Bales Family

Bales Family

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Las Vegas

Saturday morning we drove to Las Vegas and I have to admit I just love Vegas. It is only my third time visiting but every time I've been I have had a blast! Here are some pictures of things we did.
Coke Factory
M&M Factory 3D show
M&M Factory
Hello Kitty
New York, New York where we had lunch
We stayed at the Circus Circus where they have an adventure dome full of rides. The girls had a lot of fun there.
I guess we were pictured out by evening because we did a lot on the strip and forgot to take pictures. We saw the Bellagio show, Mirage show, went to see the moving statues at Caesar's Palace but they weren't working, and we watched Circus Acts at our hotel. I think I love how much there is to do in Vegas. Monday we drove home. I was so impressed by how well the girls did while driving. We had an amazing trip I know I will never forget!

Friday, October 21, 2011

At the Beach

After 3 busy days at Disneyland we wanted to go to the beach and relax. We chose Huntington beach because it was the closest. Unfortunately it was a little overcast that day, but we figure it was still warm and the girls would have fun.

Gwen didn't like the water but had fun chasing seagulls.
Elsie started out liking it but as soon as she got a little water in her mouth and almost threw up she was done and wanted to go to the hotel to swim. We didn't stay very long but we did get to swim in the ocean a little. And we had fun watching all the paddle boarders.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Disneyland part 3

I failed to mention in Part 2 that another reason we had such a great day in California Adventures is because the park wasn't crowded! There was a little wait for some rides but mostly we were walking on rides. And when the park isn't very busy it seems like everyone was so much happier and more friendly.
Now having said that... We show up for Day 3 in DL and the place was PACKED! I mean, what the heck is going on kind of packed! There were people and huge lines everywhere. We found out that Cali schools were out on that Thurs but were back in school for Friday. It made me mad because if we knew this in advance we could have gone to DL on Fri and done a beach day on Thursday. Oh well. We had already done about everything we wanted to so it was kind of a pick your favorites to redo kind of day anyway.
I guess it was because of the crowds but for some reason I didn't take very many pictures on Thurs but here is what we did. Rode Monsters inc ride, Ariel ride, Toy Story Mania, we saw sailor Mickey Mouse, Grizzly Run, Sourin Over California, we went through Sleeping Beauty's Castle (which scared the girls), rode Pinocchio (which scared the girls), we saw Fairy God Mother, rode Big Thunder, train again, Winnie the Pooh ride and Splash Mountain.
Cute pumpkin entrance
Fairy God Mother
Sailor Mickey
We gave the girls the option of going to the parade again, going to world of color again or going to the hotel and swim. They chose swimming. I was a little relieved to be leaving such a crowded park. I am grateful for two wonderful days at Disneyland and now I know to check the California school schedules :)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Disneyland part 2

We spent the whole second day at Disneyland in California Adventures. This was our favorite day! We woke up and gave the girls their princess stuff. They looked so cute.
All dolled up!
Divas!
First thing in the park was our meet and greet, meaning if you have a disney credit card you get to meet certain charaters at a certain spot.
Pluto
And Chip and Dale
We needed to kill some time before the princess lunch so we rode Monster's Inc ride and watched Muppets in 3D. Then we could finally go to the much anticipated princess lunch. Elsie and Gwen worked very hard to earn this lunch and we weren't disappointed at all!!! I am a little disappointed at how all the pictures turned out. There are windows all over in the dining room and there is a glare on almost all the pictures. :(
Ariel's Grotto
Ariel
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
Belle
And Cinderella
The food was very good too and the girls were truly treated as princesses!
Next we rode Ariel's Underwater Adventure ride, Swings, Jumpin Jellyfish, Toy Story Mania,
We really liked Toy Story Mania it was a very fun ride!
Next we went into A Bugsland a very cute area designed for children all themed around A Bugs Life movie. We rode about every ride they had there.
Here we are on the ladybug ride.
Next was the Tower of Terror. Gwen and I didn't particiate on the ride but it really scared Elsie at the time. Now when you ask her about it she says it was fun. :)
Sully (Gwen was asleep)
Vern and Elsie rode Grizzly Run Gwen was too little for that ride and she was still asleep in the stroller. Nest was Soarin Over California twice, Talking to Crush, Bugs Life 3D, the Farris Wheel, Goofy's Flight School twice and last but not least...World of Color!
World of Color was our second favorite part of the trip, (after the princess lunch). It was a water show at night with lots of color and fountains to disney music. There was also fire and a cartoon scene showing on a solid spray of water behind the fountains. It was amazing!
Waiting for World of Color to start
I took a lot of video but not a lot of pictures. It kind of gives you the idea.

Disneyland Part 1

Oh, where to start? I guess the beginning is about right. Hi my name is Lena and I am a Disneyland virgin. My husband is one too. Most people's mouths drop about now. But it's true we had NEVER been to DL!! Deprived, right? Anyway, I think because I had never been there I honestly never thought too much about it until my friend April kept post pics and comments about how much she loved it and I guess it got me thinking. About 6 months ago Vern and I were trying to figure out what to do with our credit card rewards which was about $700 dollars and instead of being responsible adults and saving this money WE SPENT IT! It paid for all of our hotel stay. AWESOME I know! Vern also got some other cc incentives which paid for our gas and groceries. My husband is amazing!
Ok Ok, getting on with the trip.
Day 1: We drove to Mesquite and stayed at the Casablanca. Which was about a 7 hour drive, we weren't sure how the kids were going to be so we decided to take our time and break up the drive. The girls did great by the way:) The Casablanca had a great outdoor pool with a slide and waterfall we really enjoyed. When you stay at this hotel you get a free round of golf for a 50 min massage. Vern is so sweet he scheduled me a message.
Day 2: We drove to Anaheim about 5 hours. We ate at Fire and Ice (Mongolian BBQ) we ate at the one at Lake Tahoe over 6 years ago. It was YUMMY!
I took this picture with my pnone sorry it's blurry.
Day 3: Disneyland! Which was so fun. It wasn't too crowded, like 30min waits for the big rides and almost no wait for the little rides. Gwen was tall enough so we just took her on the big rides. She did great! I loved that we weren't separated very much and were able to ride a lot of the rides as a family.
Every morning we were at the park the girls got presents. The first day they got these cute shirts and sun glasses.
The second day they got princess accessories for their princess lunch. The third day they got little Minny mouse dolls. They just loved waking up to opening presents :)
Here is the list of what we did that day:
Space Mountain,
Buzz Blasters,
Astro Orbitor, Nemo's underwater ride, Pixie Hollow,
Mater horn bobsleds,
Alice in Wonderland, Small World, Train (that goes around the park), Toontown,
more Toontown,
Big Thunder, (a favorite)
Winnie the Pooh ride,
Pooh ride again,
Splash Mountain,
Train again (Gwen really liked the dinosaurs we see on there) while Vern went to the haunted house, Tarzan, Tiki room while Vern and Elsie went on Indiana Jones, and then the Parade. I videoed a lot of the parade but the pictures I took really didn't turn out very well.
It was a great first day!

First Day of School!

I am a little late but I wanted to post Elsie's first day of school picture. Back at the beginning of Sept. she started Kindergarten! Her teacher is Mrs Petersen at Greenville Elementary and Elsie just really loves her. I am going into her class to volunteer every other Thurs. So far I really like it. Elsie is doing very well in school so far and I hope she continues to love it!