Changes

Dear Carter,
I'm working on a few changes on the blog, so please excuse the mess around here. I should have it all fixed up by tomorrow afternoon. I like to freshen it up a bit every now and then. I'm working on a couple of new posts too, so expect a lot of updates in the next week. I'm so sorry that I've been neglecting your blog. I promise I'm getting it all back on track now. I love you my little sweetie pie. Praying I might dream of you tonight!

The Rest

Dear Carter, On our second day at Disneyland, we pretty much followed the same schedule. Got up early, went to the park as it opened, left in the afternoon, and returned to California Adventure that night. One of the highlights of the day was getting your brother and sister their mouse ear hats. They also snagged their own autograph books so we could get signatures from the characters. Mikey's favorite character is Pluto, and we found him right away. Mikey started to get very brave on this day, and rode a few rides that he was a little nervous about the day before. It was so cute to see his excitement grow as he tried new things. As the day went on, I started thinking about how much I would like to get some mouse ear hats with your name on them because I really felt like you were with us on this trip. Daddy took care of that the next morning, and I wore them proudly all day long! On our final morning in Disneyland, Jovie and I spent a lot of time in line to meet Tinkerbell which Jovie says was worth it. Mikey and Daddy tackled some of the larger roller coasters which Mikey deemed "awesome!" We spent the rest of the day in search of characters, and taking advantage of some photo opportunities. We came home on Friday to a bunch of snow on the ground. What a weather shock!

First Day

Dear Carter, The day after we arrived in California, we started our trip to Disneyland. Daddy is the only one who has ever been there before, so it was a first for the rest of us. I must say that I was quite impressed! It really is like a whole other world, and I can see why they call it "The Happiest Place On Earth". We got there early, and immediately got on a bunch of rides because the lines were short. We started out with a few in Fantasyland that we thought Jovie might like, but they ended up being a little scary for her...the name Snow White's Scary Adventure probably should have given us a clue, but sometimes we don't catch on to things like that. Once she took a ride on Dumbo, she was all about the Disneyland life. Next we went on A Small World where we spotted a TON of butterflies like this one... We spent the rest of the morning on rides and just soaking the whole place in. We left the park in the afternoon because it started getting very busy. Your brother and sister wanted to try out the hotel pool, but they got chilly really fast. After a quick dinner we decided to check out California Adventure. We rode on the Toy Story ride and a few others. We also checked out A Bug's Land which is probably the part of that park which impressed me the most. It was simply adorable! Afterward we walked back to the hotel where we could see the Disneyland fireworks, and went right to sleep. It was quite a day! I must say that on that day I honestly felt like you were right there with us. There wasn't much sadness for me at all...especially when Jovie told me that Heaven was a lot better than Disneyland because you get to have fun all the time. Seriously, where does she come up with this stuff?

Waves

Dear Carter,

Oh my goodness, so much has happened since I last wrote...I don't even really know where to start. I guess that first of all, I had a hard time with missing you after your birthday. It was completely expected which was part of the reason why we scheduled our vacation for this week. I'm so glad that we did because the vacation ended up feeling healing to me...not quite like the feeling that our trips to Montana gives me, but certainly close.

Before we left on Monday, we went to church on Sunday, and I was really proud to see your brother following along and singing the songs. He's never really shown much interest in actually participating in church, so it was awesome to see his Faith growing. He has been talking a lot about God, Jesus, and the Bible in general. In fact, while we were in our hotel this week we looked out the window to see the rainbow above. The ironic thing was that we had just finished watching the news about some flooding, so when Mikey saw the rainbow he yelled "see, that's God's promise that he won't flood us again". I must admit that I felt my heart swell with pride at that comment, and it swelled even more when Jovie yelled "Hi Carter!" to the rainbow. That was only one of the moments when I felt you were really with us on this trip.

We left on Monday afternoon, and after arriving in California and getting checked into our hotel, we took a trip out to Huntington Beach. I LOVE the beach...like REALLY LOVE the beach. If I lived close to the beach, I'm sure that I'd be there every single day. While we were there, we noticed this butterfly kite. Your brother and sister loved the beach too. Jovie collected a ton of sea shells. She could have probably filled up my entire backpack if I would have let her. Mikey and Daddy played in the water which was a lot of fun for your brother until he felt the chilly wind hit him.

Afterward we walked along the pier and ate lunch at the restaurant on the end of it. We even got to watch the sun set over the ocean. It was another one of those moments when I wondered what Heaven must be like for you since there are places on this Earth which are so awe inspiring.

My Speech

Dear Carter,
So, I'll admit that this is WAY out of my comfort zone BUT I've been asked by a lot of people to share a video of the speech I gave during the Operation Smile 5K and 1 mile walk. I had so much more that I wanted to say, but the nerves just got the best of me! So, here it is!

We would like to thank Rusty at Sidewinder Media for filming this for us.