I left Sam in charge of Kate for a short time and I returned to find a nicely made up Tinkerbell and Beauty Queen! I really don't know how Sam does it. Kate never lets me do her hair. She screams if all I do is brush it, even with de-tangling spray!

Night 5, Day 6 of Our California Vacate

After spending several days at Disneyland. We stayed a night in Oceanside. That day Jeni, Cameron, Sam, James, Scott, Kate, and I went to the beach and walked the pier. My parents flew in from Utah and met us here at the beach. This was our beach appetizer. We didn't get in swimsuits we just walked, waded, and soaked it up.  

We did our real playing and surfing another day. This is day 6.

What Happens When You Go Away for 11 Days

Potatoes Anyone?

3D Glasses

On Saturday I wanted to watch Nanny McPhee with Scott and Kate. I was giving Kate a gloss of the story so she would be excited to watch it with us. After my explanation she asked, "Does it come with 3D glasses?"

My only guess is that Kate has been Disneylandized.

Vacation: Days 1-5 of 11 & Losing Kate @ Disneyland

I haven't posted in a while. Reason = Scott, Kate, and I just returned from an 11-day vacation to California.

We drove.

We stayed in Paragonah, Anaheim, Oceanside, La Jolla, and St. George.

P.S. I need to add some pictures from Paragonah. I will do that later. 

Kate's car activities to keep her busy in the back seat. She was a wonderful traveler. She had a huge stash of picture books and she went through every page, looking through the pictures. We listened to Conference during the first stretch of the drive. After the first session, we ate lunch in Provo at 'In N Out Burger'. After the second session we toured Cove Fort. Than we made it to Paragonah where the men (Cameron & Scott) attended the Priesthood Session of Conference and the girls and children hung out a playground.  

Start of Day 3

Kate - a little unsure, Sam, Jen, James going down the escalator from the Daisy parking level to the tram, headed for our first day at Disneyland.

"Katie, look! That is Sleeping Beauty's Castle!"

(Shrill Screams)

"Disneylaaaaaaaaand!"

The hand chain happened several times during the trip and always started with Chris & Michelle's girls. They are such good hand-holders and of course I was always insisting that Kate hold hands with someone so it just naturally evolved. 

I had to get a view of the front. It really was so fun to be with a big group of family at Disneyland. We had my oldest sister, Jeni, and her husband, Cameron, and daughter, Sam; my older and only brother, Chris, his wife, Michelle, and their three girls, Taylor, Brooke, and Presley; Scott, Kate, and me.  We had some together time and some not-so-together time and it worked out great.

Here we are in Tomorrow-land which we decided was a little more Yesterday-land and needed some updating but Space Mountain was everything we wished it to be. 

Day 4: California Adventure 

Kate wanted nothing more than to stand in every line to see whatever character or princess was available to her. She didn't care how long the line and she never whined about the wait. 

Day 5

Of course we had to see Minnie & Mickey while in 'Toon Town'

  

Okay, this was the line that snaked back and forth to see the Princesses. We waited for an hour. And it wasn't as horrible as one might think. Jeni & Sam were troupers to wait with Kate and me. Judging from Kate's face in the pictures of her with the princesses, I think this was Kate's favorite part of Disneyland. 

We lost Kate on Day 5 of our vacation - Day 3 of Disneyland. We were waiting in line at the Alice & Wonderland ride, right by the teacups. While we were in line, Kate played around the facade of the White Rabbit's house. A few other kids were playing around the house as well. As the line moved, we always had a family member near her because we had so many people in our group. Even without Chris & Michelle's family (who at this time were playing somewhere else in the park) we still had seven. I looked back several times and saw her playing happily so I didn't rush her back to my side. Plus I was always reassured with Jeni next to her in line, then Sam, then Cameron, and James as the line slowly moved up.

When the lined moved up enough that three or four people were between our large group and the rabbit's house in the line, Scott looked back and said, "Where's Katie?" I thought nothing of it. We've asked that a lot during the three days at Disneyland and every time we asked the question, she was always right there, holding someone's hand. So, each person looked behind themselves to find - no Katie. Only Strangers. And a fresh group of kids looking at the White Rabbit's house.

I left the line and started looking around. I thought it best that Jeni and James stay in the line because I figured Kate was close by and we would all come back and get in line again in a minute. I walked around. I went in the nearby store. I walked around. I was shouting, "Katie" repeatedly. After a dozen times it became a little more frantic.

Cameron tried to get a Disney employee to call security. I went to help answer questions but I couldn't stay. I felt an urgency to be out where she could find me. I kept pacing around the walkways. I went down near the Carousel but thought for sure that she wouldn't have gone that far.

I looked out hopelessly across the SEA of people. I didn't know how we would find Katie. I said a silent, simple prayer, "Please, Heavenly Father, Help us find Katie." I might have pleaded a little more or asked where she was but I just kept looking and calling for her.

Sam walked further and saw my brother in line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. He told her to come get in line with them but Sam told him she couldn't because we were all looking for Katie and that she was lost. He jumped out of line and joined the search. After fifteen minutes of calling for Katie and searching through strange faces and worrying what could've happened to Kate, I feared that I would be one of those moms who never finds her lost child, who never knows what happened to her.

Then Scott hollered to me that Chris found her. He was on the phone with Scott right then and a pregnant woman on a motorized scooter tripped him, then me. She clipped my heal and ripped the skin a bit. I was so full of adrenaline from searching so long for Kate that I let out a loud, "OUCH!" Then the woman rammed in to Scott's heals again taking his well secured by Velcro, left sandal all the way off. He turned around to her in a fury, also very full of adrenaline, and hollered at her, "You better watch where you're going in that thing!" She nastily quipped in return, "You can't just butt in line!" Scott was aghast. "I'm not butting in line, I'm looking for my girl!" There wasn't a line right there. I still don't know what she was thinking. A male figure hollered back at Scott, "I've heard about enough from you!" 

We still didn't know where to find Kate. In all the confusion with the motorized-scooter-line-nazi Scott lost his call with my brother. 

I called Michelle and in a crackled voice I asked her if she knew where Kate was. At this moment she had been missing at least 20 minutes. 

The Carousel was where we found Chris - THE HERO - holding Kate in his arms. I held them both so tight as tears of joy filled my eyes. All that I could see in that moment was that I had my little girl back. My world was complete. Life could carry on. I didn't have to die. 

A woman with two girls of her own came up to me right after and said a few things. She had been the one who chased Kate down, knowing that she must be lost, and she took Kate to a Disneyland employee. One of Chris' girls told me later that Chris had put on his 4-year-old-girl hat and looked in two places that he would go if he were her: the Carousel and the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. He found her at the Boutique with the Disneyland Employee. 

I'm not completely clear on some of this. I wish I knew how it all played out. As it is, I only have the story in bits and pieces. I really have so much more I could say about this experience. But I will just say that this was a miracle for us. Kate was so far away from where we lost her. We never would've found her. I'm so glad I didn't have to lose her forever. The rest of the day at Disneyland was spent talking about the miracle, holding Kate tight, and thanking God for giving us another moment together. 

Thank you Chris. Thank you Disneyland Employee. Thank you nice mother who stopped Kate and took her to safety. Thank you God who knows all things. 

More Spring Fun

The day before the first official day of spring, Kate found a nest in the grass of the backyard. The nest must have fallen out of a tree with the wind. No, she didn't wash her hands after handling it.
One perfect spring day (the 24th of March), things turned from silly to sillier when tutus lead to "I do's".

Here Kate and Sam are talking about what it takes to be a flower girl - Kate will be an honorary flower girl this June for her Aunt Jill and she is so excited.
Sam was really playing along well.
Kate was teaching Sam her best moves.

We don't have any daffodils left even though we had over 30 blooms this spring. But we enjoyed everyone of them to the fullest.
Ballet dancing practice - as you can see they will both be Primas soon.
More flower girl practice.
Always striking a pose.
Here is Kate playing with some friends later on. They were bored and I had dishes to do so I let them destroy the nearly spoiled lemons with toothpicks. They loved it. Their creations reminded me so much of the book A Porcupine Named Fluffy by Helen Lester. So, we read that after the "craft". I love Weston's glare on his pants in this picture.
I gave them raisins to put on the toothpicks but somehow that just wasn't as fun for them. They were all bummed when we ran out of toothpicks.