hi hi hi hi hi hi

guess what! i'm back. i know i say this every 6 months or so after grossly neglecting this blog and then chirping up like i'm this amazing blogger that can keep up with my daily musings. i've decided much less writing and many more photos need to happen so here's my 10th attempt to be a blogger again. 

just a few from a recent family outing. now that sean's busy season is over, we get to spend weekends together as a family again. i never take our family time for granted. 

2 // 52

my little darling has been riding the horses at our weekly night fair since she was 16 months. she's by far the tiniest rider. she talks to the horses and laughs out loud when they poop and pee during a ride. i'm still not entirely sure how i feel about these ponies being forced to go round and round and round and round for hours during my little town fair but i like to think that the owner's treat them super well and that they get to frolic in a large open field when they're not giving my daughter insane amounts of joy by taking her for a little ride on a friday night. 

going out to dinner with my dad means he takes her for walks outside (even when it's raining) so i can actually enjoy a bite or two. 

the 52 week challenge

i've been hearing about this 52 week challenge lately and it sounds very intriguing. i mean, i'm not one to be tempted into challenges....ab challenge? no thank you. marathon challenge? probably never in my lifetime. detox challenge? mmmmmm....nope. BUT i can most certainly get behind a challenge that forces me to choose my favorite baby photos of the week.

jumping on the train a few weeks into the year so i'm going to be playing catch up this month.

here's 1 // 52

i remember when my parents took me to see the rose parade floats as a kid, I must've been around 10 or 11. it wasn't nearly as cool as the hollywood christmas parade with all the tween heart throbes from TGIF but it was definitely neat to get to see the floats up close. i like to think baby girl will remember her first time seeing the floats up close. she still talks about the "monkey and giraffe" float and its been over two weeks! that's a really long time to talk about something at 2 years old.

either way, these photos will help her remember :)

Disneyland (the first of many....)

so we opted out of a big party for baby girl's second birthday and instead, decided to splurge on some Disney passes. luckily, we don't have to pay for baby girl until she's 3 so we're going to make the most of this last year of the kid freebie pass to disney.  i don't anticipate blogging about disneyland all that much (*ahem unless disney decides to pick me up as a blogger *ahem) so here is my UNPAID very honest and very random (as is most of my fodder) disney musings....

we went back and forth on which pass to get. do we go with the super reasonably priced SoCal passes that basically limit your visits to weekdays and absolutely zero days in the summer and holidays?

or do we go with the next level up that gets you in on weekends, some holidays, and most of the summer?

or do we really go balls to the wall and get the zero black out date passes?

I'm a middle of the road kind of gal. i also like the idea of visiting the park on weekends so that was an easy choice for us....next up....parking.

do we buy the parking passes or do we listen to all of our friends and park at downtown disney even though it says, "no theme park parking." (disclaimer: i love to follow the rules, especially when it comes to disneyland BUT we like the idea of walking through downtown disney for food options before/after going to the park so parking there actually makes the most sense for us anyway). ultimately we decided to bypass the parking passes. and so far we've visited disney twice with our passes. The first day was a holiday and parking was free at downtown disney. the next time we went, we stayed for 3.5 hours and thought we were going to have to pay the $6 for that extra .5 hour (you get the first three hours free when you park there) but then somehow didn't get charged as we left so both days we have visited we've scored free parking!

so here we are with our passes and two official disney visits (in two weeks). We have an entire 340 days left to visit disney as much as our little hearts desire (minus the limited black out dates).

we've already discovered a ton of unknowns just by downloading the disney app and can't wait to become disney regulars that know all the shortcuts and tips and tricks....stay tuned!

in the meantime, here's the roundup of ina's second birthday celebration at disneyland!

so this ride actually has a steering wheel that you can pull up or down to adjust the height of your little rocket ship. I, however, was too focused on hanging on to my tiny toddler with one hand and gripping on to the side of the rocket with the other. the tiny toddler, however, had her arms up the entire time, yelling "WEEEEEEE!!!!!"

snacking while waiting in line to see peter pan and tinker bell. 

totally passed out -- time for mommy and daddy to eat some lunch (perhaps enjoy a drink) and wait for the rest of the gang to arrive.....

first disney family pic! Ina loves NOT looking at the camera for pictures

the disney gang. that's my sister and some of our bestest friends ever. fernando was in our wedding and gladis is just one of my favorite people on the planet. 

checking out her friend, Mickey, in the parade.

the moment she saw him...

they are just the loveliest. 

i dont remember why but ferny and i thought this was just the most hilarious pic ever. 

chillin' on mickey's chair

he somehow knew she was 2!

mickey hugs are the best. 

please note the way she has her arm around his neck like they're total pals. heart. melted. 

she allowed us to mob them for the family pic.

stopped by goofy and pluto's house in toon town but they weren't home so we killed some time in his front yard....

first churro ever.

post-churro happy dance

no better way to end the day. 

2!

i gave birth two years ago. that's so nuts. time is such a funny thing. the tiny details of the day she was born are beginning to escape me but the enormous space in my heart that she fills continues to grow and grow. with each day that passes i can hardly believe that i can love her any more than i do in that very second....and then another second passes and sure enough....the love gets bigger.

how can i harness enough love to love a 32 year old?! (thats how old i'm about to be in a few weeks and i just can't begin to imagine how much my mom loves me at 32 years old.) and that's another thing, my husband said something the other day that really weighed heavy on me. he said, "it's kind of sad to think that ina will never love us the way we love her."

it's just so true.

but the amazing thing is that one day, she will love someone as much as we love her because we are going to show her unconditional love the way our parents showed us and so the wheel just keeps on turning.

so here are some of the pics from her big two birthday. we decided to keep things low-key by just inviting some family over for brunch and then we ventured out to disney for her official day (i'll post the disney pics later....)