Monday, March 7, 2011

Ice Castles


I made it up to Midway to see the amazing ice castles they create up there every winter. I had no idea that Midway was hosting such an amazing event. These ice creations are seriously so magical and stunning, I was proud of little Midway for being so cool! We stopped by right when the sun was setting so I got some cool pictures against the pastel colored clouds. Then we went into town to get some dinner at Cafe Galleria, their pizza is so so good, their pizza dough is very authentic Italian. Then we went back to explore the castles when they were all lit up. This was such a magical and fun activity I can't wait to go back for years to come!




























































It had just snowed earlier that day so there was a thin layer of snow on a lot of the ice which made for cool designs. I thought the picture above looks like an evil face you would see in some cartoon movie like The Nightmare Before Christmas or something. I also thought a lot of the walls of the castles looked like swarms of jellyfish as pictured below.


















Sunday, March 6, 2011

Disneyland : Our Happy Ending


Well the last day of our wonderful vacation had to happen sometime, but I sure made sure to live up every last minute of our last day in Disneyland. We decided to begin our day over in California Adventure, we were there of course 20 minutes before the park opened so we could race over to Toy Story the minute they started letting people into the park. Toy Story is my dad's favorite ride but it always have the longest lines so it was great to one of the first people in line.

























Today we had a very very special lunch planned, we went to Arial's Grotto to join all the Disney princesses for lunch! Jenny had brought the little girls princess dresses that they quickly changed into, Nora's dress matched Cinderellas and Evie's matched Bell's. Ariel greeted us to her princess party and the girls were in awe, I do have to admit that her dress and hair were amazing, I would want to be Ariel at this party for sure.









We bgan our meal with a wonderful selection of appitizers. My favorite were the strawberry and apple jello squares, its not everyday you get jello squares at a resturaunt.















During our meal every princess came by and Nora got a picture with every single one of them. Evie couldn't really decide if she wanted to meet them or not, in the end she decided its easier to meet them if grandpa went with her. Grandpa loves princess lunches, he has been out numbered by little girls for years. It was such a fun lunch, it was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, and of course it didn't dissapoint.

























After lunch jenny took the little ones back to the hotel for their naps so Mike, Nora, Dad and I explored a lot of the lesser known attractions in both the parks. We went to the muppet 3D show, turtle talk with Crush from Finding Nemo and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Nora didn't last through the whole Mr. Lincoln presentation, too much excitment.



I love Captain Eo



























Since we had such a big lunch at Ariel's we didn't have any dinner reservations, so after the park closed we headed to Ihop which is right next to our hotel. Mom and dad looove Ihop and jenny had never eaten there before so it was a popular choice.





The next morning we all had breakfast together at the hotel before mom, dad and I had to say goodbye to the Griffin's who get to stay in disneyland a couple of extra days. I made sure to wear my captain Eo shirt becuase I wasn't quite ready to let go of all the Disneyland magic yet, that way I got to have a little peice of it with me while traveling home.