The Happiest Birthday on Earth

Allow me to set the scene.

It's 12:30 a.m. We say good-bye to some awesome friends after watching a great movie, eating ice cream, planning our children's marriage and playing some great tunes on the piano/guitar. I think we're crazy for staying up so late (worth it, but crazy nonetheless). Ammon has work in the morning. And it's my birthday...I get to sleep on my birthday, right?

Wrong.

It's 2:30 a.m. An alarm goes off somewhere in the house. All of our electronics with alarms are in our room. We have no idea what this is. Or where it is coming from. Ammon searches the house. We try to sleep, but are confused and a little worried.

It's 4:40 a.m. Ammon gets out of bed again. Why? I have no idea. But it's my birthday! I can sleep on my birthday, I say to myself as I roll over and try to sleep. Again.

It's 4:45 a.m. The bedroom door opens. The light turns on.

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Brelynn....Happy Birthday to you!" sings Ammon...and my mom!

What?!

For those who may not know, my mother was just here for her dad's 80th birthday. Less than a week ago. Suprised she is here you ask? Ummmm....yes. Definitely yes.

Ammon then hands me the traditional "Week of Love" envelope.

"Open it to see what we're doing today," he says.



I open it to find....

DISNEYLAND tickets! Three-day passes to Disneyland! I have been dreaming about doing this with my sweetheart since I met my sweetheart! He'd only been to Disneyland a day at a time. And never with me. While Disneyland is always awesome, I feel you can only properly appreciate it's magic with longer stays. And with me!

Anyhow. Back to the story.

Sleep on my birthday? Who the heck wants to sleep on their birthday when they are holding DISNEYLAND tickets in their hands?! Not I.

"You have one hour to pack and get ready to go."

And so we did. Tired? Not anymore! Not even when facing a six-hour drive to Anaheim. But boy were we glad that Grandma was in the back seat...as *kind of* seen here...



 Grandma made our little girl a much more pleasant road-trip-child. Still, no one was happier to arrive and get out of the car than she was. Just look at that little model shot she's doing.

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You can imagine she wasn't too happy when we then tried to strap her into her stroller. She just didn't understand what was awaiting her.

We walked down the street, stopped off at Guest Relations to get the birthday button,

took some kissy-Disneyland pictures with our paper tickets,

and then left all of our cares behind and stepped into the wonderful world of Disney.

Ammon and I rushed off to explore and ride a few grown up rides and Grandma was off to introduce Ammely to Disneyland. She did a great job. Does it get better than this when you're 10 months old? Heck, does it get better than this ever?

We met back up after a bit and did "Linner" at the Blue Bayou. Soooo good. And so much fun to be right there in the middle of Pirates of the Caribbean. Even if Ammely did break a plate.

We enjoyed lots of family time with all of us together. A personal favorite was taking Ammely on the honeycombs at the Winnie the Pooh ride. She is so stinking cute...probably cuz she looks like her Daddy.

There were even new things for me to do. I hadn't been since I went with my Disney class in college in 2009. And now there is the brilliance of Cars Land. Ummmm...awesome.

I'm in the back left of this picture. Hair-a-flyin'.

Ammon is in the front left.

Day TWO!
Look at that cutie-patootie in the Minnie Mouse outfit!

And just LOOK at that little jacket! Oh my heavens, I have a cute baby.

She got a little impatient with us as Daddy finished homework in the morning and we waited out the rain...but no tears or fits this time...just snoozing!

But what a treat to wake up to! Minnie Mouse!

See...all smiles now. Even in the stroller. Even in the rain.

But who wouldn't smile when they're about to get a CHURRO?!

At first we were a little bummed about the weather. But honestly, it made everything so pretty.

 And the crowds were...well...not so crowded. We could walk around fairly unimpeded...

...and the lines were not so bad...

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See? ..here we are waiting for our turn to take Ammely on Dumbo. She was excited. So were we.

And if the rain or cold did bother us, there are plenty of things to do inside! Like sit around and get older...

But mostly we just want to cruise around outside...haha....get it? Cruise around...cuz we're on the Jungle Cruise...hem, hem. I'm so witty. Hem.

And the food! Oh the food was sooo good. Ammely loved being in a highchair eating with the grown-ups.

Seriously...she LOVED her highchair.

Of course, the rain did mean a few things were not quite the same...like the parade...
But watching this I can still feel the magic - makes you wanna go, doesn't it?

It sure is a lot to take in. Tired little baby. Good thing Grandma's are so comfy.

Day THREE (Saturday) was our magic morning - getting into the park a little early to do a few things that are harder to do when the crowds are in full force. And magical it was...all you need is faith and trust...and a little bit of pixie dust...

Day three was also crunch time - our last day to do everything we wanted to do. We were pretty darn successful if I do say so myself. We started with a yummy breakfast at Carnation Cafe...back into the highchair!

A few more family pictures and enjoying the ambiance...

Riding Alice in Wonderland with the Ammely-baby. I love this picture! --Just look at that face! Which wonder is she encountering for the first time?

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Grandma headed off to conquer Space Mountain while we met some friendly Stormtroopers...

...and watched the youth of today conquer Tomorrowland's dark side.

Then we hopped on the train and took a ride around the park...from Tomorrowland....to Main Street...to New Orleans square...to TOONTOWN.

We met Pluto!

And went to Mickey Mouse's house because he had a birthday cake ready for me.

...and spent some quality time just catching up with our ol' pal Mickey.

Of course, by then Grandma was done at Space Mountain and Grandma wanted to hang out with Mickey Mouse too! So Grandma and Ammely went back for more fun.

In the meantime, Ammon and I got into all kinds of trouble at Donald's boat.

He wasn't there though, so we had to catch him on our way out of Disneyland and over to California Adventure. (Donald is our favorite...shhhhhh, don't tell Mickey.)

At California Adventure we had some lunch and then headed over to Disney Animation to create some of our own magic. We entered in...

...discovered our true identities (Ammon - Mufasa; Brelynn - Mrs. Incredible; Grandma - Jessie from Toy Story)...

...put our voices into Lion King characters, and Ammon and I learned how to draw Jack Skellington while Mom and Ammely made friends while talking to Crush the Turtle.

We watched the Muppets. We rode around Monster's Inc where Roz told us that we have the cutest little monster (she's right, of course) and headed over to watch Aladdin. Fortunately Ammely was tired by then - she slept through the first half of the show and then sat excitedly during the last half.

We then headed back to Disneyland where we tried to catch the parade (since it was rained out the day before) - however, it took us 20 minutes to get back into the park so we only caught the tail end.

Then we scoped out some awesome treats....

...and parked it on main street to see the fireworks. A-MAAAAAY-ZING! Nobody does fireworks like Disney. Nobody.

After a long day, or rather, after a long few days, Grandma and Ammely headed back to the hotel and Ammon and I stuck it out until closing. We hit up Pirates and the Haunted Mansion again. We looked for souvenirs. We rode the Nemo submarines. And took one last picture with the castle before reluctantly leaving the park for good.

The next day was Sunday. We said goodbye to Grandma in the morning and she took a shuttle to the airport to go home and see her sweetheart.

Then we headed west to go see a little bit of this beautiful world the Lord has made for us. At least for me, there is nothing quite like standing next to the ocean to invoke a true sense of awe and peace and wonder at the power and goodness of the Lord.

It was still fairly cold, so the beach was pretty empty except for the surfer folks out in the waves.

We took a few pictures and breathed in the beauty.

I begged Ammon to let me take Ammely out of her seat (He was a bit nervous, what with being in a strange place and being the sole protector of his girls - awwwww).

So the baby girl came out of her seat and I'm pretty sure she was glad for it. Not too sure though. She didn't have many smiles, more so she had her serious, "all of this is new and I'm learning" face on.

 

And then Daddy took her exploring up and down the beach. Such a good Daddy!

Ammely and Daddy's beach treasures.

We took a family snapshot and then headed inland for our one last adventure...

...off to see the Newport Beach temple! Gorgeous. So breathtaking. And worth the confusing, stressful drive. Everywhere we went on this trip was special, precious space to me. But it was especially nice to end our trip on truly sacred ground - at the place that tied our family together forever in the first place, so that having these trips and creating these memories can strengthen this bond of eternal significance.

Happy Birthday/Week of Love to Me!