January 13, 2009


Hey Big Guy!

I am back again to add some more to your journal. Right now it is nap time and you will not go to sleep. You are sitting in the hallway thinking that I don’t know you are there, but really I do. Moms really do have eyes in the back of their heads. Something very exciting happened to our family on Sunday January 11, 2009. Our ward was split (which was sad) and your amazing father became the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric of the South Bluff Ward, of the Syracuse South Stake. Your father is so wonderful and will be amazing in the Bishopric. He is nervous about his calling, but I know as well as the Lord knows that he is the man for the job. He is the kind of down to Earth, nice guy that everyone likes, who will be able to help our two wards combine into one. I will say I think it will be a challenge to have your Dad gone more, and not sitting with us on Sundays, but I know in my heart that our Heavenly Father doesn’t give us any challenge we can’t handle. I hope you will never forget what an amazing father you have, and that you will always know that he has a strong testimony of this gospel. He truly loves it with all his heart. One thing I was excited to see when they changed some ward boundaries is that we are still in the same ward as a sweet Elderly couple named Brother and Sister Newhouse, or as our like to call them Grandma and Grandpa Church. I am thankful we are still in their ward because when I have to take Abs out into the hall they can monitor you for me. They are so sweet and Sister Newhouse brings you mints every Sunday. You love mints and sometimes even request what kinds you want her to bring you. So that is our next challenge for right now, but onward we go.

Something that I want to tell you about is a little vacation we took in October. From October 27th to the 29th, 2008 we went to DISNEYLAND! We went to California with Uncle John, Aunt Michelle, Marissa, Megan, Madison, & Grandma Flinders. What a trip. We had an amazing time being in one of the happiest places on Earth. You told us that your one goal while we were there was to meet Cruella De Vil. Yes, you loved and I think will always love Cruella. You have some fascination with any Villain in the movies; you always tell me that they can be nice. So we took our first plane ride with you and Abby. That was fun, until Abby woke up for the last 20 minutes and you started to scream that you wanted to get off this thing. When I say scream, I mean yell as loud as you can. I think that your ears were popping and you didn’t like that feeling. But we made it and hopped in our rental car and drove to the Disneyland Paradise Pier Hotel. This is a Disneyland owned Hotel so we were right around the corner from Disneyland. We walked right into the California Adventures part of the park. It took us a little while to check in, which you didn’t appreciate. After we were checked in, we went to California Adventure Park first.

You kept telling us you wanted to see Cruella. We told you that we would hopefully  see her soon. The first ride we went on was Monsters Inc. You loved it, and so we went on it again immediately after we got off. We went during a great time of year when there wasn’t too many people. So lines were short and we walked on a lot of rides. After Monsters Inc. Dad and I rode on Hollywood Tower of Terror. That is a fun ride that will put your stomach up into your throat. It definitely wasn’t too bad though. We loved it. I can’t remember exactly what we rode on after that, but a couple of hours later we ventured over to Disneyland.

At this point you were wondering if you were ever going to meet Cruella, and so were we. So we walked into Disneyland and we started to enter Main Street Disney low and behold who was standing there. Cruella De Vil. You were so stinkin excited, and so was I. We walked up to Cruella and waited in the line to see her. When we got up there you were a little star struck at first and just smiled so cutely with her. I told her that she was your favorite character of all time, and she replied that she was her favorite too. You then told her about the toy you constantly carried around of her, and some other cute stuff. In complete character she was so cute with you. She gave you her full attention, and listened to every word you said. After listening to your stories she took your hand

(I thought you might faint) and took you for a walk and handed you off to Goofy dressed in a skeleton Halloween costume. You then walked with Goofy for a minute and then we took a picture with you and Goofy. After taking some pictures with Goofy we walked back in the direction of Cruella because you wanted to see her again. She was so cute and grabbed your hand and said come with me, and took you over to Mickey Mouse dressed in a Halloween costume. She walked you right up to Mickey and told him she had someone for him to meet and that we needed to take a picture of all of them together. Cruella was simply amazing! That moment in time will go down as one of my most precious memories. You were in Heaven the whole 15-20 minutes that this took place, and I honestly felt like crying because of how happy this experience was making you. Funny enough, but I think this was a dream come true for you, and I am glad that we were able to make this happen.

To be honest the rest of the night is a blur because what happened with Cruella was the best thing that happened that day. Don’t get me wrong the rest of the day was a blast and everything about Disneyland is wonderful to me, but I kept reliving that amazing moment. You had an amazing time with the girls. It was so much fun having them there, they were a big help, and since they have been to Disneyland a few times they were great tour guides. Every store they we went buy you wanted every toy that you saw, which is a given for you. You love to play with as many toys as you can, and you especially love little figurines of characters that you like. While we were there we bought a couple of sets of figures of all the Disney Villains, Snow White, Peter Pan, and one other one, but now I can’t think of it.

The next fun experience we had at Disneyland was on Tuesday October 28th we went to Mickey’s Trick or Treat party that evening in Disney’s California Adventures part of the park. To get into this party we had to buy separate tickets to this party. At the party everyone wore costumes, even the characters wore costumes. It was so fun! As we walked through the park there were several trick or treat stations where you could go and get handfuls of candy. Let’s just say that after being at this party we really didn’t need to go trick or treating because we got loads of candy.

While at the party you had Dad carry on his pockets your favorite villain toys just on case we got to meet them. The first person we ran into was the Evil Queen (or as you call her the mean queen) from Snow White. She was even more amazing than Cruella. There was a line to meet her, so Dad went and waited in the line while we stood out front and watched other people get their pictures taken. As we waited in line you held up your mean Queen toy and sat and waved at the person dressed as the mean Queen. She couldn’t resist your cute smile, so she stopped her line and came over to say Hi to you. It was so CUTE! She bent down and talked to you. While she was talking to you I told her that your Dad was in line, and she was excited to talk to you when it was your turn. You were so excited to talk to her. When it became your turn and you started to walk to the Mean Queen she got so excited that it was your turn. As you walked up to talk to her in your Captain Hook costume you had the biggest smile I have ever seen. She (the Mean Queen) was so sweet as she sat and listened to you telling her all about your toy, and how you liked her a lot. Cole she was so amazing with you, I wanted to cry because I could tell she was sincere with everything she said to you. We took some pictures of you with her and then we walked up to get you from her and she asked if she could keep talking to you. And we said please, of course. You spent longer than any other person we had seen with her. She showed you her magic spell book, her poison apple, and told you all about her stuff. You asked if you could taste the apple and she told you that you would fall asleep, so you better not. You then asked her if she would come and visit you sometime, and she said if she was ever in Utah she would. Oh, Cole she was so cute! As you left she told you to come back and say good-bye to her before you left that night. You were in Heaven!

We stayed at the park till 11 o’clock trick or treating and visiting other characters and riding rides. But as we left the park the Mean Queen was back in the spot we saw her in and you wanted to go say good bye to her. We walked up to the areas where we watched before and you smiled and waved at the Mean Queen. She smiled at you and said Cole just a minute. After she was finished taking the current pictures she was taking she told the next people in line to wait just a minute and she walked over to you and pulled him through the waiting line and gave you a hug good-bye and talked to you again for a few more minutes. That was such an amazing experience and let’s just say that after that experience with the Mean Queen she was now tied with Cruella Devil.

The rest of the trip in Disneyland was magical and special because you loved being around all the characters that you know and love. We had a lot of fun on the rides, but I think you actually enjoyed the big kid rides better than the ones meant for your age. On the last day of our trip we asked you what was the one thing/ride we had to do before we went home. You told us that you wanted to say Good-bye to Cruella. I was nervous about this because the characters are only there on certain days. So we searched all day for her and never saw her, and you were getting sad that you hadn’t seen her. So I asked one of the workers if Cruella was going to be there that day and they told us she was only there on Mondays. My heart sank. But he did tell us that there are villains on the back lot of the California Adventures area. So we decided to run over there, literally we ran because we didn’t have time. We were just hoping that we could run into some sort of villain that you could say goodbye to. Well we got over there and there were no villains that we could see, so I told your Dad that I wanted to take one more picture by this mural they have there, and so we took the picture. As we finished taking the picture and turned around low and behold who was standing about 25 feet from us . . . Cruella Devil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that you willed her to be there Cole. You wanted to say good-bye to her that bad. So we went over and talked to her for a few minutes and took a couple of more pictures with her and then we said good-bye. You were happy and your trip was complete. How lucky were you!

Love,
Mom