Johnson Family

Disneyland 2012

2012-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

When we got home from Hawaii we were only home for a few days and then it was off to Disneyland. This was very exciting.....my kids were so excited they were giddy. This Disneyland trip was with my parents and all of my siblings. There were 17 of us....a big fun group.

We left really early on Wednesday morning with my parents and Ciara....everyone else was meeting there (different flights/driving). Here were our seating assignments for the plane. My parents definitely had it the easiest...Jace played the kindle fire the entire flight haha.

Our whole group here with Lilo (Brandon apparently was having to much fun with his tower of terror stickers....weirdo)

Just the kiddos with Minnie Mouse

We rode lots and lots of rides during our 5 days at Disneyland...although I think this is our only picture on a ride haha.

We went to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast one of the days we were there...Cora wasn't a big fan of many of the characters at the breakfast, However she loved loved loved the princesses!!

Here are the boys taking a little rest (in between running from ride to ride to ride).

Disneyland was all decorated for Christmas! It was fun to see how they decorate and change certain things during the holidays. One fun thing is that Santa is there. Here is a picture of our family visiting with Santa!!

Oh, how we LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!

Hawaii 2012

2012-11-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

My Dad and Laura took Skip and I to Hawaii for our graduation presents.....It was a total blast. We were there for a week and we played a lot!! This was a trip we will never forget!!!!

We flew all day on Friday and got to Maui really late. So it was pretty much just off to bed that night. We woke up the next morning and headed out for zip lining.
Zip lining was so so so much fun. We have zipped in Alaska also but we thought this one was a lot better!! Here are a few of our pictures.

A picture of my Dad and I

The four of us on the suspension bridge

Skip and I after zipping one of the lines

This is one of the platforms at a start of one of the lines

Our guide told me to hang upside down for a picture haha!!

The next day we went boating all day....This included snorkeling, tubing, parasailing, etc. It was oh so great.

The background is the island of Lanai

We snorkeled at a few different spots over on Lanai

Tubing

Here we go!!

Wow.....We are high

A little dunk on our way in

We had played hard with my parents for the first couple days....On Monday Skip and I decided to bike down the Haleakala Volcano. My parents decided to pass....

We started the morning off by going to the top of the crater and looking in. Can you see from the pictures that we are above the clouds. This volcano is really really tall.

Then came the biking down the volcano part...I did not think I would be nervous about this but I really was. People get hurt a lot doing this.....Not to mention my group was hauling down this mountain at top speeds. Definitely out of my comfort zone!!

I kept thinking at least I have this full face helmet on for when I wreck haha.

Skip and I playing around

That night we went to a magic show called Warren and Annabelles....It was really good magic and also funny. It was a great time.

The next day it was a trip to Hana....This is the most beautiful place ever!! I think when you think of Hawaii you think of Hana. It is so green and Lush with lots and lots of waterfalls. Here are only a few of the many pictures we took.

At the bottom of the pools!

A rock on one of the black sand beaches

This is a huge tree that we climbed while on our hike

Oh how I love Hana!!

The next day we decided to test our skills at Stand Up Paddle Boarding....One thing I can say is that it is harder than it looks but it is a lot of fun and a great work out.

Getting all the gear

Both of us paddling out

Yeah!! We both got the hang of it!

That night we went to the 'Ulalena show. It shows a lot of the history of Hawaii through traditional songs and dancing. I loved it. Here is a clip. It is so good.

'Ulalena

The next day Skip and my Dad decided to go golfing....Laura and I decided we would walk the beach and do some shopping. We were flying the red eye out that night so it was kind of a chill day. Here are some pictures of the guys. We didn't take any pictures.

After they finished up golfing....We met up with Laura's brother, Dan and his family. It has been many many years since I have seen them so it was fun to catch up and meet their cute kiddos. I wish we would have taken some pictures. I was obviously slacking with the camera on this last day.

After dinner it was off to the airport (totally in my pjs because we were flying all night haha) and then home.

WOW......What a fantastic trip!!

Halloween 2012

2012-10-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

I love the fall!! There are so many activities going on. This year was no exception!

We bought a pass for Cornbelly's again this year. Here are a couple of pictures of when Laura and I took our kids one evening.

We went to Cornbelly's several more times...my kids love it. It was fun that we went with lots of different friends and family each time we went. Here are the boys riding the bulls on one of our visits.

Hold on their boys!!

We were also able to go on a Witch Hunt at Gardener Village with some of the cousins. They were very good at locating all of the witches. I think they had some motivation for the cookie they would get after finding all of the witches haha.

This year we were going to carve pumpkins with my family one day but then I came down sick. Sad!! So Skip ended up just carving the pumpkins with the kiddos...I think they did a good job!!

This year for Halloween we had a skeleton, a ninja, and a little witch. So much fun!!

Casen starts 4th Grade

2012-08-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Jace starts 1st grade

2012-08-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Cora's first day of Preschool

2012-08-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

I can not believe how big my baby is getting. Cora is now 3 years old and is starting preschool. She has been super excited to start since we registered her back in January. Cora goes two days a week for two and a half hours. She is totally loving it!!!

Here is her first day.....

Jace's 6th Birthday

2012-08-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

Jace is now 6 years old.....WOW! Time is just flying bye.

Jace wanted an Angry Bird Cake (the same one Casen just had haha)

Here is Jace hitting the pinata.

Everyone getting treats from the pinata....note to self do not do the silver stuff next time. It was in our lawn and a huge mess haha.

Jace opening his presents....we should have closed the blinds...Jace got totally spoiled.

Yellowstone 2012

2012-07-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

So, here we are in Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone is very pretty with a lot of things to see (although Ciara and I kept joking in the car....look there is a tree, and another tree haha). We saw lots of different animals, waterfalls, geysers, and hot pockets. Here are some pictures...Note: It pored rain on us in the morning so we are looking really cute in some of these pictures, not.

Our Trip to Yellowstone 2012

2012-07-16T20:32:00.001-07:00

We were excited to go on our trip to Yellowstone. We left on July 5th and headed up to Idaho Falls...who knew how pretty the falls are in Idaho Falls? I was impressed. We spent Thursday night walking around checking out the town.

Rise and shine Ciara and Cora

Why are my kids not looking at the camera?

So pretty here

Cheese

Did you know that this was taken on National Kiss Day?

I am serious....we really have a national kiss day

feeding the ducks

After spending time at the falls it was time to head to Yellowstone's Bear World....This is a drive through wild life park. It was really cool!! The first thing we did was the drive. They have lots of different animals throughout their park but what they are known for it their bears. They have both Grizzly Bears and Black Bears. It was really neat to have them just walking around your car. There were several times I could of (wouldn't have...but could have) just reached out and pet one. Here are a few pictures of the bears.

Now because it was National Kiss Day....Thad and Cora kept joking that they were going to kiss a bear. Here was as close to that as they got haha.

The park also had amusement rides for the kids

In the petting zoo

I can not believe how use to people these animals are.

Jace feeding the deer

After a day at the Bear Park we headed to a dinner show in Jackson, WY....

We fit a lot in on this day......then it was off to bed.

Happy 4th of July 2012

2012-07-16T19:16:00.001-07:00

Fire in our backyard!!!

2012-07-16T19:03:00.003-07:00

Friday, June 29, 2012 started out as a pretty normal day. I had been doing some cleaning and was just trying to get things done around the house. Cora and I ended up taking a very late shower (around 3pm). I had gotten out of the shower and got dressed when my cell phone started ringing. It was my friend Megan, she said, "Is your backyard on fire?" I look out and sure enough I see smoke coming from the top of the mountain.....I ask Megan if she called 911.....she said "No, I called you". I immediately called 911...They said they were aware of the fire....I ran next door to the Browns...They had no idea there was a fire (I also would have had no idea if it was not for Megan) During this time my mom, sister, two brothers, and one girlfriend were also aware of the fire and were racing up to my house. This is so important because they block the roads off quickly so if you do not beat the road closures then you can not get up here.
Of course Skip is at work. A few of my neighbors started running over to my house (thank the stars) to help because my side of the street is going to get hit first. My neighbor Bob was truly a heaven sent. He started turning on my sprinklers, hoses, etc. He was unlocking both of my fences and getting my house completely ready.
My family then showed up....My brothers girlfriend Meghan took Cora and Jace, Casen apparently thought he was old enough to stay, and headed out. The rest of us began grabbing things and literally throwing them in the car. Every time we looked our our back windows the fire was worse. Here are some pictures of what we were looking at.

It was coming so fast. We sent my van and my moms car, completely packed with random stuff, out of the neighborhood. Because their was no room for passengers in these cars my brother Brady and myself were going to ride bikes out. We were also going to stay for a little bit and see if the fire actually hit the house (the worst part of a mandatory evac is that you have no clue on if your house is still there or what is going on). We were brave. Our plan all ended when the police literally ran into my house (without knocking or anything) and were yelling at us to get out. So we went to grab the bikes...Of course my bike had a flat tire so a police officer/ Friend gave me a ride out of the neighborhood.

By this time Skip had left work and was heading our direction. He met us down at the pond where we tried to watch the fire/ fire fighting. We were hoping that our house was going to make it. We stayed down there for a couple of hours talked to some neighbors and heard rumors that our houses were still there but with damage.

Saturday, June 30th
By this time we knew our house was still there but it was a very very close call. We knew this from talking to a police officer and our neighbor Bob. The neighborhood was still under mandatory evacuation but we decided to go to the command central and plead our case about going up to our house with a police escort. We were eventually escorted up to our house....where we grabbed a few things and then was escorted back out of the evacuation area. This is what we saw when we went up to the house for a few minutes.....Our house was still there but our scenery had definitely changed.

upper deck

lower deck

It was not until 6pm that they lifted the mandatory evacuation and allowed us into the neighborhood. We did not have power however so we were not planning on staying there.....

In the end we felt very lucky that our house was still there. Our side of the street had damage to homes and landscaping, ours included, but the important thing was that we all still have homes. We can not thank Bob, the fire dept, police dept, red cross, and many many more for all they did. Here is a video that shows a lot of the fire and fire fighting efforts. I still get chills when I watch it.

Herriman Fire 2012 Video

We totally love where we live (good thing because 2 fires in 2 years is a little much). We have such incredible neighbors and friends here.

Ciara's Surgery

2012-07-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

On May 7th Ciara had surgery to correct her Scoliosis. This is a big surgery that they place rods and screws in her back to correct the curvature. We knew for months in advance that she was going to have this surgery....finally the time had come.

My mom and I doing Ciara's hair (they wanted it like Pippy Longstocking so they could place all of the monitors into her scalp).

Ciara's support group (pre-op)

They are taking her back to the OR

and so the waiting begins...........

Waiting......................

and still waiting................

Finally Ciara is out of surgery....They said it went very well....but poor

Ciara was miserable and in a ton of pain.

It did not take to many days for her personality to come back fully haha.

My brother and Mom checking her incision

Doing a lot better on day 5-6

Finally home!!!

Ciara now has a perfect back (good bye scoliosis...) and is feeling great. She still has a lot of restrictions and can not lift more than 10lbs or do any sort of physical activity for 6 months. Glad this went so well and is over!!

Easter 2012

2012-06-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny found the kiddos!

Bright and Early

The boys

A funny story....I told Casen to grab the eggs out of the fridge when we were going to dye them. I had boiled 2 of the cartons with 18 eggs. I also had two more cartons of non-boiled eggs in the fridge. I did not pay attention to the ones Casen grabbed. Needless to say, We dyed one 18 pack boiled eggs and one 18 pack of non-boiled eggs. I was not about to hide raw eggs....So that explains why only half of our eggs are dyed. Crazy!!

Easter Brunch

The family on Easter (missing some)

Easter Egg Hunts 2012

2012-06-03T15:13:00.001-07:00

So everyone knows that one of our favorite things is the Easter Egg Hunts. My kids get so excited for them...okay I get a little excited as well. Here are the pictures from this year.

We started the morning off by going to Smiths for their Easter hunt. For those of you who have not done this it is so much fun. Smiths fills their isles up with candy and then based on your age you are assigned a section. The kids get so much candy. They also have eggs put out that have coupons in then. This is the fun part for me haha. The eggs are full of coupons for free stuff in the store. We got things like capri suns, popcorn, pudding packs etc. etc.

How creepy does this Easter Bunny look!!!!

After Smiths we headed up to the Herriman Park for their Easter Egg Hunt. This hunt goes so much faster and I was only with Cora (in her section) so I only have a couple of pictures.

What a great morning....the kids got a ton of stuff and had a ton of fun doing it!!!!

Casen turns 9......Cora turns 3

2012-06-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

Casen turned 9 years old on April 5th and Cora turned 3 on April 6th. Because their birthdays are only one day apart it is normally celebrated with one big party. So much fun!!!!

Casen had to have his Angry Bird cake

and Cora her Princess cupcakes

For their birthdays Cora wanted a Leappad and Casen wanted a Kindle Fire (Casen had some money to put towards his present haha). Here are a couple of blurry pictures. I do not know why they are blurry, sad

Christmas at our house......

2012-01-21T12:01:00.001-08:00

We had such a great Christmas......

Christmas Eve:
We were very lucky this year and were able to host Christmas Eve Dinner for our whole family. We had all four sets of parents and lots of our siblings over. It is always so much fun to be surrounded by so much family! Why oh why did I not take any pictures of this. It gets so busy that I totally space getting the camera out. Goal:::Take More Pictures!

Christmas Day:
On Christmas morning we had my Dad and Laura, and Vicki and Robert over to watch the kids open Christmas presents. This year was really fun because the boys had not asked for what we got them. It was a total surprise when they opened a XBox with the Kinnect. They were super excited. The kids also got wiggle cars and a few other things. Spoiled like normal.

My Dad and Laura were able to spend Christmas week with us....We had so much fun. Here are just some random pictures from the week.

Great Times....Great Memories!

Merry Christmas!!!

2012-01-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

akstudiodesign.com

Family Christmas Pictures 2011

2012-01-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the pictures we had done.........We had these taken by ak studio & design.

Little America....Brunch

2012-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

My family has a Christmas Tradition of going to Little America for Brunch. Can I just say how super yummy this is. I love that our family does this. The kids were even able to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus (they needed to make sure they were still on the nice list...there have been some doubts haha). Here are some pictures.

Cora's Very First Dance Concert

2011-12-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows how excited I was to have Cora start dance. I just love that sort of thing. Cora has been loving her dance class. She is always so excited to go and runs right in. The dance rehearsal was the night before the concert. Cora got up there and was so excited. So......I thought we would have no issues the night of the performance. I was wrong. Cora started acting clingy right before it was to start. I ended up having to go back stage with her because she would not go back by herself. I was not sure if she was even going to do it when the time came. Luckily she did go, a little reluctant, but still. I was so happy. I see a long future of dance haha!!

Disney Cruise 2011....Day 7

2011-12-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

So our last day on the boat was a Sea Day. It is kind of sad because you know that you are getting off the boat early the next morning. There were a lot of fun things going on on the boat. My main thing I wanted to do that day was take Cora to see the princesses.

Cora loved seeing all of the princesses and getting them to sign her book.

The boys also got to spend some more time at the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab which they begged to do the entire trip. I did not take any pictures of this but here is a couple from the website.

We also did some of the adult activities during the day.....

After a kind of low key day we had dinner. At dinner they did a show on different nationalities. That was fun to see. Then we headed to the farwell show....After the show ended it was back to the rooms to pack up.....So Sad.

We loved our Vacation!!!!

Disney Cruise 2011....Day 6

2011-12-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

Cabo San Lucas
So today was our 2nd day at Cabo. Our plan was to go over to Lover's Beach....which is right by Lands End. We spent the day swimming, snorkeling (didn't get any pictures....Thad took pictures of all of us and then when we got back to land he realized the camera was off while taking the pictures...Hello???), and playing in the sand.

Because we were at Lover's Beach we thought it was a must to walk over and check out Divorce Beach. I don't know why it is called Divorce Beach it should be called Widows Beach....Because if you swim there you die. They have tons and tons of signs saying not to swim at this beach (because of a bad undercurrent)....

Ciara and I kept daring each other to go further down into the water to take a picture....In where we knew we weren't suppose to haha. So we were posing for the pictures then got nervous and ran...Thad was taking the picture and thought it was hilarious. Here is the picture along with all the signs warning against getting in the water.

It was a great day of fun in the sun.....Now for Pirate Night.

Our littlest pirate (Cora) slept through most of dinner and the pirate celebrations in the dining room. Later that night they had a pirate show up on the top deck and then launched fireworks.

Probably my favorite day......Magical!!

Disney Cruise 2011...Day 5

2011-12-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Cabo San Lucas
We spent two days in Cabo and I absolutely loved both of them. On this first day we got off and headed to the really nice beach resorts. We had the plan of hanging out on the beach and jet skiing. We rented three wave runners that could fit three people on each. They were huge. It was surprising how much Cora loved the wave runners she thought they were great. Casen also loved them, especially when he was driving. Jace didn't really care for the wave runners. He just wanted to be at the beach and swimming. Jace was crazy when it came to swimming in the ocean. He would swim clear out to the way deep water. We all had to keep up with Jace haha. All three kids had life jackets on. I was not about to have one of my kids drowned in Mexico.
Here are some pictures from Day 1 In Cabo:

After we played at the beach for a while my Mom, Ciara, Casen, and I decided we wanted to ride on the banana. It was way way fun. The banana was a double so you could sit on either side or in the middle. The guy driving the boat was pretty crazy so about 5 minutes into the ride.....all four of us were in the middle. I can not believe we do not have any pictures of this. Sad. This is something we will definitely do again.

Disney Cruise 2011....Day 4

2011-12-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Puerto Vallarta
So Puerto Vallarta was our first port day. The guys had decided they were going to go fishing. We decided we would get off and take the kids shopping for souvenirs.

Shopping was fun. Each of the kids wanted something specific. As you can see in the picture above Cora got a cute pink and silver purse and Jace got a red guitar. They were super easy. Casen on the other hand not so much. He wanted a scorpion neckless. I guess his friend has one so he thought it was a must. First of all it was hard to find. Then we found a couple of stores that had it. It is so funny how they all try to say they are these precious medals and have this high price tag. Of course I knew they were not real and eventually got it down to a decent price. The kids all were very happy with their shopping experience.

The guys were not very good at taking pictures of their fishing trip. I don't think they had very much luck fishing. They only caught one fish all day. Then they didn't even get a picture of it. Can you believe that? They said they saw a lot while they were out fishing. They saw a lot of tuna jumping. The fish were probably just taunting them haha. At least the guys had fun.

After we were done shopping I hit the spa for a sea weed wrap. My mom had won this at the spa raffle and did not want to do it so she sent me. Gotta say it was a little weird haha. I had mushed sea weed spread all over me and then I was wrapped in foil. While I was soaking up the sea weed I had a scalp message. This was not at all as I had pictured it. It was more like a head squeeze, ear and hair pulling experience. This spa experience definitely gave me a laugh when I got back with everyone. I would not choose the sea weed wrap/ scalp message on my next cruise.

The boys returned home from fishing and then it was on to dinner and the show for the night. Tonight it was Toy Story: The Musical

Disney Cruise 2011.....Day 2 & 3

2011-12-05T09:07:00.000-08:00

On our way down to Mexico we had two Sea Days on the boat. These were a lot of fun, although I did not take that many pictures of the things we did. The kids spent time at their clubs. The boys absolutely loved their clubs and seriously wanted to be there at all times. The clubs are open from about 9am to Midnight. I truly could have left the boys in their that whole time and they would have been in heaven. I did not do that, however, I had them with us during meals and family activities and then they did a lot of the club stuff when their was down time (cora's nap time mostly, and in between activities). I am glad the boys had a fun place to go. Cora was also able to go to the clubs with the boys. However, she was not really into it. So maybe went a total of 3-4 hours over the seven days. I think a lot of the problem was that their was so much going on in the clubs that the boys would not give her the time of day. Sad. So we had our little Cora with us most of the time.
The activities we did during these sea days included....cooking class (Mom and I, Watching Sports (Thad and Skip), games, taking the kids to the pool/ Splash pad, Daytime shows, Spa tour/ Spa Treatment, etc. etc.
I think Disney is great with all of their entertainment.

Character Breakfast
The character breakfast was a blast. All the characters come around to the tables for pictures, autographs, and to see everyone. We got all three of the kids an autograph book. They loved getting all of the characters to sign their books. During breakfast the wait staff makes crazy hats for everyone. You can see a few of them in the pictures below. I love the one with Ciara and Cora with their bows. Ciara is loving hers while on the other hand Cora is hating it. To funny.

Dinner
So we had nice sit down dinners every night on the boat. These dinners greatly contributed to my weight gain. They were way yummy. I always have a thing with the appetizers and have to order a few of them, then you add the main course and dessert and wow that is a ton of food.
The kids had a definite favorite for dessert (okay Grandpa even loved these). They were chocolate covered mickeys on a stick. To make them even better they put sprinkles and multi colored marshmallows on top. Here are a few pictures of Cora and Jace enjoying their Mickeys on a stick.

Shows
The night time shows were my absolute favorite thing on the Disney ship. They do such a good job with their Broadway shows. On our two sea days we watched the shows Disney Dreams and The Golden Mickeys.