Disneyland!!!

For Kassi's 5th birthday we went to Disneyland.  Now I don't know how we will ever top this birthday!  It was so much fun and we will go back some day.  We did so many fun things and enjoyed almost every minute of our vacation.  I don't even know where to start, here are a few of the over 500 pictures we have from our trip.  These pictures are all ones that the Disney photopass photographers took.  (What a great thing, we got so many pictures of all of us together!)

Disneyland at Halloween is amazing!  Everything is decorated and has lots of pumpkins.  We spent one night at the Halloween Party and Kassi got to meet her favorite princess.  We also got to see a lot of the villains which only come out for the Halloween Party's.

Our trip started out on Sunday night as we headed to Billings to spend the night so we could be at the airport by 4a.m.  Our flight was to leave at 6 and get us to Anaheim by 11a.m. that morning so we could have most of the day in the parks.  Yeah we got there by 11, 11p.m. that is!  What a horrible day to be flying.  Some of the people on our flight did not even get out of Billings that day, all because the flight attendant got sick!  The next flight we could catch out of Billings was at 11 a.m., this flight was late, but we had a 4 hour layover in Denver so it didn't matter to us.  Then our flight leaving Denver was late...  By the time we made it to the hotel all we wanted was a pillow.  We had been up since 3 a.m. and finally laid down around 11:30 p.m. Needless to say we didn't get going non too early the next day either.  We didn't even make into the park until late in the afternoon.  We did enjoy the Halloween Party though.  Our hotel was amazing too, we stayed at the Paradise Pier which is the lower end of the Disney Hotel's, but still a great place to stay.  Well worth the extra money!

Wednesday was Kassi's birthday and we had all sorts of big plans. We did a couple of rides before going to the Boutique so Kassi could see a fairy godmother in training and get her hair and makeup done.  I think this was her favorite part of the trip.  From there we headed over to Aerials Grotto for a late lunch.  We  had been told the food was not very good, but we really enjoyed it.  Everywhere we went that day people kept stopping us and commenting on how beautiful Kassi was and several asked if they could take her picture.  The cutest part was when a boy, probably around 13, saw her coming, got down on one knee, lowered his hat and said something along the lines of fair maiden.  Kassi thought that was so cool, that was something that would only happen to a real princess.

After Aerials Grotto we headed to Aladdin the Musical.  It was a great show.  The theater they hold this in is incredible.  One of the best things we did was later that night in the California Adventure Park.  We got front row seats for the World of Color!  Now that was an absolutely amazing show!  The water shot way higher than we though it would.  I had thought this would be neat, but it was way more than just neat.  We were also able to watch this from our hotel!  So we got to watch it a couple of nights.

Since we had spent a little bit of time in each park we decided that the next two days we would spend one whole day in each park.  In Disneyland we rode the tea cups, went through it's a small world, went to ToonTown, and did several other things.  The best thing that day was when we went on the Mark Twain's paddle boat...Kassi got to drive!

The next day we headed to California Adventure Park, I LOVED this part of the resort.  We visited Cars Land, Bugs Land, the Pier and went on so many different things I don't think I can remember the names of them all.  Our favorite was the Grizzly River Run, we had to do this one twice!  We also really enjoyed Soarin Over California.

We of course had to go to the Cozy Cone and get our cone drink.  We also ate at Flo's!













Kassi got to meet Russell after she finished his Redwood challenge.

We went on this trip thinking this would be the only time we went...we left trying to figure out when we could come back.  I had been to Disney World for a day when I was 11 and it was okay...  To get to spend a whole week here and see how excited Kassi got with everything we did was so wonderful.



 I love that we got so many family shots.  There was a bit of time where Wes went back to the hotel for awhile and Kassi and I spent a few hours on our own checking out some different things we liked so there are a few with just her and I.  Normally I am the one taking the pictures so there are very few with me in them.

Almost five years.

I should probably be doing some laundry or finishing our last minute preparations for going on vacation, but instead I am sitting here thinking back to nearly five years ago.  It was on September 19th that we received our formal acceptance from our agency.  They had told us that the average time for adoptive parents to wait was 7-9 months.  This was a very short time compared to other agencies we had spoken with, which was part of the reason we chose them, but that was only a small part.  Anyway on October 3rd I received a call at work from the agency.  We were gonna be parents, that day!  I was so overwhelmed with joy I was shaking and crying.  I could not wait to meet my baby girl.  I will never forget the moment I held her for the first time.

When Kassi was 18 months old we had this and much more made into a book for her.  She loves to hear her story and we love to tell it.  We always want her to be proud of who she is and never let anyone tell her any different.  

Next week my baby girl is going to turn five.  Happy birthday baby girl!

Preschool

Kassi has started her second year of preschool.  It is still amazing to me that they have to go to preschool for two years before they go to kindergarten and then kindergarten is a full day!  The things they are expected to know are just crazy.  I never went to preschool and had half days of kindergarten and I think I did okay.   I don't have any worries about what she will know and how she will do in kindergarten though.  As she is sitting here reading me a book right now!

The other day I picked her up from preschool and the teacher stopped me and said she needed to talk to me.  Of course my instant reaction is to think uh oh what did she do and I start to feel defensive.  So as everyone else is leaving I wait to hear what she is going to say.  She leans over and quietly says "I have to tell you...Kassi has a couple of kids who actually fight over her.  They fight over who gets to sit next to her, who is line by her, etc."  "So I asked her if she needed her upcoming vacation just to get away from these kids and she said yes, yes she did."  This was so not what I was expecting to hear.  I just kind of laughed and said "yeah she kind of has that affect on people."  Last year when she was out for her tonsils the teacher said some of the kids cried because she was out so long and when she got back they kept hugging her and telling her not be gone anymore.

I am not sure what to think of all the attention she gets, most kids and adults just adore her.  She makes friends wherever we go and people are always complimenting us on her.  Wes says it is a good thing he has a few shotguns for when she gets older.  I love how confident she is and how she is a leader and not afraid to  get up in front of a crowd.  All of these things I was not, and am not so it makes me really proud to watch her.  God truly blessed us five years ago!

Just a picture...

I just wanted to share one of my favorite pageant pictures of Kassi.  She was so cute in her 50's wear.  For her talent she danced to and sang "Rock Around the Clock".