload. So, essentially, the ride was 15 seconds long. The risk/reward of that investment just didn’t pay off. That is, until I saw this sequence of pictures of Selah & Grandma. Of which I would have gladly waited another 30 minutes, of course.

Look, Grandma!

All in all, the day was a success. And it warmed us up for the following big day at the Happiest Place on Earth. Stay tuned.

The family

I couldn’t have asked for a better Mother’s Day! I suppose, if anything, I would have prefered to trade the perfect weather for the previous day – Selah’s birthday! But, no complaints – we all enjoyed it fully. Started off with breakfast, where my awesomely thoughtful husband made me poached eggs (!). Yep, he Googled how to do it, and was successful! Yummy! Then he got Selah ready (another gift!) for church, and dressed up for the occasion (this is noteworthy, as we both normally go on the very casual side to church). And after a nap at home, we all drove to Ojai to enjoy the beautiful afternoon at Ojai Valley Inn, relaxing with appetizers and beverages on the patio with friends while all of the kiddos ran around on the practice green, functioning as the perfect “playground”. It was so nice that we’ve vowed that we’ll go there on a non-occasion day, just to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and great views (without paying the hefty pricetag for a room and golf).
Here’s my favorite selection of photos from the day:

Mommy & her baby

Selah & I “golfing”

The beautiful setting

My loves

Remember: click on the pics if you’d like to see them larger – these are from the big camera, so only show up tiny on the post.

Balloons are the best! Especially ELMO balloon!!!

The weather leading up to Selah’s big day was perfect. All week – not a cloud in the sky, and “shorts weather”. Then, the day of – cold, cold, foggy, breezy, and cold. Which made the party spot a little less than ideal – a place on the beach that Selah loves because it is outside and has a sandbox. Very popular with kids and families…but not so great on a cold day. But, nevertheless, that was the only downer of the day – and probably most of all a bummer for the great-grandmas who drove all the way down to freeze with us! We were very blessed to have them (and Grandma Smith too who drove them!) in attendance, and Selah especially appreciated it – as evidenced by the fact that for about a week after her birthday, every morning we were greeted with “Happy Birthday” in eager anticipation that there might just be more family, friends, presents, and a party in honor of her, if each morning were her birthday from here on out.

I am surprisingly short on pictures – I must have been paying more attention to Selah & guests than my camera (??!!?) – but have included an a assortment of what we have to remember the day by, and especially share with those who we would have loved to have with us (hello, Hawaii fam!)

Mmmmm….Elmo cupcake!

Almost finished. Of course I’m eating the whole thing!

Putting on my purse and bracelet from Aunt Rose, Uncle Steve, and Cousins Alyssa & Kaylee. Have to dress to impress while pulling the wagon!

My little artist on her new easel – a gift from Mommy & Daddy

Loving my special red wagon from Nana & Papa

“Again, Daddy?”…making Daddy work for his princess in her new red wagon with a custom paint job courtesy of Papa!

And….I’m spent!

There could be a lot of upcoming posts with pictures…considering I just downloaded the month of May – which happens to have a lot of big events for the Wheeler family! First off, just a few to wet the pallete…of Selah & Daddy getting ready for camping. Remember – if you click on the pictures, you can actually get the full size version – for some reason when I upload with our nicer camera, I have to post them in thumbnail size or else you see just a tiny portion of the whole picture on the screen.

Both of these were taken the day before Selah’s birthday, while unpacking our “new” tent (purchased a year ago for a camping trip we never made, so just making it out of the box for the first time prior to Bryce/Zion!).

Cheeeeeese!

Just chillin in the tent box, no biggie, Mommy.

We took just short of a million pictures on our trip, but these are just a few taken on my phone – and thought I’d give a little preview.
Selah posing with her popular friend Goofy

Selah, Gramma, & Mommy on the carousel

Chasing Selah at Excalibur – different Vegas experience with a toddler!

Driving through Zion – cant even fit the cliffs into one frame!

Entering a mile long rock tunnel in Zion

“Camping” by Selah & Daddy cooking on our porch of the hotel room in Zion, after not getting a campsite.

The stellar view from ‘roughing it’ at the Majestic View Lodge

Mmmmm…breakfast cookie while “camping” at the hotel

Probably 75% of what our vacation consisted of: chasing a toddler in various locations

Hiking Zion – best day of the trip! Great weather, great views, & a sacked-out munchkin who let Mommy put her in the pack. You can see her blond sleepy head above my shoulder!

Coloring at a restaurant on our way home

Playing in the sand at Lake Las Vegas – our last stop on our way home from “camping” (a loosely used term since we really only camped one night, of which I don’t have a single picture, which is a total bummer because it was the night we met up with my Grandma, Aunt Jeannie & Uncle Mike, & cousins Tera & Cael – and was a trip highlight & our first tent-sleeping experience with a toddler!). Nevertheless, it was all fun and Selah was a trooper aside from her daily requests to go “homey”

Mmmm…icey!

Daddy & Selah having a birthday dance-off. Too close to call on who took the prize, so we’ll call it a tie. (or maybe Mommy just wants to have a tie-breaker because this was way too fun to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsysSFHyfq8

Jesse and I are definitely not pros at the holiday celebrations yet. Not for the lack of actual celebration, but almost the opposite. We prepare well in advance of the holiday (Christmas, Easter, Birthday), swearing to one another that she doesn’t need any presents, let’s keep it simple, and other minimalist goals.

Selah’s 2nd birthday seems to be no exception. We weren’t even going to celebrate, save our Disneyland trip after Jesse’s semester ends next week. However, our informal lunch had to have cupcakes, so of course I wanted to do Sesame Street. And ‘no presents’ somehow turned into an easel complete with art supplies…and we apparently couldn’t stop at that and had to throw in a toddler basketball hoop (to get her exercising after painting, of course!)

So, while it wasn’t as low key as intended so far, here are some pics of the preparation tonight:

Sesame Street cupcake final products:

Daddy’s hard work assembling:

Also, has to throw in one of Selah, Daddy, & I baking his birthday cake together on Jesse’s special day yesterday:

And one of us the other day after school:

Love this girl, my almost-two-year old, most amazing baby girl.

Tonight went like this:

Mommy: Selah, what do you want for your birthday dinner this weekend?
Selah: Ketchup, please.

Hmmmm…I’m glad that later when we suggested “pizza”, it seemed like it might go over just as well.

No, this isn’t our birthday party, just a teaser of a headline, I suppose. These were some beautiful pictures that were given to us by Selah’s friend, Cecilia, from her birthday party a few weeks back. It was an amazing rainbow party that we can never top – don’t worry, we won’t even try. It was that good, seriously

I scanned the pictures in to share because they were so nice. Our little girl is growing up so fast – it will be her big day this weekend!

Thought you’d enjoy the little video of Daddy picking Selah up after her first day! I think it was successful, judging by her reaction:

Here’s another of her at school…it was actually at my request since I wanted to document the first day, and since I couldn’t drop her off because I was working in SLO that day, I suppose I can’t really be too picky about the picture:

I was envisioning a picture of her with her teacher, or maybe one with a little bit of the school (which is really cool), but oh well, the video was nice and captured what I missed.
My part of “school” might not be dropping her off, but I have had fun making her little lunches & imagining her going through it at school. Here’s tomorrow’s:

Hope she enjoys the heart sandwiches! They were made with lots of love!