Our Own California Adventure

A week is never a long enough vacation for me. I wish I had more time to vacate with my little family, but the time we did have was great.

We hit the beach

Sophie is still terrified of someone being thrown in the ocean.  It still makes me laugh.  Personally, I prefer smaller, more secluded beaches like on this trip.

Disneyland was great.  I didn't know how Sophie would do with the meeting the characters.  She can be a little shy and unsure, but she loved it.  McKay and Lyndsi still loved it as well. 

We spent a lot of time in Fantasy Land.  I didn't mind, though.  The kids all (except Chloe who, obviously, didn't meet height requirements) wend on the bigger rides: Space Mountain, The Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Railroad.  Pirates wasn't as scary.  The Buzz Lightyear ride was just as awesome as remembered.  Pinocchio's Daring Adventure gets the award for Most Times Ridden. (Thanks Soph.)  Our time at the Haunted Man was extended due to the ride breaking down for a minute.  Jeff and I happened to get to do that one with just the two of us.  It really was kind of nice.  We were headed down hill (going backwards) in the graveyard section when the ride came to a halt.  There was a nice starry sky, a cool breeze, a cute boy by my side...Oh and the most annoying bird ever screeching "Caw! Caw!) every thirty seconds or so.  Which is fine for a minute, but 10 minutes later I was ready for a BB gun. ;) 

McKay and Sophie spent most of their time clamoring for their dad's favor.  McKay, ever the gracious one, often ended up with a different riding companion and left Dad to his persistent little sister.  Which left Lyndsi and Chloe completely to myself and we had a grand time together.

We traded lots of pins.  My parents, brother and his girlfriend were having a grand time with this and stopped at every pin trader we saw.

Captain Eo was playing.  We were all so excited to see it, but in the end it was a little lame.  At least the dancing was awesome.  We watched the birds and flowers sing in the Enchanted Tiki Room, toured Sleeping Beauty's castle and stood in line for hours to meet Rapunzel, princesses, and Fairies.  Thankfully McKay spared us by opting out of watching Jedi training. :)  The hours in line were worth it though to see Sophie squeal with excitement when she saw Belle.

Of course you can't see the excitement here, but she was SO excited.

Disneyland was great, but we spent a lot more time in CA Adventure than I would've thought.  Not quite the same feel as DL, but much less crowded and had some perks of it's own.  Like the Monsters Inc ride.  We've done it before, but had a lot of fun on it this time.  We met Sully, too!  There were all kinds of fun street performances (including The Incredibles and The Little Green Men drum corps) and outdoor stage ones (That Mickey can really bust a  groove!)  My mom convinced us that we had to see the Aladdin show, which was awesome.  We did the Tower of Terror (McKay even tried it!  but-couldn't convince the girls),

 Bugs Land (still not my favorite place), and the more carnival-ish pier rides.  Toy Story Mania was SO much fun.  Didn't dig the Jumping Jellyfish.  Something about not being in an enclosed car makes me nervous.  (Loved Tower of Terror, though!)  We had a great time on River Rapids, too.

  At least Mom, Lyndsi and I did.  Thankfully we all had on quick drying clothes, though. ;)  And as predicted, my mom loved Soaring Over California.  I was surprised though that the kids all loved it too.

The World of Color fizzled out on us the first night we tried to watch it.  We caught it Friday night (our last night), but by then I was one.  My feet hurt after 5 days of navigating a stroller through two amusement parks, keeping 5 people fed, hydrated, SPF'd and happy, and standing in line.  It was pretty, but I wasn't super impressed.  But don't take my grumpy, end-of-trip, fatigued opinion.  See it for yourself.

One thing we did that was a fun little surprise was the Talk with Crush (from finding nemo).  The kids had a great time.  In the same building, we got to see a demonstration of how the animation was done for Toy Story and the kids and Jeff attended a class where they learned to draw Goofy.  (The results were surprisingly good!)  While they were in class, I stayed out in the lobby with a sleeping baby and watched clips of all Disney's cartoons in their various stages of animation.

It was such a great trip.  (Cue music- "When you wish upon a star")

Now time to get back to reality.



We're back!

Disneyland was great.  Vacations are tiring for parents, though.  I decided that today is a vacation from vacation, a little R & R with some (very) light housekeeping thrown in for good measure.  Tomorrow life should get back to regularly scheduled routines and to-do lists.  Well.  As much as possible for off-track time.

Blog-keeping

It was time to do a little housekeeping here.  I deleted a bunch of blogs that hadn't been updated or had gone private.  I still love you, but need to declutter my space a bit.  If you were deleted and decide to pick up blogging again, let me know and I'll add you back on.

Mack, Mack, He's a Lego maniac!

McKay's 7!  His birthday was last week and it was all about Lego's.  Jeff and I and the girls gave him the Hagrid's Hut set from the Harry Potter Lego's.  I'm proud to say that with just a little instruction from me on how the instruction booklet worked, McKay did the whole thing by himself! 

It's been the year of the birthday party, so we carried the Lego theme over to that as well.  Using my friend's fabulous idea (thanks Kirsten!), we invited about a dozen boys over to build and race Lego cars.  It was loud and messy and lots of fun.  I set up to make-shift tracks and just let the boys go at it.

My favorite moment was when McKay's friend Jaxon showed up.  The two of them have this super cute manly little hug that they do every time they see each other.  It's been quite awhile since they've played outside of school.  It warmed my heart to see them still do it. :)  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of it.

McKay got a lot of fun Lego sets, games and other great gifts.  He's had so much fun playing with everything and building his new Lego sets all by himself.  His face was completely aglow with happiness throughout the whole party.  Every single boy he invited came.  It was awesome to see how much his little buddies love him.

What a week!

Man.  I'm glad we're starting a new week.  The last week has been filled with near comatose children, 4 month shots (and accompanying fever), horrible coughs, a dad who's MIA (only because of tax season tho), and a mom who's been rendered useless for the weekend.

But.  With trials come blessings.  My mom spent a good part of Friday and almost all of Saturday taking care of my kids. She took Sophie to Kindergarten orientation Friday, took the big girls to help her pick up our bountiful baskets, did my laundry, cleaned my house, played with my kids, brought dinner over Friday night.  Saturday afternoon she took the kids to her house where she watched movies with them, fed them (again), took them to their stake roadshow and brought them home.  A friend of mine told me just Thursday that moms never stop worrying about there kids.  I've reflected on that a lot since I've had to rely on mine so much the last couple of days.  I think it's helped me to be both more humble and definitely more grateful. 

It hasn't been just my mom though taking care me this week.  I've been doing this new healthy eating/fitness competition thing with some friends.  One of my teammates knew McKay was too sick for me to go leave for anything, so she dropped off a bottle of V8 Fusion. That might sound silly, but some days it's hard to get in 5 fruits and veggies.  It was a huge blessing.  Saturday another teammate and good friend who happened to find out that I was sick.  (ok.  I think I may have mentioned that I felt like I was 2 beds down from death.) She brought dinner in Saturday.  Another friend called to see how McKay was doing and could tell by my raspy voice I'd caught something too.  She reprimanded me (in the way that we friends do) and said I should've called for help. She would've brought dinner in. She also repeatedly asked what she could do to help out.  I know she would've done anything I asked.  She's that kind of girl.  Unrelated to being sick, another friend dropped by a lovely birthday gift with a personal note that was more gift than anything she could've bought.  It made this hard-to-bear week so much more bearable. 

I am lucky.  Blessed.  Fortunate.  Grateful. Humble. Pick your adjective.   ;)

Oh-and the baby is feeling better despite the runny nose.  We've even managed to get a couple of "binky smiles" out of her.

A Little Catch Up

There's been a lot going on around here.  Instead of several posts, we'll just do a little re-cap.

Chloe started baby food!

She also just had her 4 month check up (at almost 5 months. Oops.)  She weighs 13 lb 10 oz (25-50%) and is 26 inches long (90-95%).  She's still a happy smiley baby who makes some of the strangest baby noises.  We are all completely in love still.

Sophie has been begging for quite some time to get her ears pierced.  After learning how to write her last name, she finally got it done.  For the record, she didn't cry one bit. No watery eyes either.  She's also very diligent about keeping them clean and twisted. 

I am embracing another year in my 30s.  Jeff, the kids, and my parents spoiled me once again.  The girls got me a new turtle garden stone, McKay made me a Club Penguin (his new favorite thing) journal all on his own.  Jeff downloaded the Goose Girl for me on his Kindle (which I am liking reading on a kindle). He also got me a new CD, the movie "Young Victoria" and is taking me shopping for running shoes.  My parents gave me jewelry, a dress and a skirt.  My favorite surprise?  Jeff picked up this awesome red velvet cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  It was SO good.

Lyndsi had crazy hair day at school and for once gave me enough notice so we could have a little fun with it. She loved her hair and wore it all day, including to dance.

McKay has been dead to the world.  Apparently the flu is going around.  Wash your hands people.  I've only seen my poor boy wake and talking for a few hours over the last 3 1/2 days.  Thankfully he's up and about today showing interest in both food and activity.  Hopefully we'll be back to school tomorrow.

And Jeff? You're guess is as good as mine.  He's currently slaving away for the tax monster.  Less than 2 weeks now!  Can't wait for this tax season to be over. Ugh.

And just because she's cute and I love this new thing she's doing with her finger, a little more Chloe.

Day 2-Diary of a Sometimes-Seamstress

Having kids really gets in the way of sewing (or any other "me" time, even if it's really not for me.)  I managed to get down to my sewing machine around 9 after watching the weigh-in portion of The Biggest Loser (go Moses!!) and playing with my happy baby.  I made a lot of progress on the bodice.  The 2 front pieces and one side are all sewn together and raw edges surged.  The other side has been left open for the zipper.  The back piece has both darts in place.  The tie is very nearly done.  (Husbands don't help with the get-the-sewing-done either.)  And it's all pressed.  Pressing really makes a difference.  If you sew, do it.  You'll be glad you took the extra time. After my progress today, I'm glad I gave myself 2 full weeks to get it done. :)