Happy St. Patricks Day

The kids and I love Holidays... St Patrick's day is one of our favorites. We try all day to catch the Leprechaun. This year Porter and Preslie made a trap. Another year has come and gone, and still we haven't caught one. Hopefully next year! Every year those Leprechauns sneak into our house and leave gold chocolates and a couple green surprises, and every year we miss them. Oh well, at least they leave treats behind!

1st Annual Easter Camp Out

Janet had a fun new idea this year... An annual camp out, Easter egg hunt, and hot dog/s'mores roast. I was worried about freezing, but it turned out to be really fun. The kids loved sleeping in the tent, and of course we all loved sitting around the camp fire. I will be excited to do it again next Easter.

Grandma and Grandpa's Disneyland Trip

My Mom and Dad decided instead of their annual BIG trip (cruise etc.) they wanted to take Porter and Trace to Disneyland. The boys have been so excited ever since they told them. I was excited for them too, but a little jealous. A couple weeks before they left, Chad surprised me with tickets to tag along!! We decided it would be more fun for the boys to leave Roc home, so with a lot of help from friends and family, we were able to pull it off.

We stayed at the Double Tree hotel just outside of Anaheim. I plan to NEVER stay at another Double Tree the rest of my life... Not because it wasn't nice - it was. It's because they kept giving us these WONDERFUL chocolate chip cookies. I ate so many of them while we were there, and now I am going through withdrawals.

Everything about the trip was perfect. The weather was cooler than normal for Southern California, but it ended up being better. The crowds were as low as I can remember. We didn't have to wait very long at all for any rides. Our longest wait times were for the silly little kid rides. Dumbo, Peter pan, and Alice in Wonderland. Most of the good rides we only waited a few minutes for!

Here we are at the airport. Who would have known the airport and airplane could be so fun... only when Grandma and Grandpa are there. My mom got the kids these cute little back packs, and had them full of treats, and projects for the plane. They beaded their necklaces, played tic tack toe, colored, and snuck in a little DS.

As soon as we got to Long Beach we headed for Huntington Beach. Even though it was way too cold to get in, the boys had fun looking for sea shells, and chasing birds.


The next day we woke up early and headed to Disneyland. We were so excited to be there, and the wait times were next to nothing so we started right in on the rides. I think the kids were a little overwhelmed at first. All the rides are dark, and it took them a minute to realize that everything was going to be okay. After riding all of our top picks (Indian Jones, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, and Dumbo) we headed over to California Adventures. The kids thought it was pretty exciting to be at a whole new park. I think once we got over to this park, the kids started to relax a little more. We rode Soarin' California, and then went over to the bugs life section.
After this, we headed back to the hotel so Trace could take a nap. Porter and I went swimming, and wasted time walking around the hotel.
Then back to the parks... Now the kids had figured things out, and were having a blast! After every ride both of them would say that was thier new favorite, and wanted to ride it again! We rode Pirates, Autopia, finding Nemo, Tower of Terror, Mickeys Fun Wheel, and Monsters INC.




After the the firework show - Which was pretty great - we finally headed home, and hit the sack. What a day!

Next up... SEA WORLD! The kids have always been fascinated by ocean animals, and sea world didn't disappoint. We loved the Shamu show, dog show, sea lion show, but we were sad that the dolphin show was not playing :(. The sesame show had lots to be desired, and to top it off, I had a bucket of water dumped on my hair in the middle of it. I seemed to be the only one in the theater that had a malfunctioning "rain" effect... The kids kept wanting to go back to the string rays, and the star fish, but they both say that Shamu's back flips were their favorite.

On our third day we went back and hit everything else at both Disney Parks. We did Buzz light year, jungle cruise, Space Mountain, star wars, the haunted mansion, small world (Trace really wanted to ride this one. He went around singing "It's a small Wheeled" all day long), peter pan, and Alice in Wonderland. Then we hit a bunch of our favorites again. At Cal Adv, we rode the Midway games ride, and even though we had to wait for awhile, we LOVED it! I wish Chad would have been there for this one... he would have loved it... if you are going to Disneyland don't miss this one! We also rode the big roller coaster- Scream'n California. It took a little convincing (we kept telling Porter that Preslie and Mayci rode it, and all the other rides, but as it turned out they didn't ride this one...), but after riding it once, he loved it. In fact, he had to ride it again! Both boys were such troopers. They rode everything we wanted them to, and were glad they did when it was over.

Every night when we got home we had to go play in the pool and hot tube... As if we hadn't had enough fun for the day. My dad and Porter taught Trace how to snorkel, and when we got home Chad had a surprise snorkeling set for him. Then we would hit the pillow and all of us were out cold, getting ready for another fun filled day!

All in All it was a perfect Trip. We are all exhausted, and a glad to be home with Roc and Dad, but we are missing it already! Can't wait to go back with the little guy here in a few years. Thanks so much Mom and Dad for a vacation the kids (and I) will never forget! HAPPY TRAILS!

***My dad was always being funny and goofy with the kids, and of course they love to be crazy. They kept telling each other they were "goofy", and in response the person being called goofy, would reply "well, Thank you"! They also kept joking that their favoirte ride was "riding the rail" (while standing in line), they thought it sounded like riding the whale... ha ha ha!

Quilting Girls Weekend

Tiff planned a fun getaway for the girls. We all made this super cute quilt, relaxed, and ATE so much food. I don't remember ever eating like this before... EVER. We had great meals, and in between meals, we ate lots of great snacks. Thanks Tiff for starting what we hope is our new yearly tradition!

St George

For Jolley's 30th Birthday we decided to head down to the St George house. As always, we had a BLAST. All three of our families stayed at Steve and Janet's house, and although we were in close quarters, we all seemed to be comfortable. The kids were great, and we had a lot of good laughs. The weather was quite cold, but the guys still managed a game of golf, and we got a few hours of park time with the kiddos. The rest of the trip was spent inside playing lots of Wii, card games, and eating good food. There is a fun indoor pool that we played at one day too!

Happy Valentines Day

Trace had his Valentines party last week at school. He loved getting all of his valentines ready for all of his friends. He picked out fruit roll ups for his treat! He was really proud of himself for writing his name on all of them...

Porter was sick with pneumonia last week and had to miss his Valentines party. Thank goodness for Preslie... she took his valentines and capri suns to school for him, and made him an envelope that held all his valentines from his friends. Porter is feeling much better this week, and finally got to go back to school today!

Because Porter was sick all week, Chad and I decided to stay in this valentines. We got heart shaped pizzas, and afterwards a couple of our good friends got together for games and treats. The kids all played while the adults played settlers... Good times.

Sunday night we celebrated again at home with a yummy dinner and raspberry cheesecake for dessert. After dinner we had a family game of monopoly, and as hard as it is to admit... Chad whooped up on me and Porter. We will get him next time!