The Oldroyd Family

This year we were able to attend our ward's annual Memorial Day Breakfast.  There was a bike parade & leading the parade was Bishop Gillespie in his golf cart.  A big hit with the kids!

This year, Nathan & Alexa attended the Little Ranch Preschool at Cinco Ranch Church of Christ.  They had such a great year with wonderful teachers & they learned & grew so much! Here are all of the kids doing their little program.  They sang a song in Spanish & one in English.  They did great! Here are my little graduates - they got such a nice gift from their teachers.  They got a children's Bible (which they love to be read to from) & a wonderful scrapbook of their year.  I'm so grateful the teachers took the time to document their year! Mrs. Zeida was their teacher's aid.  Nathan really took to her - she is so kind and being a mother of 2 boys, really loved Nathan's playful personality!  Ms. Maddie was their teacher & she & Alexa got along really well.  She was very loving & nurturing with her.  Both Nathan & Alexa are really missing them already! I'm so proud of these two!  I can't be...

May 12th was not only Mother's Day, but more importantly, it was Grandma Great Dudley's 90th Birthday! She has lived down here in Texas now for about 9 months & its been so great to have her.  Not only is it the first time for Sam & his sisters to be near her so much, but seeing our kids know & love her is something to be cherished.  She is a wonderful lady with a great legacy & we are blessed to have her!

On the 3rd & last day, we split our time between the two parks trying to get everything in that we wanted to do.  We started off in Disneyland because I knew we HAD to go see the princesses!  On our way in we saw on - Belle! Here's a cute shot with Grandma & Grandpa & all of the grandkids! And we made it to the princesses... we were lucky enough to see Aurora, ARIEL & Cinderella!  I may have shed a few tears watching Alexa meet Ariel.  She is the favorite & she's my favorite as well.  So magical! We, of course, also had to catch Pirates of the Caribean! Here are some other things we did... Hil & I on Splash Mountain, seeing Woody, the Pixar Parade and... the picture of all pictures... my mother eating a hot dog.  They were GOOD!  (Don't kill me mom!) Also on our 3rd day, my cousin Victoria came with us.  The kids LOVED her.  Especially Nathan - he was quite enamored.  She is pretty cute! :) W...

California Adventures was SO MUCH FUN!  We had way too much fun on Day 2 to take so many pictures I guess! On our way in we ran into Goofy! The day started out with what was my favorite ride at Disneyworld... The Tower of Terror.  And yes, we took the kids.  Probably not my best moment as a mother.  I had forgotten how creepy all of the intro stuff was.  Nathan may or may not have been crying by the time we made it to the actual ride.  But we powered through!  We had made a rule before leaving that if they were tall enough & everyone was going, they had try each ride once.  Again, I probably should have left Tower off of this list but... live & learn, right?  They survived! We got to ride it again later & somehow Zack convinced/bribed Taylor to go (see 2nd picture).  Hilarious!  Still one of my favorite rides of all time! It was also fun this day to have my Aunt Vicki with us!  She didn't love the Tower ...

We started off the morning with a family breakfast.  Alexa & Abbie were so excited to see each other!  Such cute little twin cousins in their matching Minnie shirts!  We were also thrilled to have Grandpa Great & Grammy join us for our trip! Then we walked over to Disneyland & the fun began!  Our first ride was the Matterhorn.  Unfortunately Max was a little too short to ride but the rest of us had a great time!  We headed over to Dumbo after that so Max could get in on the action. Here's a bunch of us on Mr. Toad Here we are in Pixie Hollow! And Max's first big ride... Space Mountain!  They weren't such big fans - too fast & too dark.  But we were so proud of the kids for all trying it!  They rock! Another favorite (no pictures) was Star Tours.  Nathan & Max LOVED it.  It was really one of those rides where they couldn't distinguish between reality & fantasy! Here we are on the car...

FINALLY!  What we've been waiting for for 4 1/2 months is here!  It's time to head to Disneyland!  Of course the kids were out-of-their-mind excited!  We headed to the airport early to park, rode the shuttle over, then spent some time on the inter-airport train.  Who needs Disneyland? ;-) The flight went well - the kids were all set with their headphones & movies.  I was all set with some Dramamine (for them).  Lovely!  We made it to the Orange County Airport in one piece & headed to our hotel to wait for the rest of the family & fun to begin! 

We had some excitement in our cul-de-sac tonight & had a few cop cars around.  I was outside with the kids before bed & one of the policewomen were nice enough to talk to the kids & let them push the buttons to turn on lights & sirens.  They were in HEAVEN!