A Very Merry Un-Birthday Part 2

Ok, so here's the rest of the day, with a few more details about the beginning of the day as well.

So I went down for some of my complimentary coffee this morning (which was very good coffee) and found my morning newspaper right outside my door. (how thoughtful) So I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee while I glanced at the paper as the rest of the family was getting ready. (literally glanced...I don't read newspapers) This hotel experience has been really nice. Anyway, one of the cool things about our lunch today was Courtney's meal. This place had a create your own PB&J on the kids menu and it was pretty cool. It came on a painters pallette and it had two slices of bread with the peanut butter already on it, and then it came with bananas, raisins, marshmellows, and jelly for you to add any or all of to your sandwich. Courtney added all but raisins. She really liked it! Kristi and I also had really good meals! So I don't know if I mentioned that Issac rode splash mountain for the first time yesterday, but he did and he kinda liked it. He's not the biggest fan of "drops", but he rode it with me again today and it was really cool. We did, however cause a bit of a hold up on it. As we approched the drop Issac got scared and wanted to be on my lap so that I could hold him really tightly as we went down the drop. I was cool with that, but right as we were going to start climbing for the final drop the logs stopped. We were wondering what was going on until a cast member walked up to our "log" with a flashlight and very politly asked Issac to sit properly in his seat. We were the hold up. (oops) Anyway, after our time of rest we went back and rode Splash Mountain, and Indy with the fastpasses we picked up earlier, and then we rode the Jungle Cruise as well. I think we did a few other things before it was time to head to dinner at Goofy's Kitchen where we had a really nice "Character Dining" experience. This is a really nice retaurant where you are kindly visited by lots of the Disney Characters that will take pictures, sign autographs, and just playfuly interact with the kids. It's really a fun experience for the kids! Issac gets so excited about those guys! They have a lot of fun with him because he is such a hyperactive weirdo. (in a good way) Afterwards we had just enough time to head to the hot tub for a while before we went back up to the room to clean up and call it a night. Thats where we are now. Kids are showering and I'm blogging. It has been a very good day. We haven't spent a whole lot of time in California Adventure up to this point. We plan on going there first thing tomorrow. It will be good. We have been VERY thankful to God that He has blessed us with this wonderful time together. We really love Disneyland, but we really just LOVE being at Disneyland together! When we are here, we just play together all day long and Mommy and Daddy never get called away to work. We don't get time together like we do out here. These are the times I will remember on my death bed. The times I spent with the people I LOVE the very most! God has really blessed me with the best family ever. Anyway, I'll let you take a look at the pictures now. Take it easy...

A VERY Merry Un-Birthday

Well, although Courtney's birthday was a while back (April 17th), we officially celebrated it today at the Disneyland Resort. It has been a great day. It started out with a breakfast of champions. (Krispy Kremes at Downtown Disney) After that it was straight to Disneyland for Early entry. The park didn't open till 10am, but one of the perks of staying at the Disneyland hotel is that we get to enter the parks an hour early on most days. Really cool benefit! So we got to get on the brand new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage with about a 5 minute wait! (It doesn't get under an hour long all day) After that we rode lots of sweet rides like the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, lots of the Fantasyland dark Rides (Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Pinochio, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride), followed by a great lunch at The Carnation Cafe on Main Street. The kids got to meet the chef (Oscar) who has worked there for more years than I have been alive. (I think) It was sweet! Then we rode a few more sweet rides like Pirates, and Haunted mansion while picking up some fast passes for Indy and Splash Mountain. After that we had another little surprise for Courtney; a birthday party in Disneyland! We all got to decorate individually sized birthday cakes, had lots of fun with Patrick Edward Cake (Pat E. Cake) and had a guest appearance by Mickey and Minnie Mouse. (You can NOT get a picture with them together ANYWHERE else) After that the family took a nap in the room while I walked around the resort a little, enjoying the benefits of this wonderful hotel we are staying in. Everyoone is awake now and it's time to go back to the parks! I'll post a little more and some pictures tonight! We're having dinner at Goofy's Kitchen! See ya soon!

Little surprises around every corner but NOTHING DANGEROUS!

Whoever can tell me what movie that line comes from wins $100! (Just keep checkin the mail....it'll come)

So, we have been secretly planning THE coolest trip to Disneyland we have ever taken. Kristi and I are celebrating our 6th year anniversary (We're SO happy together!) and since Courtney's birthday was like a week ago, we decided to plan a double celebration trip. We began planning months back and kept it a secret from the kids till yesterday; THE DAY WE LEFT! I taught to youth services and then after church told the kids that we needed to go pack because we were going to DISNEYLAND. They didn't believe me, as you can imagine. It wasn't till all of our luggage was in the van and we were on our way to Albuquerque to catch the train that they finally realized we weren't kidding. We've never done anything like this, so it was really hard for them to believe. We have a bunch of little surprizes planned all week long. The first was the hotel we are staying in. Because this is a slow time of year, and we are annual passholders (and since we are annual passholders we didn't have to spend ANY money on Disneyland tickets) we were able to get a really good rate at the Disneyland Hotel! This is a huge deal. We have NEVER stayed here before (and may never do it again). It is so nice. When we got here they had Anniversary buttons for Kristi and I to wear all week, as well as a picture signed my Mickey and Minnie Mouse wishing us a happy Anniversary. They also had a birthday picture of the Winnie the Pooh bunch, signed by all of them. They didn't leave out the boys either; both of them got signed pictures as well (just because). When we got into the park we went straight to City Hall and got Courtney a "birthday button", so everywhere we have gone throughtout the Disneyland resort, we have been wished a happy birthday, and a happy Anniversary by everyone that sees us. It's kinda cool. Disney really goes out of their way to make sure that their employees ("castmembers") are making Disneyland a special place. (The happiest place on earth) Anyway, we had a really long day with lots of good times and I still can't believe that we just got off of the train today. We were in Santa Fe just yesterday. Wow. We miss our church, family, and friends, but will enjoy our time together while we are here. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures from our first day here! Tomorrow we are REALLY celebrating Courtney's birthday. We're doing it all week, but we have some special things planned for her tomorrow. We'll keep you all posted! God bless!

~Issac

Savannah's Birthday

It was Savannah's 15th birthday on the 31st. We went out to eat at Tomasitas - amazing mexican food - and spent some time as a family. She got some money from Uncle Jim and Aunt Jan, some flowers and Guitar Hero III for the Wii from Issac and I, and a Tony Romo Cowboys jersey from Grammy and Papa Ed. Thank you everyone for the awesome gifts! It's hard to believe that Savannah is already 15! Soon she'll be driving... yikes! We are proud of her and excited about how God will grow her this year!

~Kristi

Don't Waste Your Life

My favorite bible teacher, John Piper, is on a mission to encourage people not to waste their lives. One of the ways that he spreads this message is through short 1 to 3 minute videos that you can podcast on Itunes. I was encouraged to see one of my favorite hip hop artists in a 3 part series on the Don't Waste Your Life podcast. Many people don't give hip hop any kind of credit because of the negetive connotation it has in the secular world. But there is a group of Christian hip hop artists out there nowadays that is reppin for the LORD in a BIG way! Lecrae happens to be one of them. Anyway, I thought I'd post part 3 of this little interview series so that you guys could not only check out the interview, but a nice little Lecrae video that Piper posted afterwards. Go to www.dontwasteyourlife.com to see more of these short videos, or if you are an Itunes user, subscribe to the free don't waste your life podcast so you can get all the latest videos in this series. If you are a youth pastor, these ARE NOT Rob Bell videos. These are videos YOU CAN play in your youth group! Peace.

~Issac