Disneyland Pictures Have arrived!!

Ok just one or two for you all since im sure youve seen plenty enough allready... :)

A visit from Sleeping Beauty and Tink...

Brooklyn was in the mood for some attention from the camera the other day. She came down stairs as Sleeping Beauty and after I got out the camera she decided she wanted a pic as TinkerBell also. So here they are...

Fun at the pool

We had Brooklyn this last weekend and Saturday we went swimming. Brooklyn is a great swimmer (finally) and not afraid to put her head under the water or swim in the deep end with out floaties. So its been alot of fun to take her swimming this summer. The Lehi City Pool is pret-ty cool and a must try. It has 3 pools, one a huge water treehouse for kids, a small version of a lazy river, 2 toddler/baby pools and the one in the picture is just for shooting people with water. Oh yes and a hot tub (that you have to be 14 or older to go in to which Brooklyn thought I was lying about so I had to walk her over to the lifegaurd and have him tell her) Brooklyn loves this place and it is the bestest pool ever she says. They even have treats and POPCORN!! The girl loves popcorn! It was the first thing she noticed (smelled) when we walked in. During pool break Dad went and got some and pretty much it was hers. We werent allowed any and she told us it was bc she needed it the most bc she was the smallest/skinniest. It was the truth so we had no choice but to let her eat all she wanted...which turned out to be all of it : )
Good times at the pool and a few pics of us...being us...and enjoying the last couple weeks of summer!

Holy SMURFORAMA!!

So Brooklyn has had this obsession with Littlest Pet Shops for about the last year and it got so bad that everytime she came over she wanted to go to the store to buy one more pet or accessory for her collection... (to which I stupidly gave in everytime) and it was taking over the play room!! Finally one day at Target we were looking for another PetShop toy and realizing that we had all the ones the store was carrying made me a little sick. I tried to divert her sadness of no new PetShops to a new MOVIE!!! She wasnt thrilled but at least it was something NEW...So we head over to the Movies and go through the Kids section. Brooklyn picks out some lame-o Hello Kitty movie. We were set to go when out of the corner of my eye I spy....The Smurfs Season 1 DVD!! Holly Smurftastic! I soooooo loved smurfs when I was little I even had the tiny figurines and all. I tried to convince Brooklyn to buy that instead Hello Kitty but failed. Shes never heard of those dumb blue creatures before... Oh well, I threw it in the cart anyway and by the time we got to the checkout Hello Kitty had somehow fallen out of the cart.....hehe...."OH No" I say, but we dont have time to go back to get it. Well come back for it tomorow. FEW! A close one...but she agreed to settle with Smurfs for now. Long story short we watched it that afternoon and EVERYTIME shes come over since that day. Episode after Episode, over and over again. Then she turned all her Littlest Pet Shops into Smurfs and we had to play this Smurf game where Dad was Gargamel, Brooklyn was Azreal, and I had to be the little Smurfs. We created a villiage and then Dad and Brooklyn would catch my Smurfs up and Brooklyn would put them in a pot and stir them in a stew. She would even add special ingredients and make me write them down on a list. They were of course gross sounding things like salty snot and muddy boogers...I have a list somwhere at home that Ill have to scan into this blog later on. Again long story short its been smurf this and smuf that at The Benik house for the last month or so. When we went on vacation to California it was the only thing she would watch there and back and when we stopped in Vegas on the way home we hit the JackPot at FAO Schwartz when they had surf figurines (at only $3 each!!) We just had to buy some.....Sadly to admit even me and Dad were way excited and going ooh and ahh when we found ones we liked and wanted.... I know really!?! We got the majors including Gargamel, Azreal, Papa Smurf and some others. Oh what joy Smurfs are!! So then last week she asked to take one of the DVDs to her Mom's house for the week and when it was time to come again and bring it back her mom wanted to know where I bought this magical movie that Brooklyn will watch over and over and over again? WHAT?? I have created a Smurf Monster!!!!! Dad didnt help any either by later showing Brooklyn that you can watch episodes on YouTube, so her and Dad where online all Satrurday looking at where and how to buy MORE Smurfs and their village accessories and MORE DVDs. AGGGHHH!!! In addition, I woke up Sunday am to some noises coming from the bathroom . Upon getting closer to the door I hear Brooklyn in there talking to herself. Maybe shes just going the bathroom...I listen harder...shes talking Smurf talk...I knock..."Brooklyn? Are you in there?"...quiet...then a "Hold on! DONT open the door until I say you can!".....Now im panicing what if shes had an accident?!?...more quiet..."Okay. You can come in." I open the door and there she is in her jammie bottoms with no shirt (again) and she had turned the bathtub into the Smurf Village. Mind you its only 830am.... The kid wakes up thinking Smurfs, goes to sleep thinking Smurfs and she smurfs good songs while smurfing on the John. Its just too crazy can I tell you! All bc I thought it would be fun to trek down memory lane again with the little blue smurfs and possibly entertain Brooklyn for an episode or 2. I had no idea it would smurf up in my face and turn into a smurfvasion and smurf us all crazy!!!! Yikes... lesson smurfed for sure : )

Smurfs at the Hotel

More Smurfs on YouTube

Duh Dad...

...when you stick your hairy butt in our face of course we're going to be scared....

Benik's Family Trip to California

This summer we were fortunate enough to be able to plan and take Brooklyn out of town for a small vacation. We decided early on we would go to California...Duh where else?! And from there we decided to go to San Diego. (Again where else?) We drove down Thurs night and stayed through Sunday afternoon. We did both drives through the night so Brooklyn would sleep for most of it...yeah right...the kid never sleeps and if she looks like she might be its because "she's resting her eyes and tricking us" so says her. Our trip consisted of visits to The Wild Animal Park (owned by The San Diego Zoo), Disneyland, and the beach in San Clemente. It was a great weekend trip and we had a lot of fun with Brooklyn. Hopefully we can take her on another family trip again soon. Here are some pictures and highlights of the trip:
:

Driving through the middle of the night in hopes Brooklyn would sleep for the ride, only to have her hardly sleep, and finally getting to the hotel at 630 am with no hope of any sleep for Daddy and I...maybe a 5 min nap for Daddy : )

Going to the WAP in 100+* weather sweating our asses off but getting to see up
close Wild Animals from a tram (including a male Antelope outcast who had only one horn on his head...yeah kinda sad. Not only was he ugly but a social loser as well...

Taking pictures of Brooklyn with the animal statues and her pretending to breast feed from the gorilla...I think Momma Gorilla does not look too happy about sharing her milk???

Brooklyn buying a Tiger family toy set from the Zoo only to find out later that Daddy Tiger came anatomically correct...nice. Even better Brooklyn was proud to announce this to anyone within ear shot of us the rest of the day. Not at all embarrassing...nope.

An entire day at Disneyland with a 5 year old and 500K other people.

Realizing that our 5 year old was a roller coaster champ who even held her arms up for every ride.

Eating way too much junk at Disneyland including churros, cotton candy, corn dogs, ice cream, etc.

Meeting almost every Princess and a few Disney characters including the most important on Brooklyn's list: Mickey Mouse.

Buying way too much crap and useless junk at the Disney Emporium on the way out.

Brooklyn very proud of her first purchase at DLand: A beautiful headband/Minnie Mouse crown wth blue, purple, and pink flowing fabric. Just gorgeous...

Dad says the whale mouth is going to eat us...For reals Dad? I think you are fibbing...

Brooklyn shows her scary face shes not the least bit afraid...

Just kidding! Now she and even Dad are terrified!!

Brooklyn pulls a good trick on us...spill Red Gatorade all over your shirt and get a new one with Minnie Mouse on it. We didnt even see that one coming....

Hey Brooklyn...Bet you cant fit your huge noggin in that tuba?!

Oh yeah...watch me!

She's actually saying Honk! Honk! while I take this picture : ) Waiting in line for the Go Go Gadget Coaster...

Here we are waiting for Matterhorn...Did we tell you Brooklyn that there is a huge Abominal Snowman waiting inside to attack us!

Does this look like the face of a scared Princess? Didnt think so either : ) At the end of the day Brooklyn is a roller coaster champ and still going strong. She couldnt be any happier to be here at the Happiest Place on Earth with her Daddy...We love you Daddy!

Now back to more Highlights of the trip:

Going to the beach and watching Daddy and Brooklyn play in the Ocean.pasty white self)

Hanging out in Vegas and wasting more money at FAO Shwartz...

Lastly a few of my favorite pics. Brooklyn does a few silly poses before going down to the hot tub and then one afterwards. Like Ive said before she really isnt one to pose (and if she does she usually grits her teeth and squints her eyes) but she was ready and willing for these and they definitely make me smile...
The above pic is after we went to the hot tub and we were trying to get get Brooklyn to change into jammies. Half naked she ran off and hid (behind the hotel arm chair). While Daddy pretended to look all over the room for her I snuck up on the chair and took this. Brooklyn was caught Ice Cream handed!